Alleged chief of cult-like ‘Zizian’ group linked to 6 deaths arrested in Maryland | EUROtoday

Three alleged members of a cult-like group of radical vegans linked to at the very least six deaths throughout the U.S. have been arrested in Maryland.

Court data confirmed that Ziz, a 34-year-old laptop scientist recognized in courtroom data by her authorized identify as Jack LaSota, was detained on misdemeanor costs in Allegany County on Sunday night.

Ziz is a key member — and the namesake — of a mysterious group of principally transgender and non-binary younger individuals often called the “Zizians”, whose members have been tied to homicide instances in California, Pennsylvania, and Vermont.

Also arrested in Maryland was Michelle “Jamie” Zajko, 32, who’s an individual of curiosity within the Vermont capturing and the Pennsylvania capturing, and Daniel Blank, 26.

The costs listed for Ziz had been trespass, obstruction, and possession of a firearm; for Zajko, trespass, obstruction, and resisting or interfering with an arrest; and for Blank, trespass and obstruction.

Allegany County jail official Elizabeth Shoemake informed VTDigger that the pair had been arrested for “on-site activity” somewhat than over an excellent warrant.

The FBI is concerned, officers confirmed, and the investigation is “fluid and ongoing”.

It is the newest twist in a weird saga that started within the San Francisco Bay Area in 2016 with a break up in Silicon Valley’s quirky ‘rationalist’ subculture.

Ziz, who expounded her model of the philosophy in her private weblog, was one in every of a small group of anarchist-leaning rationalists who accused the remainder of the neighborhood of under-valuing animal rights and welfare.

In 2019, Ziz and three pals tried a non-violent protest exterior a rationalist assume tank, however had been met with a SWAT group and felony costs. Ziz would later allege that she was abused in coverage custody.

“I will actually never be able to trust society, even in a limited respect, like trusting cops to not torture you for literally doing nothing wrong[,] again,” she said in court records, according to The San Francisco Chronicle.

Rationalist detractors described her as a highly manipulative cult leader, while supporters said she had been unfairly demonized and ostracized for speaking out against abuse within the community.

Amid mounting legal troubles, Ziz reportedly faked her death in 2022, while several of the group stopped paying rent at their home in a trailer yard in Vallejo, California.

That led, in November 2022, to a deadly confrontation with their landlord Curtis Lind, which left Ziz’s friend Emma Borhanian dead — shot by Lind in alleged self-defense — and Lind himself in hospital, stabbed by a samurai sword.

Prosecutors charged two other members of the crew who had been leaving there with Borhanian’s murder, alleging that they had started the fight and were therefore responsible for its consequences.

After that, Ziz and her remaining associates seem to have dropped off the map. But since then, connections have continued to emerge in other criminal cases.

In Pennsylvania, on New Year’s Eve 2022, Zajko’s parents were killed in their home by gunshot wounds to the head. Police believed Zajko’s gun might have been involved, and detained her at a Pennsylvania hotel.

But when they checked another room in the same hotel, whose occupants Zajko had asked them to alert to her custody, they found Ziz — alive and well, albeit uncooperative — along with Daniel Blank.

Then, in California this January, Curtis Lind was killed by a figure in a black mask wielding a knife. Authorities arrested and charged 22-year-old Oxford graduate Maximilian Snyder, who denied being a friend of Ziz, with his murder.

“I am not one of Ziz’s friends, and neither she nor her friends endorse me or my words so far as I know. I speak only for myself, as myself, for the sake of everyone,” said Snyder in a letter dictated from prison, in which he urged other rationalists to stop eating meat immediately.

And in Vermont the same month, a border agent, David Maland, and a young rationalist named Ophelia Bauckholt were killed in a shoot-out over a traffic stop.

According to prosecutors and news reports, Bauckholt was traveling in a Toyota Prius with 21-year-old Milo Youngblut, known in court documents as Teresa Youngblut, when they were stopped by border agents.

Prosecutors allege that Youngblut then got out of the car and opened fire on the border officers without provocation.

Reports indicate that Youngblut had been reported missing by their parents about a year ago, and that they had recently applied for a marriage license with Snyder.

Zajko, in the meantime, was named an individual of curiosity within the case, reportedly as a result of investigators suspect that one of many weapons carried by Bauckholt and Youngblut was purchased by her.

A police bulletin described Zajko as armed and harmful, and mentioned she adopted an “anti-law-enforcement ideology”.

The precise nature of the connections between these individuals and instances stay unsure, and neither Ziz nor Zajko have been charged in reference to any of the deaths.

“The investigators that are working on the case aren’t going to do any press releases at this time because the investigation is kind of fluid and ongoing and the FBI is involved now,” mentioned Maryland State Police lieutenant Jeremy Stonebraker.