LINDSAY BUZIAK MURDER TIMELINE
FEBRUARY 1ST/2008 FRIDAY EVENING
AT 7:15 PM SHIRLEY ZAILO DROPPED BY JASON AND LINDSAY’S CONDO.
Jason was not home because he was playing hockey that evening. Shirley tells the Saanich Police that while she was there Lindsay was talking to her client about the showing the next night. She said the conversation lasted about 15 minutes. Police files say that Lindsay gave the client the 1702 DeSousa address, but if that information came from Shirley Zailo who was listening to Lindsay’s call this information can never be verified because Lindsay is dead.
It is highly unlikely that phone call would be the first time Lindsay discussed that address with her client, although she may have said to them “1702 DeSousa will be the first home we are looking at”. If the clients had lured Lindsay to the house that night, then they would have been the ones to have brought the DeSousa house to Lindsay’s attention. Jason arrived home from playing hockey about midnight.
THIS IS THE TIMELINE OF LINDSAY’S MURDER AS PER DATELINE NBC, INSPECTOR ROB MCCOLL AND DETECTIVE-SGT. CHRIS HORSLEY. THE BULK OF THE CLUES CAME FROM JASON ZAILO HIMSELF.
Prior to meeting Jason at Sauce Lindsay make a quick stop at the Re/Max Chatterton office where she expressed concerned about the showing to the receptionist and a few realtors in the office.
Two realtors offered to attend the showing with her, but Lindsay assured them that Jason had promised to meet her at the house at 5:30. Jason and Lindsay went to Sauce for a late lunch, they paid the bill at 4:24 pm, then went their separate ways. Jason went directly to SHC arriving at 4:29 pm. Lindsay returned to her condo to change and get ready for the 5:30 showing. This would mean that the time of Lindsay’s arrival at 1702 Desousa would have been shortly before 5:30. Lindsay opened the loc-box at 5:29 just about the same time Jason and Cohen were seen leaving SHC Autographx in Jason’s Range Rover at 5:30.
THE OWNER/BUILDER JOE DESOUSA LEFT THE DESOUSA PROPERTY AT 5:00 pm
while the workers left the area at around 4:30. Joe DeSousa returned to the property just before 5:00 then proceeded to lock up the house. Two witnesses saw the suspect couple walk into the cul-de-sac at about 5:30. One of those witnesses described the male, as the “man in the long coat” Both witnesses (independent) claim they saw Lindsay greeting the couple in the driveway. The real estate lockbox was accessed at 5:29.
As Jason was leaving SHC he took a call from Lindsay. He said, “I will come and meet you – I will be 10–15 minutes or so”. Lindsay responded…. “okay I’ll see you in a bit I have to go the Mexicans are here”. Apparently, this was Lindsay’s shorthand name for her clients. Jason and Cohen Oatman were seen on video surveillance leaving SHC Autographx at 5:30, they made a right hand turn out of the parking lot and headed to 1702 DeSousa Place.
AT 5:38 JASON SENDS LINDSAY A TEXT “JUST A COUPLE OF MINUTES AWAY.”
That text was never opened by Lindsay. According to Detective Sgt. Chris Horsley: “the last text Jason sent Lindsay said, “I’M JUST A COUPLE OF MINUTES AWAY” and that text was never opened by Lindsay. Jason said on Dateline that when he was parked on Torquay, he sent Lindsay a text that said “are you okay” to which Lindsay did not respond. Which text was the last one, the one at 5:38 as per Detective Sgt. Chris Horsley on Dateline or the text Jason said he sent to Lindsay just prior to his call to 911 at 6:05 pm? It sounds like Horsley and Dateline support the 5:38 pm text as being the final text.
At 5:41 pm Lindsay’s blackberry made a phone call out and the Saanich Police believe that was the direct result of the attack. It was truly a pocket dial call as her Black Berry was in her pocket. Therefore the Saanich Police conclude that Lindsay was murdered between 5:38 and 5:42.
SGT. CHRIS HORSLEY said Jason and Cohen Oatman drove into the cul-de-sac at approx. 5:45 pm.
Jason saw the front door open and the couple heading outside, when they saw Jason turn into the cul-de-sac they quickly turned around and went back inside. Jason parked his vehicle on the opposite side of the road from the house, with the rear of his vehicle facing Torquay and the murder house. Jason and Cohen sat in the vehicle for 10 minutes – then Jason turned around in the cul-de-sac, went out to Torquay, turned right then parked in the spot right beside the property for another 10 minutes. Jason told the Saanich Police that the man was about 6′ tall and was wearing a “classy” brown jacket that fell below his waist.
