Lindsay Buziak pictured between Jason Zailo (on left, knife in hand) and Greg Martel (on right, smiling)
Lindsay Buziak pictured above, celebrates her last birthday, with boyfriend Jason Zailo, and friend, Zailo’s Dominion Lending boss, Greg Martel.
Three months after this November 2007 celebration of Lindsay’s 24th birthday, the following obituary appears:
BUZIAK, Lindsay Elizabeth Born in Victoria, November 2, 1983. It is with broken hearts we announce that our precious, beautiful, vivacious, talented, fun-loving and successful ray of sunshine was horrifically taken from us and placed into the arms of God. Lindsay is survived by her mother, Evelyn Reitmayer; her father, Jeff Buziak; her sister, Sara Buziak; her maternal grandparents, Dorothy and Albert Reitmayer; her boyfriend, Jason Zailo; and his family. Lindsay is further survived by her Aunts, Uncles, cousins, and countless friends. Lindsay’s zest for life was contagious and the many dear friends she met along her journey were a testament to her generous and caring spirit. She exuded warmth, had a keen sense of fashion, an infectious laugh and a smile that lit up a room. A memorial service will be held on Saturday, February 9, 2008, at 1:00 p.m. at St. Andrews Cathedral, 740 View Street, Victoria, British Columbia. In lieu of flowers, donations in memory of Lindsay may be directed to the Alzheimer Society of British Columbia or the Canadian Cancer Society. We wish to thank everyone for their kind words, support and comforting actions. The outpouring of love is overwhelming. We also wish to thank and acknowledge the Saanich Police for all of their hard work and efforts in bringing to justice those responsible for this heinous crime. We ask that individuals with any information that will aid in the investigation to please contact police.
Again, thank you for all the support Lindsay receives from you wonderful people trying your hardest to assist in solving her murder. I try to stay as current as I can with everything that goes on concerning Lindsay’s murder, from recognized facebook sites to media, emails, messages, phone calls and meetings. Sometimes it is overwhelming, but I must endure for Lindsay, for her friends, for Lindsay’s family, and for you, the most loyal, dedicated supporters one could ever wish for.
The latest topic of discussion seems to be focused directly on the Saanich Police, and I see this serious topic has garnered some new posters resulting in an increased depth of discussion, information, insight, knowledge and intelligence to back their opinions. This can only help to move things forward to where this case should be in terms of resolution and jurisdiction. Well here are my $0.02 worth:
As most of you know, my relationship with the Saanich Police has had its ups and downs since the first year passed with no resolution. I have not been alone in this feeling; in fact, I have listened and endured to make sure I am not the only one continually feeling disgruntled with the handling of Lindsay’s murder investigation by the Saanich police.
I threw my full support behind them. However, my experience and interaction with the Saanich Police has always wavered from poor to okay in terms of interaction, communication, investigative results, and information. It has never been okay to very good. Don’t get me wrong here, communication is poor, but at times they do communicate with me. Usually, I have to holler at them to “just talk to me”, so they do.
Does that sound right to you?
I receive virtually no information from the Saanich Police, and I have come to realize that I never will. I have adjusted to this by only forwarding information to them, and now I rarely ask any questions at all. The fastest route to insanity for me is to ask the Saanich Police any questions about details or facts concerning Lindsay’s murder because they WILL NOT answer them. Am I happy? NO. I have adapted to the Saanich Police and learned to live with them as they keep informing me that we don’t have any options as they ARE NOT turning the case over to any other jurisdiction.
How do you feel about that friends?
Let’s address investigative results. Well, I probably don’t have to as they speak for themselves. NOTHING! Am I happy about that? Of course not. The situation makes me sad, mad, depressed, disappointed and more than anything, furious. I lost my daughter, and that in itself is overwhelming.
As one poster just mentioned, over 3 years and not 1 suspect. Unreal no?
I feel, and have felt since early on in this investigation, that something was amiss. Poor to no communication with the Saanich Police, poor transparency, poor response to peoples’ calls to them, no information at press conferences and always excuses, fear mongering, and preparing the public for the worst.
