February 10/2023 Lindsay Buziak – the facts the Capital Daily failed to acknowledge
Capital Daily “embarked on a three-year investigation into the notorious unsolved murder of real estate agent Lindsay Buziak” and titled the resulting podcast Murder on the Island and the long form story ‘The case the internet got wrong’.
They enlisted Zander Sherman, an investigative journalist from Ontario to work on this project.
Zander had a track record of sinking his teeth into injustice and revealing ineptness on the part of the police in his home territory of Muskoka Cottage Country Murder and his incredibly well researched work has been picked up by ‘The Walrus’, CBC and other reputable news outlets in Canada: https://muckrack.com/zandersherman/articles
Both the Capital Daily and the public should be forgiven for getting their hopes up that Zander was going to dig deep and find something out about this case that has long plagued Saanich. In fact, they did dig deep. They spent tens of thousands of dollars fighting the Saanich Police Department in court to have old records on the case released and then countless hours pouring over the documents they did manage to have released (many still redacted so there was some guesswork involved in identifying people). Zander’s first story two years ago provided some insight into what they were finding in those documents but unfortunately the information was old and new information had already surfaced rendering some of what was in the old files incorrect. The resulting story wasn’t entirely correct.
The desperate quest for new information and possibly a break in this case continued until in the Spring of 2022
the Capital Daily learned that Shirley Zailo, the mother of Lindsay Buziak’s boyfriend, Jason was suing Lindsay’s father, Jeff Buziak for defamation and loss of income. So 15 years after Lindsay was brutally murdered, all leads were going nowhere and this gossip suddenly became front and centre. Now Zander and the Capital Daily were sent off in a new direction focusing on the impact this murder has had on the Zailo/Buziak family system after all these years. Yes, we are now getting some interesting insight into the pathology that can arise in and between families. It is as if a volcano erupted and years later the lava is still flowing….of course it is, life will never be the same for these families in this generation or the next.
Part of the fallout is due to the common impression that the police and society have that “the boyfriend or husband must have done it“.
When there have been no arrests and when there is so much misinformation out there this perception is easily magnified. And of course the Zailo’s business was impacted…that was also inevitable because that is just how small minded people are and/or how concerned they are about the value and importance of their real estate over the feelings of a realtor (who isn’t much higher in public perception than a car dealer or a lawyer). This is life in the aftermath of a tragedy… “After a murder, the family unit undergoes permanent changes that are difficult for the surviving members to accept as each member of the family struggles with their own pain and grief, being a source of emotional support and comfort to other members in the family network can be problematic.
Not only must each member navigate their feelings of loss of their loved one; they must also deal with the way they died” Familial roles undergo major transformations; family members’ relationship will face challenges for reconstruction. The murder may trigger other types of losses a family has had that may need to be reprocessed. No other experience has prepared the family or its members with how to deal with homicide. There is a sudden uninvited intrusion in their lives that changes their existence from private to public. https://www.svlp.org/the-impact
We know that Jeff and Shirley did not like each other before Lindsay was murdered.
In fact, it seems that they have very similar personalities so they rubbed each other the wrong way. Now Shirley has decided that there may be a solution to what she perceives as her biggest problem in life (not that her lifestyle appears to have suffered from anybody who is viewing it from the outside) and it might be in her best interest to sue Jeff. Another common misperception in our culture is that the courts can solve our personal issues…people don’t seem to understand that if they can’t fix their own interpersonal problems, a supposedly impartial judge will not set things straight (of course any lawyer with any experience will tell you that there is actually no justice in a court of law, there is just a decision where two people didn’t seem to be able to resolve their own issues.)
Unfortunately, this segue is side tracking from the real issues.
It is a RED HERRING, it is not the central issue and in fact there are some key bits of information that are being completely overlooked. None of us in the general public knows what actually happened or why, including, it seems, the official investigators (although ‘Vicki’ is correct when she says in Zander’s podcast that there are people out there who do know). It seems that Zander’s ‘bullshit detector system’ is functioning but where is he going to go with his instincts? It seems he can’t really go any further without falling into the same trap as ’the internet’ did when it got the case all wrong.
Zander was able to interview the ‘whistleblower’ who revealed how information on one website was manipulated by a desperate, grieving father and that in turn may have influenced other podcasts and media portrayals of the case but sadly Zander did not ever take the time to read this blog. Instead, all information on all websites and blogs is discredited in one fell swoop! AND the quest to determine who actually murdered Lindsay Buziak is left in the dust in the process. If the truth isn’t revealed in the redacted police files or in interviews with family and friends it is left on the cutting room floor.
At this point, after all the dirt has surfaced, the public may not have a lot of sympathy for Jeff, Shirley or even ’the whistleblower’. They are all humans with overlapping tragic histories that are culminating at this point. Like the majority of the public in Saanich and Victoria, what we really hope for is answers as to how and why Lindsay Buziak was so brutally murdered. The criminals, the conspirators and the murderers are walking around scot free…and that is all that matters.
A good journalist can only report on facts and that is exactly what I have TRIED TO DO on this blog.
