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to get this episode of forensic tales ad free check us out at patreon.com forensic tales forensic tales discusses topics that some listeners may find disturbing the contents of this episode may not be suitable for everyone listener discretion is advised in january 2008 a 24 year old real estate agent received the call of a lifetime a couple wanted a huge house
The unexpected sale came with a hefty commission. And the couple needed the deal now. A real estate agent's dream, Lindsay met with the clients at their potential home. But there would be no commissions that day. Instead, she received 37 fatal stab wounds within minutes. Who could commit such a heinous murder? And why?
This is Forensic Tales, episode number 121, The Murder of Lindsay Buziak. ♪
Welcome to Forensic Tales. I'm your host, Courtney Fretwell-Ariola.
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You can also support the show by leaving a positive rating with a review. Now, let's jump right into this week's case. At the end of January 2008, 24-year-old Lindsay Buziak received a life-changing phone call. The woman told Lindsay that she and her husband were moving to the area and needed a perfect home.
At the time, Lindsay worked as a real estate agent in Victoria, the capital of British Columbia. It's a place known for its endless outdoor activities and famous Victorian architecture. Becoming a real estate agent seemed like the perfect job for Lindsay. Growing up, she made friends easily. She was outgoing and popular. She was just the type of person you'd want to work with when buying a home.
But it wasn't only Lindsay's charming personality that led her to a career in real estate. Her father, Jeff Buziak, had been in the real estate industry for over 30 years. Lindsay got a job working for REMAX's Chatterton Way office on the island. She lived in Victoria with her boyfriend, Jason Zalo, who also worked as a real estate agent.
The two of them had been dating for around a year. Jason also came from a family that was successful in the industry. His parents owned a thriving real estate business in the area for years. Lindsay and Jason lived on a waterfront property that Jason's mom surely owned.
Lindsay was excited about the phone call. The woman, who Lindsay later described as having a strong Mexican or Spanish accent, told her that she and her husband were moving to Victoria. She said her husband received a transfer at work, so they needed to purchase a home there.
The woman has detailed criteria for what she was looking for in this home. First, it needed to be near the city. Second, it needed three bedrooms, three bathrooms, and a large master bedroom. And the house also needed a separate room for the housekeeper. But there was a catch.
While on the phone, Lindsay wrote down all of these notes. She told Lindsay that she needed the house as soon as possible. She said that her and her husband were planning to come to Victoria for three days that weekend. And they wanted to buy the home during that three-day time frame. The woman also gave Lindsay a price range for the house, up to $1 million.
At first, Lindsay was skeptical about the phone call for a few reasons. First, back in 2008, the Canadian housing market experienced a recession. Nationally, sales of existing homes fell by over 40% at their worst. And the national resale price for a house dropped by almost 10%, while new homes fell by nearly 4%.
So for Lindsay to receive a phone call from a woman telling her that she had $1 million for a new house that she needed as soon as possible was a little strange. Second, Lindsay thought it was weird that this woman picked her to be her agent out of all the others in the Victoria area.
Lindsay was relatively new with her job at REMAX. She had only been with the company for about 12 months, so she knew that there were much more experienced real estate agents on the island. So why would this woman pick her? It was also strange that the phone call came in on Lindsay's personal cell phone, not her REMAX business line that was listed on her business cards and flyers.
Lindsay asked the woman during the phone call, how did you find me? The woman said one of her previous clients referred her. So Lindsay asked the woman for the previous client's name so that she could reach out and thank the client. But after the phone call, when Lindsay hung up, she called around to all of her previous clients and no one knew anything about the woman.
After hanging up the phone, Lindsay expressed some concerns about the phone call to her boyfriend as well as her family. She told her boyfriend the call was too good to be true. Then she told her dad, Jeff. She thought the woman kind of sounded like she was faking her accent. That strong Mexican or Spanish accent just seemed faked. To Lindsay, it just didn't seem right.
Jeff told her that maybe it would be a good idea to bring Jason along for the meeting. Jason, her boyfriend, was a big guy, 6'3", 200 plus pounds. So he would be an excellent person to bring along whenever Lindsay planned to meet up with this couple.
But despite her initial concerns, she couldn't shake the possibility that maybe this was real. And if it was legit, then this would be her biggest sale ever. She even saved the woman's phone number under the contact million dollar.
