- I'm craig melvin,
And this is "dateline: Secrets uncovered."
They fancied themselves as the girls from "sex & the city."
- Which one was she? - Carrie.
- The organizer, everybody's friend.
- But tv fantasy turned real-life mystery
When the friend everyone loved
Was murdered.
- I didn't believe it. [sobbing]
There's somebody out there that did this to her.
- Stabbed to death in a luxury million dollar home.
- Shocked the officers that were investigating it.
- There were plenty of possible leads.
The boyfriend.
- I texted her "are you okay?"
- And the ex. - Are you involved?
- And two curious big money clients.
What happened inside that house?
- I saw a few people in the front entranceway.
- Dateline's own unsolved case squad
Takes on the crime.
- Someone got paid to go commit that murder.
- Somebody, I think, very close to her.
- I agree. I think it's somebody that she knows.
- So full of life.
Who was behind her death?
- I am going to find out,
If it kills me.
♪♪
Hello, and welcome to "dateline: Secrets uncovered."
Lindsay buziak was intelligent,
Beautiful, and well-liked, with a promising career
In real estate.
She thought she landed the golden opportunity
To sell a million dollar home.
But fate had other plans.
What happened in that house
Would shock a community, and send her loved ones
On a mission...
To unearth a deadly secret.
Here's josh mankiewicz with "the dream house mystery."
♪♪
- Just north of seattle,
And a few short miles from the glittering green playground
Known as the san juan islands...
Sits a town that knows little of the ugly side of life.
♪♪
Where ferrys and float planes
Spin through a spectacular inner harbor.
♪♪
Surrounded by grandeur more reminiscent of europe
Than of north america.
It's victoria, british columbia.
♪♪
This is where a girl was born and raised,
Safely in the arms of a large extended family,
And many friends who loved her.
The young woman they all treasured
Was lindsay buziak.
She was just a spectacular young woman,
That was the love of everybody's life.
- Her father, jeff. - She would make friends
With everybody, and want to be your friend.
- Loved by everybody. - Loved by everybody.
- She had plenty of company
In that fun-filled life. Among her many friends
Were beautiful young women like nikki burrows.
When all of you would get together,
What'd you do?
- Pretend like we're from "sex & the city."
- Which one were you?
- Do I have to say that? [chuckling]
- All right, and which one was she?
- Carrie.
- Everybody's friend. - Mm-hmm.
So smart. Driven.
- And maybe a little unlucky in love?
- I think all of us girls are.
- One of those who lindsay had loved
Was this man, matt mcduff.
- They're in love.
- They dated from 2001 to 2006,
And traveled a lot together.
- She was a pretty driven girl.
She was focused on what she wanted to achieve.
- Which was? - Well, she wanted a career.
She wanted to do things with her life.
- We're not even definitely launching it
For about two weeks.
- Lindsay's chosen career was real estate.
She was following in the footsteps of her father.
- It was an industry, in many ways,
Was best-suited for her.
- She could sell ice in alaska.
- It wasn't selling for her.
It was socializing. It was being lindsay.
- And as the end of 2007 approached,
Both 24-year-old lindsay and her business
Were beginning to blossom.
- Lindsay was now living with a new boyfriend
Who was chasing many of the same dreams.
His name was jason zailo, a mortgage broker
With a real estate license.
What'd you feel like when you were with her?
- Alive.
Every time she'd walk into a room,
You would know that she's there.
She was just always-- just always happy.
♪♪
- And in the small island world of victoria,
Jason's mom, shirley, was also a realtor.
A manager for remax, where lindsay worked.
- She was very focused, really wanted to make herself
A career in real estate, and-- loved that about her.
♪♪
And in late January 2008, lindsay received that call
Every agent dreams of.
A new client was on the phone from vancouver.
Police would later describe the call this way:
The client said she and her husband
Were moving to victoria, and wanted to look at
Homes near the city
That were in ready-to-move-in condition.
Lindsay wrote it all down here in her daytimer.
