Lindsay Buziak

Status:

Open

Jurisdiction:

Saanich Police (DEPARTMENT)

Offense Location:

Saanich, British Columbia

Summary:

Lindsay Elizabeth Buziak 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.

Vital Statistics

Circumstances of Offense:

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. On February 2, 2008, shortly after 5:30 PM, Lindsay was murdered in a vacant home located at 1702 DeSousa Place in Saanich. Eyewitnesses saw Buziak meeting a pair of clients in front of the home: a six-foot-tall white man with dark hair and a long jacket, and a woman with short blonde hair and a distinctive red and black patterned dress. Police would later say she had been attacked between 5:38 and 5:41pm, when her Blackberry made an accidental call. This is corroborated by the coroner's report that puts her time of death at approximately 5:40pm. Police said she was the victim of multiple stab wounds to her head and chest, and that she had been lured into the home as part of a fabricated meeting with a couple who said they were interested in buying the home. Jason Zailo, who had been running an errand, texted Buziak at 5:38 p.m. to say he was a couple of minutes away. She never opened the message. When Zailo arrived and entered the home, he found her body and called police.

Additional Details:

The prepaid phone used to contact Buziak was traced to a false identity, had never been used prior to contacting her, and was deactivated immediately after the murder. The investigation revealed that someone purchased the phone the female "client" used to call Lindsay in Vancouver. It was activated it using the fake name Paulo Rodriguez. It was registered to a legitimate business address, but police believe the buyer chose the address at random. Cell phone "pings" showed that the phone traveled on the ferry from Vancouver the day before the murder. It was only used to call Lindsay and was deactivated soon after she was killed. Because the crime scene yielded no DNA, fingerprints or any other physical evidence, it is believed that the murder was well-organised and executed by people who had killed before. Jason and his colleague were taken into custody but were released without charge after their version of events was verified and the timestamped surveillance footage from the auto shop proved that they could not have committed the murder. According to the Saanich Police Department, Jason has been interviewed several times over the years and has always cooperated with the police. He has also passed a polygraph test. In 2012, Buziak's father, Jeff Buziak, publicly offered a $500,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of those responsible. In February 2021, Saanich Police, in collaboration with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), formed a renewed task force to re-examine the case using advancements in forensic technology unavailable in 2008. In 2021, Saanich Police said they had made progress using advanced DNA analysis and were working with the FBI, but no arrests have been announced as of 2025. In February each year, Buziak's father Jeff leads an annual walk in remembrance of her and to keep her case in the public eye. The case has drawn widespread media coverage, including episodes on shows such as Dateline NBC, 20/20, and Crime Watch Daily.

Case Last Updated:

Jul 27, 2026