‘Jack Amadeus LaSota left our lives but not our hearts on August 19 after a boating accident,’ an obituary, published on the Daily News-Miner on September 7 2022, read.
‘Loving adventure, friends and family, music, blueberries, biking, computer games and animals, you are missed.’
LaSota, who used feminine pronouns, had been out on a boat with her sister Naomi and friend Emma Borhanian when she fell overboard into the San Francisco Bay.
The Coast Guard responded to the scene, searching the choppy waters for hours. Her body was never found.
It appeared to be a tragic end for the promising, highly-educated 31-year-old whizz kid from Alaska who had moved to the Bay Area to pursue a career in the heart of the nation’s tech bubble.
That is until three months later, when – in November 2022 – an elderly man was brutally attacked in Vallejo. Among those detained by cops on the scene was none other than Jack LaSota.
Two months later, her ghost would crop up in another curious location when police raided a hotel room during a search for a firearm used in the murders of an elderly couple in Pennsylvania.
LaSota, it seemed, was back from the dead.
Jack LaSota, also known as Ziz, is seen in a mugshot following his arrest at a 2019 protest
But not only was she alive. Now, following a series of increasingly bizarre, disturbing events, it has emerged that the whizz kid daughter of an AI expert lies at the center of a twisted tale that spans six murders or suspicious deaths across three states.
There was the attack on the 80-year-old man, leaving him blind in one eye and with a Samurai sword sticking out of his chest.
Two years later, an assailant returned to finish the job, slashing the now-82-year-old’s throat in broad daylight outside his home.
There was the New Year’s Eve execution-style murders of a couple in their Pennsylvania home.
And there was the Inauguration Day shootout between two suspects and Border Patrol agents in Vermont, which left an agent and one of the suspects dead.
On their own, these cases are each shocking. And on the surface, they appear to be unconnected.
Yet, each of these horror events lead back to a loosely-connected radical group of highly educated, vegan and mostly transgender women that’s been described as a cult and dubbed by online observers as the ‘Zizians’.
Described as a ‘death cult’ by those in the know, Zizianism is an extreme offshoot of the rationalist movement – a philosophical movement based on the belief that reason is the primary source of knowledge – according to Open Vallejo.
At the heart of the Zizian cult lies a figurehead who goes by the name Ziz – an individual previously known as Jack Amadeus LaSota. Now, LaSota is a wanted fugitive in two states.
Jack LaSota is allegedly the figurehead at the center of a radical cult made up of highly educated, vegan and mostly transgender female members known as the Zizians
It’s a knotty, tangled web of violence, murder and faking deaths.
So how did this privileged, highly-intelligent, 34-year-old computer programmer wind up at the heart of a sprawling case that has perplexed and sent shockwaves across America?
Technological advancements seemed part of LaSota’s DNA. Her father, Dan, is an AI researcher for the University of Alaska Fairbanks.
LaSota followed a similar path, graduating from the University of Alaska Fairbanks with a degree in computer engineering.
She interned at NASA and Oracle and, like many young tech entrepreneurs, ‘moved to the Bay Area for proximity to the tech industry which I considered sort of my destiny,’ she wrote in a 2019 blog post.
There, she had a stint at Google, took part in an apprenticeship by the Machine Intelligence Research Institute (MIRI) and the Center for Applied Rationality (CFAR) and became part of a rationalist movement in Berkeley, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.
Jessica Taylor, a former research fellow at the AI research non-profit MIRI told DailyMail.com she met LaSota around 2015 or 2016 at an MIRI or rationalist event.
‘We talked about things like when people make commitments (like New Year’s resolutions) that try to coerce or bind their future self and how this is confused and alternatives to it,’ she said, adding that these are ‘fairly normal ideas for self-help or rationality around CFAR.’
Taylor said it was only later that ‘stuff got weird’ and more extreme, pushing the belief that people have ‘conflict between their two brain hemispheres, only one of which is good.’
Curtis Lind, 82, was stabbed to death in front of his home (pictured) on January 17 2025, two years after surviving a similar attack
In the 2022 attack, Curtis Lind, 82, (pictured) was impaled with a Samurai sword and lost his right eye
LaSota began sharing these ideas and beliefs in a blog, titled Sinceriously.
Taylor said LaSota amassed something of a following through the blog, including her own friend Felix Baukholt, who went by the name Ophelia.
The lengthy blog posts, which ran from 2016 to 2019, included titles such as ‘My Journey to the Dark Side,’ ‘Vampires and More Undeath,’ ‘Punching Evil,’ ‘Self-Blackmail’ and ‘Engineering and Hacking Your Mind.’
In one, LaSota described 2016 as the year she made a ‘turn to the dark side.’
But it was 2019 when LaSota first hit headlines.
LaSota and three alleged accomplices – Alexander ‘Somni’ Leatham, Emma Borhanian and Gwen Danielson – descended on CFAR’s annual retreat in Westminster Woods, Sonoma County, that November and barricaded the exits.
The four protesters were dressed in black robes and Guy Fawkes masks and had flyers railing against the two nonprofit rationalist organizations CFAR and MIRI, the San Francisco Chronicle reported at the time.
