LSD, veganism, high-IQ suspects: Probe of six murders takes feds into strange territory
A dead Border Patrol Agent in Vermont. An LSD-taking vegan carrying a pistol linked to two Pennsylvania homicides. An elderly California witness was ambushed and fatally stabbed. Artificial intelligence researchers living in box trucks, armed with knives and a samurai sword.
It sounds like something from a dystopian science fiction novel. But police, court records and witnesses are beginning to link a series of six seemingly unconnected deaths across the country.
Two people ‒ who may or may not be married to each other ‒ have been detained in connection with two deaths separated by 3,000 miles. The gun used in one of those incidents has been linked to the 2022 homicides of two people in Pennsylvania.
"It's a tragedy for everyone," said longtime Vermont prosecutor and retired legislator Vincent Illuzzi, 71. "Folks up here are shocked at knowing that people publicly identified with these activities in Pennsylvania and California were either living here or looking for property up here."
Behind bars are Seattle-area natives Teresa Youngblut, 21, detained in Vermont, and Maximilian Snyder, 22, detained in California. Records show the two got a marriage license in Washington state last year, but it's unclear whether they went through with the marriage.
Snyder faces murder charges in California for the Jan. 17 death of an elderly landlord who was due to testify that he was attacked with a samurai sword in 2022 by squatters he was trying to kick off his San Francisco-area property, according to court records.
Youngblut has been charged in connection with the Jan. 20 shooting death of Border Patrol agent David "Chris" Maland in Vermont near the Canadian border, according to court records. Youngblut has been charged with one count of using a deadly weapon while assaulting a U.S. Border Patrol agent and one count of using and discharging a firearm during that assault but has not been charged with actually killing Maland.
A German national traveling with Youngblut, Ophelia Bauckholt, was killed in the shootout with federal agents. Bauckholt was transfeminine, and federal authorities have been using Bauckholt's male birth name in court documents. Federal officials in a court filing also acknowledged that Bauckholt used the name Ophelia.
The deaths of Maland and Bauckholt during the Border Patrol traffic stop shocked residents of the rural New England state where only 24 homicides happened last year. Illuzzi, who is the Essex County State's Attorney, coincidentally drove by the traffic stop as it began. Although he has no formal role in the investigation, he is a veteran prosecutor and lawmaker with deep connections to regional law enforcement in Vermont.
Along with the FBI, Illuzi is slowly piecing together a complicated and confusing situation. He suspects that Youngblut and Bauckholt opened fire on the Border Patrol over fears investigators had finally pieced together their connection to multiple other deaths.
Pennsylvania police last month said the gun fired during the Vermont confrontation was bought in 2024 by a "person of interest" in an unsolved 2022 double homicide in Delaware County.
"It helps to explain what happened because there just is no other explanation," Illuzzi said. “It appears that maybe (Youngblut and Bauckholt) panicked and were thinking that maybe police had connected the dots to what had happened in other parts of the country and thought they could shoot their way out.”
FBI agent Leah Bogdanowicz, who signed Youngblut's arrest affidavit, hinted at a broader investigation: "Because this affidavit is being submitted for the limited purpose of establishing probable cause, it does not include all the facts that I have learned during the course of the investigation."
The FBI declined to discuss the substance of the cases but acknowledged potential connections.
“As stated in open court and in court filings, Teresa Youngblut is believed to have associations with other individuals suspected of violent acts in multiple states, to include Pennsylvania and California," Sarah Ruane, a spokeswoman for the FBI's Albany, New York, office said in a statement. "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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Inexplicable escalation to violence
According to court records, the Jan. 20 confrontation between Youngblut and Border Patrol agents was the violent conclusion to a weeklong surveillance effort by federal officials over reports that Youngblut and Bauckholt had been acting suspiciously as they traveled around rural northern Vermont.
They attracted law enforcement attention because Youngblut and Bauckholt were reported wearing tactical-style gear and openly carrying firearms, which is legal in Vermont but unusual. The two declined to speak with officers, and agents began following them, according to an affidavit. Investigators also wrongly thought Bauckholt's visa to remain in the United States had expired.
According to court records and FBI affidavits, sometime in the minutes after Border Patrol agents stopped the Toyota Prius that Youngblut was driving, Youngblut opened fire with a handgun, firing at least two shots. Bauckholt, who drew a handgun, was shot before firing. Bauckholt died at the scene, and Maland, the Border Patrol agent, died at a nearby hospital. Investigators have not specified who shot who yet.
