Lindsay Elizabeth Buziak (November 2, 1983 – February 2, 2008) was a Canadian real estate agent who was murdered on February 2, 2008 during a property viewing in Saanich, a suburb of Victoria, British Columbia, after being lured to meet a man and a woman posing as prospective clients seeking a million-dollar home. The murder remains unsolved.
Background
Lindsay Elizabeth Buziak was born on November 2, 1983 to Jeff Buziak and Evelyn Buziak (née Reitmayer). She had one sister, Sara. In 2008, 24-year-old Buziak was an ambitious Victoria real-estate agent who had made a promising start to her career and was described by her family, friends and colleagues as popular and caring. Her boyfriend Jason Zailo is a member of a prominent and wealthy family that owns a successful real-estate business.
In late January 2008, Buziak received a call from a woman who said that she and her husband were urgently seeking a home with a budget of $1 million. The caller had a foreign accent and offered what was later determined to be a fake name. Unnerved by the nature of the call, Buziak asked the caller how she had obtained her personal cell-phone number, as she was a relatively junior employee. The caller claimed that one of Buziak's previous clients had shared it with her.
Buziak told Zailo and her father about the call and revealed her concerns. Zailo encouraged Buziak to meet with the client because of the high commission that she would earn from the sale of the home. To reassure her, Zailo offered to wait outside the property in his car in case anything should go awry. Buziak found a suitable property and arranged an appointment with the client to view the home at 5:30 p.m. on Saturday, February 2, 2008.
Murder
Buziak and Zailo ate a late lunch at a restaurant, paying the bill at 4:24 p.m. They then departed separately in their own vehicles. It is believed that Buziak returned home to change her clothes before the viewing. Zailo travelled to an automobile repair shop to pick up a colleague, although he was running late. CCTV footage from the auto shop showed him leaving with the colleague at 5:30 p.m. Zailo and Buziak had exchanged several text messages and Buziak was aware that Zailo would be late.
The street upon which the house is located, De Sousa Place, is a small cul-de-sac containing four houses. Number 1702 is at the outer end of the cul-de-sac, on the intersection of De Sousa Place and a main thoroughfare, Torquay Drive. The side of the property and the fence of the back garden run parallel to Torquay Drive.
Although the caller had told Buziak that she would come alone to the viewing, a man and woman were there. At 5:30 p.m., two witnesses saw a six-foot-tall White man with dark hair and a blond-haired woman between 35 and 45 years of age, wearing a distinctively patterned dress, walking up the cul-de-sac. The witnesses saw Buziak greet and shake hands with the couple in a manner that caused witnesses to feel that Buziak did not know the couple. Buziak and the couple then entered the house.
Zailo and his colleague arrived at the cul-de-sac at about 5:40 p.m. As they were driving to the property, Zailo saw a figure through the glass of the front door. He parked outside the property for about 10 minutes and then drove to another street to wait, as he did not want to be "a nosey, interfering boyfriend." After waiting another 10 minutes, Zailo texted Buziak to confirm that the situation was normal, but Buziak never opened the message.
After 20 minutes had passed since Zailo had arrived and seen the couple go back into the house, Zailo went to the front door and found it locked when he tried to open it. Through the mottled glass on the front door, he saw Buziak's shoes in the entrance hall, but there was no sign of movement and no one answered his repeated knocks at the door, so he dialled 9-1-1. While Zailo was on the phone with the operator, his colleague found a gap in the fence in the back garden, entered the garden and saw that the back patio door was wide open. He summoned Zailo, who told the operator that the two men were entering the house. Zailo then ended the phone call.
Zailo's colleague passed through the main level of the house to unlock the front door in order to admit Zailo, who immediately ran upstairs and found Buziak lying in a pool of blood in the master bedroom. Zailo called 9-1-1 a second time and emergency services arrived soon after.