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Vegan-transgender-AI cult leader Jack “Ziz” Lasota and two of his followers are facing new charges in Maryland as one cult member denies being part of a Pennsylvania double-murder linked to the group.

“I didn’t murder my parents,” Michele Zajko wrote in a letter made available this week to the Associated Press.

Zajko, 32, Lasota, 33, and Daniel Blank, 26, all currently in jail in Maryland, are considered persons of interest in the 2023 murders of Rita and Richard Zajko. Zajko is now linked to the murder of Border Agent David Maland. Zajko was charged in the United States District Court in Vermont with providing false information to a gun dealer when she bought guns later traced back to Maland’s reported killer, Teresa Youngblut.

Youngblut and Felix “Ophelia” Bauckholt shot at Maland during a traffic stop in Vermont near the Canadian border earlier this year. Bauckholt died in the shootout. Youngblut is being held on federal charges related to the shooting. Both Youngblut and Bauckholt are reputed members of the Ziz cult.

But Zajko denies the group is a cult, and blames the media for giving them that label.

“The little news I’ve gotten is enough to determine that my friends & I are being described as Satan’s lapdogs, the Devil, & the Manson family all rolled into one,” Zajko wrote. “My friends and I certainly don’t call ourselves ‘Zizians.’”

Lasota, Zajko, and Blank were arrested in Maryland in February and held on misdemeanor gun and trespassing charges. Before they could go to trial on those charges, their cases were transferred to Superior Court, and they were indicted on more serious counts. The new charges include carrying concealed and loaded handguns. The possible maximum penalties for each charge range from three months of incarceration for trespassing and up to five years for some of the gun charges. 

Lasota began collecting young followers in California from the tech industry using “Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality” as a holy book. The fan-fiction book is popular in the AI tech community and central to the quasi-scientific faith of Lasota and his followers. Lasota reportedly believes in a coming AI apocalypse in which a super-AI being will destroy those who are not working to create it. Lasota also believes that not being vegan will mark people out for future torture by the AI being. 

Lasota subjected his followers to sleep deprivation as part of attempts to unlock a separate personality in their brains. Typically, that other person is a different gender under Lasota’s regime. There is at least one reported suicide linked to Lasota’s sleep deprivation techniques. 

Zizian cultists are also charged in the killing of Vallejo, Calif., man Curtis Lind, 82. Lind was set to testify against cult members after they allegedly tried to kill him a year ago when Ziz cultist Maximillian Snyder stabbed him. Snyder went to high school with Youngblut, and the two had a marriage license, though it is unclear if they ever married.

The man behind the Zizians — a violent AI-vegan-rationalist-transgender cult linked to six deaths — has been arrested in Maryland. 

Among the deaths involving members of the Zizian group is the death of U.S. Border Patrol Agent David Maland near the Vermont-Canada border.

Ziz, also known as Jack Amadeus LaSota, 33, was arrested last weekend in rural Allegany County, Md. after spending months on the run. Along with LaSota, police also arrested Michelle Zajko, 32, and Daniel Blank, 26, both linked to the bizarre group.

Zajko, along with LaSota, is a person of interest in the double murder of her parents, Rita and Richard Zajko, in Pennsylvania. Zajko is also believed to have bought the guns Ziz cultists Teresa Youngblut and Felix “Ophelia” Bauckholt used during last month’s shooting in Vermont.

Maland and Bauckholt both died as a result of the shooting. Youngblut is currently being held on federal charges connected to Maland’s death.

Daniel Blank

It isn’t clear what led to LaSota’s capture in Maryland. He’s charged with suspicion of trespassing on private property, obstruction, and gun possession. Both Blank and Zajko are charged with trespassing and obstruction, and Zajko is charged with having a gun on her person, according to reports. VTDigger reports police in Maryland were unaware of the cult and its connection to the other murders when they arrested LaSota, Blank, and Zajko.

All three are due in court Tuesday for their first appearance on the Maryland charges, though it’s likely other law enforcement agencies will be intervening now that LaSota has been captured. 

LaSota started the cult in the California Bay Area after years of struggling to break into the AI tech field. He attracted followers initially through his blog in which he wrote about artificial intelligence, rationalist philosophy, veganism, and transgenderism.

At one point, LaSota lived on a dilapidated tug boat where he brought his followers together and forced some into sleep deprivation techniques. A reported aim of the sleep deprivation was to unlock a subject’s transgender persona, according to multiple reports. 