‘CFAR does not do remotely what they claim to do on their website: they do not appreciably develop novel rationality/mental tech,’ one of the flyers claimed, per the Chronicle. ‘CFAR’s founding premise (that people were blocked in having the tools to think) was falsified long ago.’
Jack LaSota began sharing these ideas and beliefs in a blog, titled Sinceriously
Jerold Friedman, an attorney who represented the group in a subsequent civil case, told DailyMail.com that the group was actually protesting over their belief that people at the event were engaged in pedophilia.
Friedman said he never saw any evidence to back up those claims. He said his clients claimed to have evidence to support their beliefs but the case was dismissed before it reached the point where such evidence would be shared.
DailyMail.com has contacted CFAR and MIRI for comment.
All four protesters were arrested on charges including conspiracy, obstructing an officer and wearing a mask for an unlawful purpose.
To defense attorney Dan Kapelovitz, who represented LaSota in the criminal case, it was ‘a classic case of someone being overcharged and falsely accused.’
‘LaSota seemed like a very kind and thoughtful person who cared about animals and protested against injustice,’ he told DailyMail.com.
The criminal case ended up stalling in the courts for years.
Meanwhile, the four defendants filed a civil suit against Sonoma County alleging mistreatment following their arrests, including being deprived of food, water and sleep in jail.
Emma Borhanian and Alexander Leatham (left and right) were both charged over the 2019 protest with LaSota. They were then both allegedly involved in the attack on Curtis Lind
Friedman said he was hired by the group because, like them, he is vegan and ‘they wanted someone who shared their values.’
From what he saw, this was a group of ‘passionate,’ ‘non-violent’ young people.
‘These were four kids that just struck me as very cohesive, very passionate and who cared about the state of the world and not just themselves,’ he said.
‘They were committed to veganism and cared about the relationship between humans and animals. They cared about pedophilia and cared about children… They very much believed in what they believed in. They were passionate and, as far as I saw, non-violent.’
In the spring of 2022, the case then took a bizarre turn.
Friedman said he received information that Danielson had died by suicide.
Then, that August, he learned LaSota had died in a boating accident in San Francisco Bay.
In November, things got even stranger.
During the 2022 attack, Curtis Lind (pictured) managed to pull a gun and open fire on his attackers
Lind, who lost an eye in the attack, was set to testify in the trial but was killed before he could
Curtis Lind, an 80-year-old landlord in Vallejo, was attacked by a group of tenants when he was called to fix something in a trailer.
He was stabbed multiple times and was impaled through the chest with a sword.
During the attack, Lind managed to pull a gun and open fire on his attackers.
Tenant Patrick McMillan told NBC Bay Area at the time that Lind came knocking on his door with a sword sticking out of his chest.
‘He banged on my door and I woke up and came out,’ he said. ‘He said ‘I’m dying’ and he had blood squirting out and a sword sticking through him.’
Lind miraculously survived but lost his right eye.
One of the attackers was LaSota’s old friend Borhanian, who was shot and killed in the chaos.
Fellow so-called Zizians Leatham and Suri Dao were charged with Borhanian’s murder, attempted murder, and aggravated mayhem.
‘I was completely gobsmacked,’ Friedman said of the moment he heard about the Vallejo attack.
Pictured: Richard Zajko (right), 71, and his wife Rita (left), 69 were found dead in their Pennsylvania home in 2023
He added: ‘I’ve only ever had one case where the other party died, never where my party died. So to have even one death is just bizarre.
‘Then out of the four, I had one dead, two others apparently dead and not communicating, and the fourth in jail.’
Friedman informed the court and the civil case over the 2019 protest was ultimately dismissed.
But, there were still more surprises to come.
Kapelovitz, LaSota’s criminal defense attorney, told DailyMail.com that he got an email informing him that police had encountered the late LaSota during the Vallejo attack.
‘The deputy district attorney sent me an email stating that LaSota was ‘alive and well.’ I like 99.9 percent of my clients, so it is always depressing when one of my clients dies,’ he said. ‘So I was very happy to learn that LaSota was alive.’
Two months later, police across the other side of the country would report a second interaction with LaSota.
On New Year’s Eve 2022, Richard Zajko, 72, and his wife Rita Zajko, 69, were shot dead inside their home in Chester Heights, Pennsylvania.
Their bodies were found two days later when officers performed a welfare check.
Investigators believed that the couple’s daughter Michelle Zajko was in possession of the murder weapon and so swooped on the Candlewood Suites hotel in Chester City where she was staying on January 13 2023, according to a court hearing transcript seen by Open Vallejo.
The search did not turn up Zajko or the firearm.
Instead, authorities found an individual called Daniel Blank and LaSota inside a hotel room.
LaSota was arrested and charged with disorderly conduct and obstruction.
Had LaSota faked her own death? And, might Danielson have done the same?
In Danielson’s case, Friedman said he never saw a death certificate or evidence of her passing.
But, for LaSota’s death, he said he obtained the US Coast Guard report about her apparent drowning and the hours-long search in vain as evidence.
