Michelle Zajko, who has been jailed in Maryland on other charges since February 2025, has been charged with murder, burglary and conspiracy charges in the deaths of Rita and Richard Zajko, Delaware County District Attorney Tanner Rouse said at a news conference. The prosecutor said she did not act alone.<\/p>\n
Online court records didn\u2019t immediately indicate whether Zajko had an attorney in the Pennsylvania case as of Wednesday. An attorney representing her in Maryland did not immediately respond to a message seeking comment, and the Delaware County Public Defender\u2019s office declined to comment.<\/p>\n
The couple was shot to death in their home on New Year\u2019s Eve after police say a neighbor\u2019s doorbell camera captured video of a car pulling up to their home in Chester Heights, a voice shouting \u201cMom!\u201d and another voice exclaiming, \u201cOh my God! Oh, God, God!\u201d<\/p>\n
RELATED: What we know about the Zizians and the group\u2019s connection to Sonoma County, the Bay Area<\/a><\/p>\n Michelle Zajko has denied any involvement, and in court filings suggested her father might have killed her mother and then himself.<\/p>\n \u201cI didn\u2019t murder my parents,\u201d she wrote in an April 2025 \u201c Open Letter to the World.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n FILE \u2013 In this combination of undated photos provided by the Pennsylvania State Police, Richard Zajko, left, and his wife Rita Zajko, who police say were shot to death in their home in suburban Philadelphia on Dec. 31, 2022, are shown. (Pennsylvania State Police via AP, File)\n<\/p>\n FILE \u2013 This Jan. 29, 2025 photo shows a Chester Heights, Pa., home, the scene of the 2022 killing of Richard and Rita Zajko, (AP Photo\/Matt Rourke, File)\n<\/p>\n Show Caption<\/p>\n 1 of 2<\/p>\n FILE \u2013 In this combination of undated photos provided by the Pennsylvania State Police, Richard Zajko, left, and his wife Rita Zajko, who police say were shot to death in their home in suburban Philadelphia on Dec. 31, 2022, are shown. (Pennsylvania State Police via AP, File)\n<\/p>\n Expand<\/a><\/p>\n Authorities, however, had long described Zajko as a person of interest in the double homicide, two of the six deaths<\/a> linked to a group of young, highly intelligent computer scientists who appear to share radical beliefs about veganism, animal rights, gender identity and artificial intelligence.<\/p>\n Prior to those killings, group members made their presence known in Sonoma County when they invaded a Westminster Woods retreat near Occidental in November 2019. They were protesting an event hosted by the Center for Applied Rationality, a Berkeley nonprofit that stages workshops on rational thinking, The Press Democrat reported at the time. The group showed up while dressed in dark robes and Guy Fawkes masks like those worn by hackers with the activist group Anonymous.<\/p>\n Pat Paterson \/ The Press Democrat file<\/p>\n Sonoma County sheriff\u2019s deputies closed Bohemian Highway during a standoff with four individuals who barricaded a Camp Meeker retreat center Friday, Nov. 15, 2019. The four individuals arrested became known as part of a cultlike group, the Zizians, with some members now allegedly connected with a series of killings and deaths across the country. (Pat Paterson \/ The Press Democrat file)<\/p>\n The group barricaded the center during an hours-long standoff. It blocked an exit with a box truck, shuttle bus and Toyota Prius along Bohemian Highway. Two members of the group carried walkie-talkies, one wore a body camera and another had pepper spray, according to the initial arrest report. Authorities evacuated about 50 people, including 18 children, who were at the camp in a school bus during the standoff.<\/p>\n The Sonoma County Sheriff\u2019s Office reported the protesters initially did not follow deputies\u2019 orders, yelled profanities and physically resisted efforts to detain them. Deputies ultimately arrested group leader Jack LaSota, Emma Borhanian of Albany and Alexander Leatham, whose hometown was unknown, authorities said at the time.<\/p>\n Also arrested that day was Gwen Danielson, whose court proceedings played out in Sonoma County Superior Court before she was sentenced in April<\/a> to 150 days in jail for four misdemeanors counts of criminal conspiracy, obstructing police, trespassing and wearing a mask for unlawful purposes.<\/p>\n AP Photo<\/p>\n This combination of images from top left shows 2019 Sonoma County Sheriff’s Office booking mug shots of Jack LaSota, Alexander Leatham, Emma Borhanian and, at bottom left, Gwen Danielson, court appearance of Maximilian Snyder and a Newport City Inn surveillance video image of Teresa Youngblut. They are associates of LaSota, also known as “Ziz” and members of a cultlike group known as the Zizians now tied to several alleged killings and deaths across the country. (AP Photo)<\/p>\n In an interview with Rolling Stone, she distanced herself from the Zizians\u2019 recent activity and said she she learned from afar about the series of killings and deaths allegedly linked to the group or its members.<\/p>\n Since 2022, members have been tied to the death of one of their own during an attack on a Vallejo landlord<\/a>, the landlord\u2019s subsequent killing in January 2025 to prevent his testimony in the initial attack, the Zajkos\u2019 deaths Pennsylvania, and a highway shootout in Vermont<\/a> that left a border agent and another Zizian dead.<\/p>\n Zajko, who is charged with providing the gun used to kill U.S. Border Patrol Agent David Maland in January 2025, was arrested in Maryland a few weeks later<\/a> along with Daniel Blank and Jack \u201cZiz\u201d LaSota, whom authorities describe as the group\u2019s leader. Police who responded to a landowner\u2019s complaint about suspicious people parked in box trucks on his property described them as having \u201cties with the Zizians Cult\u201d and said they would be questioned about crimes across the country.<\/p>\n All three face state charges of trespassing and illegal gun and drug possession, while LaSota faces a federal charge of illegal gun possession by a fugitive. A judge recently granted a defense request for a competency evaluation in the federal case.<\/p>\n![\"FILE](\"https:\/\/www.pressdemocrat.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Prosecuting_Zizians_7228_.jpg?w=620\")
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