For those who have not had the opportunity to listen to the Capital Daily podcasts, I have taken the liberty of transcribing the interviews that Zander Sherman conducted with Jason & Shirley Zailo, and you can find all their statements below. If you have not read all 90 pages on this site please take the time to do so. You will find that I have disputed many of the statements made by both Jason & his mother Shirley, and I stand by what I have said. If I am ever challenged on what I have written I will be well-prepared. One thing I should make clear, I have never used the name of any of my sources, nor will I ever do so.
TRANSCRIPT OF THE CONVERSATION BETWEEN ZANDER SHERMAN & JASON ZAILO
EPISODE 04 – A SILENCE REBROKEN
ZANDER SHERMAN: It’s the day of my interview with Jason. He answers the phone but I don’t end up getting his permission to broadcast his end of the call. So, I recreated our conversation with a voice actor who is going to say exactly what Jason said and even approximate his voice and tone. I’ve also added a phone effect to re-create the way the call sounded.
ZANDER SHERMAN: So, are you recording this call as well.
JASON: I am too, yes, on my iPhone.
ZANDER SHERMAN: Even though Jason agreed to be interviewed he seems to want his own record of our conversation. Keeping the journalist to account?
JASON: I kind of just stayed home this morning making calls and trying to get stuff going, and I’ll be fine for awhile.
ZANDER SHERMAN: Because this is the first time Jason has spoken about these events since 2010 I want to go into detail and include as much as our interview as possible. Jason’s appearance on Dateline by contrast set the total of 2:30 secs of screen time and says just 360 words. Jason says he has planned his day around my call and has time to answer my questions.
ZANDER SHERMAN: So, can you start just telling me a bit about yourself. I asked Jason to start at the beginning.
JASON: So, I’m 40, born in Nanaimo. I moved down to the states to go play hockey for a couple of years then came back.
ZANDER SHERMAN: After playing competitive hockey in the States Jason said he returned home to Vancouver Island where he worked for his father.
JASON: I started working for my dad doing tile setting and that kind of stuff for a couple of years then I got into real estate.
ZANDER SHERMAN: As you know already Jason and Lindsay got to know each other at Helen Jones Realty tutoring workshop where they sat across the table from each other.
JASON: Like, when we first started talking, she was very nice, sweet, kind to me for sure, but business wise it seemed like she wanted to be a realtor, really wanted be successful, and she knew what she wanted.
ZANDER SHERMAN: I asked Jason if he felt he & Lindsay were ideally suited like some people described.
JASON: Eh, yeh, I would say yes. I mean when we started dating everything just clicked you know. Everything about her just was perfect for me, and you know, that’s how I felt.
ZANDER SHERMAN: From what I can tell Lindsay and Jason didn’t start dating until after they had finished with Helen’s workshop and both become licensed realtors. They lived at the lake for awhile before moving into a condo in downtown Victoria. He says he’ll get me exact dates after the interview, although I follow up with him a number of times, he doesn’t end up giving me the dates. I ask Jason to describe his and Lindsay’s relationship.
JASON: I was in love with Lindsay for sure. Like I say we did an lot of things together. We hung out all the time, we even worked together, separately but helped each other.
ZANDER SHERMAN: Jason said he and Lindsay liked to do the same thing and he believed it could be a lifelong relationship.
JASON: Out for dinners, went out to parties, went for walks, went to friend’s houses, like, did all these kinds of things we just clicked. I honestly you know, felt like I had found the person of my life, right.
ZANDER SHERMAN: I asked Jason if Lindsay seemed to feel the same way.
JASON: I would say so, yes. I know there are things out there saying she was going to break up with me, but I never had that feeling.
ZANDER SHERMAN: By my accounts 4 of Lindsay’s friends eventually told various media outlets that her and Jason’s relationship was in trouble and the fifth Vicki Mackie told me the same thing. Jason says as far as he is concerned everything was fine.
JASON: To my knowledge it’s not true. We never talked about breaking up.
ZANDER SHERMAN: So, Lindsay never told you that she was thinking about leaving the relationship?
JASON: No.
ZANDER SHERMAN: According to the same summary Jason seems to tell the police that Lindsay was puzzled why the clients had chosen her. According to the February 2nd statement, he says the whole scenario seemed to be almost too good to be true. Zailo stated Buziak wondered why someone would call her to look at a million-dollar property and not another realtor.
JASON: Yeh, I remember her saying that.
ZANDER SHERMAN I want to ask Jason more about the events leading up to February 2nd . In the court documents unsealed by the BC Supreme Court I see a summary of a taped interview between police and someone who I believe is Jason on February 6th. There are other interview summaries but the one from February 6th seems to lay things out chronologically. The court documents in question are material filed by police to support their applications for certain court orders, they remain full of redaction. I decide to read parts of the summary back to Jason to see what he still remembers and if anything else stands out.
At the time of this conversation, Jason’s name in the court documents is blacked out but once he confirms the statements are his I insert his name back into the text and a few information drawn from other areas of my research to help me complete what I believe to be the original wording. It says Zailo thought that Buziak first talked to the prospective home buyer several days before the murder, and that the caller was a female with a strong Mexican or Spanish accent. In the court documents the date of the first phone call was redacted but seems to have taken place around the end of January 2008, according to what several people told police.
What did Lindsay tell you about that first call?
