The murder of the border patrol agent linked to 5 homicides in Pa., Elsewhere

By Patrick Whittle and Holly Ramer, Associated Press

He Murder of the United States Border Patrol Agent, David Maland Near the Canadian border last month and five other homicides in Vermont, Pennsylvania and California have been linked to a cult group.

Interviews and online publications reveal how young computer scientists described by those who know them as highly intelligent seem to have become increasingly violent.

Border Agent killed in Vermont

Maland, 44, was killed in a shooting on January 20 after a traffic stop in Coventry, Vermont, a small town about 20 miles from the Canadian border. The state resident of Washington, Teresa Youngblut, 21, faces two positions of weapons in relation to murder.

He was traveling with German citizen Felix Bauckholt, who also appears in judicial documents such as Ofelia. Both had connections with a cultured group known in online communities as “Zizians” due to their affinity for a blogger called “Ziz”. The couple had been under the surveillance of the authorities for several days after an employee in a hotel where he was lodged reported that he had seen Youngblut carry a gun.

Bauckholt died in Vermont shooting. The authorities have not specified whose bullets they hit who. Youngblut’s lawyer said through a spokesman who are not commenting. Youngblut declared himself innocent in a federal court on February 7.

Ziz connection

Jack Lasota, 34, from Berkeley, California, published a dark blog and sometimes violent under the name of Ziz and, in a section, described his theory that the two hemispheres of the brain could contain separate values ​​and genres and “wish to kill to each one. “

Lasota, which she used/her pronouns, and in her writings she says she is a transgender woman, criticized the perceived enemies, including the so -called rationalist groups, who operate mainly online and seek to understand human cognition through reason and knowledge. Some are concerned about the potential dangers of artificial intelligence.

When Losota left the rationalists behind, she took with him a group of “extremely vulnerable and isolated” followers, “said Anna Salamon, executive director of the center of applied rationality, to San Francisco Chronicle.

In North Carolina, an owner told Associated Press that he had been renting two condominiums to Bauckholt and Youngblut. Lasota had also been living with Bauckholt as recently as this winter, said the owner, who spoke on condition of anonymity due to concerns about his safety.

First arrests

In November 2019, Losota, Emma Borhanian, 31, Gwen Danielson and Alexander Leatham, 29, were arrested in a protest outside a retirement center from northern California where a rationalist group celebrated an event. The group said they were protesting inappropriate inappropriate.

Deaths in California

In 2022, the owner Curtis Lind went to court to evict Borhanian, Lasota, Leatham and other tenants who had stopped paying rent in a property of Vallejo, California. Two days before the deadly deadline of November 15, prosecutors say that Leatham, Borhanian and Suri Dao attacked him.

Lind shot his attackers, killing Borhanian and hurting Leatham. He survived to be impaled with a sword but lost an eye. Prosecutors concluded that he acted in self -defense and accused Dao and Leatham of violent crimes.

January 17, The 82 -year -old owner was stabbed. Maximilian Snyder, 22, who requested a marriage license with Teresa Youngblut in the state of Washington in November, is accused of murder.

PENSILVANIA COUPLE KILLED

On New Year 2022, Rita and Richard Zajko were shot dead In Chester Heights, Pennsylvania.

Police interrogated the couple’s daughter, Michelle, at her home in Vermont, and a few weeks later, she stopped her at a Hotel in Pennsylvania. She was not arrested or accused. Lasota was also at the hotel and was arrested after refusing to cooperate with the officers, and accused of obstructing the application of the law and disorderly behavior.

Six months later, Losota was released on bail, but stopped appearing before the Court. Losota’s lawyer, Daniel McGarrigle, said last month that his client was “total and unequivocally innocent of the positions presented in this case.”

The 34 -year -old has not responded to multiple emails by Associated Press in recent weeks. He has lost appearances in court in two states, and bank orders have been issued for arrest. Associated Press reporters have left numerous telephone and email messages with Lasota’s family and have not received any response.

His whereabouts is unknown and McGarrigle refused to say if he has had recent contact with his client.