The suspicious actions of the 1702 DeSousa neighbor the night of the murder
Years ago there was a story circulating about tHE possible involvement of the neighbor who lived directly behind the 1702 DeSousa property.
This story did not surface until late 2013 when a woman went to the Saanich Police with information she felt might be important to the case. Apparently she reached out to them right after Lindsay’s murder, but at that time she was not taken seriously. Then, in 2013, frustrated that Lindsay’s murder had not been solved she decided to reach out to them again. This time they paid attention and listened to everything she had to say. After she was interviewed by the police she never heard another word. Whether or not the Saanich Police questioned the neighbor Terry is unknown. It could be that the police saw no connection and just passed the story off as having no substance.
The entire Zailo family had been cleared as suspects in Lindsay’s murder in 2010, and in 2013 the Saanich Police were looking at people that were involved in the 2008 Calgary Drug bust. The woman’s story eventually got out but her identity was never revealed. One thing is certain, this was not just rumor, for the story had came from someone who was very close to the family. Surely there had to be some substance to it. Even Terry’s wife wondered if her husband could have been involved in Lindsay’s murder.
The multitude of oddities the neighbor did that night were so out of character it was hard not to believe his actions were not connected to Lindsay’s murder. But as time passed, the story faded and to many it just became another red herring. Today, with all the new information that has been brought forward, perhaps it is time to bring the 1702 DeSousa neighbor story back to life. It made so much sense back then, maybe it will make even more sense today. I am simply presenting a common sense inference that could end up being all circumstantial.
From 2003 – 2006 Terry Shein worked as the General Manager at the Victoria Golf Club, however, in the the summer of 2006 he was let go.
Terry served as chief operating officer of Victoria Golf Club; managed all aspects of the club including its activities and the relationships between the club and its Board of Directors, members, guests, employees, community, government and industry. Coordinated and administrated club policies as defined by its Board of Directors.
According to the woman who told the story Terry did not go looking for another job, instead he sat at home doing nothing for the next 18 months. He had been in a depressed state and had no interest in doing anything. We do not know if Terry Shein knew the builder Joe DeSousa, but as Joe was building new homes in the cul-de-sac directly behind Terry’s home it would make sense that the two had come in contact at some point in time.
There is nothing to say that Terry Shein knew any member of the Zailo family but it is interesting that Jason Zailo golfed at the Victoria Golf Club at the time Terry was working there. It is a private club open to members only. Jason still golfs there today so he could hold club membership. It’s also interesting that Jason held a celebration for life for Lindsay at the Victoria Golf Club right after her murder. If you golf there you are either a member or the guest of a member. Jason’s friend Tim Quocksister was a member so perhaps that is how Jason was able to hold the celebration of life at the clubhouse.
AS the story goes, Terry was leaving his home shortly after 5:30 PM the night of the murder,
This was about the same time Lindsay was inside the DeSousa property showing the home to her clients. When Terry left the house he put the dog in the kennel – something he rarely ever did. Then he headed to the Swartz Bay terminal to pick up his son who was coming in on the ferry from Vancouver. The boy had been visiting his friend in Vancouver. It just so happened that his friend’s father was a Vancouver Police officer and a close friend of Terry Shein’s. Terry’s wife had left the house in the afternoon to take her other son to his lacrosse game. He was playing 3 back to back games. What was most interesting is that Terry never let his wife drive his new car, but that night he insisted she take it because he wanted to have the van. His wife preferred to use the van when taking the kids to their sports activities but that night Terry apparently needed it.
Terry picks up his son at the Swartz Bay terminal, and on the way home the two get into an argument. The son wants to go straight home but Terry wants to go straight to the park where his other son his playing lacrosse. Terry drops his son off at the Dairy Queen at Mc Kenzie & Quadra which was several blocks away from their home, and tells him to walk the rest of the way. Terry then heads over to the park where his younger son is playing. When the game ends Terry insists they all go out for dinner. His son is exhausted and just wants to get home and into the shower – but Terry insists they go for dinner first.