JASON: Well, I remember her getting a call when we were in the condo and they were from Vancouver looking to buy in Victoria.
ZANDER SHERMAN: Jason confirms the story I heard that the woman said she and her husband would be travelling from Vancouver to Victoria to buy a 1M home. Jason tells me Lindsay was enthusiastic about the call.
JASON: I know some people say she that was worried and stuff like that but never did she like we kind of talked about it, like not that she was worried but just like hey I got people they want to come and look at a house, or 2 houses, or 4 houses, and she was excited.
ZANDER SHERMAN: Jason’s description of Lindsay’s not being worried seems to differ from what others have told me and even from a Feb 2 tribute between Jason and the SPD in which Jason says both he and Lindsay believed the circumstances surrounding the clients “were almost too good to be true”. But after this interview with Jason, I struggle to get him back on the phone though we talk again the conversations are about his consent to broadcast his end of the phone calls that I don’t end up getting. Eventually he stops responding altogether so I am unable to ask him any follow-up questions.
Continuing for now from the February 6th interview summary I read Jason the rest of what police said he told them. Zailo thought that Buziak had sent the woman an email regarding some of the properties they could look at. Zailo knew that the woman was looking for something in the 1-1.2 million dollar range, that it had to be vacant and a new home. Zailo stated that when he got home from work on Thursday, Buziak told him that she had spoken to the woman again and that she and her husband were coming over on Saturday to view homes. Buziak stated that the woman was coming for sure and that her husband may or may not be coming.
In local news stories published early after Lindsay’s murder I see that Lindsay is said to have received a call from the woman’s husband who told her his wife wouldn’t be coming after all and he wanted to meet Lindsay alone. The article says it concerned Lindsay and some of the people around her. None of the people I speak to me mention that call and the article quote unnamed sources which makes it difficult to verify. In the redacted court documents in front of me I can find no mention of Lindsay’s alleged conversation with the man including in the summary of Jason’s interview from February 6th.
It goes on to say Zailo advised that he had asked Buziak if she had sent the woman any more email messages and Buziak replied that she would send more on Friday. Zailo stated that he was present on one occasion when Buziak tried to contact the woman by phone, however the woman did not answer the call. Zailo advised that on Friday evening he left to play hockey at approximately 7:30 pm. Here I see mention of the story that Shirley told me about walking into the condo to find Lindsay on the phone.
He had been told by his mother that Buziak remained on the phone with the woman for approximately 20 minutes. Zailo was not sure who initiated the phone call nor if Buziak was talking on their home phone or her cellular telephone. Shirley also told me she had offered to meet the clients on Lindsay’s behalf an offer Jason said he made as well. Zailo stated that on Friday night he returned home at approximately midnight and that he and Buziak talked in bed. Buziak told Zailo that his mother had told her that she should let Zailo show the house for her so Buziak could go to Vancouver as planned. Zailo again offered to show the house for her.
Do you remember this conversation?
JASON: Yeh, she was supposed to leave for Vancouver and again being a realtor, like I just said, “Well I can go show the 2-3 homes and you can go to Vancouver with your girlfriends.
ZANDER SHERMAN: According to the same summary Jason seems to tell the police that Lindsay was puzzled why the clients had chosen her. According to the February 2nd statement, he says the whole scenario seemed to be almost too good to be true. Zailo stated that Buziak wondered why someone would call her to look at a million-dollar property and not another realtor.
JASON: I remember her saying that. Yeh.
ZANDER SHERMAN: Did Lindsay sound a little confused or maybe even concerned here? Jason said as far as he knew she wasn’t concerned about the meeting.
JASON: It wasn’t concern, it was that she was a new young realtor, kind of saying to herself or me, like I wonder how they got my name or I wonder why they are calling me.
ZANDER SHERMAN: I read Jason another passage from the same interview. It goes on to say that you had received a phone call from a woman who spoke with a broken Spanish accent on Saturday morning asking for Buziak. Zailo told the caller that Buziak was out and provided her with Buziak’s cellular telephone. The caller told Zailo that she always had Buziak’s cellular phone. This is interesting because it actually sounds like you spoke with the woman. Jason pauses for several moments something he does a few times throughout our conversation.
JASON: Well, if that’s what I said in that statement back then, then I did.
ZANDER SHERMAN: Do you remember it differently now?
JASON: So they’re saying that I spoke to a lady or that I spoke to like the Mexican lady?
ZANDER SHERMAN: This is a summary of the interview that you gave to the police in which you’re telling Sgt. Harris that you spoke to the female client.
JASON: Hum, I think that’s true, yeh
ZANDER SHERMAN: So, can you describe that call to me, what the woman sounded like. Jason says he can’t remember a call that the documents say happened more than a decade ago, and thinks he may have taken down a message.
JASON: I’m sure she just called and asked for Lindsay and she wasn’t there so I gave her Lindsay’s cell phone number.
ZANDER SHERMAN: In the court documents in front of me I also see the redacted summary of an interview between police and the receptionist at Re/Max Camosun from February 3rd. The receptionist’s name is still blacked out but she told police that Lindsay stopped by the office confirming what Shirley and colleague Cal Faber told me.
