Daughter Was Linked to the Trans Cult, Zizians. Police Say She Helped Kill Her Own Parents

A woman tied to the group known as the Zizians is now facing murder charges in the deaths of her own parents inside their Pennsylvania home.

Michelle Zajko, 32, has been charged with first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit first-degree murder in connection with the deaths of Richard Zajko, 71, and Rita Zajko, 68. Prosecutors say the couple was shot and killed inside their Delaware County home on December 31, 2022.

Even more disturbing, prosecutors say Zajko did not act alone.

“She did not act alone,” Delaware County District Attorney Tanner Rouse said during a news conference. “At this time, we do not know who her co-conspirators were.”

That statement raises one of the biggest questions in this case: if prosecutors believe Zajko had help, who else was involved?

The murders of Richard and Rita Zajko have drawn renewed attention because of Michelle Zajko’s alleged connection to the Zizians, a radical fringe group that has been linked by authorities to multiple violent cases across different states.

Authorities say Zajko became connected to the group before her parents were killed. Prosecutors believe Richard and Rita had been trying to repair their relationship with their daughter before they were murdered. The killings reportedly happened on Michelle’s birthday.

District Attorney Rouse said investigators believe Zajko was responsible for the deaths of her parents, though he also made clear that the investigation into possible co-conspirators is not over.

Federal authorities had already arrested Zajko in connection with another case. She was accused of supplying firearms allegedly used by other Zizian-linked individuals in the January 2025 killing of U.S. Border Patrol Agent David Maland in Vermont.

Authorities have said those weapons were connected to Teresa Youngblut and Ophelia “Felix” Baukholt, who were allegedly involved in the deadly shootout that killed Maland.

The Zizians have been described by investigators and prosecutors as a radical group connected to a series of violent incidents. The group has been associated with Jack “Ziz” LaSota, a blogger and computer engineer from Berkeley who has attracted followers through extreme beliefs involving technology, artificial intelligence, veganism, and anarchist ideology.

LaSota is currently jailed in Maryland on unrelated charges, including trespassing, gun, and drug offenses.

Several alleged followers of the group are now facing murder charges in separate cases. Authorities have also linked Zizian members to the death of Curtis Lind, a California man who was killed after reportedly trying to evict group members who had been squatting on his property.

With Zajko’s new charges, prosecutors say she is now the fifth person connected to the group to face a murder case.

At this stage, Zajko has been charged, not convicted. But the allegations are deeply unsettling: a daughter accused of helping kill her parents, a group already tied to multiple violent investigations, and prosecutors openly saying more people may have been involved.

This is the kind of case that almost sounds impossible at first because it crosses so many disturbing lines at once; family violence, alleged extremist influence, multiple murder investigations, and unanswered questions about who else may have helped.

Richard and Rita Zajko were not just names in a criminal complaint. They were parents whose lives ended violently inside their own home. And if prosecutors are right, the person responsible was someone they had once tried to reconnect with.

Now investigators are left trying to untangle not only what happened inside that house, but whether the killings were part of a larger pattern connected to the Zizians.

What do you think is the most disturbing part of this case... the alleged family betrayal, the possible co-conspirators, or the group’s connection to other violent crimes?