I've written a few times about the cult-like group called the Zizians after their apparent leader Jack LaSota who is trans and goes by Ziz. As detailed here, the Zizians started on the West Coast with a plan to build a flotilla of boats captained by "rationalists," a group that developed in the Bay Area over the past several years.

The flotilla didn't work out and the group instead took to using box trucks to live in. Their first camp turned into a disaster after they refused to pay rent to the property owner. He sought to have them evicted but they learned of his plan and attempted to murder him, running him through with a samurai sword.

The property owner managed to kill one of the Zizian attackers and survived. A trial for his surviving attackers was set to start this year with the owner as the main witness. And then just a few weeks ago he was murdered by another person trying to prevent his testimony.

Meanwhile on Inauguration Day, a border agent named David Maland pulled over a car not far from the Canadian border in Vermont and a shootout ensued. The border agent was killed and so was one of the attackers in the car, a trans person named Felix Bauckholt. The other attacker, Teresa Youngblut, survived and is awaiting trial. Both Bauckholt and Youngblut are connected to Ziz. The guns used in the attack came from yet another Ziz associate named Michelle Zajko. Michelle is also trans.

And that brings us to this story published today by NBC News about the death of Michelle Zajko's parents. They were murdered in their upscale home in the Philadelphia suburbs on New Year's Eve 2022. 

Rita, 69, had a gunshot wound to the back of her head, her autopsy found. Richard, 71, had taken a bullet to his right hand and another to his right temple, according to his autopsy.

Their bodies were discovered in an upstairs bedroom. No gun was found at the scene, according to court records, but there were two 9 mm shell casings — each bearing a stamped impression of “9mm Luger +P SIG.”

Michelle Zajko, their only child, was a person of interest in the case. 

The morning after the Zajkos’ bodies were discovered, Pennsylvania state troopers reviewed video footage from a neighbor’s Ring camera.

It showed a car pulling up to the Zajkos’ home just before 11:30 p.m. Two minutes later, a high-pitched voice is heard yelling what sounds like “Mom!” followed by, “Oh, my God! Oh, God!” the affidavit says.

Police contacted Michelle three days later and she confirmed she had a gun. Police were able to observe and even hold it but they didn't have a warrant at the time so they couldn't keep it.

Zajko told troopers that she was in Vermont in the days before and after New Year’s Eve, the affidavit says, and that she had not spoken to her parents since January 2022.

The investigators later learned that Zajko had purchased the gun at a local sporting goods store, along with a box of ammunition of the same manufacture and type as the spent casings found at the murder scene in Pennsylvania, the affidavit says.

Police did get a warrant to search for the gun at Zajko's home in Vermont but when they arrived Michelle was in Philadelphia for the funeral. The finally located Michelle at a hotel near the airport.  

The troopers found Michelle Zajko, then 30, and brought her to their barracks for questioning. But she refused to cooperate and was allowed to leave, according to a law enforcement affidavit.

Then something strange happened.

Troopers told Zajko to wait in the lobby so they could return her car. She bolted instead, leaving behind her vehicle and $40,000 in cash that was found inside of it, according to the affidavit.

Very odd behavior to be sure but police did search the hotel room and found no gun there. However, they later found the gun in another room being rented by Zajko's associates. Those associates were Jack "Ziz" LaSota and Daniel Blank. The story does not say whether bullets from the gun match those used in the murders.

For two years the case went cold and no one seemed to know the location of Zajko or Ziz. But last week a tip led to the arrest of Ziz, Zajko and Blank. The were found in box trucks in a remote area of Maryland.

Charging documents say that when police arrived, they found Zajko and LaSota in one of the trucks, both wearing gun belts with ammunition. Zajko refused to put her hands behind her back and was forcibly taken to the ground. In Zajko’s waistband, the officers found a handgun, according to the documents.

 Zajko played dead during the booking photo. Later another photo was taken.

A new Allegany County, Md. booking photo of Trantifa terror member Michelle Zajko has been released after she pretended to be dead in her first photo. (Jack "Ziz" LaSota also pretended to be dead when he was arrested in Pennsylvania in 2023.)

I can exclusively confirm that Zajko… pic.twitter.com/95KEzFq0dz

— Andy Ngo (@MrAndyNgo) February 17, 2025

And that's it for now. No word on whether investigators have the gun used in the murders or whether any of the suspects are talking. Hopefully we'll see some progress in this murder case soon.