On January 20, a Border Patrol agent was shot dead during a traffic stop in Vermont. It quickly emerged that a German citizen had also died and that a 21-year-old woman had been arrested.
Now investigators are exploring whether those deaths are linked to a fatal stabbing of a landlord 3,000 miles away in California, and a mysterious alleged cult made up of highly educated young computer scientists obsessed with veganism, animal rights, and theories about the nature of human consciousness.
Teresa Youngblut, 21, the woman accused of killing Border Patrol Agent David Maland in Vermont last week, is believed to be closely acquainted with 22-year-old Maximilian Snyder, the man arrested on Friday in the landlord’s death.
The pair were in “frequent contact with each other” prior to the killings on opposite sides of the country, according to a motion filed Monday by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Vermont.
So acquainted, in fact, that Youngblut and Snyder had applied for a marriage license on November 5, according to public records viewed by Open Vallejo.
They both studied computer science in Washington and appeared to follow the “vegan Sith” ideology of a fringe Bay Area group that has been described as a “murder gang,” the outlet reported, citing an interview with a person familiar with the group.
Youngblut has been charged in the death of Border Patrol Agent David Maland, 44, who was killed on January 20 during the shootout in Coventry, about 20 miles from the Canadian border. Her passenger Felix Bauckholt, a German citizen, also died in the shooting.
U.S. Attorney Michael Drescher said in the motion filed on Monday that the gun allegedly used by Youngblut, along with the one that Bauckholt was carrying, were both purchased by a third person in Vermont last February – who is a person of interest in a double homicide investigation in Pennsylvania. In that case, Richard Zajko, 72, and 69-year-old Rita Zajko were found shot dead at their home in Chester Heights, near Philadelphia, according to the Toronto Sun. Police said the killings were “not random.”
Drescher said Youngblut and Bauckholt “are acquainted with and have been in frequent contact with” the person who was detained during that investigation and who also is a “person of interest” in a homicide investigation in Vallejo, California, the motion said.
On Monday, Maximilian Snyder was charged with murder in the stabbing death of 82-year-old Curtis Lind, the landlord who was killed on January 17.
The Vermont shooting
Youngblut and her passenger, Bauckholt, were driving a 2015 Toyota Prius with a North Carolina license plate in Coventry, Vermont, when the shooting unfolded.
They had been under FBI surveillance since January 14 after a hotel employee in Lyndonville, Vermont, reported seeing them dressed in black tactical clothing and protective equipment, with Youngblut carrying a holstered firearm, according to the FBI affidavit.
That day, investigators approached Youngblut and Baukholt, but the pair “declined to have an extended conversation,” according to the affidavit, which also stated that they claimed they were “in the vicinity to look at purchasing property.”
Days later, on the afternoon of January 20, multiple Border Patrol agents conducted a traffic stop and pulled the Prius over for an immigration inspection. According to Open Vallejo, investigators discovered that Bauckholt appeared to have an expired visa, although they later determined it was current.
Youngblut pulled out a gun and fired at an agent “without warning,” and Baukholt attempted to draw a gun when at least one of the border agents returned fire, according to the affidavit.
Both Youngblut and Baukholt, along with Agent Maland, were struck by gunfire in the shootout. Baukholt was pronounced dead at the scene and Maland died at North Country Hospital, according to the affidavit.
Youngblut was transported to a New Hampshire hospital for her injuries and has been charged with intentional use of a deadly weapon while forcibly assaulting or interfering with federal law enforcement, and use and discharge of a firearm during and in relation to an assault with a deadly weapon, according to court records.
A search of the Prius revealed the pair had been traveling with a ballistic helmet, night-vision goggles, 48 rounds of ammunition, used shooting range targets, and a dozen electronic devices, including cell phones wrapped in aluminum foil, according to the affidavit.
Agent Maland’s family told the Associated Press his career spanned nine years in the military and 15 years in the federal government, including working security duty at the Pentagon during the 9/11 terror attacks.
“He was a devoted agent who served with honor and bravery,” they said. “He had a tremendous respect and pride for the work he did; he truly embodied service over self.”
‘What in the world is going on with these people?’
Prior to the shooting in Vermont, Youngblut and Bauckholt were living in separate duplexes in the same neighborhood in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, according to the building owner, the Associated Press reported.
