What to know about the killing of a Border Patrol agent and its ties to the cultlike Zizians group

What to know about the killing of a Border Patrol agent and ties to a cultlike group

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The killing of a U.S. Border Patrol agent near the Canadian border last month has been linked to a cultlike group at the center of five other homicides in three states. (AP Video: Rodrique Ngowi, Matt Rourke, Terry Chea. Production: Rodrique Ngowi.)

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Flowers sit outside the property where San Francisco Bay Area prosecutors say Maximilian Snyder killed landlord Curtis Lind in Vallejo, California, Friday, Jan. 31, 2025. (AP Photo/Janie Har)

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In this Jan., 2023 booking photo provided by the Delaware County, Pennsylvania, District Attorney’s Office, Jack LaSota refused to speak and kept her eyes closed while being photographed after being detained in a hotel in suburban Pennsylvania on Jan. 23, 2023. (Delaware County, Pennsylvania, District Attorney’s Office via AP)

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Law enforcement follow a hearse carrying fallen border patrol agent David Maland from the UVM Medical Center morgue to a funeral home in Burlington, Vt., Thursday, Jan. 23, 2025. (WCAX via AP, File)

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This image taken from video provided by WCAX shows police cars closing off a road after a shooting involving a U.S. Border Patrol agent on Interstate 91 near Coventry, Vt., on Jan. 20, 2025. (WCAX via AP, File)

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This Jan. 29, 2025 photo shows a Chester Heights, Pa., home, the scene of the 2022 killing of Richard and Rita Zajko, (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)

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FILE- Cars are backed up at the US-Canada border in Stanstead, Quebec, after a shooting involving a U.S. Border Patrol agent in Coventry, Vt., on Jan. 20, 2025. (AP Photo/Chloe Jones, File)

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FBI agents search a neighborhood in Chapel Hill, North Carolina on Wednesday, Feb. 5, 2025., where Teresa Youngblut and Felix Bauckholt, who were involved in the shooting death of a U.S. Border Patrol agent in Vermont, had been renting homes, their landlord told The Associated Press. (WRAL-TV via AP)

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In this combination of undated photos provided by the Pennsylvania State Police, Richard Zajko, left, and his wife Rita Zajko, who police say were shot to death in their home in suburban Philadelphia on Dec. 31, 2022, are shown. (Pennsylvania State Police via AP)

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This combination of images from top left shows 2019 Sonoma County Sheriff’s office booking mug shots of Jack LaSota, Alexander Leatham, Emma Borhanian and, at bottom left, Gwen Danielson, court appearance of Maximilian Snyder and a Newport City Inn surveillance video image of Teresa Youngblut. They are associates of LaSota, also known as “Ziz.” (AP Photo)

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Teresa Youngblut, who is charged by the FBI in connection to the shooting death of US Border Patrol Agent David Maland, is seen in the office at the Newport City Inn on Jan. 14, 2025 in Newport, Vermont, in this still frame photograph from surveillance video released by the inn, who confirmed her identity. (Newport City Inn surveillance video image via , File)

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Maximilian Snyder, who is charged with allegedly killing an 82-year-old Vallejo landlord to prevent him from testifying in a murder case against his former tenants, walks into court for arraignment Thursday, Feb 6, 2025, in Fairfield, Calf. (AP Photo/Terry Chea)

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In this undated and unknown location photo released by the Department of Homeland Security shows Border Patrol Agent David Maland posing with a service dog. (Department of Homeland Security via AP, File)

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Maximilian Snyder appears in court for arraignment on Thursday in Fairfield, Calif. Snyder is charged with allegedly killing an 82-year-old Vallejo landlord to prevent him from testifying in a murder case against his former tenants. Snyder asked for additional weeks to find proper counsel, moving the case back to Vallejo. (Chris Riley/Times-Herald)/The Times-Herald via AP)

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FBI agents search a neighborhood in Chapel Hill, North Carolina on Wednesday, Feb. 5, 2025, where Teresa Youngblut and Felix Bauckholt, who were involved in the shooting death of a U.S. Border Patrol agent in Vermont, had been renting homes in the neighborhood, their landlord told The Associated Press. (WRAL-TV via AP)

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Maximilian Snyder, who is charged with allegedly killing an 82-year-old Vallejo landlord to prevent him from testifying in a murder case against his former tenants, walks into court with his hands up for arraignment Thursday, Feb 6, 2025, in Fairfield, Calf. (Chris Riley, Times-Herald via AP)/The Times-Herald via AP)

