Prosecutors on Thursday will argue that a Washington state woman should remain jailed in connection with the death of a U.S. Border Patrol agent in a case that has grown to encompass murders in multiple states.
Teresa Youngblut, 21, faces federal firearms charges in the Jan. 20 death of Agent David Maland. She’s accused of opening fire on agents during a traffic stop in northern Vermont, sparking a shootout that also left her companion, Felix Bauckholt, dead.
Pennsylvania state police said Wednesday that the gun used in the Vermont shooting was purchased by a person of interest in the Dec. 31, 2022, murders of Richard and Rita Zajko, who were shot to death in their Chester Heights home. And both Youngblut and the buyer were in frequent contact with someone who was detained as part of the Pennsylvania investigation and is a person of interest in another killing in California, a federal prosecutor said in a court filing.
U.S. Attorney Michael Drescher didn’t elaborate, but prosecutors may provide more detail at a detention hearing for Youngblut on Thursday. In the meantime, police and court records have shed some light on the connections.
Youngblut’s attorney has not responded to requests for comment on the charges.
Jack LaSota is currently facing charges of obstructing law enforcement and disorderly conduct in Pennsylvania. Authorities won’t say whether those charges are related to the Zajko deaths, but court records show that police were searching for a gun used in two murders when they arrested LaSota 12 days later at a hotel about 10 miles (16 kilometers) from the scene of the killings.
LaSota also has connections to some of the key players in the California case.
In 2019, LaSota and three others were arrested while protesting an event hosted by the Center for Applied Rationality at a camping retreat in Occidental, according to the San Francisco Chronicle. In 2022, two of the others, Emma Borhanian and Jeffrey Leatham, were accused of attacking their landlord with a sword in Vallejo, California. The landlord, Curtis Lind, survived the November 2022 attack but was stabbed to death Jan. 17.
Maximilian Snyder was charged this week with that murder. In November, someone with the same name applied for a marriage license with a Teresa Youngblut in Kirkland, Washington. Snyder’s attorney declined to comment on the charges.
Though authorities have not publicly identified the person who bought the gun used in Vermont, the VTDigger news site reported that federal authorities issued an alert to firearms dealers seeking information about purchases made by Michelle Jacqueline Zajko and describing her as a person of interest in the Vermont shooting.
According to a public records database, a Michelle Zajko was registered to vote in 2016 at the same home address in Pennsylvania as Richard and Rita Zajko. In 2021, a Michelle Zajko bought a half-acre piece of property in Derby, Vermont, a few miles (about 6 kilometers) from the Canadian border. According to town records, the land is undeveloped.