Feds seek links between shooting of agent, crimes
Investigators are exploring connections between multiple coast-to-coast deaths
By: Trevor Hughes
USA Today
..... A dead Border patrol Agent in Vermont. an LSD-taking vegan carrying a pistol linked to two Pennsylvania homicides. an elderly California witness ambushed and fatally stabbed. AI researchers living in box trucks, armed with knives and a samurai sword.
... ..
It sounds like something from a dystopian science fiction novel. But police, court records and witnesses are beginning to link a series of six seemingly unconnected deaths across the country. Two people - who may or may not be married to each other - are behind bars in connection with two deaths separated by 3,000 miles. Seattle-area natives Teresa youngblut,21, detained in Vermont and Maximiliam Snyder, 22, detained in California.
..... Snyder faces murder charges in California for the January 17 [2025] death of an elderly landlord who was due to testify that he was attacked with a samurai sword in 2022 by squatters he was trying to kick off his San Francisco-area property, according to court records.
..... Youngblut is in custody in connection with the January 20 [2025] shooting death of Border Patrol agent David "Chris" Maland in Vermont near the Canadian border, according to court records. On Thursday, [02/06/2025] a Vermont grand jury indicted her on charges of "knowingly and forcibly: using a weapon. she has not been charged with killing Maland.
..... A German national traveling with Youngblut, Ophelia Bauckholt, was also killed in the shootout with federal agents. Bauckholt was trans-feminine, and federal authorities have been using their male birth name in documents.
..... The deaths of Maland and Bauckholt during the Border Patrol traffic stop shocked residents of the rural New England state where only 24 homicides happens last year. [2024]
.....
"It's a tragedy for everyone," said longtime Vermont prosecutor and retired legislator Vincent Illuzzzi, 71, "Folks up here are shocked at knowing that people publicly identified with these activities in Pennsylvania and California were either living here or looking for property up here."
.....
Illuzzi, the Essex County State's Attorney coincidentally drove by the traffic stop as it began. Although he has no formal role in the investigation, he is a veteran prosecutor and lawmaker with deep connections to law enforcement in Vermont. Along with the FBI, Illuzi is piecing together a complicated and confusing situate. he suspects that Youngblut and Backholt opened fire on the Border Patrol over fears investigators had finally pieced together their connections to multiple other deaths.
..... Pennsylvania police last month [01/2025] said the gun fired during the Vermont confrontation was brought in 2024 by a "person of interest" in an unsolved 2022 double-homicide in Delaware County.
..... "It helps to explain what happened, because there just is no other explanation,' Illuzzi said. "It appears that maybe (Youngblut and Bauckholt) panicked and were thinking that maybe police had connected the dots to what had happens in other parts of the country and through they could shoot their way out."
..... The FBI declined to discuss the substance of the cases but acknowledged potential connections.
..... "As stated in open court and in court filings, Tereas Youngblut is believed to have association with other individuals suspected of violent acts in multiple states, to include Pennsylvania and California," Sarah Ruane, a spokeswomen for the FBI's office in Albany, New York, said in a statement.
..... Records show Snyder and Youngblut got a marriage license in Washington state last year, [2024] but it's unclear whether they went through with the marriage.
..... According to court records, the January 20 [2025] confrontation between Youngblut and Border Patrol agents was the concussion to a week-long surveillance effort by federal officials over reports that Youngblut and Bauckholt had been acting suspiciously as they traveled around rural northern Vermont. they were presorted to be wearing tactical-style gear and openly carrying firearms, which is legal in Vermont but unusual.
..... The two declined to speak with officers, and agents began following them, according to an affidavit. Investigators also wrongly thought Bauckholt's visa to remain in the U.S. had expired.
.....
According to records and FBI affidavits, sometime in the minute after border Patrol agents stopped the Prius that Youngblut as driving. Youngblut opened fire with a handgun, firing at least two shots. Bauckholt, who drew a handgun, was shot before they fired.
..... Bauckholt died at the scene, and Maland, the Border Patrol agent, died at a nearby hospital. Investigators have not yet specified who shot whom.
..... "An originally peaceful interaction between the United States Border Patrol and the occupants of a vehicle became confrontational based on the defendant's conduct, and she then unnecessarily and inexplicably escalated to deadly violence," prosecutors said.
..... Investigators said they found five cellphones, a night-vision device and laptops in the Prius. court records note that Youngblut's diary contains several references to taking LSD.
..... Prosecutors in Vermont said Youngblut got the guns from someone who is a person of interest in a 2022 double homicide in Pennsylvania.
..... Pennsylvania State Police identified those homicide victims as Richard Zajko, 72, and Rita Zajko, 69. the Albany (New York) times-Union reported that the Zajkos' daughter Michelle J. Zajko, is that person of interest. Pennsylvania State Police declined to say if Zajko is a suspect in the deaths of their parents.
..... In addition, the paper said Michelle Zajko may be driving a Subaru with Vermont license plates and owns property in Vermont near the hotel where Youngblut and Bauckholt were staying. the paper said authorities have issued a broad request for police to detain Zajko.
.....
In court documents, prosecutors referenced a separate "person of interest" in the Zajos' deaths with whom Youngblut has been in frequent contact, and who is connected to a homicide in Valleji, California, where Snyder is being held on murder charges.
..... Vallejo police accuse Snyder of stabbing to death landlord Curtis Lind, 82, who was due to testify later this year [2025] against two people accused of assaulting him in 2022 over a rent disputes.
..... According to police and prosecutors, a group of young people living in box trucks on Lind's property attacked him with knives and a samurai sword as he prepared to evict them in 2022. According to court and police records, Kind was seriously injured but shot tow of his attackers, killing one and injuring another.
..... The Associated Press reported that Youngblut and Bauckholt had recently been living in town-homes near Chapel Hill, North Carolina, and that they had parked box trucks out front, with indications someone was living in one of the tricks.
..... The Solano County district Attorney's office declined to discuss the case but issued a statement confirming that Snyder is being prosecuted for murder, with the death penalty possible, for killing a witness in retaliation. Snyder was scheduled to have a court hearing Friday. [02/07/2025]
.....
Prosecutors have not offer a motive for why they believe Snyder would have killed Lind.
..... But Jessica Taylor, 32, who casually dated Bauckholt in 2022, said Bauckholt, Snyder, Youngblut and Zajko were part of a loose-knit group bound together by their shared love of animal rights and veganism, rational thinking and interest in artificial intelligence. Taylor, an AI security researcher, met Bauckholt while they were both living on the east Coast, but they lost contact in 2023.
..... Many of the group's members were involved, studies or worked in the fields of artificial intelligence and computer science, she said. Youngblut said on their Instagram bio that they were studying computer science at the University of Washington. And Taylor said Bauckholt had been working at a Wall street investment firm specializing in computer-assisted trading.
..... The San Francisco Chronicle reported that Snyder and Youngblut are part of a group of people who call themselves "Zizians," named for the group's transgender leader, Ziz. the San Francisco Chronicle reported that Ziz may have faked their own death in 2022.
.... Youngblut remains in custody because a federal judge agreed with prosecutors about the potential for flight risk, in part because of her purported connections with other deaths, which prosecutors did not specify.