Daughter of slain Delco couple arrested in Maryland; allegedly connected to cultlike group: police
Lasota is the apparent leader of a cultlike group known as 'Zizians.' Zajko is also reportedly a member of the group, the AP says
PHILADELPHIA (WPVI) -- The daughter of a slain Delaware County couple was arrested in Maryland over the weekend on trespassing and weapon charges, according to state police.
Michelle Zajko, 33, of Media, Pennsylvania, and Jack Lasota, 34, of Berkeley, Calif., and Daniel Arthur Blank, 26, of Sacramento, Calif., were arrested on Sunday in Frostburg, Maryland.
Police say Lasota was arrested and charged with trespassing, obstructing & hindering, firearm in vehicle. Zajko was arrested and charged with trespassing, obstructing & hindering, resisting arrest, handgun on person; and Blank was arrested and charged with trespassing, obstructing and hindering.
According to charging documents obtained by Action News, the trio was observed trespassing a property on Piney Mt. Road while dressed in all black. The group allegedly asked a resident if they could camp in the area for about a month, but they were told to leave.
When officers arrived, they observed two white box trucks parked at the end of the roadway. In one of the vehicles, police say two of the suspects were wearing gun belts with ammo in the belt. A further search led to the discovery of a long rifle in the back of the truck and a handgun on the floorboard, police noted.
"All of the subjects involved are to be questioned regarding other crimes that have occurred across the country," the complaint noted.
A bail hearing was scheduled for 11 a.m. Tuesday at Allegany District Court, where they were held without bond.
Who is Ziz?
Lasota is the apparent leader of a cultlike group known as the Zizians, according to the Associated Press. Zajko is also reportedly a member of the group.
LaSota moved to the San Francisco Bay area after earning a computer science degree from the University of Alaska Fairbanks in 2013 and interning at NASA, according to a profile on a hiring site for programmers, coders and other freelance workers. NASA officials did not respond to a request to confirm LaSota's internship, but a Jack LaSota is listed on a website about past interns.
RELATED: A timeline of activities of cultlike group tied to the killing of a Border Patrol agent
In 2016, she began publishing a dark and rambling blog under the name Ziz, describing her theory that the two hemispheres of the brain could hold separate values and genders and "often desire to kill each other."
According to court records obtained by our sister station KGO, LaSota was declared legally dead by her family in 2022, who believed she fell into the San Francisco Bay. No body was found and an obituary was published.
LaSota used she/her pronouns, and in her writings says she is a transgender woman. She 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.
The Zizians have been tied to the killing of U.S. Border Patrol Agent David Maland near the Canadian border in January and five other homicides in Vermont, Pennsylvania and California.
Maland, 44, was killed in a Jan. 20 shootout following a traffic stop in Coventry, Vermont, a small town about 20 miles from the Canadian border. Teresa Youngblut, 21, is accused of opening fire on agents during the traffic stop.
In court documents filed Tuesday, federal authorities charged Zajko with providing false information in the purchase of three guns a year earlier in Vermont where she was living. Two of the guns allegedly had serial numbers that matched the weapons used in the shootout.
Officials have offered few details of the cross-country investigation, which broke open after the Jan. 20 shooting death of Maland. Associated Press interviews and a review of court records and online postings tell the story of how a group of young, highly intelligent computer scientists, most of them in their 20s and 30s, met online, shared anarchist beliefs, and became increasingly violent.
Murders in Delaware County
Back on December 31, 2022, Michelle Zajko's parents, Richard and Rita, were both shot in the head inside their Chester Heights home.
No arrests have been made in the case, but court documents allege that Blank, who was previously identified as Michelle Zajko's roommate in Vermont, was under investigation for the double homicide.
Zajko is also being considered a person of interest in the murders as well, records show.
Police identified Michelle Zajko as the couple's daughter after her license was found in the Chester Heights home, officials said. It was revealed in court documents that troopers searched a Vermont home tied to Michelle on January 5, 2023, nearly a week after her parents were killed.
READ MORE: Troopers searched Vermont home in connection with Delco murders: Court docs
During a "voluntary interview" in Vermont, authorities say Michelle Zajko admitted to owning a firearm -- a Smith and Wesson "M&P" model.
According to sale records, the gun was purchased on February 3, 2022, at Green Mountain Sporting Goods in Vermont by Michelle Zajko. Authorities allege the ammo allegedly purchased by Michelle Zajko is the same manufacture and type as the spent casings that were recovered at the scene of the Delaware County murders.
The search warrant was for the Smith and Wesson handgun and ammunition, but the court filings only state three cartridges of 9mm ammo were recovered.
Searching a Pa. hotel
On January 12, 2023, officers searched a hotel room on Welsh Street in Chester, where authorities say Zajko was staying for her parents' funeral.
Federal investigators said Zajko and her associates were not cooperative.
She was released without being charged but investigators say she ditched her car and the $40,000 of cash inside.
LaSota, staying at the same hotel, was arrested and charged with obstructing the homicide investigation and disorderly conduct, according to the Associated Press.
An additional search of the hotel room resulted in the seizure of a Smith & Wesson M&P 9-millimeter firearm and five boxes of 9-millimeter ammunition, which was allegedly purchased by Zajko, the criminal complaint alleges.
Ties to California
The shootings in Delaware County and Vermont seem to have growing connections to another killing in California.
U.S. Attorney Michael Drescher previously said in a court filing the Border Patrol shooting is also linked to a murder in California but she hasn't provided further details.
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. In 2021, a Michelle Zajko bought a half-acre piece of property in Derby, Vermont, a few miles from the Canadian border. According to town records, the land is undeveloped.
Michelle Zajko has not been charged with either of the shooting incidents.
Ties to North Carolina
Members of the group allegedly live in North Carolina which brought the investigation to the Tar Heel state. Dozens of FBI agents searched a wooded area off 150501 near Chapel Hill on Wednesday, Feb. 5. Our sister station WTVD reached out to the agency about the search but got little information.
The FBI, however, did say they were conducting "court-authorized investigative activity in connection with an ongoing federal law enforcement investigation." They declined to comment further when asked if the loud sounds neighbors heard were related to the investigation.
One homeowner told WTVD she woke up to the sound of a bang followed by a large federal presence in the neighborhood.
"Woke me up out of my sleep," said Candice Welch. "It was a real loud bang, about 30 minutes apart. I thought it was just a transformer (blowing), it was loud."
She said they were told the agents were looking for a "missing item."
"They were looking for a missing item, that's all they told us. We knew it had to be something important, something very serious because of the fact that it was the FBI, along with the sheriff's deputies, and unmarked cars. There was a little bit of everything out here."
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
