--- category: Extremism & Violent Networks created: 2026-06-19 location: Washington (state) summary: Teresa Youngblut is a member of the Zizian group charged in federal court with the January 2025 murder of U.S. Border Patrol agent David Maland during a Vermont traffic stop, in a case in which the Department of Justice has filed notice that it will seek the death penalty. tags: - Person - Zizians - Violence - DeathPenalty - Rationalism updated: 2026-06-19 --- Teresa Youngblut is a member of the [Zizian](/organizations/the-zizians/) group who was charged in federal court with the January 20, 2025 killing of U.S. Border Patrol agent David Maland during a traffic stop in Coventry, Vermont. The case became the first in which the Department of Justice under the second [Trump](/people/donald-trump/) administration filed notice that it would seek the death penalty.[^1][^2] ### Disappearance Into the Group Youngblut, originally from Washington state, was reported missing by her parents in the Seattle area after she sent her mother emails saying she had moved in with a friend and changed her phone number, severing contact with her family. She had been drawn into the network of mostly young, highly educated transgender members around [Jack LaSota](/people/jack-lasota/) preoccupied with the dangers of artificial intelligence.[^3] The missing-person report was filed in May 2024 after the email and phone-number change. Youngblut had attended Lakeside School, the private Seattle academy where [Maximilian Snyder](/people/maximilian-snyder/) was also a student, one of the personal ties that later linked her to the California branch of the group. In November 2024 she and Snyder applied for a marriage license in Washington, and around the same time she began renting a place in North Carolina near [Felix Bauckholt](/people/felix-bauckholt/), who had taken a duplex in Chapel Hill in mid-2023; the relocation moved her into the cluster of members on the East Coast in the months before the Vermont shooting.[^4][^5][^6] ### The Vermont Shooting and Prosecution On January 20, 2025, Youngblut was driving on Interstate 91 near the Canadian border with Felix Bauckholt when Border Patrol agents stopped the vehicle. According to the FBI affidavit, Youngblut got out and fired at agents without warning, using a .40-caliber Glock 23, while Bauckholt attempted to draw a weapon; Bauckholt and Agent Maland were killed and Youngblut was wounded. The stop was not random: a Lyndonville hotel employee had reported the pair around January 14 for checking in wearing all-black tactical clothing and a holstered firearm, prompting periodic surveillance, and a search of the vehicle yielded multiple firearms, hollow-point ammunition, a ballistic helmet, night-vision goggles, handheld radios, and about a dozen electronic devices, some wrapped in aluminum foil.[^1][^5][^7] A superseding federal indictment returned in August 2025 charged Youngblut with murdering Maland and assaulting two other agents with a deadly weapon, alleging for the first time that she fired the fatal shot. The Department of Justice filed notice in August 2025 that it would seek the death penalty if she were convicted; Youngblut pleaded not guilty in September 2025. Although Vermont abolished capital punishment and has not executed anyone since 1954, the federal charges keep the death penalty available, and the proceedings continued into 2026 amid motions to delay the trial. Prosecutors said Youngblut had been in frequent contact with [Michelle Zajko](/people/michelle-zajko/), the person of interest in the Pennsylvania killing of her parents, and that the firearms she and Bauckholt carried had been purchased by Zajko; Youngblut was also in contact with Snyder, who was charged with murder in California three days before the Vermont stop.[^1][^2][^8] [^1]: "Prosecutors file notice they will seek the death penalty against Teresa Youngblut in border agent killing," *VTDigger,* August 14, 2025. https://vtdigger.org/2025/08/14/grand-jury-returns-new-indictment-against-teresa-youngblut-for-allegedly-killing-border-agent/ [^2]: "Prosecutors seek death penalty against Zizians member charged with murdering Vermont border agent," Associated Press via CBS News, 2025. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/prosecutors-seek-death-penalty-fatal-shooting-border-patrol-agent/ [^3]: "A timeline of activities of a cultlike group tied to the killing of a Border Patrol agent," Associated Press via PBS NewsHour, 2025. https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/a-timeline-of-cultlike-zizian-group-tied-to-killing-of-a-border-patrol-agent-in-vermont [^4]: "Defendant linked to 'Zizians' pleads not guilty to capital murder," *Open Vallejo,* March 26, 2025, on the Lakeside School connection between Youngblut and Snyder. https://openvallejo.org/2025/03/26/defendant-linked-to-zizians-pleads-not-guilty-to-capital-murder/ [^5]: "A timeline of cultlike 'Zizian' group tied to killing of a Border Patrol agent in Vermont," Associated Press via PBS NewsHour, 2025, on the May 2024 missing-person report, the November 2024 marriage-license application, and the North Carolina move. https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/a-timeline-of-cultlike-zizian-group-tied-to-killing-of-a-border-patrol-agent-in-vermont [^6]: "Suspects in killings of Vermont border patrol agent and California man connected by marriage license, extreme ideology," *VTDigger,* January 27, 2025. https://vtdigger.org/2025/01/27/suspects-in-killings-of-vermont-border-patrol-agent-and-california-man-connected-by-marriage-license-extreme-ideology/ [^7]: "Court Docs Provide New Details on Border Patrol Shooting," *Seven Days,* January 2025, on the Lyndonville hotel, the Glock 23, and the gear recovered. https://www.sevendaysvt.com/news/court-docs-provide-new-details-on-border-patrol-shooting-42735984/ [^8]: "Woman charged in killing of Border Patrol agent was in contact with Pennsylvania homicide suspect: prosecutors," CBS News Philadelphia, 2025. https://www.cbsnews.com/philadelphia/news/teresa-youngblut-david-maland-pennsylvania-suspect/