A member of the Zizians, a group described as cultlike, has been charged with murder in the shooting deaths of her parents at their Pennsylvania home on New Year's Eve 2022, Delaware County District Attorney Tanner Rouse announced Wednesday.
Michelle Zajko, who has been jailed in Maryland on other charges since February 2025, faces murder, burglary, and conspiracy charges in the deaths of Rita and Richard Zajko. Rouse stated that authorities believe she was not acting alone in the killings.
"Zajko is known to have been among those who killed her parents to the extent that if she wasn’t the one who actually pulled the trigger, she was certainly aligned with those who did," Rouse said.
Authorities had previously identified Zajko as a person of interest in the double homicide. She has denied any involvement, writing in an April 2025 court filing that her father might have killed her mother and then himself.
Prosecutors have linked the Zajkos' deaths to a group of young, highly intelligent computer scientists who reportedly hold radical beliefs concerning veganism, animal rights, gender identity, and artificial intelligence. Since 2022, members have been connected to at least six deaths, including an attack on a California landlord, the landlord's subsequent killing, the Zajkos' deaths, and a shootout in Vermont that resulted in the deaths of a U.S. Border Patrol agent and another Zizian.
Zajko is also charged with providing the gun used to kill Border Patrol Agent David Maland in January 2025. She was arrested in Maryland a few weeks later with Daniel Blank and Jack "Ziz" LaSota, identified by authorities as the group's leader. Police described them as having "ties with the Zizians Cult" and indicated they would be questioned about crimes nationwide.
LaSota faces a federal charge of illegal gun possession by a fugitive, while all three face state charges of trespassing and illegal gun and drug possession. A judge recently granted a defense request for a competency evaluation in LaSota's federal case.
LaSota's attorneys have stated that their client rejects the term "Zizian" and denies that he and his associates have formed a cult. Zajko has claimed that the group's arrest in Maryland was intended to prevent them from exonerating Teresa Youngblut, who has pleaded not guilty to murder charges in Vermont.
Zajko was living in Vermont at the time of her parents' deaths and was questioned by police there shortly afterward. She was briefly taken into custody at a Pennsylvania hotel a few weeks later but was released without charges. LaSota, who was staying at the same hotel, was charged with obstructing the homicide investigation and disorderly conduct.
According to the prosecutor, Zajko had been estranged from her parents in the year leading up to their deaths. The killings occurred hours after Rita Zajko texted her daughter in an attempt to reconcile. "Her mother reached out and explained that she was sorry for the rift that had grown between them," Rouse said. "That text went unanswered."
At least two individuals entered the home a few hours later. "The lights go on in the home, and Richard and Rita Zajko are executed," the prosecutor stated.