"An originally peaceful interaction between the United States Border Patrol and the occupants of a vehicle became confrontational based on the defendant's conduct, and she then unnecessarily and inexplicably escalated to deadly violence," federal prosecutors said.
Youngblut remains in custody because a federal judge agreed with prosecutors about the potential for flight risk, in part, because of Youngblut's purported connections with other deaths, which prosecutors did not specify. Investigators said they found five cellphones, a night-vision device and laptops in the Prius. Court records note that Youngblut's diary contains several references to taking LSD.
"The defendant does not appear to have a reported criminal history, but her use of deadly violence without provocation suggests that the absence of prior arrests or convictions does not reflect her current disposition," prosecutors said of Youngblut.
Prosecutors in Vermont said Youngblut got the guns from someone who is a person of interest in a 2022 double homicide in Pennsylvania. Pennsylvania State Police identified those homicide victims as Richard and Rita Zajko, 72, and 69, respectively.
The Times-Union newspaper reported that the Zajkos' daughter, Michelle J. Zajko is that person of interest and that Zajko is possibly driving a Subaru with Vermont license plates. Zajko is not in custody, and the Times-Union reported that Zajko owns property in Vermont near the hotel where Youngblut and Bauckholt were staying. The paper said authorities have issued a broad request for police to detain Zajko.
Court records obtained by Paste BN show Pennsylvania State Police interviewed Michelle Zajko in Vermont on Jan. 5, 2023, and found Zajko in possession of a legally purchased 9mm handgun. They did not detain Zajko at the time, but later that month discovered that Zajko's parents had been shot at close range with a 9mm pistol and bullets, and forensics testing indicated the gun Zajko owned could have fired the fatal shots. Vermont police then searched Zajko's home but found only three 9mm cartridges but no gun. On Tuesday, Pennsylvania State Police declined to answer questions about why Zajko was not arrested in 2023, citing"investigative aspects to this case that cannot be divulged at this time."
In court documents, prosecutors in the Youngblut case also referenced a separate "person of interest" in the Zajkos' deaths with whom Youngblut has been in frequent contact, and who is connected to a homicide in Vallejo, California, where Snyder is being held on murder charges.
Witness in 2022 sword attack fatally stabbed in January
Vallejo police accuse Snyder of stabbing to death landlord Curtis Lind, 82, who was due to testify later this year against two people accused of assaulting him in 2022 over a rent dispute.
According to police and prosecutors, a group of young people living in box trucks on Lind's property attacked him with knives and a samurai sword as he prepared to evict them in 2022. According to court and police records, Lind was seriously injured but shot two of his attackers, killing one and injuring another.
Prosecutors have not offered a motive for why they believe Snyder would have killed Lind.
But Jessica Taylor, 32, who casually dated Bauckholt in 2022, said Bauckholt, Snyder, Youngblut and Zajko were part of a loose-knit group bound together by their shared love of animal rights and veganism, rational thinking, and interest in artificial intelligence. Taylor, an AI security researcher, met Bauckholt while they were both living on the East Coast, but lost contact with her in 2023.
Many of the group's members were involved, studied or worked in the fields of AI and computer science, she said. Youngblut said on an Instagram bio that they were studying computer science at the University of Washington. And Taylor said Bauckholt when they first met had been working at a Wall Street investment firm specializing in computer-assisted trading.
Taylor said Bauckholt and her friends indicated they believed violence could sometimes be justified.
"I was surprised but I wasn't shocked," Taylor said of the Vermont incident in which Bauckholt was armed with a handgun. "They don't assume that normal society is correct about which things are bad. (But) there's a leap from someone who is interested in ethics and thinking systematically about ethics and being kind to animals, and possibly then being involved in trying to shoot someone."
The San Francisco Chronicle reported that Snyder and Youngblut are part of a group of people who call themselves "Zizians," named for the group's transgender leader, Ziz. The San Francisco Chronicle said Ziz is the preferred name of a California man born as Jack LaSota, and reported that Ziz may have faked their own death in 2022.
The Associated Press reported that Youngblut and Bauckholt had recently lived in townhomes near Chapel Hill, North Carolina, and that they had parked box trucks out front, with indications someone was living in one of the trucks.
Charges and cases
Vallejo police said Snyder was arrested after ambushing Lind but declined to discuss a possible motive or any connection between the two.
The Solano County District Attorney's office declined to discuss the case but issued a statement confirming that Snyder is being prosecuted for murder, with the death penalty possible, for killing a witness in retaliation.
Pennsylvania State Police declined to say if Michelle Zajko is a suspect in the deaths of their parents.
Snyder is next due in court on Feb. 6. Youngblut is due in court on Feb. 7.