Bauckholt rented one unit through Airbnb starting in July 2023 and moved to the second unit later that year, the owner said Tuesday. Youngblut began renting the original unit in November 2024 and had paid nearly $10,000 to extend her stay until the end of March, he said.
The owner, who did not want to be identified for safety reasons, said he had sent messages to all his renters during a recent cold snap asking them to let their faucets drip to avoid frozen pipes. He never heard back from either one, but an individual renting the other half of Youngblut’s duplex said her hot water wasn’t working, so the owner went to check on the plumbing.
“The thing that struck me the most was that there was a stretcher in the living room. Like, what in the world is going on with these people?” he said.
“The hair on the back of my neck is still up and I just can’t believe it’s being connected to my Airbnb.”
The owner recalled that his last contact with Bauckholt was about a month ago when the tenant was trying to negotiate a more traditional lease instead of using Airbnb. Box trucks were parked outside of both units, he said, and Bauckholt was running an electrical cord to one of them.
“There would be times when I would come to get the trash and as I’m coming up the driveway, he’d be crawling out of the cab,” he said.
The California stabbing
On January 17, three days before the shooting at the border, Curtis Lind was attacked and stabbed to death by a man wearing a mask and black beanie outside his gated property on the 300 block of Lemon Street in Vallejo, according to police.
It wasn’t the first time Lind had been attacked, according to court records and a GoFundMe account that describes Lind as a loving grandfather who was “generous with what he had to help a friend or a stranger in need in need.”
In 2022, the landlord was impaled by a sword during a violent incident following a dispute with his tenants at the time, who were living in box trucks on his property.
Lind shot two of his alleged attackers during the assault on him, killing 31-year-old Emma Borhanian and injuring another person, which authorities ruled to be self-defense, according to court records obtained by Open Vallejo. But he was left seriously wounded and blinded in one eye.
Suri Dao and Alexander Jeffrey Leatham were charged with murder, attempted murder, and aggravated mayhem for the death of Borhanian, and the attempted killing of Lind, according to court records.
Thomas Young, who was a friend of Lind’s, told Open Vallejo that when he searched the box trucks after the attack, he made a “creepy” discovery.
Stashed inside the trucks, which were allegedly registered in Vermont, were used surgical equipment, more than a dozen laptops, and expensive electronics.
“It was actually very uncomfortable,” Young said. “You kinda wanted to put on a hazmat suit before going into it. It was really just creepy in the extreme.”
Before his death last week, Lind was set to testify against his alleged assailants at their trial in April, according to court records.
In 2019, Leatham and Borhanian had been among four people arrested wearing black robes and Guy Fawkes masks at a protest against a Berkeley, California non-profit focused on rational thought. They were arrested on suspicion of felony child endangerment, false imprisonment and conspiracy as well as misdemeanor counts of resisting arrest, wearing a mask while committing a crime and trespassing, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.
Who are the suspects and what is their alleged connection to the ‘Zizians’?
Youngblut and Snyder, as well as Bauckholt, allegedly followed a self-described “vegan Sith” ideology, according to Open Vallejo, which reviewed their social media posts and spoke to a friend close to the group.
Jessica Taylor said she was a friend of Bauckholt, who she knew by the name Ophelia. She recalled warning Baukholt about Zizians, a group she described as a “murder gang.”
“I remember warning Ophelia that Zizians were a death cult with a high local death rate…,” she wrote in a post on X after hearing about her friend’s death. “Idk if this involved Ziz or associates but... well, Bayesian evidence (lefty radical violence + violent women).”
Several online posters attributed the attack to the “Zizians,” which was referred to as a “cult” on various online forums. The group is a radical offshoot of the Rationalist movement, an ideology centered on using scientific techniques to enhance human decision making, Open Vallejo reported.
Taylor explained to the outlet that veganism and animal rights are central to the ideology and that the Zizians believe that there are two hemispheres in the brain, meaning that individuals can split their consciousness between two personalities by waking one side at a time.
Court records have not explicitly linked Snyder and Youngblut to the ideology, but posts on their social media accounts appear to display beliefs consistent with Zizianism.
Youngblut, who studied computer science and computer software engineering at the University of Washington, according to her LinkedIn profile, appeared in a federal court on Monday and was scheduled for a detention hearing on Thursday.
Snyder, who studied computer science and philosophy at the University of Oxford, according to a LinkedIn profile matching his name, is being held without bail at the Justice Center Detention Facility.
