00:00:00
foreign [Music] foreign garage wherever you are whatever you are doing thank you for listening I'm your
00:00:46
host Nick and ladies and gentlemen behind the glass we have the captain and we would like to remind you the beer is
00:00:53
the reason we wake up every afternoon and if you put your beer in a coffee mug and you act like it's warming you up
00:01:00
no one's the wiser it's good to be seen and it's good to see you thanks for listening thanks for telling a friend
00:01:07
[Music] well Captain we are on day two of 120 days dry aged Stout and it just keeps
00:01:18
getting better this beer is from evil twin brewing and it's one of those rare go big and stay home Stouts ABV 17.5
00:01:27
garage grade four and three quarter bottle caps out of five and this week's beer is provided to us by these garage
00:01:35
soldiers right here first up a big Tomahawk cheers to Chandra in Mohawk New York and a big shout out to Kylie and
00:01:43
Durham UK next up we have a cheers to Shelley and Kennebunkport Maine and a big o h i o to Greg in Dublin Ohio
00:01:53
Gregory next up we have Melissa from Niagara Falls Ontario and last but not least we have Laura sending a big cheers
00:02:01
mates from Orlando Florida thanks to everybody for filling up the fridge for this week's show if you want to help us
00:02:08
out with next week's show go to truecrime garage.com com and click on that little donate button and for all of
00:02:14
our old episodes download the Stitcher app and listen for free also if you need more of the garage sign
00:02:23
up on Central premium for our weekly show off the Record and that is enough of the business all right everybody
00:02:29
gather round grab a chair grab a beer let's talk some true crime [Music] police believe that Lindsey buziak was
00:02:52
specifically targeted for a brutal murder which looks like a professional hit so the real estate showing was
00:03:00
likely a ruse to get Lindsay alone in a place where she was vulnerable the murder shows a certain level of
00:03:08
sophistication and planning now not only were the police stumped as to the identity of the murderers but they were
00:03:16
clueless as to any motive as well right which is going to cause them to look deeper into Lindsay's life yeah
00:03:24
investigators will be examining her financial records and social media accounts even the deleted chats and
00:03:32
messages that she had Lindsay had a lot of friends and by all accounts no enemies she also led a low risk
00:03:41
lifestyle didn't owe anyone any money and had a perfect credit score now drugs were a big part of the young 20s
00:03:51
lifestyle in the area at this time but Lindsay was not a drug user and in fact disliked drugs and what they did to
00:04:00
people now let's go through some of the more popular suspects and theories okay first
00:04:08
we want to talk about Jason zalo her boyfriend as we mentioned there is a major group of internet crime Watchers
00:04:16
who believe vehemently that Jason was instrumental in Lindsay's murder and this is partially because there are
00:04:25
widely Divergent thoughts about their relationship Lindsay's Sister Sarah with whom she was
00:04:32
very close said quote Lindsay was with Jason at the time and I knew that she was extremely happy
00:04:40
Lindsay's mother's side of the family the right Myers who lived in Victoria and knew Jason
00:04:47
believe that he has been cooperative and caring in the aftermath of Lindsay's murder but Lindsay's father Jeff tells a
00:04:56
very different story he says that Lindsay confided in him that she was unhappy with Jason and that
00:05:03
he was controlling possessive and jealous and she wanted out Jeff buziak and his very public stated
00:05:11
opinion says Jason zalo was complicit in his daughter's death he doesn't believe that Jason actually
00:05:19
did the stabbing but he believes that Jason and his family are involved in a conspiracy and plotted to kill Lindsay
00:05:28
as Jeff buziak tells it Lindsay was afraid and told him that she quote seen something she shouldn't have seen
00:05:37
even if this happened which our sources say that it did not the rest of her family and friends know
00:05:45
nothing about this but even if she did tell her father that she saw something she shouldn't have seen there is no
00:05:53
evidence that it was in any way actually connected to Jason Jeff has stated that Lindsay saw
00:06:01
something scary that involved something really bad like human trafficking snuff films political corruption extortion and
00:06:10
that Jason was involved we cannot emphasize enough that there is absolutely zero evidence of this
00:06:19
Jeff buziak has zeroed in on Jason as have his online followers based on the following rumors speculation gossip much
00:06:29
of which is not backed up by any credible sources and even contradicts actual evidence in the case so let's try
00:06:38
to go through some of these thoughts one at a time Jason and Lindsay may have been having trouble Lindsay
00:06:48
wanted out and also Jason was selling steroids this is one of the theories that would lead to Jason being involved
00:06:57
here's the other Jason engineered his whole Alibi making sure to be captured on surveillance camera and to bring
00:07:04
Cohen along when he went to meet Lindsay right while being sure to be there well
00:07:10
after 5 30 so that the killers would have the opportunity to get her alone well again and this is also controlling
00:07:18
the narrative because we have one narrative saying that she was a little leery about meeting these individuals
00:07:24
and then she wanted her boyfriend to come and assist her well he then controls the narrative by saying no no
00:07:31
that's not why I was there which again one of my big questions is if he was there to protect her and he is a real
00:07:38
estate agent why are you waiting why are you waiting are you waiting to give them
00:07:43
the opportunity to do what you know that they're there to do and that is to murder your girlfriend
00:07:50
or because we have the one one story but then by him controlling the narrative to
00:07:56
say no that's not why I was there that gives the the question of why would you wait that answers it but who's answering
00:08:05
that for us Jason well I get what you're saying but I I think what we have here is we have Jeff
