An already bizarre shootout that killed a U.S. Border Patrol agent and a suspect on a highway near the Canadian border is unfurling into a sprawling investigation encompassing four other killings allegedly linked to an odd cabal of young math and computer whizzes sharing a passion for artificial intelligence, veganism, fringe philosophy and gender fluidity.
None of the attacks — resulting in six deaths in three states — have been against grand, ideologically chosen targets, as is often found with terror groups or radical cells, but rather seem to be small-minded targets based on personal grievances.
Alongside Border Patrol agent David Maland, who was killed in a gunfight Jan. 20 when agents confronted a couple on a Vermont highway, there is a murder of a man in California who was scheduled to testify against associates of the group for a previous attack, during which that victim killed one of his attackers, and a double killing in Pennsylvania of parents of another person allegedly linked to the group.
Teresa Youngblut, 22, from Seattle, was injured but survived the highway shootout, and is accused of starting it by suddenly firing at agents during the interaction.
At a court appearance Thursday, federal prosecutors argued Youngblut should not be released because of her “willingness to use deadly force in an otherwise non-violent scenario,” a “history of interstate and international travel indicating she has the financial means and capacity to flee,” and “her associations with other individuals suspected of violent acts,” a reference to what looks like a cabal or cult-like group.
She was denied bail and held in custody. Her lawyer declined to comment on the case and the widening allegations.
Also shot and killed in the highway gunfight was the passenger in the Toyota Prius that Youngblut was driving, identified in court documents as Felix Bauckholt, who was a German national working in New York City as a quantitative trader after graduating in Canada with a degree in mathematics, from the University of Waterloo. Youngblut studied computer science at the University of Washington.
Bauckholt, according to friends and state authorities, was transitioning from male to female and went by the name Ophelia. Youngblut had apparently adopted the name Milo and used changing pronouns.
“I would say that Ophelia was not personally violent, and also, I didn’t have any indication that Ophelia was interested in guns or liked using guns. I did have some indication that Ophelia had some left anarchist views that might justify political violence in some circumstances, but there was nothing extreme or unusual going on there,” said Jessica Taylor, who was a friend.
“I describe Ophelia as kind of like, nonconformist and maybe doesn’t understand normal people very well. But she is social in the context of having close friends. More of a serious person.”
Bauckholt lived in New Jersey when the two met in 2022 at a rationalist group event in New York and was in her late 20s or early 30s. Taylor and Bauckholt bonded easily: “We were both transitioning, were into technology, mathematics. I’m not vegan but we discussed the ethics of that.”
Youngblut and Bauckholt seemed to also share those same interests, along with a circle of highly educated others.
Youngblut and Bauckholt attracted attention in smalltown Vermont by walking around in all-black clothes, described as tactical gear, with Youngblut carrying a gun in a holster, according to a criminal complaint filed in court. After a suspicious hotel clerk reported them to police, they rebuffed conversation with responding officers, and left the hotel for another one further north, closer to Canada. During periodic police surveillance over the next few days, officers saw Bauckholt buy rolls of aluminum foil and wrap unknown items in foil while sitting in the Prius.
Border Patrol agents stopped their Prius while it was heading south on Interstate 91, about 13 kilometres south of the Quebec border. That’s when a gun battle erupted.
Surviving Border Patrol agents told authorities that Youngblut had a Glock 23 .40-caliber handgun in her possession after the shooting and Bauckholt had been reaching for a .380-calibre handgun when shot.
The investigation then exploded well beyond the highway.
Tracing the serial numbers showed the guns had been bought by someone from Orleans, Vt., near the shooting, a criminal complaint filed in court says.
At least one of those guns, Pennsylvania State Police said Wednesday, was linked by investigators to an unsolved double homicide outside Philadelphia.
The person who bought the guns, state police said, is “a person of interest” in the murders of Rita and Richard Zajko.