The clients wanted a house with three bedrooms,
Three baths, and a separate area
For a housekeeper,
And the client made two statements
That would grab the instant attention
Of any real estate agent.
The couple needed to buy the house within two days,
And the price range that they were looking at
Was in the neighborhood of one million dollars.
But lindsay told her father and more than a few friends
That there was something odd about the client,
Who spoke english with an accent.
- She couldn't really put her finger on
Exactly what it was. - She described it as
People, like, faking an accent?
- Yeah.
She said, well, it's kind of spanish,
But not really.
- The clients were due to begin seeing homes
On a Saturday, February 2nd, 2008.
It was 5:30 pm when lindsay met the couple here,
A five bedroom, four bath executive home
Listed at $964,000,
In an upscale victoria suburb called saanich.
It was the last place lindsay buziak was seen alive.
- You know, wee hours of the morning, I...
Received a call from my ex-wife.
She said, uh, "have the police
"been in contact with you?"
And I just said, "what the hell's goin' on?"
And she said, "well, I have the worst news ever
"in the world, lindsay's been murdered."
♪♪
- Soon, lindsay's friends heard it too.
- I didn't believe it. [sniffling]
The worst phone call of my life.
- Former boyfriend matt mcduff got a message,
And when he returned the call,
Was struck by the news like a hammer.
- I phoned my brother back, and his girlfriend answers,
And says "lindsay was murdered."
[sobbing]
Worst phone call I've ever had.
[sniffling]
- Lindsay buziak's body had been found after 6:00 pm,
Here in that luxe home in a victoria suburb.
A high-dollar property she was showing to
Her big money clients.
Lindsay had been stabbed to death.
Who on earth could have done such a thing
To a glowing young woman,
Someone whose life seemed transparently happy?
Someone who seemed not to have any enemies?
Police would open the book on a mystery,
Looking for the secrets that could tell them
Not just who, but why.
- What happened inside that house?
- I saw a few people in the front entranceway.
- Chilling new details from someone who was there,
When "dateline: Secrets uncovered" continues.
♪♪
- The beautiful victoria, british columbia
Was suddenly witness to an outpouring of love
And sadness few had ever seen.
- Friends hug each other outside,
As hundreds gather inside to remember 24-year-old
Lindsay buziak.
One week after realtor lindsay buziak was murdered
At an empty million dollar home she was showing
To two new buyers,
Lindsay's friends and family said goodbye.
So many were at a loss to explain who might have
Been responsible for lindsay's death.
Her father, jeff.
- She was a spectacular young woman!
You would want to be part of her life.
You would want to be her friend.
How could you possibly think you want her dead?
- The task of unraveling the mystery fell to police
In saanich, a victoria suburb
That averaged about one murder a year.
- It shocked the community.
Shocked the officers that were investigating it.
Then-inspector rob mccoll led the investigation,
Backed by a team that included
Detective sergeant chris horsley.
♪♪
They began by reconstructing the last hours
Of lindsay's life.
And the bulk of those clues came from her boyfriend,
Jason zailo.
He told police the couple had lunch together
At this restaurant, then they split up.
Lindsay over to the house she was going to show
Those eager buyers,
Jason to take a contract to this auto detailing shop,
Before meeting lindsay back at the house
To drop off some papers.
- And so I said, "I'll come meet you.
"I'll-I'll be, you know, 10, 15 minutes or so."
♪♪
And I started driving.
And that's when she said to me, "okay, I'll see you in a bit.
"I gotta go. The mexicans are here."
- The mexicans was lindsay's shorthand name for the clients,
Who spoke with a strange accent.
While lindsay was meeting the couple,
This surveillance tape shows jason and a friend
Hopping into jason's range rover at 5:30 pm
To head for the house.
At 5:38 pm, police say jason sent lindsay a text.
- The last text that jason sent was
"just a couple minutes away."
That text was never opened by lindsay.
- Then, at 5:41 pm,
Just three minutes after jason sent that final text...
- Lindsay's blackberry made a phone call out,
And we believe that phone call
Was made as a result of the attack.