AT 6:05 COHEN AND JASON WALKED UP TO THE FRONT DOOR ONLY TO FIND IT LOCKED.
Jason knocked and rang the bell about 10 times but got no response. Jason said he could see Lindsay’s kicked off heels through the glass panels. At 6:05 Jason called 911, telling the operator that his girlfriend was in the house but that he could not get in. Jason and Cohen went around to the back, found the door to the basement locked, so returned to the front of the house. From there they walked over to the Torquay side of the house, peered over the fence and noticed an open patio door. Jason helped Cohen over the fence, then he went back to the front door to wait for Cohen. Cohen entered the home through the open patio doors then raced to the front door to let Jason in. Jason raced straight up the stairs to the master bedroom where he found Lindsay lying in a pool of blood. Jason claims he was upstairs in about 2 seconds.
WHEN FINDING LINDSAY’S BODY IN THE UPSTAIRS BEDROOM,
a 2nd 911 call was made and while on the phone sirens could be heard. The police were there within minutes because they had already dispatched a vehicle after Jason made the first 911 call at 6:05. When police arrived Jason and Cohen were waving their arms in the upstairs bedroom window. The police entered the home and went straight up to the master bedroom. Shortly after, Jason and Cohen were taken to the police station in separate vehicles. Jason was arrested but released from the police station the next morning.
The cell phone the couple used to contact Lindsay was purchased late November 2007 at a convenience store on Davie Street in downtown Vancouver. The phone was activated late January 2008 in the same vicinity, then the phone traveled to the Island just 24 hours prior to Lindsay’s murder. The first calls made to Lindsay were from Vancouver’s west end neighborhood, confirmed by hits on cell towers in the city. Police said at least a half dozen calls were made to Lindsay then after her murder the cell phone was never used again.
The police believe the killers knew how to carry out the murder and then cover their tracks. The Dateline NBC experts all agreed that a significant degree of planning went into this murder. The Saanich Police explored the theory that professionals were hired with specific instructions to express the anger that someone else felt towards Lindsay. The experts all agreed the murder was personal and that somebody close to Lindsay planned the murder and hired the killers.
AT THE TIME OF THE BROADCAST ON FEB 2/2011 INSPECTOR ROB MCCOLL HAD THIS TO SAY.
“Having had this on our plate for more than two years, we had plenty of time to develop theories, look at them closely and think outside the box,” he said that police AGREE with the Dateline investigator’s conclusion that Buziak was an innocent party, and that her murder was a TARGETED HIT arranged by someone CLOSE to her. Saanich police have narrowed down the investigation to “three or four” working theories. McColl stated on Dateline that it is possible one of the people who went into that house was also the MASTERMIND behind Lindsay’s murder.
“IT’S NOT COOL TO TELL ON YOUR FRIENDS, IT’S NOT COOL TO RAT PEOPLE OUT … Many times in a homicide investigation you can get past that because it’s also not cool to kill people,” he said. “There should be some assurance to anyone that is considering speaking to the police, that we are not really interested in the skeletons in your closet. We have the ability to put that aside and focus in on what we are really interested in, and that is catching these killers.”
DETECTIVE SGT. CHRIS HORSLEY HAD THIS TO SAY:
“There is nothing in her life — and we’ve conducted an extensive background check — that would indicate that Lindsay was involved in anything criminal, in anything of a domestic violence relationship, and that is the most perplexing thing.”
Jason Zailo has been cleared based on video surveillance, cellphone records and other investigative measures.
“It is also possible Buziak’s killers were under the mistaken impression she had revealed information she shouldn’t have, he said, or perhaps that she was somehow connected to a dangerous person without knowing it.”
Sgt. Chris Horsley said, “You can be a person who just works and minds their own business in Victoria, yet through a very brief network of friends, you could be absolutely connected to people that are involved in very bad things.”
SAANICH POLICE SPOKESPERSON SGT DEAN JANTZEN HAD THIS TO SAY:
“THIS KILLING WAS VERY ORGANIZED,” “There was a lot of planning and effort and forethought, making these the most complex crimes. And this is the most egregious crime and often they can become long-term and complicated. “There are people in the community who are withholding information. We know there is a cone of silence around this.”
Email Address: murderondesousa@gmail.com