Can you imagine being told your life was in danger by the police and that they could not protect you, yet they don’t have a suspect? Think about that. Please. What the hell are they doing? No suspects, poor communication, no information being released, and no arrests.
What do we have at this point with Saanich Police? A pathetic sketch, a poor description of two people, plenty of excuses, and continued pleading to the public to help them. Added to this mess, Saanich Police’s track record of the previously posted unsolved murders, their refusal to unite policing in the Capital Region, their refusal to join VIIMCU, and their refusal to hand Lindsay’s case over to another police agency.
Where are we for God’s sake? Nowhere!
Am I happy? I certainly am not as my precious daughter was viciously slaughtered, executed in her home town under the noses of a police force who continue to boast about how proficient they are, yet produce nothing.
Is it time for Saanich Police to turn this case over to another police agency and plead to them for assistance instead of to us? My answer must be obvious.
Please tell me what you think. Tell the Solicitor General of B.C. what you think. Tell the mayor of Saanich how you feel.
On February 2, 2008, 24-year-old Lindsay Buziak was brutally murdered – her body found in a vacant show-home in Saanich, a quiet suburb of Victoria, BC, Canada.
The slaying of Buziak, a vivacious young woman embarked on a promising career as a realtor with ReMax Camosun, has been called “senseless” by family and loved ones. And, it surely is senseless to all but those who planned and executed this heinous act.
Tragic, too, appear elements of the investigation into Lindsay Buziak’s murder.
Lindsay Buziak - "senseless" murder of the vivacious 24-year-old leads to bizarre investigation
In Saanich, BC, the small-town police force has failed in over three years to apprehend those responsible. Crimes, naturally, can take considerable time to solve.
But, at numerous points since the death of Lindsay Buziak, the Saanich Police Department’s actions appear so bizarre as to make their investigation a mystery in itself.
On February 2, 2010, at the second “anniversary” press conference since Lindsay Buziak’s murder, hosted by the SPD, it’s announced that Lindsay’s family, together with the Greater Victoria Real Estate Board and the Canadian Real Estate Association, was putting up a reward of $100,000 for information leading to the arrest and conviction of her killer(s).
During the Q&A portion, Katie De Rosa, writer with the Victoria Times Colonist newspaper, asked the SPD spokesperson chairing the event:
“I have a question about the reward. At the beginning of the investigation there was talk of a reward and that was not followed through. So, why (is there) a reward now, and would there have been any difference made had there been a reward at the beginning of the investigation?”
SPD Sgt. Julie Fast answered:
“I can’t look back in time and I can’t say if we had done this, (then) this would have happened. We’re at a place in the investigation now where from the investigative side this is where we are at. This is a family reward remember. This isn’t coming from the police department. We’re facilitating it, but this is their reward and they have chosen this time to come forward with it. And that is a decision that was made by them.”
In this video – Saanich Police tell local, national, international (NBC Dateline) media that family of murder victim Lindsay Buziak made decision to not offer reward for two years
Fast’s disavowal of the SPD having a hand in the timing of the reward, however, is contradicted by the truth of the matter. Shortly after the murder, a March 2008 news report quotes Art Reitmayer, Lindsay’s uncle, speaking on behalf of devastated mother, Evelyn Reitmayer: “The family has considered putting up a reward, but police have told them they have sufficient information and there’s no need, Reitmayer said.”
Jeff Buziak, Lindsay Buziak’s father, lives in Calgary, Alberta, and has been proactive and, often, public in calling for answers and more effective policing. Lindsay’s mother’s side of the family has maintained a much more private stance and their limited public comments have been, uniformly, supportive of the SPD.
Whether it shows a family reaction to the SPD’s misleading statements about the reward, or diligent follow-up by journalist De Rosa, is not made clear, still, an article appearing in the Times Colonist, (the day after other news stories emanating from the second “anniversary” press conference), reveals the truth. It quotes, once again, Lindsay’s uncle Art Reitmayer:
“Asked why it took two years to post a reward, Saanich police initially said Tuesday that it was the family’s decision, but yesterday spokeswoman Sgt. Julie Fast said the family was acting on the advice of investigators.