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Flowers sit outside the property where San Francisco Bay Area prosecutors say Maximilian Snyder killed landlord Curtis Lind in Vallejo, California, Friday, Jan. 31, 2025. (AP Photo/Janie Har)

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Teresa Youngblut, bottom, who is charged by the FBI in connection to the shooting death of US Border Patrol Agent David Maland, and Felix Bauckholt, top who were traveling with Youngblut, are seen in the office at the Newport City Inn on Jan. 14, 2025 in Newport, Vermont, in this still frame photograph from surveillance video released by the inn, who confirmed her identity. (Newport City Inn surveillance video image via AP)

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FBI agents search a neighborhood in Chapel Hill, North Carolina on Wednesday, Feb. 5, 2025 where Teresa Youngblut and Felix Bauckholt, who were involved in the shooting death of a U.S. Border Patrol agent in Vermont, had been renting homes in the neighborhood, their landlord told The Associated Press. (WRAL-TV via AP)

By PATRICK WHITTLE and HOLLY RAMER

The killing of U.S. Border Patrol Agent David Maland near the Canadian border last month and five other homicides in Vermont, Pennsylvania and California have been tied to a cultlike group.

Interviews and online postings reveal how young computer scientists described by those who know them as highly intelligent appear to have become increasingly violent.

Border agent killed in Vermont

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. Washington state resident Teresa Youngblut, 21, faces two weapons charges in connection with the killing.

She was traveling with German citizen Felix Bauckholt, who is also listed in court documents as Ophelia. Both had connections to a cultlike group known in online communities as “Zizians” because of their affinity for a blogger who calls herself “Ziz.” The pair had been under the surveillance of authorities for several days after an employee at a hotel where they were staying reported seeing Youngblut carrying a gun.

Bauckholt died in the Vermont shootout. Authorities have not specified whose bullets hit whom. Youngblut’s lawyer said through a spokesperson that they are not commenting. Youngblut pleaded not guilty in federal court on Feb. 7.

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Connection to Ziz

Jack LaSota, 34, of Berkeley, California, 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.

When LaSota left the rationalists behind, she took with her a group of “extremely vulnerable and isolated” followers, Anna Salamon, executive director of the Center for Applied Rationality, told the San Francisco Chronicle.

In North Carolina, a landlord told The Associated Press that he had been renting two condos to Bauckholt and Youngblut. LaSota also had been living with Bauckholt as recently as this winter, said the landlord, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of concerns for his safety.

First arrests

In November 2019, LaSota, Emma Borhanian, 31, Gwen Danielson and Alexander Leatham, 29 were arrested at a protest outside a Northern California retreat center where a rationalist group was holding an event. The group said they were protesting sexual misconduct inside the group.

Deaths in California

In 2022, landlord Curtis Lind went to court to evict Borhanian, LaSota, Leatham and other tenants who had stopped paying rent at a Vallejo, California, property. Two days before the Nov. 15 eviction deadline, prosecutors say Leatham, Borhanian and Suri Dao attacked him.

Lind shot his attackers, killing Borhanian and wounding Leatham. He survived being impaled with a sword but lost an eye. Prosecutors concluded he acted in self-defense and charged Dao and Leatham with violent crimes.

On Jan. 17, the 82-year-old landlord was stabbed to death. Maximilian Snyder, 22, who applied for a marriage license with Teresa Youngblut in Washington state in November, is charged with murder.

Pennsylvania couple killed

On New Year’s Eve 2022, Rita and Richard Zajko were shot and killed in Chester Heights, Pennsylvania.

Police questioned the couple’s daughter, Michelle, at her home in Vermont, and a few weeks later, took her into custody at a Pennsylvania hotel. She was not arrested or charged. LaSota was at the hotel, too, and was arrested after refusing to cooperate with officers, and charged with obstructing law enforcement and disorderly conduct.

Six months later, LaSota was released on bail but stopped showing up for court. LaSota’s attorney, Daniel McGarrigle, said last month his client was “wholly and unequivocally innocent of the charges filed in this case.”

LaSota, 34, has not responded to multiple Associated Press emails in recent week. She has missed court appearances in two states, and bench warrants have been issued for her arrest. Associated Press reporters have left numerous phone and e-mail messages with LaSota’s family and received no response.

Her whereabouts are unknown and McGarrigle declined to say whether he’s had recent contact with his client.