Time moves slowly for Jeff Buziak, whose daughter Lindsay’s murder remains unsolved after nine years.
His pain has not subsided over those nine years. Not a week goes by without Buziak sharing the latest tips and clues with a small group of friends and supporters.
To this day Saanich Police has made no arrests and released only a limited amount of information to the public.
“I learned to accept years ago that communication with Saanich Police is a one-way street,” says Buziak. “I provide information, and they receive it, and I get nothing back. I’m not mad about that. I don’t question that, I just question nine years.”
Buziak, now 62, is back in Saanich this week for the seventh annual Lindsay Buziak Walk For Justice. The Calgarian visits annually for the walk. This year’s starts Thursday at 10 a.m. and follows the traditional 17-kilometre route from Royal Oak Burial Park to De Sousa Place (the crime scene) in Gordon Head, then to municipal hall.
Lindsay Buziak was brutally stabbed to death in Saanich on Feb. 2, 2008, The real estate agent was killed around 5:30 p.m. while showing a Gordon Head house on De Sousa Place to a male and a female.
Over the years Buziak has tried to do about as much as he can as a grieving father. That includes a $500,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of Lindsay’s killer. He had a few calls, he said, but nothing of substance.
In the meantime, it’s going on seven years since Saanich Police last released anything new regarding the investigation.
What had been released is the account of how then boyfriend Jason Zailo found Lindsay’s body and a witness description of the couple Lindsay met at the house. Police also released its knowledge of a pay-as-you-go cellphone, which travelled from Vancouver, and which they believe was used to set up the meeting with Lindsay.
Otherwise the police department will not answer any specific questions, maintaining the case is an active investigation.
Michael Arntfield is a criminologist professor at Western University and a former police officer of 15 years. He maintains a high media profile as a co-creator of the true crime mini-series To Catch a Killer, and as the creator of Western’s Cold Case Society.
Arntfield says after nine years without arrests, and seven years without the release of any additional tips by Saanich Police to stimulate the case, you can only hope the clamp on information is because there are investigative techniques the public isn’t privy to.
By this point, it’s highly likely it’s one of two extremes, Arntfield explained.
“Either no information is available and everything is on lockdown because they’re lost in space, or because they’ve got it wrapped up they’re keeping their cards close to their chest,” Arntfield said. “I think you can be optimistic progress has been made, though publicly they’re not admitting it, because there are other organizations in Canada they can lean on for help.”
What worries Jeff Buziak is the concern that Saanich Police doesn’t have the investigation wrapped up and is waiting for much more than the final string to fall in place.
Buziak says he was told about six years ago that it would become a cold case. But when he asked Saanich Police for access to investigation files, which are made public in cold case files, he was denied.
For the past seven years Buziak has made it clear he believes he knows who killed his daughter. He goes about his Calgary life waiting for updates from Saanich Police, but nothing of substance has ever come, he said.
“I’ve been through three police chiefs and two mayors, and all I get are explanations and excuses,” Buziak said. “There’s nothing that you get from them that we can use. Zero. No suspects, no detail in the case.”
Buziak helps run a website devoted to Lindsay’s murder and the people connected to her.
At one point Saanich Police told him he had put his life in danger by digging around the underworld of Greater Victoria, he says. A Saanich Police spokesperson refused to comment, saying only Jeff would know that.
Buziak believes he knows who brought the pay-as-you-go phone into Victoria the day before Lindsay was murdered and where it stayed the night before. And still he waits.
“People think the police can go grab people and question them, but they can’t,” said Buziak. “They have to prove it to a judge.”
One thing that’s clear, says Arntfield, is that cases become exponentially harder to solve as time goes on.
The murder
Saanich Police revealed in 2010 that a woman used a pay-as-you-go cellphone to arrange a viewing with Lindsay at the murder scene. The Vancouver-based caller had a thick, Spanish-like accent, Lindsay told her father and friends. She expressed unease about the meeting, and said the woman and her husband wanted to purchase a property within two days. The couple said they were prepared to spend upwards of $1 million for the right location.
Buziak on podcast
The Lindsay Buziak murder went global this year when it was featured on one of iTunes most popular crime podcasts, Casefile. The link is here at http://casefilepodcast.com/case-28-lindsay-buziak/.