The older son who was left at the Dairy Queen called a friend hoping for a ride. Luckily his friend picked him up and drove him home. When arriving at his Torquay home, he was greeted by sirens, flashing lights and blocked off streets, and when trying to go into his house he was approached by a police officer. Before the boy was allowed to enter his home the officer had to go inside and look around to make sure everything was okay. Then he was allowed in, and of course he was told to stay inside. Cadaver dogs were running through people’s backyards and it was a chaotic scene. Scared and wanting his parents home the son tried to call his dad several times, eventually Terry answered the call.
He tells his dad what is going on in the neighborhood and asks him to come home. Terry tells his son to watch TV and make himself something to eat. He then turned his phone off. When Terry’s wife asked him if everything is okay Terry assures her that everything is just fine. Then Terry drags the evening on by insisting they all have desert, something the wife was not at all happy about. The family was having financial difficulties so she didn’t even understand why Terry, on the spur of the moment, had insisted they go to a restaurant for dinner. They finally arrived home to a very scared young boy and still lots of police presence.
What parent would not rush home to their child when getting a call like that one?
At the time of Lindsay’s murder Terry and his wife had a young Brazilian student living with them, and it was only a few days after Lindsay’s murder that that young girl returned to her own country. Then unexpectedly, Terry is offered a job at a golf club in Invemere BC and within a matter of weeks he was packed up and gone. This time Terry insisted on taking the old van, and leaving his wife with the new car. It was a strange thing for him to do as he loved his car. A few months later his wife and kids went up to Invemere for a visit. However a few months Terry had started another job working at a golf club in Canmore Alberta. The family followed and that is where they living for the next few years. Today the family is living in Burnaby.
I don’t believe anyone thought that Terry was involved in the murder, but how do you explain all his strange behavior that night?
He had the perfect view of the DeSousa property from his place and he could have seen the couple arrive. Who knows, maybe Terry was one of the witnesses that saw Lindsay greeting the couple in the driveway. Terry was leaving his home just about the same time as the couple were exiting the DeSousa home through the back patio door. Could Terry have been the getaway driver – perhaps driven them to the ferry when he went to pick up his son? Why did he insist on having the van that night? If Terry had been out of work for 18 months it’s very possible he was having financial difficulties. If someone offered him some serious cash could he have been tempted to take part in what happened that night? What was even more odd, was that the Sunday morning, the day after Lindsay’s murder Terry vacuumed and deep-cleaned the van something that was totally out of character for a guy who didn’t even like the van or want to drive it.
If Terry Shein played a role in what happened that night it could mean that the Delalcazars had nothing to do with Lindsay’s murder and the Calgary Drug Bust is a red herring.
It is possible that the people who wanted Lindsay dead chose the timing of her murder to make it look like the guys involved in the Calgary Drug bust were responsible for her death. Then the planners could point the finger in the direction of the Delalcazars and tell the police the Delalcazars found out that Lindsay had ratted them out, when in fact it wasn’t Lindsay at all. The Dateline experts did say that the murder was artfully designed and carefully planned by someone very close to Lindsay. Perhaps someone in the same industry and maybe even the same office.
Who had the most to fear? What did Lindsay see that she shouldn’t have seen? Who wanted Lindsay gone?
If Lindsay had accidentally found out who had made that made the call to the Calgary Police at the end of November 2007 you can be damn sure her life was in immediate danger. The main informant who made that call to Calgary knew that if Cirilo Lopez or the Delalcazars found out that she had made the call she was a dead woman. Therefore Lindsay had just become a serious liability.
Go back to that night in mid December 2007 when Lindsay and her girlfriend Nikki were in Lindsay’s condo talking.