Lindsay worked tirelessly to find a home that matched the woman's needs. Three bedrooms, three bathrooms, a large master bedroom, under $1 million. After finding a couple of houses, she emailed a list to the woman on February 1st. Over the next few days, Lindsay and the woman exchanged 10 more phone calls. One of the calls lasted 10 minutes.
Lindsay told the woman that she thought she found the perfect home for the couple. It was located at 1702 De Sousa Place in a suburb of Victoria in the Gordon Head neighborhood. It was a house listed at $964,000 and it checked all the boxes.
The woman told Lindsay that they would meet in Victoria the following day, February 2nd, 5.30 p.m. to see the house. Lindsay seemed anxious in the hours leading up to the showing. She wasn't sure this was real or not, but the potential commission for the sale would be life-changing.
She was also stressed out because she had a bachelorette party that same weekend as the showing. The couple had asked her to see the house Saturday night and possibly again on Sunday morning, which if went through, this might mean that she would miss her friend's bachelorette party. Around midnight that night, Lindsay's boyfriend Jason returned home from playing hockey.
Sensing her apprehension about the upcoming viewing, he offered to do it for her. But being Lindsay, she said no. This was her sale and she wanted to do it.
Jason reminded Lindsay about a similar phone call that he received a few weeks earlier. He told her about a woman who called him up out of the blue. She said she had a $9,000 budget for a brand new house. And in the end, everything turned out to be true. And for Jason, it meant a really hefty commission check.
On February 2nd, the day of the showing, Lindsay showed up to work at the Remax office. The first thing she did when she got to the office that day was she ran the woman's phone number, the phone number that she saved as million dollar in the company's database, thinking that the number would reveal more information about the couple. But the search didn't find anything for that number.
That afternoon, Lindsay left the office to meet Jason for a late lunch sometime between 3 and 4 p.m. at a local restaurant called Sauce. During lunch, Lindsay seemed quiet and nervous about the showing. So Jason once again offered to show the house for her. But once again, Lindsay refused.
After finishing lunch together, Lindsay went back to her condo to change clothes before the showing, and then Jason left to go to a meeting he had at SHC Autographics, an auto shop nearby just about a five-minute drive from the restaurant sauce. The shop owners had hired Jason to help sell a property, so he went there that afternoon to present an offer.
While at this meeting at the auto shop, Lindsay called him to let him know that she was on her way to the house. This time, Jason offered to meet her there instead of doing the showing for her. This seemed to put Lindsay at ease because she agreed to let him follow her there, but she told him that she still wanted to do the showing by herself.
This new agreement meant that Jason had to change his plans for the night. He planned to have dinner with his friend, Cohen Oatman. So he called Cohen and the two of them decided that they would go to Gordon Head House together to wait for Lindsay. Then after the showing, they would go on with their plans to have dinner together.
At 5.20 p.m., Jason texted Lindsay and said, I'll come by and meet you about, I'll be there 10, 15 minutes or so. Cohen drove to the auto shop and left his car in the parking lot. They then got in Jason's car and left at 5.30 p.m. Jason tried putting the address to the house viewing in his car's GPS system, but when he put in the address, nothing came up. So he called Lindsay to get the directions.
Lindsay picked up and she gave him directions on how to get to the viewing. Then a few minutes later into the call, Lindsay said, quote, OK, I'll see you in a bit. I got to go. The Mexicans are here. End quote. Jason said, OK, but asked her to text him the entire time she showed the house. At 5.29 p.m., Lindsay opened the lockbox at the house and took out the keys.
Nine minutes later, at 5.38 p.m., Jason sent Lindsay a text that read, But unlike the previous text messages, Lindsay never opened the message. Three minutes later, at 5.41 p.m., Lindsay's cell phone placed an outgoing phone call to a friend that she hadn't talked to in a very long time.
Unfortunately, the friend didn't answer and Lindsay's phone left a muffled voicemail. Around 5.45 p.m., Jason and his friend Cohen pulled into the cul-de-sac. Lindsay was showing one of only four houses on that street.
As they pulled up to the house, Jason saw that the front door was open and a male was inside, but he only saw the back of the guy. He also saw Lindsay's black BMW parked outside. When he got there, he figured Lindsay was still showing the house, so he parked on the opposite side of the street facing away from the home. Then he and Cohen waited in the car for around 10 minutes.
After about 10 minutes, Jason turned around in the cul-de-sac and parked right in front of the house. The two of them sat in the car together for another 10 minutes, waiting for Lindsay to come out. While sitting in the car, Jason sent another text to Lindsay saying, Are you okay? But no response. Jason and Cohen decided to get out of the car and walk up to the front door. But the front door was locked.