- That was buttons on her blackberry
Inadvertently being pressed during the attack?
- Exactly. It was-- it was truly a pocket dial,
'cause the blackberry was in her pocket.
- Police believe lindsay was murdered
During that three-minute time span,
Between 5:38 and 5:41 pm.
- Jason drove up minutes later around 5:45.
From his front seat, he says he saw something
Through the front door of the house.
- It's, like, kind of smoked glass,
And I saw a few, uh, people in-in the front entranceway.
- You saw what? Outlines of people
Through the glass? - Yes. Yeah.
- You couldn't tell how many people?
- I would say two.
- Outside, jason zailo said he did not want to appear
To be the meddling boyfriend,
So he pulled out of the cul-de-sac
And onto the main road to wait.
But after ten minutes or so,
He says he got a feeling something was wrong.
- When I text her, "are you okay?"
And I didn't get a text back,
That's what-what really worried me.
- Jason walked to the front door.
Through the window, he saw this--
Lindsay's shoes lying in the foyer,
Standard procedure for a realtor showing a house,
But then jason checked the door,
And found it locked.
It was 6:05 pm.
- I called 9-1-1 to say that my girlfriend's in the house,
And it's locked, and I can't get in,
And she's, you know, showing people houses.
In a panic mode, I just told them the address of the house,
And, you know, come.
I'm gonna-- I'm gonna get in the house
Or break in the house or something like that
To-to open it up.
- Jason boosted his friend over this fence
Onto the side patio.
The friend found an open door,
Then let in jason
Who found lindsay's body in an upstairs bedroom.
Another 9-1-1 call came in at 6:11 pm.
- She was just lying on her back, you know.
Not moving. Nothing.
So I went straight to her, tried to give her cpr.
I felt her skin. It was, uh--
She was already passed away.
- What were you thinking?
- You know, absolute shock.
I remember the police were on the phone,
And I kept yelling at them,
Saying, "hurry up! Hurry up! Hurry up!"
Even though in my mind,
I already knew that she was passed away.
- And in that terrible moment,
Jason realized that those figures he'd seen
Through the smoked glass of the front door
Were probably lindsay's killers.
But where had they gone?
K9 units were deployed,
But found no sign of the killers.
They'd apparently escaped on foot.
- At the crime scene,
Police found lindsay buziak dead
From dozens of viciously inflicted stab wounds,
Most to the head and chest.
No knife was left, but all the wounds
Appear to have been inflicted by one person.
The first thought for a crime in a million-dollar home--
Robbery, but nothing was taken.
Lindsay's purse, watch, wallet,
And her money were all left at the scene.
Investigators also considered sexual assault as a motive,
But an autopsy found no sign of it.
Crime scene investigators found almost nothing
In the way of fingerprints, dna,
And other physical evidence to work with.
Every room in the house was empty,
And they'd been cleaned just before the showing.
But as police blanketed the neighborhood after the murder,
They did turn up more than one witness
Who provided key information.
They had seen,
In the fading sunlight of a February Saturday,
Lindsay greeting the man and woman
As they arrived at the home around 5:30 pm.
- The witnesses are quite firm
In that it appeared to be a meeting,
A shaking of the hands,
So we're quite satisfied that the people that showed up
Were not known to lindsay.
- Lindsay had been killed, it appeared, by strangers.
Police concluded it had to be the couple
That had set up the showing,
And had lured lindsay to the scene of her own murder.
One witness was able to help police
With a composite sketch
Of the female seen meeting lindsay.
She's described as white, 35 to 40 years old,
With short blonde hair.
She was also, the witness said,
Wearing a colorful dress of white, black,
And either red or pink,
With a distinctive pattern.
And more clues to the identities of the killers
Came from lindsay's blackberry, stored there--
The phone number for the mexicans.
Detectives traced the phone the killers used
To contact lindsay.
It was a cell phone,
Purchased between three and six weeks before the murder
At a vancouver convenience store.
Surveillance tape of, uh, the sale?
- Gone, and, unfortunately,
The phone is a pay-to-talk.
