A leading member of a cult-like group of radical vegans linked to at least six deaths across the U.S. has been arrested in Maryland.
Court records showed that Ziz, a 34-year-old computer scientist known in court records by her legal name as Jack LaSota, was detained on misdemeanor charges in Allegany County on Sunday evening.
Ziz is a key member — and the namesake — of a mysterious group of mostly transgender and non-binary young people known as the “Zizians”, whose members have been tied to murder cases in California, Pennsylvania, and Vermont.
Also arrested in Maryland was Michelle “Jamie” Zajko, 32, who is a person of interest in the Vermont shooting and the Pennsylvania shooting.
The charges listed for Ziz were trespass, obstruction, and possession of a firearm, whereas for Zajko it was trespass, obstruction, and resisting or interfering with an arrest.
Allegany County jail official Elizabeth Shoemake told VTDigger that the pair were arrested for “on-site activity” rather than over an outstanding warrant.
The FBI is involved, officials confirmed, and the investigation is “fluid and ongoing”.
It is the latest twist in a bizarre saga that began in the San Francisco Bay Area in 2016, within Silicon Valley’s quirky ‘rationalist’ subculture.
Ziz was one of a small group of anarchist-leaning rationalists who accused the rest of the community of under-valuing animal rights and welfare.
Amid mounting legal troubles, Ziz reportedly faked her death in 2022, and a confrontation with a landlord over missed rent left one of her friends dead and two in prison.
But since then connections to Ziz have continued to emerge in other criminal cases.
In Pennsylvania in 2023, police investigating the murder of Zajko’s parents on New Year’s Eve 2022 detained both Ziz and Zajko in the same hotel.
In California this January, authorities also charged a vegan rationalist — who denied being a friend of Ziz — with murdering Curtis Lind.
And in Vermont the same month, a border agent and a young rationalist were killed in a shoot-out over a traffic stop. One of the guns involved is alleged to have been bought by Zajko.