As an experienced real estate agent himself, Jason knew that this was a sign of trouble. You never lock the front door during a showing. Jason and Cohen rang the doorbell about 10 times, but no one answered. He looked in one of the windows and saw Lindsay's heels on the ground like she had just taken them off. Then they walked around to the back of the house, but still didn't see anything.
They came back to the front yard and looked inside the windows, but they didn't see anyone inside. On the outside of the garage was a passcode. They thought they could get inside the house through the garage if they got the passcode.
Then they saw the for sale sign sticking out of the grass. The sign had the phone number for the listing agent. If they could get a hold of the listing agent for the house, then they could get the garage's passcode. But this was a Saturday evening and by all accounts was considered to be after hours. So trying to get in touch with this listing agent on their business phone number probably wasn't going to happen.
So Jason decided to call his mom to maybe get a cell phone number for the listing agent. He knew his mom was very familiar with practically every agent in the area. But unfortunately, they weren't able to reach the listing agent.
At 6.05 p.m., Jason called 911. He told operators that he and his girlfriend were both real estate agents and that his girlfriend went to show a house to a couple. He said he followed her to the house because she was nervous about it. When he and his friend got to the house, he saw a man inside through the front door, but he didn't see his girlfriend, although her car was parked outside.
He told 911 that he and his friend tried to open the door, but it was locked, a cardinal sin for real estate agents. After the 911 call, Jason and Cohen walked around to the side of the house again. But this time, they saw something they missed the first time. They saw that the back door was open. Jason boosted Cohen over the backyard fence and then ran to the front of the house.
Cohen quickly unlocked the front door to let Jason in. Then the two of them started searching the house for any sign of Lindsay or the couple. Cohen took the first floor while Jason searched the second floor. Both of them searched the house yelling Lindsay's name over and over again.
Jason ran to the master bedroom. A pool of blood gathered in the corner of the room. Jason's eyes filled with tears. He had just found Lindsay. This episode is sponsored by BetterHelp. What are some of your self-care non-negotiables? Maybe you never skip leg day or therapy day.
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That's betterhelp.com. At 6.11 p.m., Cohen called 911 again. He told 911 that they got inside the house, saw bloody footprints, and found Lindsay lying in a pool of blood. 911 operators instructed Cohen to feel for a pulse and start CPR. But they were too late. Lindsay was dead.
Saanich police officers arrived at the house within minutes. When officers arrived, Jason and Cohen were waving them down in the upstairs bedroom window. Once inside, officers first checked the house to see if anyone else was still inside. But the place was empty. Whoever killed Lindsay was long gone.
When they arrived, her body was in the same spot where Jason had found her. She was lying in a pool of blood next to the master bathroom. She had been stabbed over 40 times across her back, head, and chest. Investigators didn't find any defensive wounds on her arms or hands, indicating that she had been initially stabbed from behind with no chance to defend herself.
All of Lindsay's possessions were found next to her, including wallet, purse, and cell phone still inside her pocket. And there weren't any signs of sexual assault. So the motive for her murder wasn't robbery, and it wasn't sexual assault. Forensic investigators immediately began combing the house for evidence, while Jason and Cohen were separately taken to the police station.
At the station, Jason told officers about his whereabouts that day. He told the officers how he and Lindsay met up for a late lunch. Then they split up. He went to the auto shop while she went home to change and prepare for the showing. CCTV footage confirmed his story. He and Cohen left the auto shop at 5.30 p.m.
Jason then told officers that Lindsay was at the house because she was meeting a couple who was interested in buying it. The police haven't heard anything about this couple. So they instantly became suspect number one and suspect number two.
Jason said that he saw the couple briefly when he pulled up to the house to wait for Lindsay. He said he saw them closing the front door and when he saw that, he thought that the showing had just started. So he decided to park his car and wait for it to be over.
After several hours of intense questioning, Jason and his friend Cohen were released after officers checked out their alibis and saw the surveillance footage at the auto shop. Two witnesses in the neighborhood told the police that they saw a male and a female walk into the cul-de-sac around 5.30 p.m. that day. They said they saw Lindsay greet them by the back of her car parked in the driveway.