Yet, here she was very much alive and well and accounted for on the East Coast.
US Border Patrol agent David Maland, 44, was shot dead during the Inauguration day shooting in Coventry, Vermont
The scene of the shooting in Vermont involving Felix Baukholt, a German citizen and quantitative trader, and Teresa Youngblut, a 21-year-old computer science student from Washington
Not for long, however. After being released on bond, LaSota skipped out on several court dates. A warrant is now out for her arrest. DailyMail.com has tried to contact LaSota and her father for comment.
The whereabouts of Zajko, who was named a person of interest in her parents’ murders, also remain a mystery.
But, something would then happen almost exactly two years on that thrust the murders of her parents into the spotlight once again.
At around 3pm on January 20 2025, Donald Trump had been sworn in as the 47th president and was taking part in a series of inauguration events.
At the very same time, a US Border Patrol agent stopped a blue Toyota Prius Hatchback with North Carolina license plates for an immigration inspection in Coventry, Vermont.
Inside was Felix Baukholt, a German citizen and quantitative trader who authorities said at the time appeared to have an expired visa, and Teresa Youngblut, a 21-year-old computer science student from Washington.
According to the affidavit, Youngblut pulled a gun and opened fire on the agents. Baukholt then also tried to pull out a gun.
Agents returned fire, killing Baukholt and wounding Youngblut.
Maximilian Snyder (left) and Teresa Youngblut (right) had applied for a marriage license. On January 17, he is accused of killing Curtis Lind. Three days later, she was arrested over the shooting in Vermont
Border Patrol Agent David Maland was killed in the gunfire.
A search of the suspects’ car allegedly uncovered guns, ammunition, cellphones wrapped in aluminium foil, two walkie-talkies, two full-face respirators and tactical gear – including a ballistic helmet, night-vision-goggle monocular, and a tactical belt.
According to the affidavit, investigators had been carrying out surveillance on Baukholt and Youngblut since January 14 after they set off alarm bells when they checked into a hotel dressed in all-black tactical style clothing and carrying a firearm.
A link quickly emerged between this deadly shootout in Vermont and the Zizians.
According to prosecutors and the Pennsylvania State Police, the two guns used by Youngblut and Baukholt had been purchased by a person of interest in the double homicide of Rita and Richard Zajko: Michelle Zajko.
Prosecutors also allege that Bauckholt flew into the US just hours before the murders.
Youngblut and Zajko were also ‘acquainted with and have been in frequent contact with an individual who was detained by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania during that homicide investigation; that individual is also a person of interest in a homicide investigation in Vallejo, California,’ prosecutors wrote in a court filing.
That individual is not named in the documents. It is unclear if that refers to LaSota.
Teresa Youngblut seen at Newport City Inn and Suites in Vermont before the shooting. Her parents reported her missing in 2024 and feared she was in a ‘controlling relationship’
A friend said she had warned Felix Baukholt (pictured), who went by the name Ophelia, about the so-called ‘death cult’
After news of the Vermont shooting and Baukholt’s death broke, Taylor posted on X: ‘I remember warning Ophelia that Zizians were a death cult with a high local death rate.’
She told DailyMail.com that she had spotted a pattern for ‘a number of deaths in this group’ and had tried to warn her friend. She last heard from Baukholt, who went by Ophelia, in early 2023 and fears she became radicalized.
When asked about her reaction to learning her friend was involved in the Vermont shooting, she said she was ‘surprised but not shocked, because Ophelia was a fan of Ziz, so could have been radicalized.’
It seems Youngblut’s family was also concerned for her safety.
In May 2024, she was reported missing with police records, seen by NBC News, citing fears that she was in a controlling relationship.
The connection between the Vermont shooting and the vegan cult doesn’t end there.
In November, Youngblut and an Oxford University graduate named Maximilian Snyder applied for a marriage licence, The Associated Press reported.
And in what marks yet another twist in this sprawling saga, three days before the Border Patrol shooting, Snyder is accused of murdering none other than Curtis Lind.
More than two years had passed since the attack on Lind and he was set to become the star witness in his alleged attackers’ trial.
Jack LaSota is seen in a photo from an obituary posted after he faked he death. It is still online
On January 17, Lind was approached outside his home by a man dressed in all black.
Witnesses told the San Francisco Chronicle that the man stabbed the 82-year-old multiple times in the chest and ran off – only to return to slit his throat.
Snyder was arrested and charged with Lind’s murder, with prosecutors alleging the 82-year-old was killed to silence him from testifying to the 2022 attack.
Once again, the only thing connecting all these cases and this sprawling web of events is the so-called Zizian cult.
For Friedman, the trail of death and destruction left in the wake of the cult doesn’t marry with ‘the four kids’ who were ‘non-violent’ and ‘cared about the state of the world’ back in 2019.
‘We have in society this junction,’ he said.
‘So we have this high ideal then sometimes we will do the opposite.’
He offered an analogy.
‘How many people profess to love animals but what do they eat?’ he said.
‘I see that same pattern – you can have people who are very passionate but they have an exception for something else. That’s the way our society is.’