00:08:13
and others controlling the narrative I think what we have Jason saying is he had to
00:08:19
answer the police and investigators questions and I think that that is why that what his statements are do not
00:08:27
really combat what the narrative is because it's the narrative is just that it's it's it's a story of why Jason
00:08:36
would be there and to put bad light onto Jason if Jason was in fact controlling the
00:08:45
narrative The Narrative would have changed by this point it has not it's just simply he's providing an answer to
00:08:50
police police are going to want to know look dude you're the you're her boyfriend
00:08:56
how the hell is it that you are the one that discovered her body why were you there in the first place she's a big
00:09:03
girl she is showing this house she doesn't need your help what is your reasoning for being there there's no
00:09:10
coincidence in the world that explains a way that you just happen to be at the place
00:09:16
and find your your girlfriend's dead body so he needs a reason to be there police want a reason for him to be there
00:09:24
we have Jeff buziak and others who are saying he was there as the muscle he was there as protection to protect Lindsay
00:09:32
where Jason is in fact saying no and keep in mind he's questioned that night he had already answered this
00:09:41
question before this whole idea of him being there to protect her even came out so it's not like he's
00:09:48
he's well hold on a second though but if you're planning a murder or you're planning uh somebody to murder your
00:09:55
girlfriend you can also then plan a couple steps hey I know I need to be at this property because I'm going to be
00:10:01
seen on surveillance I'm going to call this individual I'm going to have this other individual with me this gives me
00:10:07
an alibi okay so I'm the one that finds her again that makes some logical Sense on how you
00:10:14
open up the front door and within two seconds you're upstairs and you found her body and you didn't go looking
00:10:21
anywhere else in the house you went right to her was that part of the plan so what I'm saying is it's not that
00:10:29
far-fetched for him just you know for other people to say hey we think that Lindsay was concerned about going and
00:10:36
meeting these individuals and he knew that would be a question that was brought up so now I need to but it
00:10:42
wouldn't shift the narrative no no no but the problem with that is it would not be the question the question would
00:10:48
be why are you there at all for any reason what is your reasoning for actually being there to which he had a
00:10:56
very plausible answer no I and I don't just dispute that but what I'm saying is it's not that far-fetched to think if
00:11:04
somebody's involved in this no no no no I get that what I'm figure out their story you know beforehand
00:11:11
well of course of course if you're going to go to the to the effort to hire somebody to kill somebody that you know
00:11:17
you're definitely going to come up with some kind of story right I mean if you didn't you've just put the the cart
00:11:23
before the horse there it makes no no damn sense what I'm pointing courses in this case what I'm pointing out here is
00:11:30
that the narrative that he was there to protect her in any shape or form did not even that
00:11:37
was not even a thought at the time that Jason was initially questioned in the murder of his girlfriend so it's not
00:11:44
like what I'm saying is he's presenting a reason for being there he's not presenting a reason that's different
00:11:49
than what was later said just to be different right is what I'm getting at right he's just giving a plausible
00:11:55
reason yeah now here's the other thing that I want to point out too all right first off a much better Alibi
00:12:01
would have been to be as far away as possible if he wanted to get rid of Lindsay and Stage I mean he could have
00:12:09
staged an accident or a disappearance which would made of made a lot less less of a splash than a sensational Savage
00:12:16
murder but then on top of that think about this if he really thought this through unless he's just a [ __ ]
00:12:24
if he's going to go to the effort to hire somebody to kill his girlfriend why wouldn't he be as far away as possible
00:12:30
because now you're opening up yourself to further questioning some people would go well he wanted to confirm that she
00:12:37
was dead wanted to confirm that the hit actually went down okay I get that but any reasonable
00:12:46
person is going to know that you are already subjected to a certain line of questioning because you are her live-in
00:12:53
boyfriend now if you're also the boyfriend and find the body be the one that finds the
00:13:00
body you are opening up yourself to a whole other line of questioning right right
00:13:07
which I agree but I also think like it's kind of one or the other be as far away
00:13:12
as possible or be as close as you can you know hide in plain sight well the the thing here is though he had
00:13:22
an alibi without creating one okay he took Cohen with him to shc to to whatever that meeting was uh that
00:13:32
they were going to discuss that day we know that he was the listing agent for that property
00:13:37
I think Jason was yeah we know that Cohen and him had a hockey game later that night right so he had a solid Alibi
00:13:47
from the time that they that he and Cohen arrived at shc through the end of the hockey game
00:13:53
instead if he was involved then we have to believe he went out of his way to go to the home that she was killed in
00:14:03
it just again that doesn't bother me because like I said it's one or the other and my eyes be as far as way away
00:14:09
as possible and be around as many people as possible or be as close as possible and and you're carrying your get out of
00:14:19
jail free card with you in the passenger seat I understand that but what I'm pointing
00:14:26
out here is that it really heated in the garage it doesn't need to what I'm pointing out is that it to me it makes
00:14:33
his reason his reason for being there for being at 1702 De Sosa place verifiable
00:14:42
it makes it makes that carry more weight to me he has a reason to be there that is not her protection he has a reason to