“We’ve been asking to put up a reward from the beginning [of the investigation],” Reitmayer said. Until now, police advised against it, he said, citing concerns they would be ‘overwhelmed’.”
When police tell the family of a murder victim that there’s “no need” for a reward to seek information on their daughter’s killer(s) until two years after the crime – when memories have faded, people and evidence farther removed – it’s a cause for tears.
In February 2011, newspapers across Canada boasted an article on the expertise of the ITV Consulting team.
ITV is a private outfit made up of two retired Saanich, B.C. police officers, Don Wiebe and Robert Wall, together with an active Saanich Police Det. Sgt. Craig Sampson, (lead investigator in the Lindsay Buziak murder case), and an American counterpart D. Glenn Foster.
Credit for the article’s given to Katie De Rosa of the Victoria, British Columbia-based Times Colonist newspaper (see “Detection Deception: Sniffing Out Liars – Part I“). De Rosa explains how the ITV team’s techniques help other officers solve cases across North America and cites two recent high-profile cases:
1) Russell Williams – a sociopathic killer whose horrific crimes – fresh in the minds of many Canadians – include the break-enter and sexual assaults of Laurie Massicotte, a woman identified as Jane Doe, and the slayings of Marie-France Comeau and Jessica Lloyd
2) Munawar Toha – who murdered his wife, Surya Sari Prihatin Toha, and made headlines from Coral Springs, Florida across the USA
De Rosa’s article dedicates hundreds of words to describing these cases and associating them with ITV.
ITV, however, which promotes a generic “detection deception method” and a discredited “truth verification” device known as the CVSA (Computerized Voice Stress Analyzer) had no involvement in either case.
CVSA-marketers' claims of 98% accuracy are debunked by independent clinical studies
Police profilers and others working on the Ontario case involving Russell Williams carried out their investigation and interrogation without any input from ITV. OPP (Ontario Provincial Police) Detective Sergeant Jim Smyth, who obtained a confession from the killer Williams over the course of a ten-hour session (on February 7, 2010), and the team around him have developed their own expertise over many, collective, years.
Since 1952, when the study of non-verbal “body language” was coined “Kinesics” and introduced by Ray Birdwhistell, kinesic interview techniques have become standard in police interviews and interrogations and for some businesses in screening prospective employees.
When it comes to the case of Munawar Toha, the leap to linking ITV appears even more obviously misleading.
De Rosa posits the Toha case as an example of the ITV team’s expertise aiding homicide investigators in the USA – explaining how Wiebe and Wall were asked to look at a TV video-tape of Toha in which the Florida man expressed grief over his wife’s disappearance and claimed: “To tell the truth, I don’t have a clue where she is”. Detectives Wiebe and Wall told De Rosa that “to tell the truth” is a tell-tale phrase. By studying clues in the tape they were able to conclude that Toha was lying.
“Toha was eventually charged with his wife’s murder”, notes De Rosa.
The reality is that Florida investigators intensively collected evidence after the 41-year-old Surya and her 2001 Silver Daewoo car were last seen on March 23, 2010. On Monday, April 5, 2010 Surya’s husband Munawar made his televised plea for her return. He actually said: “The truth is, I have no clue where she is at the moment.”
Mere hours after this televised plea, police recovered Surya’s body from her car submerged in Crystal Lake. They’d been led to the discovery by surveillance tape from a CCTV camera which shows a man, apparently Toha, pushing the Daewoo containing Surya’s body through a gap in a fence and into the watery grave.
Munawar Toha was arrested and charged with Surya’s murder on Tuesday, April 6, 2010 – only 24 hours after his TV plea.
Thus, at some undetermined date after Toha was charged with murdering his wife, Wiebe and Wall were able to conclude he’s a liar.
In rustic North American parlance: “No shit, Sherlock!”
Is Katie De Rosa’s puff-piece on ITV bad journalism? Undoubtedly. But, who fed the reporter the information for publication? And, once it appeared in newspapers across the country of Canada, did ITV make an effort to correct the public record? Did they write a letter to the editor saying it’s not right that we get any credit by association with cases in which we had no actual involvement?
Or, did they post the misleading coverage on their website? In multiple form.