The receptionist estimates the timing of Lindsay’s visit is around the timing of Jason and Lindsay are said to have met for lunch. According to the redacted summary the receptionist helped search the female caller’s cellular number in the Re/Max computer data base to see if there was a history with any other realtors in Victoria but didn’t find anything. This confirms the SPD’s official version the receptionist describes Lindsay as “really weird” and “freaked out” about using the couple.
In the February 6th interview between Jason and the police I see a reference to the late lunch Jason and Lindsay had at a restaurant called Sauce. So, then it says that Zailo and Buziak met for lunch at Sauce at approximately 3:30 pm. Zailo stated that Buziak was rushing to eat because she had to go back home and get ready to show the home.
JASON: Yes, that’s true.
ZANDER SHERMAN: According to the summary of Jason’s interview Jason said he repeated offered his offered to show the house himself. Zailo stated that again he asked Buziak if she wanted him to show the houses for her but Buziak said no. Buziak showed Zailo a couple of the feature sheets for the homes she was considering to show the client.
Do you remember that?
JASON: Yeh I do.
ZANDER SHERMAN: Jason said Lindsay want to get an offer before continuing on with her other friends for the weekend including attending her friend’s bachelorette party.
JASON: There were 3 or 4 or 5 features sheets that she showed me at Sauce thinking I’m going to show, you know, all these properties in hoping they would write an offer. So, I think that’s why she didn’t cancel, I don’t, not in my knowledge did she cancel, her trip was kind of up in the air, like she how the day goes, right.
ZANDER SHERMAN: After lunch Jason says Lindsay returned to their condo to change while he went to a near-by auto shop called SHC Autographx. His owners were real estate clients of both him and Lindsay.
JASON: So, I had a client at SHC and Lindsay actually had a client buying their condo I went to SHC to present the new offer from Lindsay’s client
ZANDER SHERMAN: While at SHC Jason say he got a call from his friend Cohen Oatman. Cohen had never spoken publicly about what happened and didn’t respond to attempts to reach him for comment. In the court documents I can see statements that mention seem to mention him and filled in his name the same way I did with Jason. It says Oatman told Zailo that he could meet him at SHC. Zailo stated that Buziak also called him while he was with Oatman and Zailo told Buziak he would call her back when he was finished with the client.
It says Zailo called Buziak back and she informed Zailo back that she was driving to the house that she was going to show the client. Zailo asked Buziak if she wanted him to come over and she replied that she did. In the documents this is the first clear mention I can find that Lindsay wanted her to meet him at the house. Jason says it was a spur of the moment decision. And it sounds like the plan for you to be at the house was conceived spontaneously in this very moment. is that right?
JASON: Yes it was, yeh.
ZANDER SHERMAN: Jason’s account here seems to differ from what Lindsay’s colleague Cal Faber told me which was that he and other colleagues were under the impression that Jason planned to accompany Lindsay to the showing prior to Lindsay stopping by the Re/Max Camosun office. But this is what Jason told me and I couldn’t follow up on any potential discrepancies. According to redacted summaries of what I believed to be both Jason & Cohen’s statements to police Cohen arrived at SHC and got into Zailo’s Range Rover. Jason tells me the address of the house where Lindsay was gong to meet the couple on DeSousa Place was so new that it didn’t show up on his GPS and he called Lindsay to ask for directions. It says Zailo attempted to utilize the navigation system in his truck to find DeSousa Place but it would not function so he called Lindsay asking for directions to the house. Can you tell me about this conversation with Lindsay?
JASON: I didn’t know where DeSousa Place is and I don’t think it was on my truck nav because it was a new subdivision. So then when it didn’t pop up, I just remember calling asking where to go, where the house is, and she was telling me the directions.
ZANDER SHERMAN: To police and to me Jason said this last conversation with Lindsay was interrupted by the arrival of Lindsay’s clients. It says while they speaking Buziak told him, oh, I‘ve got to go they are here.
JASON: Yeh, yeh, yeh.
ZANDER SHERMAN: The SPD eventually released the description of the man and woman who the court documents refer to as suspects. According to witnesses Lindsay was seen greeting the couple in the driveway outside the house, right around 5:30 pm. “This audio is from CBC News.” I asked Jason what it’s like looking back at that exchange knowing Lindsay the woman he said he could see himself spending his life with, who was about to meet the people who police say murdered her.
JASON: Well, I mean, I think about it all the time, I mean I wish I was five minutes earlier. I wish that she, you know, asked me to come to the showing with her. I wish I had asked more questions, who are these Mexicans, like do you have a first name, do you have a last name, do you have an email. So ya, no, I mean I’ve played it many, many, many, times in my head, what else, what more could have or should have done.
ZANDER SHERMAN: By my estimate, Jason and his friend Cohen Oatman arrived at the house around 5:45 pm. The vacant newly constructed home of purchase just under 1M is off the main road called Torquay. Jason stated that as he turned on to DeSousa Place from Torquay he saw a man enter the front door of the residence and close the door. Presumably the man who Jason is referring to here is one of the two suspects.
It says he did not see the front of the man just his back. He described the jacket worn by the male as classy in style likely below the man’s waist and being brown in color but not one sold color of brown. Do you remember that description? More than a decade later Jason says he no longer recalls the citing, pausing again for several moments before answering.