Uh, there's no registration,
Other than quickly banging a name in online,
And, uh, your phone's up and running.
- And while the killers bought the phone weeks earlier,
They activated it via the internet
Less than 48 hours before the murder,
Making their movements difficult to trace.
The phone was registered
Under the name "paulo rodriguez."
- The name appears to be fictitious.
The address that the, uh, phone was registered
Also appears to be unrelated.
It is an actual address, but it's a business
In the-- in vancouver.
- And vancouver is from where the first calls
To lindsay were made,
Confirmed by hits on cell towers in the city.
Police say perhaps half a dozen calls
Were made to lindsay,
And after the murder,
The cell phone was never used again.
You're describing killers
Who are incredibly disciplined,
And are either very good,
Or just very lucky.
- Yeah, very much so,
And we're not sure which one.
- They may or may not have known lindsay,
But certainly they knew how to carry out a terrible crime
And then cover their tracks.
Could they be professionals?
Had someone sent them?
Was there more to lindsay's life than met the eye?
Detectives began by focusing on those closest to lindsay.
- The boyfriend and the ex--
Were either of them hiding secrets?
A father shares his suspicions.
- I've never seen a tear drop out of his eye.
Police return to the scene of the crime
For a dramatic reenactment,
When "dateline: Secrets uncovered" continues.
♪♪
- In an upscale, leafy suburb
Of victoria, british columbia,
Police believe lindsay buziak had been murdered
While showing a mysterious couple this lavish home.
But in the first days and weeks after her death,
Police focused not just on finding that couple
But on the emerging idea
That this may have been a murder for hire.
Police and her family
Began taking a hard look at lindsay herself
And her personal relationships.
- There were two theories when I arrived in victoria--
Instantly. - Lindsay's father, jeff.
What are the two theories? - The two theories--
It's boyfriend, or ex-boyfriend.
- Either jason or matt. - Or matt.
And, josh, I don't care who it is who killed lindsay.
I want to know who. I want them punished.
- And, in fact,
Just minutes after jason zailo discovered lindsay's body
On that Saturday evening in February 2008,
Saanich police had a suspect--
Jason zailo himself,
Found hunched over lindsay,
Covered in her blood.
Zailo was handcuffed, taken to the police station,
Questioned for hours,
And asked to give dna samples before being released.
Days later, police called jason back to the house...
- I was yelling, like, "lindsay! Lindsay! Lindsay!"
- ...To reenact his movements the night of the murder,
Shown in this never-before-released police video,
The walls of he house still covered with fingerprint powder
Left by investigators. - You doin' okay?
- Yep. - Okay.
[sighs]
- It brought back all the memories again,
And, uh, feelings. - What feelings?
- How you lose somebody so fast.
You know, one day, you're living with somebody,
Uh, and the next day, she's gone.
- But what possible reason might jason zailo have
To want lindsay buziak dead?
He says their relationship was a happy one,
But it turns out, there's another side to that story.
In the last months of her life,
Lindsay was telling family and friends
That she was thinking of breaking up with jason
As soon as several real estate deals closed.
Just six weeks before the murder,
In December 2007,
Lindsay and flown to calgary, alberta,
To tell her father that her relationship with jason
Wasn't working.
- She just said, "daddy, I made a mistake.
"I feel horrible about it."
But she said, "I can't do it anymore."
- Had she told jason this? - Not that I'm aware of.
- The story is confirmed by several of lindsay's friends.
But shortly after she made those statements,
Lindsay went on an after-christmas ski trip
With jason and his family.
Friends say lindsay then softened,
Reconsidered, and, in their words,
Was trying to make it work with jason.
You know there are people out there
Who say that she was gettin' ready to pull the plug
And move on. - Mm-hmm.
- Any truth to that, as far as you know?
- There's none. No. There's no truth to that.
- But what about jason's actions
After lindsay's murder?
Those who saw him claimed he was oddly unemotional,
Unlike virtually everyone else.
- ...Running up the stairs.