00:14:49
be there to get her to sign some papers to go over some paperwork to have a quick meeting
00:14:55
one Cohen would be aware of this as he travels along with Jason two you can verify this by the person that actually
00:15:02
owns the property and by the person making an offer on the property as well it just doesn't it doesn't make a lot of
00:15:10
sense to me now there's a lot of things in a lot of cases that are not supposed to make a lot of sense so we can we can
00:15:16
agree to disagree on that well and I'm not saying that that's what I think I'm I'm saying I think that's a lot of these
00:15:25
armchair detectives that's where they're going well this doesn't add up to me and
00:15:29
that's all I'm saying so some other things that people have pointed out here is that Jason moved his car from the
00:15:39
cul-de-sac to the main road either to see a signal from The Killers that the that the coast was clear or to
00:15:47
see whether they were gone that they had left the property I don't know there's no way for us to
00:15:53
verify why he moved the car right because if you again this is another situation where somebody comes
00:16:02
up with this Theory and you go well that makes sense I'll park here uh I didn't see anybody now I move a little closer
00:16:09
okay now they gave me the signal okay once I saw those individuals now we got to get into the house
00:16:15
okay that makes some logical sense but his story was and and if his story is correct that he
00:16:24
wasn't there to protect her but he was just there for paperwork he didn't want to interrupt her he didn't want to seem
00:16:31
like lurking he didn't want these clients to come out and to see some some dudes in the car and think who the hell
00:16:39
are these guys uh so that's why he parked down a little ways once he's not getting a response drives closer so it's
00:16:48
again both kind of make logical sense the other thing though too is if he is in fact there for a meeting
00:16:56
think about the way that this whole event is described they pull up into the cul-de-sac and
00:17:02
he's waiting in the vehicle to which later he moves the vehicle to an actual parking space
00:17:09
okay many times you can sit in a vehicle waiting and you're not in an actual parking space the way that this is
00:17:17
worded is that he actually moves the vehicle to park the car to exit the vehicle right that also makes sense to
00:17:24
me there but again we don't know we may never know and then again of course the the statement that
00:17:30
comes up often that he ran straight up the stairs once he entered the house as if he knew where she would be found
00:17:38
there are several people out there too that say Jason is friends with some low-level drug dealer types well let's
00:17:44
just stay on that that real quick um I buy his statements I mean he again he's gone over this with uh detectives
00:17:54
and everything but it is a little fishy to me that you open the door and within seconds you're you're by the body
00:18:03
um but again it could have just been a gut feeling or his thought maybe just been I'm going to
00:18:11
run upstairs first or we don't know every detail that he you know based on the shadowy figures that
00:18:20
he saw or the layout of the house we don't know there could have been a reason why he
00:18:28
decided to go up there first and maybe just subconsciously but I see why people find that a little
00:18:37
fishy I too found that to be strange now we should point out and be very clear here
00:18:43
that two years after the murder Saanich police announced in a press conference that they had actually cleared Jason
00:18:51
zalo they admitted that as Lindsay's boyfriend he had initially been a person of interest but after a two-year long
00:18:59
investigation including 1471 interviews 30 search warrants and follow-up on 752 tips
00:19:10
the Saanich PD Major Crimes unit felt confident that Jason was not involved the forensic evidence Footprints and
00:19:18
fingerprints found at the scene backed up his and Cohen's stories about their movements inside the home that
00:19:25
evening adding quote Mr zalo and his friend were under intense police scrutiny however Mr zayla was
00:19:33
cooperative with police took a polygraph exam and passed based on forensic evidence timeline of communications
00:19:40
witness testimony video surveillance we do I'm sorry we know he's not the Killer
00:19:48
was he perhaps somehow involved in the planning well he successfully passed a polygraph and he successfully took part
00:19:56
in all of these interviews with us so at this point in time he is not considered
00:20:02
a suspect end quote well I'm glad that you bring bring that up because I really think that people don't look at evidence
00:20:11
enough and when you see this chatter online about certain cases it drives me insane there is evidence and what we do
00:20:21
have and what the police are stating is if you look at the forensic evidence and
00:20:27
you look at the questioning and the interrogation and then the lie detector what we know is that the events that he
00:20:35
said that took place that night in that house we know he's telling the truth about that so that could I think should
00:20:43
sway some people to go well if he's being cooperative and the police believe that his stories are
00:20:50
truthful full then some of the things that don't line up you have to start kind of favoring that
00:20:58
maybe he is telling the truth because law enforcement believe he is or believe that they have evidence to prove he is
00:21:07
yeah and the thing too is we understand that polygraphs they don't mean a whole lot to the captain or myself okay we
00:21:16
understand that they don't hold up in a court of law but I like them I don't mind them but I I hate the emails that
00:21:23
that we get or the blog post of why do you even discuss the polygraph exam you know they don't they're not you can't
00:21:29
present them in the court of law well I don't care if you can we understand that
00:21:33
but you you can't also present in the court of law that a detective got a bad feeling about somebody but somebody that
00:21:40
interviews hundreds of thousands of people throughout their career I'm going to go with some of these people's guts
00:21:47
