Police arrest 3 alleged members of cultlike group linked to killings
Feb. 18 (UPI) -- Three people were arrested in connection with a series of homicides in California and Pennsylvania as well as the shooting death earlier this year in Vermont of a U.S. border patrol agent.
On Sunday, Maryland State Police arrested Jack "Ziz" LaSota, 34, Michelle Zajko, 32, and Daniel Blank, 26. The three were detained in Frostburg, M.D., midway between Washington and Pittsburgh, Penn.
The trio were due in court Tuesday, court records indicated.
"The Maryland State Police is working in coordination with our federal law enforcement partners and the Office of the State's Attorney in Allegany County as this investigation continues," a spokesperson for the Maryland State Police wrote in a statement.
Authorities said Zajko allegedly supplied the guns utilized in the January shooting and death of Border Patrol agent David Maland on Jan. 20 near the U.S.-Canadian border.
State police officials confirmed the arrests Monday but declined to give further comment.
The connection with Blank, of Sacramento, Calif, was not immediately clear.
Zajko, of Media, Penn., is a suspected in the 2023 shooting deaths of her parents. Both Zajko and Lakota had been interviewed in relation to her parents' murders but were never taken into custody or charged.
Meanwhile, officials believe LaSota, of Berkeley, Calif., was the leader of a small group that included 21-year-old Michelle Youngblut, who had previously been charged in connection to Maland's January killing.
Lasota faces additional firearm and obstructing and hindering charges, the statement added.
"There's significant evidence that Jack LaSota is the person who is the idea engine for these people," said Mark Pitcavage, a senior research fellow and policy adviser at the Anti-Defamation League's Center on Extremism, told USA Today. "There are certainly suspicions that need to be investigated," he added.
The three were all arrested in rural Maryland near the Pennsylvania border, approximately 230 miles west of where Zajko's late parents lived.
According to Maryland court documents, LaSota faces charges of trespassing, obstruction and possession of a handgun in a vehicle. Additionally, Zajko faces a number of charges including trespassing, resisting or interfering with an arrest, obstruction and carrying a handgun.
Pennsylvania State Police officials said Blank was reported missing near the residence of Zajko's parents on Dec. 15, 2022. He faces charges of trespassing, obstruction and hindering.
Reports said the group members operated as a small religious group and lived in North Carolina and California at times in box trucks.
LaSota, who appeared to identify as transgender according to online posts, was reported dead in a boating incident, an obituary posted in her hometown Alaska newspaper said.
LaSota was previously a computer programmer linked to a Berkeley-based organization that aims to utilize math and principles to make the world better.
German national Ophelia Buckholt, an alleged follower of LaSota's, was shot and killed last month in a Vermont gunfire exchange with U.S. Border Patrol agents during a traffic stop. Teresa Youngblut, the 21-year-old suspect who was riding with Bauckholt, pleaded not guilty to firearms charges.
There were fears the group became a "death cult" or a "murder gang" over the supposed strict adherence to a belief system surrounding mainstream behaviors and veganism.
"You're talking about being willing to kill people who they think are bad," Jessica Taylor, who briefly dated Backholt, told USA Today.
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