Lindsay and Nikki returned to Lindsay’s condo from a girl’s night out, and thinking that Jason was asleep in the bedroom they started to chat. They quickly realized that Jason was listening to their conversation from behind the bedroom door. Lindsay had been telling her friend Nikki that she was definitely leaving Jason in the New Year. When they realized that Jason had overheard their conversation they ran from the condo and Lindsay did not return until a few hours later. Jason called his mother after Lindsay ran out to tell her about what he had overheard.
Seriously, what guy calls his mother in the wee hours of the morning to tell her something like that. Unless he was calling to say, “We have a serious problem.” Lindsay is leaving me, I just heard her tell Nikki. What are we going to do now? Shirley knew that if Lindsay left Jason it was only a matter of time before Lindsay told someone about what she knew.
When Lindsay returned home to the condo Jason acted like nothing was wrong.
At Christmas he lavished Lindsay with expensive gifts, then over the New Years Lindsay went on a Whistler ski vacation with the Zailos. They needed to keep Lindsay close for as long as they could. Who did the Zailo’s include on that ski vacation? None other than their dear family friend the drug dealer Zachary Matheson. Lindsay’s friends all knew that Lindsay loved Matt, and there is a good chance Jason knew it too. He probably thought that Lindsay wanted to get back with Matt. The only way for the Zailo’s to save themselves was to get rid of Lindsay – but just how were they going to do it.
No matter how you look at it, Lindsay’s murder is connected to the Calgary Drug bust, for if the main informant had not ratted out the Delalcazar’s drug shipment heading to Calgary Lindsay would still be alive today. Once that November 2007 call was made the wheels were set in motion and there was no turning back.
So were the Delalcazars set up by the Zailos to be the scapegoats? Or was Lindsay’s murder a result of the Delalcazars finding out who the real informant was after the Calgary Drug bust went down? Did the main informant then point the finger at Lindsay as being the rat in order to save herself or perhaps other members of her family?
There has been so much chatter about the call that Shirley made to Nikki Burrows the morning after the murder.
Did that call really happen or didn’t it? At first Shirley claims she never made that call but later admitted that she did. Her story is that Jason’s phone had been taken from him at the police station and that Jason stored some of Lindsay’s friends names in her phone before it was taken away. Why would Jason input numbers into his mother’s phone? Wouldn’t it have been easier to jot down numbers on a note pad – then they are in your possession, not your mother’s.
Shirley claims that she intended to call her office manager Niki but accidentally called Lindsay’s friend Nikki. The Re/Max Niki had worked in that office for 20 years, it’s hard to imagine that Shirley did not notice the phone number was different and that the girl’s names were spelled differently. The police know the call to Lindsay’s friend Nikki really happened – clearly there was a record of the call on Nikki’s phone.
After making the call to Nikki and mumbling a few words, Shirley hung up.
Nikki quickly called the number back – after several tries Shirley answered. Shirley tells people that Nikki is an airhead and not to believe anything she says. Well wait a minute now – that airhead is the one who was smart enough to call you back to prove it was you who made the call. The airhead is the one friend that had the courage to appear on the Dateline Show and she did that out of love for her dear friend Lindsay.
Dateline had asked a number of Lindsay’s friends to appear on the show but Nikki was the only one that said yes. That’s no airhead, that’s a strong young woman with a lot of character who did an amazing thing when she was called upon. The same goes for Lindsay’s ex-boyfriend Matt, he did not hesitate to appear on the Dateline show when asked. When Shirley spoke on the show, she told the world that the night before Lindsay was murdered Lindsay told her that she was afraid of her ex-boy friend Matt. When Nikki spoke on the show she said that Lindsay’s friends were all crying and couldn’t keep it together. Jason on the other had showed no emotion and never shed a tear.
Dateline had asked both Jason and Shirley to appear on the show but Shirley had declined.
It wasn’t until the very last minute that she called Dateline back to say that she had changed her mind and she would appear on the show.
No Shirley, Lindsay was not afraid of Matt – it was you Lindsay should have feared. As it turns out she had good reason.
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