The witnesses described the woman as having blonde hair and wearing a distinctive bright colored dress. It looked like a designer dress with a distinctive red, white, and black pattern. The police recreated a sketch of the dress, which I will post to our website, ForensicTales.com, in case you're interested in seeing what this woman was wearing. The woman is believed to be between 35 and 40 years old.
They described the man with her as a white male around six feet tall with dark hair. Both witnesses said that after Lindsay greeted the couple, the three of them went inside the house. Based on Jason's story, the eyewitnesses' accounts, and the forensic evidence, the police quickly established a timeline for Lindsay's murder.
The lockbox used to open the house was connected to a computer system, so the police know that the house's lockbox was opened at exactly 5.29 p.m. Police believe that Lindsay first showed the couple the home's main floor, then went upstairs to the second floor. Approximately 9 to 11 minutes after going inside, she was attacked between 5.38 p.m. and 5.41 p.m.
Since Lindsay had no defensive wounds, police theorized that she was probably struck first while her back was turned. And since her body was found near the master bathroom, they believe that she was probably attacked when she turned to show the couple the bathroom.
At 5.41 p.m., that unanswered phone call was made from Lindsay's cell phone to that friend that she hadn't spoken to in a long time. The friend didn't pick up the phone, so all that was left was a muffled voicemail.
With this information, the police theorized that this was a true pocket dial. That sometime while Lindsay was being stabbed and attacked, it caused her phone to make that pocket dial. Now, this makes sense because Lindsay's BlackBerry cell phone was found inside her back pocket. So to the police, this pocket dial at 5.41 p.m. proves that this is when the murder happened.
Because Lindsay's murder was so quick and efficient, forensic profilers believed that this had to be a professional hit. Whoever killed Lindsay knew exactly what they were doing. They stabbed Lindsay over 40 times in just a matter of minutes and then somehow escaped the house completely undetected.
This wasn't a random act of violence. Lindsay was targeted. Her murder was pre-planned and it was orchestrated by the couple who met Lindsay at the house that day. This theory was further proven after the police looked into the phone number the couple used to call Lindsay.
The police tracked down the phone and discovered that it was a burner phone. It was purchased using cash in Vancouver in late November 2007 at a convenience store, but it wasn't activated until late January 2008, only a few days before it was used to call Lindsay for the first time.
What's even stranger is that the phone was never used for anything except to call Lindsay. And it was never used again after Lindsay's murder.
The police traced where the phone calls came from based on the phone's forensic data. The first phone calls were made from Vancouver. Then on the day before the murder, the phone location showed that they took a ferry out to Victoria to meet up with Lindsay that day. Investigators discovered the phone was registered to a person named Paulo Rodriguez.
But after looking into the name, it didn't lead them to any specific suspect. So whoever purchased the phone used a fake name. Who was this killer couple? And why were they targeting Lindsay? Police focused their investigation on Lindsay's background. Who would want her dead and why?
The first person the police could think of was Lindsay's boyfriend, Jason. In a typical murder, you start by looking at the people closest to the victims and then expand your search from there. According to the Seenish police, the evidence supports Jason's story. Jason had nothing to do with the murder, but Lindsay's father, Jeff Buziak, disagrees.
In a TV interview with True Crime Daily, Jeff told reporters that his daughter confided in him about her relationship with Jason. Sure, they looked like a happy couple on the outside, but according to Jeff, just six weeks before her murder, she told him that she was planning to break up with him. She told her dad that Jason was jealous and overprotective of her, and she didn't really like it.
But according to the Seinisch police, they intensely interviewed Jason and his friend Cohen. Jason even passed a polygraph test. Based on witness testimony, the video surveillance at the auto shop, as well as the forensic evidence they had in the case, the police don't consider Jason a suspect, at least not at this time.
According to Capital Daily, a Victoria news outlet, officers combed through Lindsay's social media as a part of their investigation. Jason turned over Lindsay's Toshiba laptop to them, and investigators believed that her social media presence changed around the time of her murder. For instance, the police discovered several Facebook chat messages were missing, although they couldn't determine when those chats were deleted.
They also found that between January 24, 2008 to February 3, 2008, the two weeks before her death, there were no chat messages exchanged between Lindsay and any of her Facebook friends. According to Capital Daily's reporting, this was unusual for Lindsay because Lindsay was known to use Facebook Messenger. She used it all the time to communicate with family and friends.
But for the two weeks leading up to her murder, she mysteriously stopped using it. Capital Daily also reported that Seenish Police noted in their investigative report that they saw people on Lindsay's Facebook friends list who were, quote, involved in violent crimes and involved in the illegal distribution of drugs, end quote.
