{"id":226974,"date":"2026-06-24T16:29:07","date_gmt":"2026-06-24T16:29:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/226974\/"},"modified":"2026-06-24T16:29:07","modified_gmt":"2026-06-24T16:29:07","slug":"da-in-pennsylvania-to-provide-significant-development-in-murder-investigation-of-richard-and-rita-zajko","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/226974\/","title":{"rendered":"DA in Pennsylvania to provide “significant development” in murder investigation of Richard and Rita Zajko"},"content":{"rendered":"

Prosecutors are expected to announce Wednesday a “significant development” in the unsolved murder investigation of Richard and Rita Zajko<\/a>\u00a0in Pennsylvania.<\/p>\n

Richard, 72, and Rita Zajko, 69, were found dead<\/a> during a wellness check in Chester Heights on Jan. 2, 2023. The Delaware County medical examiner ruled their deaths a homicide. They were killed in their home on New Year’s Eve in 2022, according to Pennsylvania State Police.<\/p>\n

Investigators did not consider their death a random act of violence, state police previously said. \u00a0<\/p>\n

Delaware County District Attorney Tanner Rouse is holding a press conference at 1 p.m. to provide an update on the investigation. Watch live on CBS News Philadelphia or wherever we’re streaming.<\/p>\n

The Delaware County couple’s deaths are among six deaths<\/a> connected to a cultlike group called the Zizians<\/a> in Pennsylvania, California and Vermont.<\/p>\n

Michelle Zajko, the couple’s daughter, was previously questioned but not charged in her parents’ deaths. In April 2025, she released a 20-page handwritten letter<\/a> through her attorney in which she said she was falsely accused of killing her parents.<\/p>\n

Authorities claim Michelle Zajko provided the gun<\/a> used in the shooting death of U.S. Border Patrol Agent David Maland<\/a> in Vermont in January 2025.<\/p>\n

This is a developing story and will be updated.<\/p>\n

In:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Prosecutors are expected to announce Wednesday a “significant development” in the unsolved murder investigation of Richard and Rita…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":226975,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[212,28,30,29],"class_list":["post-226974","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pennsylvania","tag-delaware-county","tag-pennsylvania","tag-pennsylvania-headlines","tag-pennsylvania-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/226974","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=226974"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/226974\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/226975"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=226974"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=226974"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=226974"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}