- Do you remember grabbing the banister at all, or--
- Uh-- - I was crying.
I couldn't keep myself together,
And he-- I didn't see any tears.
- I've never seen a tear drop out of his eye.
I've never seen a sniffle from his nose.
What the hell is with that?
- Your behavior after the murder
Has been described by some people
As emotionless.
You know, everybody else was shocked.
You were fine. - I wasn't fine.
People show their emotions in different ways.
- You have never spoken publicly about the death
Of your girlfriend. - No.
- What do you want people to know?
- I want people to know that, uh,
I love lindsay,
And I think about her every day.
Um, I want this case solved
As fast as possible.
I had nothing to do with it.
- And jason had a compelling witness on his side,
His friend who was with him
And who helped him get inside.
Footprints and fingerprints match their account
Of what they say the did at the house.
Lindsay buziak had been dead for more than two years
When saanich police granted unprecedented access
To "dateline's" unsolved case squad,
Sharing information from the files of an open case
With our experts.
Nbc news consultants at the time,
Dwayne stanton, a retired homicide detective
From washington, dc,
Who investigated chandra levy's murder,
Yolanda mcclary,
A retired crime scene investigator in las vegas,
And the model for the character on the hit series "csi,"
And alan jackson,
A former prosecutor in los angeles,
Who put legendary record producer phil spector
Behind bars for murder.
Jason zailo was a suspect
For a long time in this case.
- Right. - Right.
- It wasn't jason.
- You don't think it was jason.
- No. And look, let's not forget,
You don't-- what's rule number one
Of committing a homicide?
You don't bring a witness to a homicide.
He had somebody with him.
The perfect alibi is not that you drive right to the house
Where the murder took place
That you hired or had anything to do with.
You don't do that.
The dumbest criminals don't do that.
- And a full year after lindsay's murder,
Saanich police did, in fact, publicly announce
That they had cleared jason zailo.
So then who and why?
Our team agreed,
Lindsay was specifically targeted
In a scheme that was well thought out.
- There's a significant degree of planning
In this murder. - Absolutely.
- Oh, totally. - But it's artfully designed.
Work went into this.
Someone sat around a table, like we're doin' right now,
And came up with that plan.
- And that planning paid off, perhaps,
Even down to this dress, worn by the mystery woman,
The dress which made such an impression
On the eye witnesses.
- The dress is very unique,
And I kind of think it was designed to say--
Something they teach in investigators' school.
Do something out of the norm to draw attention from yourself.
Look at this, as opposed to seeing what I look like.
- And you know what? You're absolutely right,
And it might have worked,
Because everybody seems to have
This great description of the skirt.
- They remember the skirt. - But the only thing
They remember about the girl is that she had blonde hair
About up to her shoulders. - That's it. That's it.
- Our team also explored the theory
That the killers may have been hired professionals
With specific instructions
To express the anger
That someone else felt towards lindsay.
- I think someone got paid
To go commit that murder.
- And they were told make her suffer?
Make it brutal? - I believe that.
- I just don't see it that way.
I think that what happened inside that house
Was equal parts opportunity
And equal parts panic.
She was stabbed so many times,
Over and over and over, repeatedly,
Multiple stab wounds
That were completely, 100% unnecessary,
But I don't see that as sending a message.
I don't see that as being personal.
- Saanich police continued to investigate
Whether the motive was personal,
And they were not yet done focusing on people
Who lindsay buziak would have described as her friends.
- The other man who'd been part of lindsay's life.
Could he have had something to do with her death?
- There are people who think that you are involved.
- Yeah. - Are you involved?
- When "dateline: Secrets uncovered" continues.
♪♪
Welcome back to "dateline: Secrets uncovered."
I'm craig melvin.
Lindsay buziak was an ambitious, young real estate agent
Fatally stabbed during an evening showing.
Police cleared her boyfriend of any wrong doing,
And now, it was time to talk to her long-time ex boyfriend.
What might investigators learn about lindsay's life
To help them solve her death?
Back to josh mankiewicz with "the dream house mystery."
