'Zizian' fringe group connected to murders in three states
A double murder in Pennsylvania. A . A .
Three crimes in three states in just over two years and all of them lead back to a fringe group called the "Zizians."
The Zizians are a small group of well-educated computer whizzes and devout vegans.
Our newspaper partners at the San Francisco Chronicle have been investigating every angle related to Zizians. Together, we're laying out the timeline and taking a closer look at how these gruesome killings are all connected.
It started in 2019 at Westminster Woods in Sonoma County, California, where a reunion for members of a Berkeley rationalist group took place.
Matthias Gafni, a Chronicle investigative reporter, covered it at the time. He says before the reunion got underway, a protest broke out. The protesters showed up in a school bus and a flatbed truck, dressed in Guy Fawkes masks and black robes.
"It spooked a lot of people there. And there were a lot of kids there at the time who were there for another program and they sheltered in place," Gafni said. "The SWAT team was called in, and it became a big scene."
Video above: Apparent leader of group linked to Border Patrol agent's death arrested
Four of the protesters, including Jack LaSota, were arrested. LaSota now uses feminine pronouns and goes by the name Ziz. She's the leader of the Zizians.
Ziz's associates Alexander Leatham, Gwen Danielson and Emma Borhanian were also arrested.
"At the time, we knew nothing about the group," Gafni said of the Zizians. "We knew that it was a strange protest, and we covered it and basically didn't really think about it for the next, what, six years?"
Three years after the protest, two of the arrested were back in the news. In 2022, Leatham and Borhanian were accused of attacking their Vallejo landlord, Curtis Lind, stabbing him through the chest with a samurai sword.
Lind shot back at his attackers but was left blind in one eye.
Through his investigation, Gafni found out that Lind and a group of the Zizians had met in Half Moon Bay.
"They both owned boats and lived on the water out there. Then, Curtis Lind decided to sell his boat, and he wanted to move back to this Vallejo property he had owned for a number of decades, the Zizians followed him, and they moved in and took up a couple of trailers, brought in their own trucks," Gafni reported.
A few months after the attack on Lind, Ziz was back on law enforcement's radar, this time following the double homicide of a couple near Philadelphia. Ziz was taken into custody and charged with a couple of minor crimes. The couple's daughter was named a person of interest.
In January of this year, Lind was attacked again. This time, the Vallejo landlord was killed. It happened just before he was set to provide key testimony in the upcoming trial against his 2022 attackers.
Video above: Criminologist says social media can radicalize cult-like groups following arrest of Zizians
The owner of an autobody shop in the neighborhood described the most recent attack.
"The man, Mr. Curtis, got out of his car, and [the attacker] put his arm around him and [the attacker] began stabbing him. Some of the guys came and tried to help, but [the attacker] came back and continued to stab him, and then he cut his throat," the business owner said. "It was very ugly for all of us that work in this area; what happened to this man? Because he was a good neighbor."
Police arrested Maximillian Snyder in connection with Lind's death.
Just a few days later, there was another murder in Vermont. Authorities say Teresa Youngblut, who had just applied for a marriage license with Snyder, was involved in a shootout near the Canadian border. At the time, Youngblut was driving with a German National, Felix Bauckholt.
Gafni's report found that Snyder and Youngblut went to school together in Washington State, where they studied computer science at prestigious universities.
Border Agent David Maland and Bauckholt were killed in the Vermont shoutout.
Snyder is set to appear in court again on Feb. 21. Meanwhile, Alexander Leathan has a court date set for Feb. 19. It's unclear how that case will proceed without Lind as a witness. And on Thursday, Youngblut was indicted on two felony weapons charges by a grand jury in relation to the death of Maland.