On Jan. 2, 2023, 72-year-old Richard Zajko and 69-year-old Rita Zajko were found dead in their home in Chester Heights, a small borough of about 3,000 people, 30 kilometres west of Philadelphia.
Police had been called to their large house lavishly decorated with Christmas lights for a welfare check. The couple were not well. Investigators said they had been shot dead inside their home two days earlier, on New Year’s Eve.
“As this is an active investigation, no additional information can be disseminated at this time,” said Pennsylvania State Trooper Paul Holdefer.
Authorities have not publicly identified the person who bought the gun.
In the days after the highway shooting of the border agent, however, alerts from a federal agency and police were issued about Michelle J. Zajko, believed to be the daughter of the two killed in the Pennsylvania home.
The alert, according to the Times Union, a New York newspaper, said Zajko is considered armed and dangerous and adheres to an “anti-law enforcement ideology.”
Police agencies in several states were warned to watch for Zajko, and gun dealers were asked to contact the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives if they had information about firearms sold to Zajko.
According to a public records database, a Michelle Zajko was registered to vote in 2016 at the same home address in Pennsylvania as Richard and Rita Zajko, Associated Press reported. In 2021, a Michelle Zajko bought a half-acre piece of property in Derby, Vt., near the highway shooting. According to town records, the land is undeveloped.
Zajko has not been charged in the case and could not be reached for comment. Zajko is allegedly also known, or previously known, as Jamie.
Bauckholt flew into the United States hours before the Pennsylvania slayings, U.S. Attorney Michael Drescher, prosecutor in the Vermont case, said in a court filing.
All three — Bauckholt, Youngblut, and Zajko — allegedly “are acquainted with and have been in frequent contact with” another person who had previously been detained during the Pennsylvania probe of the killings and who was a person of interest in a murder investigation in California.
Although not specified in the court document, that murder probe likely is a reference to this: On Friday, Jan. 24 — before Youngblut made her first court appearance in the Vermont case — Maximillian Bentley Snyder, 22, from Kirkland, Wash., was arrested on a warrant in California for murder.
In November, Youngblut had applied for a marriage licence in a Seattle suburb, according to municipal records — not to marry Bauckholt — but Snyder. It is unknown if they ever married. Requests for comment from Snyder made prior to his arrest have not been returned.
The arrest warrant for Snyder was for a murder that occurred three days before the Vermont shootout.
On Jan. 17, at around 2:18 p.m., in Vallejo, about 50 kilometres north of San Francisco, police responded to a stabbing near an intersection two blocks from the waterfront. Officers found an elderly man with at least one stab wound, according to the Vallejo Police Department. The man died soon after in hospital.
The victim was 82-year-old Curtis Lind, and he was stabbed outside his property, which was the scene of an earlier vicious attack on him.
Lind was attacked in 2022 in a dispute with squatters staying on his land without paying rent. Witnesses told local media at the time they saw Lind with a samurai sword pierced through his back and sticking out through his chest. Lind shot two of his attackers, killing one and injuring a second.
His accused attackers are closely connected to many involved in the cabal and other incidents and attacks.
“He miraculously survived being stabbed multiple times, had a sword impaled through his chest and ultimately lost his right eye,” his family said in a statement on a GoFundMe fundraising page.
Lind was scheduled to appear as a witness against two people charged in the earlier attack on him.
On Jan. 24, at 1 a.m., Snyder was arrested in Redding, Calif., 300 kilometres north of the crime scene. He was taken without incident, police said. A felony complaint filed in Solano County court accuses Snyder of lying in wait for Lind with a knife.
Lind was killed “for the purpose of preventing his testimony in a criminal proceeding or to retaliate for his testimony in criminal proceeding,” the complaint filed in court says.
Jail records describe Snyder as 5-foot-8, 140 pounds, with hazel eyes and brown hair. Photographs taken at Snyder’s court appearance show a thin man with long dark hair hanging below his chest.