In the lovely, usually peaceful, community of Saanich, British Columbia, Canada, investigation into the savage murder of 24-year-old ReMax Camosun realtor Lindsay Buziak has been botched.*
Since February 2, 2008, the day Cohen Oatman and Jason Zailo, two friends and mortgage brokers, reported finding Buziak’s mutilated body in a vacant house in Saanich questions have been raised about handling of the case.
In charge of the official police investigation is Saanich Police Detective Sergeant Craig Sampson. As well as working with the SPD, Sampson works with a private outfit called ITV Consulting Inc., based in Victoria, BC (which neighbours Saanich).
Here’s Sampson pictured on the ITV Consulting Staff page:
CRAIG R. SAMPSON
Detective Sergeant, Saanich Police Major Crime
27 years police service, 6 years major crimes
3 years Child Abuse Team
Experience in all aspects of police investigation
Certified examiner since 2004; advanced examiner since 2006
Experienced examiner in both criminal matters and pre-employment screening
Instructor in interviewing, interrogation and pre-employment screening
Home · About ITV · The CVSA Product · Training · Services · Contact Us · Resources
Recently, The Times Colonist newspaper, also based in Victoria, published a profile of ITV Consulting Inc. that the company likes so much it’s posted, not once, but, twice, on more than one web-page of the ITV website first as: “DECEPTION DETECTION: VICTORIA INTERROGATORS SNIFF OUT LIARS – from the Victoria Times Colonist and Vancouver Sun Province” and, then, again as “MASTERS OF POLICE INTERROGATION – from the Victoria Times Colonist”.
Via syndication, from the Times Colonist (the original source), the same profile ran in multiple newspapers across Canada – The Montreal Gazette, The National Post, Nanaimo Daily News, Saskatoon Star Phoenix, Regina Leader Post and others. That’s extremely valuable promotion for ITV’s products and services.
The article also provides comfort to those who worry that something may be amiss. As the papers explain, the Saanich “Interrogation team helps other officers pick up clues” – and not just in their local community. These “B.C. experts teach deception-detection techniques to U.S. officials” according to the writer, Katie De Rosa, who interviewed two of Craig Sampson’s colleagues, Don Wiebe and Robert Wall.
The widely-viewed interrogation by Ontario Provincial Police Det. Sgt. Jim Smyth, right, who successfully extracted a confession from convicted sex killer Russell Williams, left, is an example of the technique taught by Wiebe.
“The widely-viewed interrogation by Ontario Provincial Police Det. Sgt. Jim Smyth, who successfully extracted a confession from convicted sex killer Russell Williams, is an example of the technique taught by Wiebe.
Smyth was calm, well-prepared and armed with damning evidence — such as footprints found near the home of victim Jessica Lloyd that matched Williams’ boots.
Wiebe and Wall both served 30 years with the Saanich police, both spending about a third of their career in major crime.
Wiebe started teaching the interrogation techniques in 2002, mentored by former Atlanta cop D. Glenn Foster, one of the foremost experts on police interrogation.
The pair were among seven of Saanich’s most senior cops who retired on Feb. 1, 2008.
As they travel the U.S. teaching, they are often asked by homicide investigators to take a look at a video tape or an interrogation and give their opinion on whether a suspect is lying.
Last year, the two watched a taped interview with Munawar Toha, whose wife, Surya, had gone missing in March 2010 in Coral Springs, Fla. They noticed that despite Toha’s profound expressions of grief at his wife’s disappearance, there were no tears.
The two also pointed to a phrase used by Toha: ‘To tell the truth, I don’t have a clue where she is,’ he said. The phrase, ‘to tell the truth’ is often something liars say when trying too hard to sell their story, Wiebe said.
Toha was eventually charged with his wife’s murder.
Instead of a lie detector to assist with interrogations, Wiebe uses something called a Computer Voice Stress Analyzer (CVSA). A microphone records the person’s answers and the computer measures small frequency modulations in their voice.
Saanich police adopted this technology after Wiebe took the training in 2002.”
That’s all reassuring word on the ITV Consulting team appearing in print media and online in February 2011.
Their deception detection techniques are catching killers in Canada and the USA.