JASON: Eh, I don’t remember like saying the exact description but I’m sure if I did back then, yeh it was from me.
ZANDER SHERMAN: Ok so you don’t remember anything else about else about the man, whether he was tall, heavy set, whether he was bald or
JASON: No, like I said it was only, it was like, I can’t honestly say exactly what it was. No.
ZANDER SHERMAN: In the summary of the February 6th interview between Jason and the police Jason said he believed the man heard Jason’s vehicle approach. Zailo said that the door to the house was open when he first turned onto DeSousa Place and that the male would have heard his truck. I know in a few minutes Jason and Cohen will try the front door of the house and find it locked. From my reading of the text is that the man was about to leave saw Jason coming then turned around. By this description it sounds like you’re saying the door was closed and locked after you turned onto the street, essentially to prevent you from entering the house.
JASON: Well, that’s kind of the part that, that’s when I kind of got, I don’t want to say panicked but I started to panic because that’s not normal.
ZANDER SHERMAN: People on line have speculated about why Jason didn’t immediately go into the house. Jason says Lindsay didn’t want it to be obvious he was there.
JASON: So, I remember pulling up, not in front of the house because of course that’s what Lindsay did not want me to do. We sat there for a few minutes, whatever it was, and I remember texting her a few times. I don’t think I called I just texted because she was in a showing.
ZANDER SHERMAN: After trying to make contact with Lindsay Jason said he repositioned his vehicle to make his presence more obvious.
JASON: And then we moved the vehicle from one place to another place, more clear so she could see that I was there, I think. And then again, no calls no text, no nothing. And then I said to Cohen let’s go like let’s just go inside because we were waiting you know, we were waiting outside for a few minutes.
ZANDER SHERMAN: Around by 6:00 pm by my estimate Jason and Cohen got out of Jason’s vehicle and approached the house.
JASON: And then when I walked up to the front door and the door was locked is when I knew like first thing that goes in your mind is something is not right something is wrong.
ZANDER SHERMAN: According to the court documents Jason rang the door bell about 10 times. Through the glass in the front door, he tells me he could see Lindsay’s high heels, which Jason says he believes Lindsay had removed before showing the house. So presumably she had taken off her shoes to do the showing barefoot, is that right.
JASON: Yup Yup
ZANDER SHERMAN: Jason says Lindsay had taken a portion of the locbox normally containing the keys into the house with her, which prevented him from being able to get in. When I spoke to Jason’s mother Shirley, she told me Jason had called her she then had called the listing agent to get the access code for the garage. She called Jason back and Jason tried the access code and it didn’t work.
JASON: So, it was an incorrect code to go through the garage um, so I walked down you know, the garage was right out front, and I remember walking down to the right side and there’s a door around there, like a side door but that was locked also. You know, you get that sense, there’s somethings not right, that feeling that something is not right. Then I remember, yeh, I remember calling 911, I don’t if you have the call.
ZANDER SHERMAN: I don’t have the audio or even a verbatim transcript just a redacted summary written by an investigator who said he reviewed the tape. It says Zailo advised that him and his girlfriend were both realtors, his girlfriend was supposed to be meeting a female client from out of town at 1702 DeSousa Place. Zailo stated that his girlfriend had asked him to come and kind of follow her just because she was kind of scared.
As I said earlier this apparent admission of fear differs from what Jason appears to have told police a few days later and after all this time Jason may not remember those initial statements. I wish I had asked him more about it but in the moment, we move on to what happens next, which Jason says was his friend Cohen calling him around to the side of the house.
According to Jason Cohen had discovered a side door that was cracked open, Jason said he may have helped Cohen get over a fence which enclosed the main door patio. Jason said he went back around the exterior of the house and met Cohen at the front door, which Cohen had unlocked from the inside. A few days later police filmed a re-enactment of Jason entering the home, eventually police shared a portion of that tape with the media including here, and at the Times Colonist. Jason tells me he and Cohen started searching the house, according to a redacted summary says both Jason and I believe to be Cohens statements the two men split up, Cohen searching downstairs, and Jason going upstairs.
JASON: Eh, Cohen was in front of me, he went straight and then as soon as you take a few steps there was a stairway going up, so I went up and Cohen was already in the kitchen area.
ZANDER SHERMAN: The main bedroom was at the top of the stairs in the re-enactment video released by the SPD you can see that the room was visible from the bottom step or two of the staircase. Jason said he saw Lindsay slumped over as he was climbing up.
JASON: Um as soon as you walk 3 quarters of the way up the stairs it goes, the door goes into the bedroom where Lindsay was laying on the floor.
ZANDER SHERMAN: Jason says Lindsay had evidentially suffered a violent attack and had multiple stab wounds on the front of her body. He says he summoned Cohen who made a 2nd call to 911 at 6:11 pm and that he then began started performing CPR.
JASON: I didn’t roll Lindsay over to look at her back or anything like that. I remember getting to her, yelling for Cohen, he was calling 911 and I was trying to do CPR.
ZANDER SHERMAN: Jason tells me he could hear air escaping back through puncture wounds in Lindsay’s chest.
