Daughter of slain Delco couple arrested in Maryland; allegedly connected to cultlike group: police
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PHILADELPHIA (WPVI) — The daughter of a slain Delaware County couple was arrested in Maryland over the weekend on trespassing and weapon charges, according to state police.
Michelle Zajko, 33, of Media, Pennsylvania, and Jack Lasota, 34, of Berkeley, Calif., and Daniel Arthur Blank, 26, of Sacramento, Calif., were arrested on Sunday in Frostburg, Maryland.
Police say Lasota was arrested and charged with trespassing, obstructing & hindering, firearm in vehicle. Zajko was arrested and charged with trespassing, obstructing & hindering, resisting arrest, handgun on person; and Blank was arrested and charged with trespassing, obstructing and hindering.
According to charging documents obtained by Action News, the trio was observed trespassing a property on Piney Mt. Road while dressed in all black. The group allegedly asked a resident if they could camp in the area for about a month, but they were told to leave.
When officers arrived, they observed two white box trucks parked at the end of the roadway. In one of the vehicles, police say two of the suspects were wearing gun belts with ammo in the belt. A further search led to the discovery of a long rifle in the back of the truck and a handgun on the floorboard, police noted.
“All of the subjects involved are to be questioned regarding other crimes that have occurred across the country,” the complaint noted.
A bail hearing was scheduled for 11 a.m. Tuesday at Allegany District Court, where they were held without bond.
Lasota is the apparent leader of a cultlike group known as the Zizians, according to the Associated Press. Zajko is also reportedly a member of the group.
LaSota moved to the San Francisco Bay area after earning a computer science degree from the University of Alaska Fairbanks in 2013 and interning at NASA, according to a profile on a hiring site for programmers, coders and other freelance workers. NASA officials did not respond to a request to confirm LaSota’s internship, but a Jack LaSota is listed on a website about past interns.
In 2016, she began publishing a dark and rambling blog under the name Ziz, describing her theory that the two hemispheres of the brain could hold separate values and genders and “often desire to kill each other.”
According to court records obtained by our sister station KGO, LaSota was declared legally dead by her family in 2022, who believed she fell into the San Francisco Bay. No body was found and an obituary was published.
LaSota used she/her pronouns, and in her writings says she is a transgender woman. She railed against perceived enemies, including so-called rationalist groups, which operate mostly online and seek to understand human cognition through reason and knowledge. Some are concerned with the potential dangers of artificial intelligence.
The Zizians have been tied to the killing of U.S. Border Patrol Agent David Maland near the Canadian border in January and five other homicides in Vermont, Pennsylvania and California.
Content retrieved from: https://6abc.com/post/michelle-zajko-case-daughter-slain-delaware-county-couple-arrested-maryland-trespassing-weapons-charges/15922624/.