In wide-ranging cases, including such high-profile examples as Lee Anthony Evans who murdered five teenagers in New Jersey, the “Green River Killer” Gary Leon Ridgeway (who, after slaying several women, was cleared by a polygraph and went on to take the lives of dozens more victims), alleged “Anthrax Killer” Bruce Ivins, former-Enron CEO Jeffrey Skilling and many more, polygraphs have proven unreliable. Guilty parties can pass the test and be cleared of suspicion and innocent parties found deceptive.
A review of polygraph research studies conducted in 2003 by the National Academy of Sciences found there is “no direct scientific evidence assessing the value of the polygraph as a deterrent, as a way to elicit admissions and confessions, or as a means of supporting public confidence.” In 2005 the British Psychological Society warned against using polygraphs as a means of detection after finding that examiners classified up to 47% of innocent people as guilty and up to 17% of guilty parties as innocent.
Just last month, in Canada, Charles Momy, President of the 57,000-member Canadian Police Association, questioned the recent decision of Quebec City’s municipal police to use the polygraph as a pre-employment screening device. “You could be eliminating very good candidates because the polygraph is not foolproof,” says Momy, who stresses that the best recruiting results are achieved by conducting thorough interview and background investigation of applicants. “You can obtain probably a lot more information from recruits that way than going the polygraph route. And I say that even as a former polygraph examiner.”
Momy’s concerns echo those of many outside and inside the law enforcement community. “The same polygraph that gave (Enron’s) Skilling an NDI (No Deception Indicated) is used every day to weed out otherwise qualified law enforcement applicants who have passed their background investigation. In my opinion we in law enforcement are losing large numbers of qualified applicants for no reason whatsoever, and it is hurting our profession.”
“CVSA and polygraphs can both be used effectively to solicit confessions during an interrogation if the subject believes that any lie they tell will be detected. If the subject believes that a deck of Tarot cards in the hands of a Gypsy fortune-teller will be able to tell if any lies are told, the Tarot cards will be equally effective at soliciting a confession,” adds the concerned officer.
In Saanich, BC, Canada where the local police force is charged with investigating the brutal 2008 murder of realtor Lindsay Buziak they do not have a polygraph machine to use on recruits. Instead, they rely upon a device known as the “Computer Voice Stress Analyzer”. The CVSA is the center-piece of a serious, and long-running, scam in the modern era of law enforcement and public policy.
“The main proponent for the VSA industry” is how Charles Humble, Ph.D., associated with something called the National Institute for Truth Verification, describes himself. The NITV is headquartered at Fortune Circle, West Palm Beach, Florida and there are distributorships springing up across North America, routinely staffed by retired police officers who profit from selling the pseudo-scientific CVSA units and giving training sessions in their usage.
In this video – it normally takes years to earn a PhD, “the main proponent for the VSA industry”, Dr. Charles Humble, gets his in six hours
“If you think the CVSA is going to tell you whether witnesses or suspects are telling the truth, you’re gravely mistaken,” observes Richard Leo, Ph.D, J.D. , one of the world’s leading authorities on interrogation. A renowned criminologist and Associate Professor of Law at the University of San Francisco, Leo says if a law enforcement agency buys a CVSA, “You’re wasting your money and you’re wasting public money. You might as well be flipping coins or reading tea leaves or reading an Ouija board.”
The evidentiary support for Leo’s position is overwhelming.
On the evening of Saturday, February 2, 2008 the butchered body of 24-year-old Lindsay Buziak, a realtor with ReMax Camosun‘s Westshore office, in Victoria, BC, Canada is reported found by Cohen Oatman and Jason Zailo, two mortgage brokers (working for the same Victoria outfits, Terry Martin’s Mortgage Centre and now Dominion Lending). The pair make separate 911 calls from a vacant house in Saanich, a quiet Victoria suburb.
(The empty house at 1702 De Sousa Place is owned by developer Joe De Sousa, friend and colleague of Paul Bergshoeff – the owner of JJ’s Coffee House at 7088 West Saanich Road, corner Wallace Drive, Brentwood Bay. Bergshoeff is boyfriend to realtor Shirley Zailo, manager of the ReMax office out of which Lindsay Buziak worked. The distaff Zailo is mother to Jason Zailo. Her ReMax management team-mates are broker-owner Wayne Schrader and GM Ray Blender.)