gut feelings well and it's not us that asked anybody to take a polygraph exam we're just reporting this but I will
00:21:53
we're reporting what the police stated that that he was given one and according to them they he passed it now police
00:22:01
also publicly denied swirling rumors that they searched the condo where Jason and Lindsay lived but only after
00:22:10
obtaining a warrant now to be perfectly clear the condo was searched but they did not need a warrant we don't know why
00:22:19
exactly they did not need a warrant but presumably we can say it could be because Jason gave them permission right
00:22:26
Jason did lawyer up pretty quickly but this is probably because he was placed in restraints and taken to the station
00:22:34
when he found Lindsay's body this is a move that any smart person would likely make police investigated
00:22:42
Jason his finances his background his associates his business dealings thoroughly for two years the fact is
00:22:50
there is simply zero I actually think right I actually think the play by the law enforcement is bad to actually cuff
00:22:59
him I think what they should have done is don't cuff him take him down the station for questioning and to see if he
00:23:06
would lawyer up but I think like you said once you're taken down and um and you're cuffed and you're in restraints
00:23:15
that might get you thinking hey this is serious and I need a lawyer up now on to
00:23:22
Jason's family according to internet theorists on Jeff busiak's website and other message
00:23:29
boards this is the Zelo family conspiracy the theory is complicated but let's go through it
00:23:36
Jason's brother Ryan and Jason's mother Shirley also worked in the real estate business
00:23:43
Lindsay actually met Jason through his brother Ryan whom she met at their real estate course
00:23:51
they all worked for the same company and did business together Shirley was Lindsay's manager at Re Max
00:23:59
And depending on who you ask either her mentor and Confidant or her Nemesis many
00:24:05
believe that Shirley and likely Ryan were all in on this hit on Lindsay and here's what they base this
00:24:13
conspiracy theory on Shirley zalo bought a lake house for Lindsay and Jason that cost in excess of
00:24:22
1.2 million dollars and also paid for Lindsay's breast enhancement surgery let's go ahead and go through this
00:24:31
before we move on to the next thing that those statements are false okay the truth is the lake house was just
00:24:40
Shirley's vacation home Shirley owned this home it was her vacation home right and the other truth Lindsay paid for her
00:24:49
own surgery so whatever people think that that property or the money involved in the surgery or that property
00:24:57
however they believe it to be mixed up in the murder of Lindsay it doesn't work out right it just
00:25:03
doesn't work out okay and here's the other thing Shirley had a lot of money and therefore
00:25:10
some people say she must have been involved in drug trafficking money laundering or a combination thereof
00:25:17
the truth is Shirley simply is just a very successful real estate agent and realtor she's she's really good at what
00:25:26
she does and that has really Advanced her career and her earnings throughout the years right so but to be clear
00:25:34
so there was a lake house they when they decided to move in when Jason and Lindsay decided to move in together
00:25:41
that's where they moved they were there for a while and then that and then after
00:25:45
being there for a while they moved out and got a condo together right so we also have a situation where people
00:25:55
point out that Lindsay found out about the corruption and Shirley Jason and Ryan's business so she had to be
00:26:03
eliminated again this goes back to the idea of Shirley has a lot of money therefore she
00:26:09
must be involved in something nefarious the truth is again she's just a successful person
00:26:17
now surely set the whole thing up by calling Lindsay in a fake accent so this is people saying that surely
00:26:26
Jason's mother was actually the person that made that phone call well lens only know by pings and the the phone was in
00:26:33
the a whole different area until that Friday you're absolutely correct uh Shirley and Ryan in Disguise where
00:26:43
actually the couple who met up with Lindsay or the Mexican couple that was hired to help to lure Lindsay into the
00:26:51
home and Ryan and or Shirley were waiting inside to waiting inside the house to kill Lindsay
00:26:59
okay so this one's a little convoluted because there's several different ways that this works out but the gist of it
00:27:06
is that Shirley and Ryan would be would be directly involved in the murder either waiting outside for her for the
00:27:14
meeting to bring her into the home or one or both of them actually committed the murder themselves problem with this
00:27:22
is that we know that Lindsay met with these two individuals and we also have forensic evidence that that puts them
00:27:28
going through the at least the downstairs and so you're going to tell me that that Lindsay is not going to
00:27:35
recognize her her boyfriend's brother in Disguise or or uh or the woman she works
00:27:42
with and for right possibly her Mentor or Nemesis either one he either really like her face or you hate her face and
00:27:49
you but you know her face okay here's some other things too where people point out that Shirley was friends with the
00:27:56
builder remember we mentioned Joe de Sousa and therefore she would have had access to the house
00:28:03
we can't say for certain if she would or would not have had access to the house it seems a little far-fetched for me
00:28:11
um because here's the thing we have the statement of Lindsay not being the listing agent for that property but it's
00:28:20
believed that somebody at Re Max was the listing agent for that property I think
00:28:24
if Shirley zayla was the listing agent if she was directly involved with that property right she would have access to
00:28:31
it and it would be all over the internet but that's not what anybody's saying so
00:28:36
it seems to me likely that that yeah she may have known Joe that doesn't seem to
00:28:42
be that big of a deal because what we will find what I believe to be one of the issues with this case and with the
00:28:48
