Who are the Zizians? What we know about vegan 'cult' linked to six killings
A cult-like group known as Zizians has been linked to a string of murders, sparking several arrests – who are the people behind this group and what do they believe?Jack Lasota, 34, who allegedly leads a group of a few dozen followers known as Zizians, was arrested on Sunday alongside Michelle Zajko, 32, and Daniel Blank, 26, on a number of charges including trespassing and obstruction.Authorities say that they are investigating at least six killings across the United States that are allegedly connected to members of the group, including a double homicide in Pennsylvania, a knife attack in California, and the shooting of a US border guard in January.Four other alleged members of the group have already been charged with murder.
The origins of the group
Lasota, a transgender woman, is allegedly the leader of the group.She earned a degree in computer science from the University of Alaska-Fairbanks in 2013 and, according to her blog, moved to the San Francisco area three years later.There, she wrote that she applied for a series of jobs at tech companies and startups - including a brief internship with Nasa - and began to associate with people involved in the rationalist movement, an intellectual trend popular in Silicon Valley that emphasises the power of the human mind to see clear truth, eliminate bias and bad thinking, and improve individuals and society.Lasota began blogging using the alias "Ziz", but soon fell out with mainstream rationalists as her writings spun off in bizarre directions.The blog included posts of thousands of words, blending Lasota's personal experiences, theories about technology and philosophy, and esoteric comments about pop culture, computer coding and dozens of other subjects.At one point, during a long diatribe about the TV series The Office, artificial intelligence and other subjects, she wrote: "I realized that I was no longer able to stand people. Not even rationalists anymore. And I would live the rest of my life completely alone, hiding my reaction to anyone it was useful to interact with. I had given up my ability to see beauty so I could see evil."Other themes included veganism – total avoidance of any animal food or products – and anarchism.In 2019 Lasota and three others were arrested while holding a protest outside of an event held by a rationalist organisation. The last posts on her blog date from around this time.
False obituary
Over the next few years, Lasota and others would move around the US, according to reports, at one point living on a boat, and later staying on property owned by others in California and North Carolina.In 2022, a warrant was issued when Lasota failed to show up for a court hearing, related to the protest outside the rationalist organisation meeting. But her lawyer at the time stated she was "now deceased after a boating accident in the San Francisco Bay area".An obituary - noting that Lasota loved "adventure, friends and family, music, blueberries, biking, computer games and animals" - even appeared in an Alaska newspaper.But the story was wrong: Lasota was still alive.Jessica Taylor, an artificial intelligence researcher who says she knew several of the group members, told the Associated Press that Lasota and the Zizians stretched their rationalist beliefs to justify breaking laws."Stuff like thinking it's reasonable to avoid paying rent and defend oneself from being evicted," Taylor said.Poulomi Saha, an associate professor at the University of California, Berkeley, who studies cults, says that while there is no strict legal definition of such a group, several of the Zizians' attributes align with the popular cultural conception of the term."This is a group of individuals that seem to share some unorthodox viewpoints," she said. "That in and of itself wouldn't open up them up to the cult label… but then there is this leadership figure 'Ziz.'"Saha noted, however, that there is still significant uncertainty about the relationships between group members and about what may have motivated alleged acts of violence in recent years.
Escalating violence
Not long after the obituary was published, Lasota resurfaced along with other members of the group in Vallejo, California, which is north of San Francisco. Several members were living in vans and trucks on land owned by a man named Curtis Lind.At some point the Zizians allegedly stopped paying rent, and Lind sued to evict them.But the dispute escalated and in November 2022, Lind was attacked, stabbed 50 times and blinded in one eye. In an act of what police would later say is self-defence, he fired a gun, which killed Emma Borhanian, a former Google employee who was one of the Zizians and who had previously been arrested at the rationalist protest.Two other members, Suri Dao and Somni Logencia, were arrested and charged with attempting to murder Lind. They remain in prison awaiting trial. Lasota was also at the scene of the attack, but was not charged with a crime.
The following month, two parents of a Zizian member were killed in a small Pennsylvania town.Richard Zajko, 71, and his wife, Rita, 69, were found shot in the head in their home. The Zajkos were the parents of Zizian member Michelle Zajko, who was briefly held by police but not charged with a crime. Lasota was arrested and charged with obstructing law enforcement and disorderly conduct in connection with the incident.
The hunt continues
Despite the links to those two attacks, the group mostly flew under the radar without receiving much wider public attention until earlier this year. On 17 January, Lind, the California landlord who had allegedly been attacked by members of the group, was killed. Vallejo Police Department say he was stabbed to death by an assailant wearing a mask and black beanie.Police later charged Maximilian Snyder with murder, and alleged that Snyder killed Lind in order to stop him from testifying during the attempted murder trial.That was followed just a few days later by the killing of a US border patrol agent on the other side of the country.Two Zizians, Teresa Youngblut and Felix Bauckholt, were pulled over by US Border Patrol Agent David Maland near the Canadian border in Vermont.A firefight ensured. Bauckholt, a German citizen who also went by the name Ophelia, was killed in the shootout along with Maland.Youngblut - who was previously known as Milo - was wounded and later arrested on firearms charges.The shooting led to a wider hunt for members of the group after police said the gun used to kill Maland was bought by Michelle Zajko.
Fugitives captured
After the Vermont shootout, police in Pennsylvania said they had uncovered new evidence about the shooting of Zajko's parents, and Lasota was wanted for failing to appear at several court hearings.The whereabouts of the pair were unknown until Sunday, when they were arrested with fellow group member Daniel Blank in Maryland.A police report said a resident of Frostburg, about 160 miles (260km) north-west of Washington DC, had called police saying he wanted three "suspicious" people off his property after they asked to camp on his land for a month.Maryland State Police said that the trio were charged with trespassing and obstruction, and that Lasota and Zajko were additionally charged with weapons violations. All three were denied bail.A lawyer for Lasota, Daniel McGarrigle, declined to comment on the arrest but instead sent the BBC a statement he had previously issued about his client, saying: "I urge members of the press and the public to refrain from speculation and premature conclusions."
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