Daughter of slain Pa. couple arrested with murderous cult leader, officials say – NBC Philadelphia
A Pennsylvania woman who was a person of interest in her parents’ murders was arrested along with an apparent cult leader connected to multiple homicides across three states, including the killing of a U.S. Border Patrol agent, officials said.On Sunday, Feb. 16, shortly after 2:30 p.m., Maryland State Police troopers arrested Jack Lasota, 34, of Berkely, California, Michelle Zajko, 32, of Media, Pennsylvania, and Daniel Blank, 26, of Sacramento, California, on Piney Mountain Road in Frostburg, Maryland.Philadelphia news 24/7: Watch NBC10 free wherever you areLasota was charged with trespassing, obstructing and hindering and firearm in vehicle. Zajko was charged with trespassing, obstructing and hindering, resisting arrest and handgun on person. Blank was charged with trespassing, obstructing and hindering. All three were transported to the Allegany County Detention Center in Maryland. A bail hearing for Lasota and Zajko is scheduled for Tuesday, Feb. 18, at 11 a.m.Lasota is the apparent leader of the cultlike group known as the Zizians while Zajko is a member, according to investigators. The Zizians have been tied to the killing of U.S. Border Patrol Agent David Maland near the Canadian border in January 2025. Maland, 44, was killed in a Jan. 20 shootout following a traffic stop in Coventry, Vermont, a small town about 20 miles (32 kilometers) from the Canadian border. Teresa Youngblut, 21, was arrested and charged in Maland’s murder. She had been traveling with Felix Bauckholt, a German citizen who also was killed, and the pair had been under surveillance for several days.According to an FBI affidavit, Maland pulled over Youngblut and Bauckholt on Interstate 91 to conduct an immigration inspection. At the time, Bauckholt appeared to have an expired visa, according to a Department of Homeland Security database, but investigators later confirmed that his visa was current, the FBI said.Youngblut, who had been driving Bauckholt’s car, got out and opened fire on Maland and other officers without warning, the FBI alleges. Bauckholt tried to draw a gun but was shot, the affidavit states.At least one border agent fired on Youngblut and Bauckholt, but authorities haven’t specified whose bullets hit whom.According to a motion filed in January, the gun used by Youngblut and the one that Bauckholt was carrying were purchased by a third person in Vermont in February 2024. That buyer was a person of interest in the 2022 murders of 71-year-old Richard Zajko and his wife, 68-year-old Rita Zajko, in Delaware County, Pennsylvania, state police confirmed.The two victims were shot to death inside their home on Highland Drive in Chester Heights back on Dec. 31, 2022.Police later identified the person of interest in their deaths as their daughter, Michelle Zajko, according to NBC News. Zajko, Lasota and Blank were all initially taken into custody in connection to Richard and Rita Zajko’s deaths back in 2023 but were not charged with their murders at the time, NBC News reported.Investigators ultimately linked Lasota and Zajko to the cultlike group known as the Zizians. In addition to the murders of Maland and Zajko’s parents, the group was also allegedly involved in four other homicides in Vermont and California, according to investigators.The Associated Press described the Zizians as a group of young, highly intelligent computer scientists, most of them in their 20s and 30s, who met online, shared anarchist beliefs, and became increasingly violent.Their goals aren’t clear, but online writings span topics from radical veganism and gender identity to artificial intelligence.At the middle of it all is “Ziz,” who appears to be the leader of the group. She has been seen near multiple crime scenes and has connections to various suspects.LaSota published a dark and sometimes violent blog under the name Ziz and, in one section, described her theory that the two hemispheres of the brain could hold separate values and genders and “often desire to kill each other.”LaSota, who used she/her pronouns, and in her writings says she is a transgender woman, railed against perceived enemies, including so-called rationalist groups, which operate mostly online and seek to understand human cognition through reason and knowledge. Some are concerned with the potential dangers of artificial intelligence.LaSota has not responded to multiple Associated Press emails in recent weeks, and her attorney Daniel McGarrigle declined to comment when asked whether she is connected to any of the deaths. Before her weekend arrest, she missed court appearances in two states, and bench warrants have been issued for her arrest.Reached on Monday, McGarrigle would only confirm that he has represented LaSota and wouldn’t confirm her arrest or any details of the latest case.