JASON: And also when I was doing CPR you know, with the wounds they punctured her lungs so it wasn’t working because there was, you know, the amount of stab wounds.
ZANDER SHERMAN: So, you could hear air, is that what you’re saying.
JASON: I could hear air, yeh, I just remember a lot of blood and a lot of stab wounds.
EPISODE 5
ZANDER SHERMAN: Despite his efforts, Jason said Lindsay was already dead.
JASON: And I remember over and over again, just trying to let the Saanich Police know they should be out looking, but of course they you know there’s cop cars all along the front yard and everywhere and nobody’s asking us questions.
ZANDER SHERMAN: After Jason and his friend Cohen Oatman called 911 within a few minutes of each other, once outside the house, and once inside, after they had discovered Lindsay. Police arrived and appeared to have taken both men into custody according to the court documents
JASON: As soon as they came upstairs, they grabbed me and handcuffed me took me out to the police car.
ZANDER SHERMAN: Jason said he believed the shadowy figures he had seen through the doorway were close. They eventually determined that any vehicle leaving 1702 DeSousa Place at 5:45 pm, by the time when Jason and Cohen arrived, would almost certainly be still be in Greater Victoria by the time police showed up a ½ hour later. Jason said the police didn’t listen when he told them they should be looking for other people.
JASON: You know again I didn’t have anything to do with it. I didn’t kill Lindsay and I was just you, know, I wanted to let them know what I knew to try to help but they weren’t letting me do that.
ZANDER SHERMAN: Even though Jason and Cohen had summoned police Jason said they were treated like suspects.
JASON: You know, you just find your girlfriend murdered and the cops just show up because we call 911, and they put us in a police car. What they should have been doing is having like 8, 10, 12 cars out searching right away.
ZANDER SHERMAN: As we’ve heard already police shut the street down and canvassed the neighborhood surrounding the house. I can find no indication of a citywide manhunt. If police had locked the city down Jason says things might have turned out differently.
JASON: I mean I think they totally botched the whole investigation the first day. Again, it makes me mad even just talking about it right now that they didn’t, to me, they didn’t do their job properly at all.
ZANDER SHERMAN: In the court documents I see that Jason was interviewed after arriving at police headquarters. He says those officers also seem to have made up their mind and wasting more time questioning them.
JASON: Again, I’m innocent, they’re treating me like I’m not innocent and I know that there are killers out there, and they’re not out there searching for them.
ZANDER SHERMAN: Both Jason and Cohen appear to have adamantly denied any involvement in Lindsay’s murder and spoken to police without a lawyer. Cohen didn’t respond to my request for comment and does not appear to have ever been a suspect. After leaving the police station early the next morning Jason says he went to stay with his mother but continued to cooperate.
JASON: Again, I have nothing to hide I mean, I gave my cell phone, I gave my laptop, I let them search my condo. Again, they screwed up so, so bad that they called me up weeks, if not months after the fact asking for fingerprints, and I was like, how do you not have my fingerprints, what’s taking so long. I did the polygraph test; I mean anything they wanted I was always there to help.
ZANDER SHERMAN: The court documents appear to confirm parts of what Jason is saying including there was a consent search of his and Lindsay’s condo and that he voluntarily gave police their Toshiba laptop and cell phone records. Staff Sgt. Horsley of the Saanich Police will eventually say that Jason successfully passed a polygraph. Around the one-year anniversary of Lindsay’s murder in 2009 the SP announced Jason had been cleared from their investigation. I asked Jason a few more questions before letting him go including what he wants people to take away from our investigation.
JASON: The one thing I would like out of it again is to for the people to know that I had nothing to do with Lindsay’s murder so that we can move on and actually put all this time and energy into finding the people who actually did murder Lindsay.
ZANDER SHERMAN: Jason says most people still seem to think he’s a murderer. He says he believes only the arrest of someone else will change their minds.
JASON: You know, just like the police in the beginning, they saw me there, they probably just thought the boyfriend killed the girlfriend, and that’s that. I guess I’m just the easiest target, right.
ZANDER SHERMAN: I asked Jason why he’s decided to talk to me after all this time. He says it’s the court documents obtained by Capital Daily which he learned about from the SPD around the first time he and I first spoke.
JASON: The police officers are saying that you guys actually have documents from the Supreme Court on the case so then that’s when I said, then I think your background, I think that you could actually put some light into the case and not just an interview about me.
ZANDER SHERMAN: I asked for Jason’s consent to broadcast our call, he says he wants to think about it and that I can call back anytime I have questions, not knowing this would be the last lengthy interview we do, I decide to leave it there.
ZANDER SHERMAN: While I do speak with Jason again, I don’t get an answer about whether he’s okay with us broadcasting our call, eventually he stops responding altogether, even after I tell him that without his consent I will probably ask somebody else to read his remarks. Despite not having Jason’s full co-operation I think I’ll be able to pick this story up again in the court documents. The documents consist of court applications that include something called ITO’s. Police use ITO’s to get court orders, ITO stands for information to obtain. In Lindsay’s case some of the ITO’s are for tracking a number of recorder warrants, that allow police to follow someone’s vehicle and track in and out coming phone numbers of calls coming into a particular phone.