The police further reported that they believe that Lindsay's association with these people, quote, may have played a role in her death, end quote. Based on Lindsay's Facebook account, the police came up with a possible theory to explain her murder. Lindsay visited her dad, Jeff, in Calgary on December 14th, 2007, about six weeks before her murder.
While in Calgary, she reached out to an old friend from Victoria by phone as well as Facebook Messenger. The friend she reached out to was a relative of a guy named Erickson Lopez del Alcazar.
Now, it's not exactly clear why she contacted this person during the trip, and it's not even really clear whether she was able to actually get in touch with this person. All we know is that Lindsay attempted to reach them by both phone as well as Facebook Messenger. Just a couple of days before Lindsay's murder, Del Alcazar was charged on drug charges. He and 13 others were all charged in the largest cocaine trafficking case in Alberta history.
The Canadian authorities knew it as Operation High Noon. On January 22, 2008, the police seized 25 kilos of cocaine from Del Alcazar and his associates. Then a few days later, on January 28, another 42 kilos of cocaine was seized. In the end, Operation High Noon recovered a total of 80 kilos of drugs, which had a street value of around $8 million.
Shortly after Lindsay returned home to Victoria, the drug ring that Del Alcazar was involved in got busted. And very quickly after they were arrested, rumors swirled in the drug community that someone had snitched on them. Some people speculated that Lindsay could have been the rat.
She tried to contact that old friend involved in the drug organization. And while she visited her father in Calgary, she told him that she saw something she shouldn't have. She didn't go into any details. All she told her dad was that she saw something terrible. So if someone thought that Lindsay might have tipped the police off about this cocaine ring, that could explain why she was targeted.
But this theory doesn't make much sense. First of all, the police began their investigation into this drug trade well before Lindsay went to Calgary, which means that she couldn't have been the snitch. The police already knew about these guys. Now, even if Lindsay wasn't helping the police, people wonder if someone affected by the drug bus still targeted her.
People who believe this theory say that Lindsay might not have been the snitch, but her murder sent a message to the real snitch. Others accuse Jason's mother of having Lindsay killed. Those who believe this theory don't think the mom was the actual killer, but they think she hired a killer. Maybe the mom didn't approve of them and wanted Lindsay gone.
But, similar to Jason, the police have never named her as a possible suspect. So if Jason didn't do it, his mom didn't do it, the busted drug ring didn't do it, then who did? Who killed Lindsay Buziak?
The answer to that question remains a mystery. Over 14 years later, this case remains unsolved. To date, at the time of this recording, there have been zero arrests in her murder. The police haven't even named a potential suspect, nor have they publicly announced a possible motive for the murder.
But the authorities and Lindsay's family remain hopeful. In February 2021, Saenich police announced that advancements in technology, including DNA analysis, have helped create new leads in the investigation. It's unclear exactly what type of DNA evidence they're referring to, because if the police collected any DNA evidence at the murder scene, they've kept a tight lip.
But according to an article in the CBC, a Canadian newspaper, investigators are reviewing and retesting evidence, including items from the crime scene, as well as digital evidence. The article said that technology not available at the time of the murder has allowed them to develop new investigative leads in the case.
Investigators specifically mention the use of genetic genealogy. Genetic genealogy has been used around the world to help solve cold cases. It solves cases by first finding relatives of suspects and then ultimately finding their suspect. The Seenish police believe that they may finally be able to identify Lindsay's killer using this new DNA technology.
But who these new leads are remain unclear. The couple's identities who met with Lindsay that afternoon remain a mystery. We know the sole purpose they went to that house that day was to kill Lindsay. But why? Why target an innocent 24-year-old real estate agent who had her entire life ahead of her?
Why was Lindsay Buziak murdered in cold blood? Can the police use new advancements in forensic science to help catch her killers? Only time will tell. To share your thoughts on the murder of Lindsay Buziak, be sure to follow the show on Instagram and Facebook. Who do you think is responsible for her murder? And do you think the new advancements in forensics will be able to crack this one?
To find out what I think about the case, sign up to become a patron at patreon.com slash forensic tales. After each episode, I release a bonus episode where I share my personal thoughts and opinions about the case. You'll want to check this one out because in this episode, I'm going to share with you who I think killed Lindsay Buziak. To check out photos from the case, be sure to head to our website, forensictales.com.
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