- As police in saanich, british columbia,
Worked to solve the murder of lindsay buziak,
They focused on those closest to her,
And lindsay's divorced parents seemed to have
Different suspects in mind.
Lindsay's father, jeff,
Suspected her boyfriend at the time of her death, jason zailo,
While her mother told friends she suspected
Lindsay's former boyfriend of five years, matt mcduff.
Mcduff watched in disgust
As saanich police announced
They had cleared jason zailo of suspicion.
- Mr. Jason zailo is not a suspect.
- I found that really odd. - Because?
- 'cause why would they clear somebody?
You don't clear anybody until somebody's behind bars, do ya?
- Mcduff was questioned after lindsay's murder.
He denied any involvement.
- You know there are people--
Lindsay's mother, for example,
Who think that you are involved.
- Yeah. - Are you involved?
- No. - Did you have anything
To do with lindsay's murder? - No.
See, the mom thinks that because if it wasn't me,
Who could have done it, right?
She has to vent her anger at somebody,
And that just happens to be me.
- But it's clear matt mcduff was on lindsay's mind
Around the time of the murder.
In fact, boyfriend jason's mother, shirley zailo,
A manager at lindsay's real estate firm,
Says she and lindsay took a walk
The day before the murder
And shirley says lindsay,
Who had, at the time, less than 24 hours to live,
Told her this.
- She talked about her ex-boyfriend,
That she was afraid of matt.
- Why was she afraid of matt?
- I don't think she really got into the detail.
I guess she was a little disappointed
In how matt had treated her throughout the relationship.
- Shirley zailo is the only person we spoke with
In our reporting who told us
Lindsay was afraid of matt around the time of the murder.
Of course, she is the mother of the man who was,
At one time, the prime suspect,
And, by the way, police tell us
That when lindsay was killed,
Matt and lindsay had been apart for nearly two years.
Each had moved on to new relationships,
And, according to police,
They'd had no contact for months before the murder.
Matt mcduff does acknowledge
That back when they were together,
He and lindsay had a relationship
That was, at times, rocky. Tumultuous?
- Yeah, I don't know what that word means,
But I wouldn't go that far, no.
- Stormy? - Oh, yeah. Stormy, yeah.
Real stormy at times. Sure.
- In fact, sources say lindsay called police about matt
At least three times,
But no criminal charges were ever filed.
- Did the arguing ever get physical?
- No. - She never hit you?
- You never hit her? - Oh, she hit me a few times.
That's just what she was. She was feisty.
But if she was pissed off at you, you'd know it.
- You ever hit her back? - No.
She's a tiny girl, you know, a hundred pounds.
I'm 200. If I hit a girl, they'd be-- no.
- But while shirley zailo may claim
That lindsay was afraid of matt,
Many of lindsay's friends
Have an entirely different explanation
Of why matt might have been on her mind
Around the time of the murder.
It was likely, they say,
Because she was thinking of leaving jason
And getting back together with matt.
Her father said lindsay said as much
On her trip to visit him
Just six weeks before her death.
- She said, "daddy, I miss matt so much."
She said, "I'm really confused. I don't know what to do."
It hurt me to see her like that.
She knew it was over,
But she hadn't got over it.
- Her friends said matt had a hold on lindsay,
Just like the man known as "big"
Had on the star of that tv show
Lindsay and her friends liked so much.
- That was her big from "sex and the city."
That's what she called matt. - She called matt "mr. Big"?
- Mm-hmm. [laughs]
I think just the love she had with him
Just wasn't the same with jason.
- Saanich police tell "dateline"
They have no evidence pointing to matt mcduff,
No reason to suspect him at all,
And that he was at least an hour away from the crime scene
At the time of the murder,
In another area of the island
With the family of his new girlfriend
Who is now his wife.
- So where would the motive be?
Although there is some unique dynamics that they had
In their relationship,
There's been nothing, nothing that would say
He was involved in any way in this crime.
- What's it like to know that she's gone
And you don't even know why?
You don't even know the motive?
- That's why we have to find out.
It's tough.