CAPITAL DAILY PRESENTS – MURDER ON THE ISLAND January 17/2023
SHIRLEY: January 17/2023
Where is one piece of evidence that I had something to do with Lindsay Buziak’s murder You can’t find anything because I did nothing.
EPISODE 01 DUSK
SHIRLEY ZAILO INTERVIEW January 25/2023
ZANDER SHERMAN: Shirley said she met Lindsay sometime after Lindsay and her son Jason started dating in 2006 and Lindsay and Jason were both in their mid twenties. She said Lindsay made a good impression.
SHIRLEY: Well, she was a very nice girl, I mean she was full of life, always laughing and smiling.
ZANDER SHERMAN: Lindsay and Jason spent a summer in a house up the island before moving into a condo by in the inner harbor. Eventually, Shirley and Lindsay both worked at the same Re/max Camosun office. It was there Lindsay told her about a phone call she received around the end of January 2008. It was from a woman with a Vancouver area phone number who said she needed to buy a 1M house almost immediately.
SHIRLEY: I remember her coming in the office and telling me she was all excited because she had a new client that was coming into town.
ZANDER SHERMAN: According to Shirley Lindsay struggled to understand the woman’s accent. How did Lindsay describe the Lindsay’s voice?
SHIRLEY: She said they were hard to understand, and I remember her using the name Mexican
ZANDER SHERMAN: The Hispanic sounding woman apparently told Lindsay her husband had just been transferred to Victoria and that they wanted to meet and look at some houses at 5:30 pm on Saturday February 2nd. Police will eventually recover Lindsay’s daytimer where she recorded more of what the woman evidentially told her. I asked Shirley how much Lindsay would have made on the sale of a 1M house. She said it depends but probably around 3% or 30K. It sounds like a sizeable amount of money.
SHIRLEY: Yes
ADMIN: Shirley, Zander Sherman asked you how much Lindsay would have made on the sale of a 1M house, not what the total commission would have been on the sale of the home. The Listing agent and Selling agent split the commission 50/50. Then Re/Max takes their share, likely a 60/40 split, 60% going to the realtor. I calculate Lindsay’s commission to be approx. $7000. Shirley, you lied!
ZANDER SHERMAN: She said she told Lindsay to ask where the referral had come from so Lindsay could thank the person who had recommended her. Shirley says Lindsay did apparently did ask and was told it was somebody who worked for the woman’s husband and they would tell her more when they met. Shirley said the next time she became aware of the supposed clients was when she went to Jason and Lindsay’s condo on evening of February 1st.
SHIRLEY: So, she phoned me up and asked me, Jason was going to hockey and she asked me if I wanted to come down there and go for dinner. So, we decided to go…
ZANDER SHERMAN: When Shirley arrived at the condo, she said Lindsay was on the phone once again. She said she couldn’t hear much of the conversation but it sounded like Lindsay was making arrangements for the following day.
SHIRLEY: But what I did hear about the conversation was that it sounded like she was pretty organized and um you know she had these houses that she was showing, and she was talking to them, you know and it was all kind of set up, and um it sounded like just a general conversation, she he was just confirming what they were doing.
ZANDER SHERMAN: Then Shirley said, she and Lindsay went for a walk
SHIRLEY: We went, and then got back to town and went and had some sushi at a little restaurant, and that’s when she was talking about all the things that she had to do the next day.
ZANDER SHERMAN: After meeting the couple Lindsay had plans to attend a friend’s bachelorette party in Vancouver.
SHIRLEY: I could she was a little bit um you know maybe overwhelmed might be the word with all the things she had to do the next day, and that’s why I offered to help her.
ZANDER SHERMAN: Shirley said she offered to show the properties on Lindsay’s behalf and reminded her that her two sons Jason and Ryan were available too.
SHIRLEY ZAILO: I also said to her that if you didn’t want me to do it, I’m sure you could ask Ryan, and of course Jason has a real estate license so you know there’s three of us if you need some help just give us a call. At no time did she tell me that she was scared.
ZANDER SHERMAN: The next afternoon Shirley says said she got a call from Lindsay. In court documents eventually obtained by Capital Daily I can see that Shirley initially told police the call came in about 2:00 pm. According to Shirley Lindsay was at the Chatterton branch of Remax Camosun and had some questions unrelated to the clients or the meeting. That was the last conversation you had with Lindsay?
SHIRLEY: Yeh.
ZANDER SHERMAN: In the court documents obtained by Capital Daily I’ll learn that Jason apparently met Lindsay at a restaurant sometime that afternoon. According to a redacted summary of what I believe to be one of Jason’s statements Lindsay ate quickly and showed Jason some feature sheets of properties she planning on showing the couple. In the same summary the person I believe to be Jason said he offered to show properties on Lindsay’s behalf and that after lunch Lindsay planned to go home to change before the meeting.
EPISODE 03 THE UNSEALING January 25/2023
ZANDER SHERMAN: Casefile makes a number of claims, for instance that Shirley Zailo bought a house specifically for Lindsay and Jason. The claim appears on numerous podcasts and UTube videos, and sometimes carries the connotation that Shirley was trying to entice Lindsay away from her family. I run the claim by Shirley that she was and still is the lake house owner and Jason and Lindsay lived there temporarily.