rumors swirling around this whole case is that even though that this is a big city in the greater metro area over 350
00:28:57
000 people it's it doesn't live that way it lives as a situation where everybody
00:29:02
is only separated basically by one degree of separation well I think what they mean by her knowing the Builder is
00:29:08
that there was construction going on in that area so that she would know that the construction would have been done by
00:29:16
the time that they were supposed to meet up at 5 30. oh that there would be the the street Builder has nothing to do
00:29:22
with the house that they were meeting at well he built he built the house right but when they're talking about the
00:29:28
Builder they're talking because there's con there was construction on that street always to about five five thirty
00:29:35
every day so they were saying that she would know that this Builder would be gone by then and so there would be less
00:29:43
eyewitnesses agreed but what people are also pointing out is that Shirley would have had access to the house right but
00:29:50
as a real estate agent because when Jason was trying to get access to the house to get inside you know he called
00:29:58
his mother to try to get them to try to get the um the code right well I know that he
00:30:06
called people I don't know for certain who he called well I believe he he called his mother to try to get the the
00:30:12
number and I don't think she could get it but the Realtors would have uh ways to get access to that number but we'd
00:30:20
have a trail because if she is not the listing agent and obviously Lindsay wasn't they would have to probably get
00:30:28
that code from that listing agent so we would have somebody coming forward saying hey you know the day of the
00:30:34
murderers uh Jason's mom came and got got some information from me and also if it's true that Jason called his mother
00:30:42
to try to get access to in into the house then they should be able to find cell phone ping technology
00:30:52
to to kind of find out where Jason's mother was at at the time of the attack [Music]
00:31:11
[Music] foreign we're back you feel the animals so continuing on the path here of the Zelo family having
00:31:33
some involvement or orchestrating this whole murder people point out that Shirley Jason's
00:31:40
mother was friends with a guy named Terry Sheen who lived in a nearby house this is located near the murder house
00:31:47
and that's where some people claim that she that Shirley and Jason's brother Ryan escape to to hide after committing
00:31:56
the murder okay the the problem with this Theory is that house was searched that night
00:32:04
and searched very quickly so they didn't find Ryan and Shirley hiding in this house and in fact Shirley showed up at
00:32:13
the scene within a short amount of time after the murder people again point out that this means that she was already on
00:32:20
scene on location at the time of the murder yeah she just walked out from a bush hey guys so
00:32:27
the thing is I I get that that does create suspicion and I would be suspicious of such but then we have to
00:32:36
take that just one little step further and remind ourselves that surely is not only Jason's mother who he was on the
00:32:43
scene but also Lindsay's boss and as the captain suspects she may have received a
00:32:49
phone call from Jason who was trying to gain access to the home saying something's going on the door's locked I
00:32:55
don't know what's happening here again if that's correct yeah because he was trying to get access he was freaking out
00:33:00
at this point why wouldn't she even just head that way this is again one of those
00:33:05
things where it's like both sides of the coin make sense what we don't know is is
00:33:12
the side of the coin uh the truth well and we one thing we do know regarding phone calls made when he was trying to
00:33:20
access the home one of those calls was to the Re Max office Okay so he may have not directly called his
00:33:29
mother but remember we've already stated that they all work together and so this may be she was at the office
00:33:36
when this call came in the other thing here too is people have said that Shirley later
00:33:43
dated a Saanich police officer so that she had some way of controlling the investigation or the statements that
00:33:52
were coming out from the police department after well after the murder again I get it and I see where the
00:34:02
suspicion is but this seems like a whole lot of orchestrating by by one just a couple of people it seems like a lot of
00:34:09
work to be doing but not only that it's she dated this guy after the fact that could just be a coincidence and again
00:34:18
this is a large city where it seems like everybody knows one another or they're just one degree of separation away from
00:34:27
one another well as far as the motive goes to to involve Jason's mother it's it's this idea again creating the
00:34:35
narrative she saw something she shouldn't have saw okay so what is that and as an investigator it's like you
00:34:42
have to follow that rabbit hole down and then you have to find evidence of what is it is there some involvement with the
00:34:49
drug selling human trafficking whatever it is but if you get to the end of the road and you
00:34:56
can't find evidence of that they're either just a good real estate agent or they're really good at hiding this other
00:35:03
stuff and before we move on we would be remiss if we did not point out that some people
00:35:08
say that the Zelo family even had access to a killer somebody that they could have hired to carry out this murder okay
00:35:17
this would be a man by the name of Ziggy Matheson okay he is by all accounts a low-level
00:35:27
drug dealer Ziggy was a childhood friend and hockey buddy of Jason's and Ryan's yeah
00:35:34
Shirley rented a home to Ziggy now Shirley rented a home to him for five years this wasn't a situation where he
00:35:43
just poof appears on the scene shortly before her murder and then poof disappears shortly afterwards Shirley
00:35:51
rented this home to this man for five years and she stated that you know he lived there for so long because he
00:35:59
always paid his rent on time and he didn't cause us any trouble when he lived there that's not the kind of