- And with police saying
The two men who seemed closest to lindsay
Were apparently not involved in her death,
Police widened the circle of suspicion.
- A new theory about the case.
- Was she friends with people who were involved in crime?
- Yes. People that she associated with
Were involved in crime.
- Were police getting closer?
When "dateline: Secrets uncovered" continues.
♪♪
In the 18 months after lindsay buziak's murder,
Police in the victoria, british columbia suburb of saanich
Investigated hundreds of leads,
Served dozens of warrants,
But they seemed not much closer to finding this woman,
The blonde, 35 to 40 years old,
Wearing a distinctive dress, witnesses said,
Who spoke with a spanish accent, and who,
Along with a man described as white and well-dressed,
6 feet tall with dark, possibly brown hair,
Set up a showing with lindsay,
Met her at the door of this nearly $1 million home
In February 2008,
And then viciously stabbed lindsay to death.
The working theory of the crime was a targeted hit,
Carried out by two killers who brought a knife
To a real estate showing.
But who would wanna kill a young realtor
Who seemed to have no enemies?
It was forcing investigators
To think way outside the box.
It seems to me that you're really looking for,
Probably, at least three people here.
I mean, you're looking for the two people in the home
That committed that murder,
And then I'm guessing whoever paid them.
- I think you're absolutely right
And it may be that one of those two people
Who were at the home is in fact the mastermind
Behind this and perhaps the money,
But I think it's also equally possible,
And more likely, there's a third or fourth
Or a fifth person involved.
- That's a criminal conspiracy of some significance,
To wipe out this young realtor.
What set of facts possibly fits with that?
- Large amount of money, large amount of drugs.
Considerable wrong done
To whoever the, uh, financier is behind this.
- Saanich police are quick to say,
As are lindsay's family and friends,
That there's no evidence she was involved
In anything illegal.
- She was the cleanest girl you'd ever meet.
- You can't see her getting involved in anything illegal?
- No, no.
She worked hard to get her license.
She wouldn't risk anything to lose it.
- But the longer her murder went unsolved,
The more rumors there were.
Lindsay was either a witness in a drug case,
Or a police informant.
Neither is true, say police,
But a drug angle has emerged
As a leading theory in her murder.
Is there any evidence that lindsay used recreational drugs?
- No.
- And there's no evidence that she committed
Any criminal offenses either.
- Was she associated with or friends with
People who were involved in crime?
- Yes, yes, she was.
There was an element of people that she associated with
That were involved in-in crime.
- Remember, victoria is a relatively small town,
And because lindsay was young and liked to go out to clubs,
The crowd she inevitably hung out with
Would include people who operated
On the fringes of the law.
- So this friend that you've known all your life
Might end up being your friend the drug dealer?
- Could be.
You might bump into them at a club.
And some of the theories that we developed
Over the course of this investigation
Was simply that she had potentially said
The wrong thing at the wrong time
Or had heard something at the wrong time
And, uh, caused her this grief.
- In fact, police are now exploring
An incident that occurred
During lindsay's last visit with her father.
While visiting calgary, lindsay made contact
With at least two men,
Old friends she grew up with.
And just a month later, one of those men
Was arrested in what police called
The largest cocaine bust in alberta history,
67 kilos, worth more than $6 million.
- Someone might've been angry,
Did a witch hunt take place?
And did someone point the finger at lindsay
Because she happened to have been in calgary at the time?
- Coincidence, because this is a small town?
Or, maybe she saw something she shouldn't have seen?
- Could go either way.
- If so, we now know it was not true.
Police say lindsay was not the informant.
Police have floated this idea
That she was killed by mistake.
- It happens.
Um, it doesn't seem very reasonable.
- Not reasonable.
- If there's no evidence that they've uncovered
That suggests that she was an informant,
That she was diming off drug dealers
Or a cartel or anything like that,
Then where's the evidence that the cartel would have
That she was doing that?
It-it just seems like a red herring to me.
- I think her just being there for the weekend
To go see her father does not add up.
She doesn't sell drugs.