Like Bauckholt and Youngblut, Snyder could be described as a geek.
His LinkedIn profile said he attended Britain’s University of Oxford for computer science and philosophy until 2024, interning with NASA, and describes him as a “passionate scholar, data scientist, and creator.”
His work experience is listed as creating and coordinating Dungeons & Dragons characters and consulting on a range of roleplaying topics, as well as being a private tutor for algebra, geometry, and calculus.
Another person criminally charged and linked to the group — who seems likely to be the central figure described in the document filed in Youngblut’s case — is Jack Amadeus LaSota, who turned 34 last week.
LaSota is nicknamed Ziz and was such a prominent and influential figure within the group gathering around them, they are often referred to as Zizians. As a group, and led by LaSota, they disagreed and feuded with others in the rationalist stream of thought, including an eerie protest at an outdoor retreat when Zizians allegedly protested wearing black robes and Guy Fawkes masks.
Like many others in the cabal, LaSota had changed genders. He was born male and presented as female with female pronouns, said someone who personally knew LaSota but did not want to be named.
LaSota was arrested 11 days after the Zajkos were found dead in Pennsylvania, and charged with obstructing law enforcement and disorderly conduct.
That was a surprise for many who knew LaSota; LaSota had been reported dead in 2022 from a boating accident. A paid obituary ran in a local paper. LaSota appears to have faked their death.
LaSota’s arrest was tangentially connected to the Zajko shootings. Court records obtained by AP say police were searching for a gun used in two killings when LaSota was arrested at a hotel room 16 kilometres from the Zajkos’ house.
LaSota had been released on bail and a trial date was set for Dec. 4, 2023, but court records say the defendant was not present in court when court convened. LaSota’s whereabouts are unknown. Delaware County Court says an active bench warrant for LaSota’s arrest was issued on the date of the trial. LaSota has made no further appearance in court and could not be reached for comment.
LaSota’s lawyer at the time, Daniel McGarrigle, declined to discuss his client’s status or circumstances.
“I represent the defendant LaSota and if and when the charges are brought to trial I intend to represent my client,” McGarrigle said. Asked about all the wider issues unfurling, he said: “I’m not going to comment on any of that, that doesn’t have anything to do with my case.”
When LaSota was released on bail, there was a private online alert to other rationalists, saying: “Some people in the rationalist community are concerned about risks of physical violence from Ziz and some of her associates.”
Rationalism is an intellectual ideology orbiting artificial intelligence and decision making that became a subculture among some techies gravitating to the San Francisco Bay area. LaSorta was a prolific blog writer on rationalist thinking and his ideas and his followers splintered from the already fringe orthodoxy.
Taylor, who has had contact with people involved with rationalist ideology and socially met some Zizians, said there is a phenotype among the group that leans toward gender fluidity.
“Among people who are heavy into technology and analytics, a disproportionate number are trans. I’m not sure what’s going on with that. Among Zizians and their associates, almost everyone is transgender. It’s not a prerequisite, just correlated.”
Taylor is a former research fellow at the Machine Intelligence Research Institute, a rationalist non-profit organization. In late 2023, Taylor said Bauckholt seemed to become more secretive, started travelling more, and showed greater anxiety. Then Bauckholt cut off contact with Taylor and other non-Zizian friends.
“I suspect that was a radicalization phase, but I have no way of knowing,” Taylor said.
“I do think their ideology is definitely not pacifist. It’s also definitely not legalist — they’re willing to do violence. There were times when they believed violence was justified when normal people would not.”
The FBI has acknowledged the swirling allegations and suspicion.
“Teresa Youngblut is believed to have associations with other individuals suspected of violent acts in multiple states, to include Pennsylvania and California,” the agency said in a statement late Thursday.
“The FBI is coordinating information sharing on any case related details with our partners from various law enforcement agencies to effectively follow every lead and aggressively investigate these connections.”
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