00:36:05
renter that you get rid of now Ziggy was arrested for dealing drugs this was years after Lindsay's murder
00:36:13
and he was also once charged with murdering a man who was dating Ziggy's ex-girlfriend Shannon and assaulting her
00:36:24
keep in mind we said charged with murdering he was not convicted of that charge there does not seem to be I'm not saying
00:36:33
that he's innocent in that situation but in this situation regarding Lindsay's case
00:36:40
there doesn't seem to be much of a connection between him and Lindsay other than he is a guy that was a friend was a
00:36:49
one-time friend of Jason's right but she right she sees something that Lindsay sees something she's not supposed to see
00:36:55
the mother then has to take care of it ah I have this renter he's he's a depending on who you ask low level to
00:37:03
mid-level uh drug dealer uh he has a shady past I'm going to hire him yeah and the thing here too is uh
00:37:14
probably for me the most the strangest thing in this whole weird case is a phone call that some say took place
00:37:24
and some say did not take place okay so a a friend of Lindsay's after her murder
00:37:32
receives a call she said that the she received a call from a woman who was very obviously using a fake accent
00:37:41
and she received this call for unknown reasons her friend says that she tries to call
00:37:50
the person back and called repeatedly repeatedly repeatedly until finally somebody answered the phone yeah the
00:37:57
person that answered the phone was Shirley zalo this is one of those weird situations
00:38:04
Captain where I don't know what to make of this whole idea I I personally believe that if this story is true
00:38:13
that's very damning well that's what I mean I don't know whether to make if this story is true or
00:38:20
not because we have Lindsay's friend who says that this is what happened and then later we
00:38:26
have Shirley saying that never happened I don't know what that person is talking
00:38:29
about uh all we have to do is somebody can prove this through phone records so again as the investigator I'm going okay
00:38:39
you tell me this happened you you claim that Jason's mother called you who used this weird accent okay
00:38:47
uh the rumor was that that the friend called the number back about 20 30 times because obviously by at this point when
00:38:57
your friend has been murdered and she's supposed to meet the Mexicans at the showing and you possibly have heard
00:39:05
rumors of this weird accent and you get a call with that you're just going to keep going back keep going back and
00:39:11
finally she uh Jason's mom answers now there should be some phone record of that but to me
00:39:19
you know it's it's one of those things where it does it prove anything other than a phone call was made no it
00:39:26
doesn't but man that that would to me that's a giant red flag if this is true well that's what I mean I don't know
00:39:35
whether to make heads or tails of it whether it being true or not we have we all we have is two stories one story
00:39:41
that it in fact happened and the other story that it never happened he wants to prove the point they could you know
00:39:48
release the phone record well what is that going to show us so that's at least going to show that
00:39:56
the the phone call was made that there was an incoming call from a number that she called a number back multiple times
00:40:02
and uh and then somebody eventually answered and if you can prove that then that some evidence that your story is
00:40:09
correct right but what I'm saying is we don't have a third party to tell us if this in
00:40:16
fact happened or not and so therefore I can't make an opinion on on this whole scenario right but that's what I'm
00:40:23
saying if if I'm the friend and I know that this happened I'm releasing that those phone records to at least prove
00:40:30
you know so much try to prove my point correct correct I'm with you on that so people need to keep in mind though
00:40:38
that the Saanich police they state that they have cleared the Zelo family of any involvement the
00:40:46
spokesman for the Saanich PD stated in a press conference quote we would like to
00:40:51
State unequivocally that no member of the Zelo family is considered a person of interest or a suspect in this
00:40:58
investigation our detectives are satisfied that the zalos have no knowledge or any participation in this
00:41:05
horrific crime end quote so who's next on our list how about Lindsay's ex-boyfriend Matt McDuff
00:41:14
Shirley zalos said on Dateline that Lindsay had confided and heard that she was afraid of her ex Matt
00:41:21
Jeff buziak says that Lindsay wanted to leave Jason and rekindle things with Matt more importantly what do the police
00:41:29
think of this man so Lindsay and Matt dated for five years from 2001 to 2006. there is some
00:41:36
indication that their relationship was Rocky Dateline reported that she called the
00:41:41
cops on him three times in that five-year period Matt did tend to be involved in the drug scene and he did
00:41:49
have some buddies who were considered to be bad news one of these guys is a guy named Edgar Acevedo who goes by vid and
00:41:58
another is Erickson delacazar and his brothers and Associates now we'll get into them in a bit but first Matt has a
00:42:07
pretty strong Alibi okay for the time when Lindsay was murdered one he was with his girlfriend's family
00:42:15
two this is over an hour away at the time and Matt and Lindsay they didn't have any contact with each other for
00:42:24
months and it had actually been broken up for nearly two years at this time right Matt was interviewed and appeared
00:42:32
to be genuinely affected by Lindsay's murder Jeff buziak implied that Lindsay was
00:42:38
still in love with Matt and wanted to get back together with him but the problem with that is we have police
00:42:46
saying that there was no contact between the two of them so we know that this is a murder for
00:42:53
higher situation or it at least appears to be that way so when we look at somebody as a suspect we can't just go
00:43:00
well they had an alibi so they didn't do it I mean you purposely hire somebody to
00:43:05
do that so that you do have an alibi when the murder goes down well like I said be as far away as possible or as