The group started living in specially outfitted box trucks that contained hidden living areas, food, water, and power generators. The trucks enabled them to move undetected through urban environments, and were entered through hidden openings in the bottom of the truck, according to reports.

In August, 2022, while facing criminal charges in California, LaSota faked his own death. The ruse did not work long, as he was reported as having been seen alive by law enforcement in November 2022, according to court records. 

Michelle Zajko

LaSota spent months in a Pennsylvania jail in 2023 on charges of obstruction and disorderly conduct in connection to the investigation into the murders of Rita and Richard Zajko. LaSota, Zajko, and Blank were all questioned about the murders. LaSota was eventually released on bail after five months and soon disappeared along with Zajko and Blank. 

Zajko reportedly owned property in Vermont close to the Canadian border, and is believed to have supplied Youngblut and  Bauckholt with guns and ammunition. 

The area where the shootout occurred is part of the Border Patrol’s “Swanton Sector,” which also includes the New Hampshire-Canada border. Officials reported a massive surge in illegal crossings in the sector during the Biden presidency.

When the Biden administration cut federal funding for border security in the region, then-Gov. Chris Sununu created the Northern Border Alliance Task Force to provide resources to backstop federal efforts. Gov. Kelly Ayotte’s budget includes continued funding for the effort.

Zizian cultists are also charged in the killing of Vallejo, Calif., man Curtis Lind, 82. Lind was set to testify against cult members after they allegedly tried to kill him a year ago when Ziz cultist Maximillian Snyder stabbed him. Snyder went to high school with Youngblut and the two had a marriage license. 

The suspect in the death of Vermont U.S. Border Patrol agent David C. Maland pleaded not guilty Friday, the latest plot point in a story involving a bizarre AI-vegan-transgender cult linked to six killings across the U.S.

Teresa Youngblut, 21, appeared in the United States District Court of Vermont in Burlington on Friday for her arraignment on charges of using a deadly weapon to assault a law enforcement officer. A grand jury handed up indictments against Youngblut on Thursday. She is not yet charged with directly causing Maland’s death.

A reputed member of the Ziz cult, Youngblut’s alleged murder of Maland is just the latest violent incident in the story of the fringe sect with its belief in an AI monster bent on torturing all non-vegans.

Jack “Ziz” LaSota

Jack LaSota is a person of interest to investigators looking into multiple cases. Among them, the 2022 Delaware County, Pa. double-murder of Richard and Rita Zajko.

The Zajko’s daughter Michelle has been linked to the Ziz movement — as well as her parents’ murder.

Zajko, who identifies as “trans nonbinary.” has not been seen since the Jan. 20 shooting. Investigators have linked the guns recovered after Maland was killed to Zajko, saying she bought them in Vermont. Zajko also owns a small parcel of land in Vermont near the Canadian border.

According to reporting by VTDigger, a day after Maland’s shooting, the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives sent an alert to firearms dealers seeking help “identifying any firearms purchases made by Michelle Jacqueline Zajko, a person of interest in the shooting of a Customs and Border Protection Officer on Jan. 20, 2025.”

“Ziz” LaSota, an Alaskan native who went to Silicon Valley to be part of the tech industry, became part of the online AI rationalist community, where young tech workers pontificated on complicated thought experiments and half-formed philosophy. Soon, he formed a community of like-minded vegans who would submit to his sleep deprivation techniques, use LSD, and who could be pushed into adopting or exploring transgender identities. 

At the heart of LaSota’s faith is the belief in a coming basilisk, an AI super being that will punish everyone who did not work to create the being. It will also, he believes, punish all those who eat animals. Like the Manson Family trying to instigate a race war to bring about Helter Skelter, LaSota reportedly tried to push his group into further and further acts of violence. 

At one point, LaSota faked his own death to avoid law enforcement. His whereabouts are still unknown.

Youngblut may have been married to Michael Snyder, a former high school classmate and fellow Zizian. The two have a marriage license, though it is not clear if they went through with the ceremony. Snyder is facing charges that he murdered an elderly Vallejo, Calif., man, Curtis Lind, weeks before Lind was set to testify against the group.

For a time, Zizians lived in storage containers set up on Lind’s property. When Lind tried to evict the group, three of them allegedly attacked him. Lind shot at them, killing one in self-defense and wounding another. Police later found a storage container outfitted with cutting tools and chemicals, theorizing the Zizians intended to dispose of Lind’s body after killing him. 

Friday’s arraignment was brief, as United States Magistrate Judge Kevin Doyle previously ruled Youngblut was too dangerous to be released and ordered her held without bail pending trial.