Friday, September 17, 2010, NBC’s Dateline broadcasts “Dream House Mystery”, an one-hour investigative look at the savage, as-yet-unsolved, murder.
In the days following the Dateline broadcast, from neighbourhood coffee shops to global internet discussion forums, viewers voice their suspicions of people interviewed by NBC’s Josh Mankiewicz.
To counter-act public reaction “Saanich police this week took the unusual step of gathering the region’s news media to announce that three people are not suspects in the 2008 murder of Lindsay Buziak” reports Saanich News on September 22, 2010.
“Shirley Zailo, Ryan Zailo and Jason Zailo… we would like to state unequivocally that no member of the Zailo family is presently considered a person of interest or a suspect in any way in this investigation,” says Sgt. Dean Jantzen of the Saanich Police Department.
Jantzen reveals this “extraordinary” step has been taken at the request of the Zailo family, but does not identify the “variety of investigative means and techniques” enlisted by the SPD to clear the family’s name.
In this video – boyfriend/mortgage broker Jason Zailo revisits the De Sousa Place murder house days after Lindsay Buziak’s slaying
(Jason Zailo is boyfriend to Lindsay Buziak at the time of her slaying. Shirley Zailo, realtor, is Jason’s mother, Manager of the ReMax Camosun Westshore office, and Lindsay’s boss. Ryan Zailo, brother and son, is also a realtor with ReMax Camosun Westshore. He’s not mentioned in the Dateline broadcast days earlier. Nor is Cohen Oatman identified, who’s with Jason Zailo on the murder date and phones in the 911 discovery report of Lindsay Buziak’s body.)
Word is quickly shared by the press, family friends, and followers of the murder case. Key to establishing their innocence, it’s reported on the nightly newscast, “the entire Zailo family agreed to undergo polygraph tests”.
“I know that Ryan, Jason and Shirley all volunteered for polygraph tests and all passed without any suspicions.” This comment from Kristopher Yarish, a friend of Jason and Ryan Zailo on facebook, is typical of response to this news by friends and supporters of the Zailos.
The polygraph, commonly known as a lie-detector, test in which a suspect gets “wired up” is well-known to fans of crime and police drama. Proponents of the polygraph say it can reach 80 – 95% accuracy when administered by a properly-trained examiner and under the right conditions.
Admins of a bogus facebook discussion group that has frustrated family and loved ones of a murder victim in Saanich, British Columbia, Canada, have been replaced following exposures online by the murdered girl’s father.
On February 2, 2008 Lindsay Buziak, a 24-year-old Victoria, BC ReMax realtor, was savagely murdered. Jeff Buziak, a Calgary, Alberta-based realtor, works tirelessly to solve his daughter’s slaying.
On February 11, 2011, within hours of Buziak posting pics and comments online that identified Mary Standell and/or Robin Platts as being associated with several facebook nominee accounts, the offending group has replaced its admins.
Mary Standell and husband Robin Platts share a happier moment
This is the beginning of a series. Truly a fresh start.
Postscript: After Jeff Buziak outed nominee accounts posting in the bogus forum and also in a legitimately investigative discussion group, “Find Lindsay Buziak’s Murderers”, on facebook, Mary Standell posted under her real name – to admit she was behind the pseudonyms and to deny her husband had any role in the campaign: “I, solely posted as Mel Bee and Quinn Tall. Robin did not have anything thing to do with either site, or posting elsewhere.” Standell and Platts have both been employed by the Government of British Columbia in the Aboriginal Relations and Reconciliation (ABR) Communications Office based in Victoria, B.C. That’s in the Ministry portfolio of B.C.’s Attorney-General Barry Penner, the MLA for Chilliwack-Hope. (Standell was Corporate Clerk for the ABR government office. Platts served as Penner’s Communications Manager with ABR.)
Update: In a “cabinet shuffle” on March 14, 2011, MLA (Member of the Legislative Assembly) Mary Polak (Langley) replaced Barry Penner as Minister of Aboriginal Relations and Reconciliation.
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