00:43:13
close but the problem with this whole statement is there look he may have known some bad
00:43:20
people um there's no evidence to suggest that he was in any way involved so I feel I think I feel like with Matt
00:43:29
you're just really spinning your tires and and saying well what if what if what if what if but again where is the
00:43:37
evidence that there's any proof that he is tied to this murder yeah the law enforcement they don't like him as a
00:43:44
likely suspect but there is a connection there he might not be involved but his knowing of Lindsay and his relationship
00:43:55
with Lindsay could become a cause correct well one thing that police uncovered in
00:44:02
their investigation of Lindsay was a possible connection to some very nefarious activity remember Lindsay's
00:44:10
father Jeff lived hundreds of miles away in Calgary Alberta right Lindsay flew out to visit him for three days in
00:44:17
December of 2007. so they're going to be digging deep into her life to figure out
00:44:24
where and why was she killed right well they go out to Calgary and they're investigating her murder while they're
00:44:33
there they discovered that she that Lindsay reached out to a male acquaintance from Victoria contacting
00:44:39
this person once by phone and once via Facebook it is not known whether the two actually spoke Matt in person or
00:44:49
anything about the nature of their contact in fact Lindsay went out at least twice during her visit to her
00:44:56
father what she did where she went and who she saw is unknown okay clear this up for me did she's the one
00:45:05
that made contact with this individual or or the individual made contact with her what is reported is that she
00:45:13
contacted this person once by phone and once via Facebook okay okay anyway this person that she contacted
00:45:21
was a family member of a very bad man who we've already named Erickson delicazar
00:45:27
from Victoria now Erickson along with a partner Graham Scott Taylor these two were arrested in January of 2008 and
00:45:36
what Sergeant Horsley described as quote the largest drug bust in Alberta history
00:45:41
we're talking about eight million dollars worth of cocaine this bust pulled in 67 kilos of cocaine plus
00:45:49
weapons and cash all right set up the dominoes and with just one tiny little push watch them all
00:45:57
fall because this bust triggered a massive Scandal that reached into the echelons of the Canadian political
00:46:05
machine we can't tear through all of that here it's kind of a big story as you can
00:46:12
imagine but within the next few months right 12 more operatives were arrested and Calgary police they figured out that
00:46:20
this thing was much much bigger than expected so to emphasize this Lindsay contacted a family member of
00:46:29
Erickson delacazar for unknown reasons and to an unknown extent right just a few weeks later Erickson was busted in a
00:46:37
massive operation an informant based in Victoria told police about the large-scale dealings of Ericsson and
00:46:46
others and wiretaps and surveillance had been in place for two or more months the
00:46:52
snitch had specifically told police about a safe containing over 40 kilos of cocaine just days after the bust which
00:47:01
took place on January 22nd someone activated the burner phone which had been purchased in November to set up a
00:47:10
meeting with Lindsey buziak they took the ferry from Vancouver to Victoria met with Lindsay at 1702 de Souza place and
00:47:19
killed her escaping and leaving almost no Trace Lindsay's murder resembled a targeted
00:47:26
professional hit retribution or perhaps a message to be sent to someone this huge drug bust was not immediately
00:47:35
connected to Lindsay's murder until police and Saanich discovered that she knew some of the people arrested in
00:47:42
Calgary and this connection even though very remote and uncertain has given rise
00:47:49
to a working Theory publicly discussed by the Saanich police in Lindsay's case stating she was targeted and killed
00:47:57
based on a mistaken or deliberately misleading information that she was the informant the people busted in the drug
00:48:06
bust knew that there was a snitch somehow Lindsay's name got passed along to the higher ups in the drug ring
00:48:13
saying that she was the rat perhaps they knew she had been in contact with Erickson's relative or the wrong person
00:48:22
had come across her name it's possible that cowardly lower level drug ring members knew that Lindsay was
00:48:31
not the snitch but deliberately LED others to believe so that she was and when they took care of her they were
00:48:39
seen as solving a big problem and getting retribution and of course it's possible that the
00:48:47
real informant gave the drug gang Lindsay's name in order to save their own ass quote what we can say is that people
00:48:57
lost a lot of money and the people that lost the drugs know that someone spoke to the police said Sergeant Horsley
00:49:04
adding quote a Witch Hunt occurred where people were being questioned people were
00:49:09
being pulled out of their beds in the middle of the night and asked who have you spoken to because they know someone
00:49:16
spoke to the police end quote police confirmed that Lindsay was not Lindsay was not the informant right but believed
00:49:26
that someone may have thought that she was they said that it was possible that Lindsay was believed by her Killers to
00:49:34
have revealed information that she shouldn't have or to have heard information that was damning to them
00:49:41
somehow or that she was simply connected to a dangerous person without realizing
00:49:46
it Sergeant Horsley said you can be a person who just works and Minds their own business in Victoria yet through a
00:49:55
very brief network of friends you could be absolutely connected to people that are involved in Very Bad Things
00:50:05
interestingly enough it was also reported by the CBC News in June of 2010 that the police did not believe that the
00:50:13
couple who lured Lindsay to the house to be killed they did not believe that they
00:50:18
lived in Victoria making it even more unclear how someone got her name or singled her out now in an attempt to
00:50:27