She's not in their business.
- So the idea that this is some impersonal hit
Being ordered by drug dealers
Half a-half a country away--?
- Makes no logical sense.
- Whatever the motive is, it's personal.
- And you know what? I don't, uh, think it's a drug cartel.
- Coming up...
So what was it, and who was it?
Our team profiles the killers.
- I think it's somebody that she knows.
- When "dateline: Secrets uncovered" continues.
- February, 2010,
Two years since lindsay buziak's murder.
Her mother, evelyn,
Who's declined dateline's requests for an interview,
And maintained her silence in the media since the murder,
Made a public plea for information.
- Having lindsay taken from us
Has been excruciatingly painful.
Please call the police so that we can have
Closure for lindsay's death.
- The family first offered a $100,000 reward.
But with no arrest, the family has dropped that offer.
Frustration among family and friends
Has been mounting.
- Who would plan a hit on your daughter?
- God, I wish I knew that, josh.
I wish I could get my paws on them.
- For the saanich police, the death of lindsay buziak
Has led down a frustrating series of blind alleys
Without motives or answers.
- To say that we're on the cusp of a breakthrough
Would be a lie.
Uh, we desperately need some help.
This is a highly unusual situation for us here in canada
To be pursuing this in as public a way
As-as we are,
And that speaks to, I think, our commitment
And-- but also, to some degree, our desperation,
Uh, as we-as we grasp for anything that we can use
To bring these people to justice.
- Is the person behind this...
Somebody lindsay knows,
Or is the person behind this
Someone unknown to her?
- Someone she knows.
- Somebody, I think, very close to her.
- I agree, I think it's somebody that she knows.
- Somebody in the same type of business.
- Correct. I mean, the-the--
In the same real estate firm, uh, who knows?
- The man and the woman who actually committed this murder,
What do you think's in their background?
- They're gonna have a criminal history.
And more than likely, I would look for violent crimes.
It's an unusual complexion of the case
That they worked together, a-a man and a woman,
A male and a female working in tandem
To commit this kind of violent crime.
- Right. - I also am not convinced
That these were highly polished professionals.
- No. - The way that the crime was committed itself,
To me, shows a level of panic,
Uh, shows a level of, uh, unsophistication.
- I-I agree. - I'd call it planned,
Not necessarily professional, but planned.
- Planned, well planned.
- Is there any chance that although these killers
Were not known to lindsay,
They weren't planning on murdering her
Until they went in the house together,
And then in there, something happened,
A fight started, she gets killed?
- And the people pull a butcher knife
Out of their purse or out of their sock?
I-- no, it-it doesn't seem right.
- If there's a chance, it's ever so minute.
I mean, it's small.
- What needs to happen for an arrest to be made?
- Um-- - some-someone needs to come forward.
- Yeah, agreed. - Unfortunately.
You have an empty house,
You have very little that was touched.
So it is a forensic nightmare.
- This case is not gonna be solved
Based on forensic evidence.
This case is gonna be solved by loose lips.
Somebody's gonna talk about something.
- For lindsay's friends, the lack of an arrest
Has left many too frightened to speak to us on camera.
- Why are you here and so many other people aren't?
- I can't live my life everyday,
Knowing that there's somebody out there
That did this to her. I can't.
It's not right.
It makes me sick that there's somebody out there
That did this to my best friend.
- Two years after her death, lindsay's boyfriend told us
There was a kind of numbness that wouldn't go away.
- I think about it daily, yeah.
- You think it'll ever go away?
- No.
No.
- And for lindsay's father,
There was determination bordering on obsession.
There was barely-controlled rage.
And finally, there was a vow
To defend the daughter he couldn't help
On that February day.
- I'm not gonna let her down, josh.
The only way I'm gonna stop right now
Finding out who killed her,
Is die myself, and I'll be dying trying.
I guarantee you that.
- You're gonna find out.
- I am going to find out.
If it kills me.
- That's all for this edition of "dateline: Secrets uncovered".
I'm craig melvin. Thank you for watching.