SHIRLEY: No, I bought the Shawnigan Lake home so that we could go up in the summers and have family get-togethers, brings friends and family and that why it was bought. They moved up to Shawnigan Lake and spent the summer there.
ZANDER SHERMAN: Another claim on Casefile is that Shirley dated a former SPD officer shortly after police suspected an unintended disclosure of information on Lindsay’s case. No further explanation is given leaving the listener to believe that Shirley’s relationship was somehow related to the alleged leak. Shirley said that she was romantically involved with someone at the SPD but he didn’t work on Lindsay’s case and may have been retired prior to February 2 2008.
SHIRLEY: Call it whatever, we just spent some time together, short period of time, that was it.
ZANDER SHERMAN: Was this before or after Lindsay’s murder.
SHIRLEY: After
ZANDER SHERMAN: Was that officer in any way connected to Lindsay’s case.
SHIRLEY: No no, he wasn’t even a police officer at the time. Yeh, I think they retired before Lindsay died.
ZANDER SHERMAN: I asked Shirley about a number claims and conspiracy theories that appear on other podcasts and UTube video. You paid for Lindsay’s breast augmentation surgery?
SHIRLEY: False
ZANDER SHERMAN: You spent a substantial amount of money on Lindsay and began plotting her murder when you found out Lindsay was planning on leave Jason?
SHIRLEY: That’s false.
ZANDER SHERMAN: Lindsay was killed because you falsely accused her of being a police informant?
SHIRLEY: No.
ZANDER SHERMAN: Some people have even said that you are a police informant. Is that true?
SHIRLEY: No.
ZANDER SHERMAN: Shirley repeatedly denies she was involved in Lindsay’s murder and she and both her sons were cleared by police during the investigation.
SHIRLEY: The straws that they’re are pulling out from where? They are trying so hard to connect me but there is nothing to connect, I didn’t do any of this.
ZANDER SHERMAN: In the Casefile episode the host claims that Shirley was the landlady of someone named Zachary Scott Matheson, also know as Ziggy who was arrested in 2013 and later convicted on multiple counts of drug related offences. Once again, Casefile does not elaborate or provide much more context to the claim which Shirley has had the effect of people believing that she was also involved in selling drugs which she denies.
SHIRLEY: I’ve never sold a drug in my life.
ZANDER SHERMAN: Sometime after her tenant’s arrest Shirley distanced herself from Ziggy and the case file again mentions. After some digging, I find an archived copy of a CHEK News article from 2016 that says Shirley denies knowing about Ziggy’s drug activity and says her family has no ties to Ziggy, though Shirley isn’t quoted directly. You claimed publicly that you nor your family had any association to Ziggy Matheson.
SHIRLEY: Well, I did do that except for it was the way it was said.
ZANDER SHERMAN: Shirley says by her recollection the question that was asked of her suggested a level of closeness that she still denies, though she admits to knowing Ziggy and acknowledges that her sons do too.
SHIRLEY: Jason and him good friends? No, they’re not, they weren’t. They hardly …yeh, they were pleasant to each other but they weren’t best friends – like Ryan played hockey with him. And no, I don’t have any involvement with him, yes he’s my tenant but I don’t have any involvement with him. I didn’t go out for coffee with him, and I didn’t go for dinners with him.
ADMIN: Shirley, in December 2007, you took your family, including Lindsay, on a Xmas/ New Years vacation to Whistler. And on that family vacation with you was Ziggy Matheson. It certainly sounds like he was a close family friend to me. And he did stop by your office for coffee more than a few times. And Ryan & Ziggy certainly look like good friends in this picture.
ZANDER SHERMAN: Ryan doesn’t agree to an on-the-record interview and I had no luck tracking Ziggy down for comment. Before I let Shirley go, I ask her something else. There are dozens of these podcasts and UTube videos – and have been heard and seen by millions of people and I am wondering how many of those podcasters and UTube makers reached out to you before they published their stories.
SHIRLEY: None.
ZANDER SHERMAN: I asked Shirley is she’s considered taking legal action. She says she used to follow the things people said about her online but she said had to stop because it was affecting her mental health.
SHIRLEY: I went through a very bad depression um years ago when this first started and I had a really hard time trying to understand how people could do this, and um, it really wore me down, and I don’t want to go there again.
ZANDER SHERMAN: Shirley says she’s considered lawsuits in the past but was told that online defamation is defamation is difficult to litigate. Shirley says her business has also been affected.
ADMIN: Your business was affected Shirley? In 2013 you paid $137,500 for a 2010 Porsche Turbo you bought at the Porsche Dealership in Vancouver.
SHIRLEY: You go to a listing and all they want to know is about Lindsay and then they don’t want your sign on the lawn. My business has gone way down over the years.
ZANDER SHERMAN: Shirley says she doubts the people who believe in her guilt will be persuaded by hearing her speak now but she hopes to at least take her perspective into account.
SHIRLEY: As far as you know are we going to get closer to finding Lindsay’s killer by me talking. I just think it’s the other side of what people have heard so far and some will believe me and some won’t believe me and this is what happened.
EMAIL ADDRESS: murderondesousa@gmail.com