On January 20, 2025, after a traffic stop, United States Border Patrol agent David Maland was killed in a shootout with Teresa Youngblut, who was wounded, and German national Ophelia Bauckholt, who also died in the shootout. The pair were traveling south on Interstate 91 in Coventry, Vermont, when they were pulled over.[1] They were put under "periodic surveillance" nearly one week before the shooting after they were reported to be armed and wearing all-black tactical clothing when checking in to their hotel.[2] The case has been connected to other murders due to connections between the suspects: the murder of Curtis Lind in Vallejo, California,[3] and the double murder of Richard and Rita Zajko in Chester Heights, Pennsylvania.[4]
The Zizians are named after their founder, Ziz LaSota. According to The San Francisco Chronicle, LaSota targeted "smart, mostly autistic-ish transwomen who were extremely vulnerable and isolated" for recruitment.[11] In 2019, LaSota and three other members of the movement were arrested for protesting at a CFAR event in Occidental, California; the members filed a federal civil rights lawsuit against Sonoma County, which was dismissed.[13][14] LaSota was reported dead from drowning in August 2022, but was arrested in January 2023 in Philadelphia for obstruction of justice.[9][13][11] Zizians are alleged to have committed multiple violent or disruptive acts in recent years, including involvement in six violent deaths across the country.[15][13]
Before traveling to Vermont, Youngblut and Bauckholt lived in separate Airbnbs in Chapel Hill, North Carolina.[16] Both have been described as having cut off all contact with friends in fall 2023 and May 2024.[8]Homeland Security Investigations agents had been conducting "periodic surveillance" of them since January 14.[17]
A hotel employee in Lyndonville, Vermont, reportedly contacted law enforcement about the duo after seeing Youngblut carrying "an apparent firearm in an exposed carry holster". Both wore "all-black, tactical style clothing with protective equipment".[17] After the report, Homeland Security agents contacted the duo, who refused to speak with them. They said they were in Vermont only to purchase real estate.[17] The duo checked out of the Lyndonville hotel and were seen five days later in Newport, Vermont, with Youngblut carrying a handgun. The next day, hours before the shootout, the two were seen at a Walmart, with Bauckholt buying aluminum foil.[17]
Around 3:15 p.m., Agent David Christopher Maland initiated a traffic stop on I-91 southbound, about 15 kilometers from the border with Canada, with a blue 2015 Toyota Prius registered in North Carolina to conduct an immigration inspection.[21] Bauckholt, a German national and the car's registered owner, appeared to have an expired visa in a Homeland Security database.[17] The driver allegedly drew a handgun and fired at least two shots at the agents during the stop while Bauckholt also attempted to draw a firearm.[17][22][18] At least one Border Patrol agent returned fire and shot the duo. Maland and Bauckholt were pronounced dead at the scene while the second suspect was taken to a hospital and later arrested.[22]
Bauckholt had expressed an interest in TESCREAL rationalism after attending a CFAR event in 2019, and reportedly cut off contact with friends in the fall of 2023.[8][9] In the summer of 2023, she was described as taking part in "anxious, secretive phone calls" that coincided with her deepening involvement in the Zizian movement.[5] The Freiburg public prosecutor's office is investigating the circumstances surrounding Bauckholt's death, as is done whenever a German citizen dies abroad.[30]
Youngblut's parents reported her missing to the Seattle Police Department in May 2024. They feared she was in a controlling relationship and being forced to cut off contact with friends and family.[38] Authorities allegedly found a journal containing "cypher text" and a mention of having recently taken LSD.[19][18] Youngblut was charged in connection with the shootout on federal charges of assaulting a federal officer with a deadly weapon and using and discharging a firearm during a violent crime; she was ordered detained without bail.[39][40]
Related murders
A court filing by federal prosecutors claims that Youngblut is associated with persons of interest in the murders of three people other than Maland: Curtis Lind (a landlord in California) and Richard and Rita Zajko (the parents of one of the persons of interest in Pennsylvania).[19] The other murders have also been connected to the Zizians group.
Curtis Lind
Curtis Lind, a landlord in Vallejo, California, who owned a trailer park, rented a trailer to a group of people, including LaSota. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the group stopped paying rent. Group members also began placing locks on trailers meant for other tenants. When Lind took the group to court for back rent, one member brandished a knife, causing Lind to start carrying a pistol.[11]
On November 15, 2022, Lind, then 80, was attacked by a group of people after being called in to fix a water leak. He was struck in the head, stabbed through the chest with a sword, and stabbed in his right eye, leaving him blind in that eye,[19] but survived and fatally shot one of his attackers, 31-year-old Emma Borhanian, and injured another. They had been arrested alongside LaSota at the 2019 CFAR protest, and Borhanian had reported LaSota's 2022 alleged drowning. Two of Lind's alleged attackers were charged with Borhanian's murder due to their actions precipitating Lind's self-defense, under California's felony murder rule. LaSota was contacted by police during the incident but was not charged.[11]
On January 17, 2025, three days before the shootout with Maland, Lind was stabbed to death and had his throat slit outside his gated property in Vallejo.[19] Lind was expected to be an important witness in Borhanian's murder trial. Prosecutors charged a 22-year-old man with Lind's murder. Youngblut had attended high school with the suspect and had recently applied for a marriage license to marry him.[3][11] The suspect dictated to reporters a statement addressed to Eliezer Yudkowsky, calling himself "a student of Yudkowsky who became disillusioned with him".[41]
LaSota and Zajko were arrested in Maryland on February 16, 2025.[10] They are being held in custody without bail;[42] LaSota requested a pretrial release, which a local judge denied.[43]
Richard and Rita Zajko
During a welfare check on January 2, 2023, Pennsylvania state police discovered the bodies of husband and wife Richard and Rita Zajko, age 72 and 69 respectively, at their home in Chester Heights, Pennsylvania. Autopsies found that Rita had a gunshot wound in the back of her head and Richard had wounds in his right hand and temple. Their daughter, Michelle Jacqueline Zajko, who is associated with the Zizians, has been named a person of interest in the murders. She is alleged to have purchased guns found at the scene of Maland's killing and to have been in contact with a person of interest in Lind's murder.[44]
Reactions
Vermont's U.S. Senators Bernie Sanders and Peter Welch and U.S. House Representative Becca Balint issued a joint statement saying, "Our deepest condolences go out to the agent’s family, and to the Border Patrol".[24] Representative Mark Green, who chairs the House Committee on Homeland Security, issued a statement saying he was "heartbroken by the loss of Agent David Maland", adding, "[w]e must never forget that the men and women in green on the frontlines of this border crisis defend our homeland at great personal cost" and that "[f]ar too often these courageous public servants, like Agent Maland, pay the ultimate price".[45]
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