grasp a better understanding of this very complicated involved Theory we spoke at length with author Gary Rogers
00:50:34
Gary is a retired RCMP homicide detective and forensic coroner who is now a best-selling investigative crime
00:50:43
writer and a blogger with the huff post and on his own blog he has stated that a
00:50:51
Mexican drug trafficking cartel organization headed up by the infamous El Chapo operated a large distribution
00:51:00
Network out of Calgary Canada members of One family headed up the local distribution arm the Beltran levian
00:51:09
family the cartel took a large monetary and security loss in What's called the Calgary High Noon police operation
00:51:18
the Calgary drug bust as we discussed they lost 8 million dollars worth of coke and two of their operatives and
00:51:26
then 12 more were arrested after Lindsay's murder as a result of the high noon bust the remaining mid to lower
00:51:32
level drug trafficking players in Victoria BC and Calgary and Alberta were now well over their heads with debt and
00:51:43
to the dto's Western Canadian conduit they had lost 67 kilos of cocaine they were compromised and their backs were up
00:51:53
against the wall and they sacrificed Lindsay's Life as a diversionary scapegoat in a damage control spiricy
00:52:03
Lindsay's hit was designed to send a message down the line to the distribution Network that snitches would
00:52:09
not be tolerated and to send a message up the line to the cartel that the problem had been dealt with
00:52:16
of course we don't know who actually called for the hit on Lindsay or how she was singled out but we do know that she
00:52:25
knew a lot of people who were somehow connected to this drug trade just by virtue of living in Victoria and being
00:52:32
social and associating with people in that world like Matt McDuff and perhaps her reaching out to a family
00:52:40
member of Erickson delicazar triggered suspicion by someone in the network once it discovered that there was a snitch
00:52:48
and it spiraled from there now we should point out that Erickson was in fact in jail at the time of Lindsay's murder
00:52:57
one thing that I do want to discuss though Captain is as far as Gary's upcoming book he is an even more
00:53:03
developed theory about who killed Lindsay and it all stems from what we just spoke about
00:53:10
it's all tied to the high noon drug bust and the players involved one of the men
00:53:15
charged in the high noon at bust was Leo Rojo Beltran he's a Mexican citizen with
00:53:21
deep drug connections he was part of the family that ran the cartel's Canadian distribution arm and was very high up in
00:53:30
the organization he lived in Calgary his sister Mila Rojo lived in Barnaby near Vancouver
00:53:38
one of the drug transport vehicles used in the drug trafficking scheme was stationed at her home so she is very
00:53:46
likely involved in all of this now Mila had a very heavy Hispanic accent and she
00:53:54
looks very similar to the police sketch of the woman who met with Lindsay outside of the de Souza Place residence
00:54:02
with the right build short blonde hair and a profile similar to that in the drawing
00:54:09
Leo is six foot tall a very light skin and a medium build these two fit the bill of Lindsay's quote Mexicans
00:54:18
perfectly Leo Beltran was arrested in the wake of the high noon bust in December of
00:54:26
2008. he was held for a year only on charges of possession of proceeds of a crime but on his file it noted
00:54:35
specifically that he was the specific Target of another investigation we don't know what that is one has to wonder is
00:54:44
this Lindsay's case Leo was deported from Canada to the U.S in 2010 and Mila left Canada as well
00:54:54
they both moved to Southern California Lucky You California Gary believes Leo and Mila are Lindsay's Killers why would
00:55:04
Leo Beltran have thought that Lindsay was the informant the short answer is we don't know neither do the police
00:55:13
Gary also believes that it is possible that Leo Beltran knew that Lindsay was not the snitch right this is
00:55:20
a scapegoat right did he believe that the cartel would believe him when he said that he had taken care of the
00:55:27
informant by killing her involved or not he was sending a message that the problem was dealt with
00:55:35
whoever did Kill Lindsay they covered their tracks very very well no DNA no weapon no fingerprints bloody footprints
00:55:45
that didn't lead to anything a burner phone a vacant house sitting for more than a year unlikely to have
00:55:52
any other people around almost dark a quiet neighborhood and a stealthy exit no one saw anything including a getaway
00:56:01
car or bloody clothes Lindsay was lured to the house and attacked from behind in
00:56:07
an upstairs bedroom away from Windows police came to the conclusion early on that Lindsay was targeted in a
00:56:15
professional hit and after 11 years they still believe that this was the case our recommended reading for this week is
00:56:24
dyingwords.net that is where you will find Gary Rogers blog and information on this case he takes a deep deep dive into
00:56:33
all of the angles and I recommend if you want to learn more you can find a lot of
00:56:39
that well all of that there the captain and I talked about this could have been a case that we could have covered for
00:56:45
several weeks it's a big case there's a lot of speculation just that big drug bust on its own is a huge story yeah
00:56:55
there's many layers of this onion and if you want to dive in a little bit further
00:57:00
not just take our word for it you'll this is where you want to go the other thing that the captain and I believe is
00:57:08
we agree with the statement that this appears to be a professional hit somebody for whatever reason wanted
00:57:15
Lindsay buziak dead what we also agree on is that if you could determine the motivations for that
00:57:23
factor then you very likely will find the road that will lead to the kill [Music]
00:57:39
[Music] we want to thank you so much for listening to the show telling a friend sharing our show with your friends on
00:57:50
social media for everything true crime garage check out true crime garage.com and we'll see you next week that's right
00:57:57
and until next week be good be kind and don't let it thank you [Music] [Applause]
00:58:24
[Music]