Maland was patrolling the CBP’s Swanton Sector, which includes all of New Hampshire’s northern border and has seen a surge in illegal crossings in recent years.

According to court documents and reports, he stopped Youngblut near the Canadian border on Jan. 20 while she was driving with fellow Zizian and German national Felix Bauckholt, a biological male who was living as “Ophelia.” During the quick interaction with Maland, Youngblut reportedly drew a .40 caliber handgun and started shooting. Maland returned fire and Bauckholt reportedly fumbled drawing his weapon. Bauckholt died at the scene. Maland died at a nearby hospital.

EDITOR’S NOTE: An earlier version of this article incorrectly reported that LaSota is in custody. LaSota’s whereabouts are currently unknown.

The woman accused in the killing of U.S. Border Patrol Agent David C. Maland near the Canadian border in Vermont appears to be part of a techno-rationalist cult founded by a biological male who identifies as a woman and goes by the name of Ziz. The group has been linked to at least three other murders.

Teresa “Milo” Consuelo Youngblut, 21, from Washington state, is being held without bail on federal charges connected to Maland’s Jan. 20 killing. Youngblut’s associate, German national Felix “Ophelia” Bauckholt, was killed during the traffic stop that ended in gunfire.

United States Magistrate Judge Kevin Doyle said Thursday the evidence against Youngblut appears strong enough to keep her in custody without bail, according to VTDigger.

Assistant United States Attorney Matthew Lasher relied on his previous court filing to make the case Youngblut is too dangerous to be released pending trial. According to Lasher, the connection to Ziz helps make her a danger.

“The defendant’s possession and use of a firearm, combined with her itineracy and associations, suggests she poses a current and substantial danger to the community that could not be addressed by a condition or a combination of conditions of pretrial release,” Lasher wrote.

Both Youngblut and Bauckholt have ties to Jack LaSota, AKA Ziz, a California man who espouses a violent philosophy based on veganism, techno-rationality, artificial intelligence, and transgenderism, according to court filings and media reports. LaSota’s small group of followers, known in the San Francisco area as Zizians, are connected to the murder of an elderly rancher and the murders of a Pennsylvania couple, parents of another Zizian.

“Reject morality. Never do the right thing because it’s the right thing. Never even think that concept or ask that question unless it’s to model what others will think,” LaSota reportedly wrote on a now-defunct blog.

LaSota reportedly faked his own death at least once, and is currently being held on charges connected to the Pennsylvania murders. Like most Zizians, LaSota identifies as a transgender woman. The teachings Ziz espouses encouraged followers to unlock different personas and genders within their minds, using sleep deprivation techniques. The followers are also pressured into cutting off family ties.

LaSota’s teaching reportedly became violent and militant over time, with anger directed at fellow members of the Bay Area tech community who did not adhere to veganism. In a blog since taken offline, Ziz wrote of bringing hell to non-vegan rationalists, and wrote that people should always escalate every conflict. 

Ziz first gained notoriety in 2019 when Zizians protested an event put on by CFAR, the Center For Applied Rational Thinking, a popular self-help non-profit for people in the tech industry. The Zizians alarmed attendees, who called the police.

On Jan. 17, Zizian Maximilian Snyder stabbed 82-year-old Curtis Lind to death in Vallejo, Calif. Lind had been a landlord for the Zizians before three of them allegedly tried to murder him in 2022. Lind survived the 2022 attack thanks to a firearm, killing one Zizian and wounding the two others. He was set to testify at the upcoming Zizian trial against the surviving attackers, Alexander Leatham and Suri Dao, when Snyder killed him.

Snyder went to high school with Teresa Younblut, and the two applied for a marriage license in November in Washington state, though there is no evidence they were married. 

Another Zizian, Michelle Zajko, who identifies as nonbinary, allegedly bought the guns Youngblut and Bauckholt had on them when Maland stopped their car on Interstate 91 in Coventry, Vt. Zaijko is currently wanted as a person of interest in the 2023 Pennsylvania murder of her parents, Richard and Rita Zajko. 

Youngblut reportedly fired her handgun at Maland during the stop, while Bauckholt fumbled his pistol and was killed during the brief shootout. The couple had been under federal surveillance for a week in Newport, Vt. They reportedly wore black, tactical clothing and openly carried their guns when walking around town.

On Thursday, U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem made a surprise trip to the Vermont border to speak with Border Patrol agents, though she did not make any public remarks during her visit.