A former Delco woman sought for questioning in her parents’ deaths has been arrested for trespassing, police say

A former Chester Heights woman wanted for questioning in connection with her parents’ 2022 slaying in Delaware County, and who investigators say supplied guns used to kill a Border Patrol agent in Vermont last month, was arrested for trespassing in western Maryland on Sunday, police said.

Michelle Zajko, 32, was also charged with resisting arrest and possession of a weapon, according to court records. The circumstances of her arrest were unclear. In a statement, a Maryland State Police spokesperson said only that Zajko was arrested on Piney Mountain Road in Frostburg, Md., and that federal authorities are involved in the investigation.

Zajko was arrested Sunday alongside Jack LaSota, 33, who is wanted on a bench warrant for failing to appear in court in Delaware County on an obstruction of justice charge for failing to answer questions from state troopers investigating the deaths of Zajko’s parents. In the Maryland case, LaSota is charged with trespassing and resisting arrest.

Richard and Rita Zajko were found shot to death inside their home on Dec. 31, 2022. Police investigating the crime have long sought to interview their daughter about the case. Surveillance video from a neighbor’s house recorded someone yelling “Mom” around the time of the murders, court records show, and investigators say Zajko purchased a gun of a similar caliber to the one that killed her parents months before their deaths.

Last month, federal investigators in Vermont, where Zajko now lives, said they wanted to speak with her after they said two of her associates shot at a group of Border Patrol agents, killing one, using guns she had purchased. Border Patrol Agent David Maland died in the shootout.

Zajko and LaSota were being held in Maryland on Monday without bail, and a bail review hearing is scheduled for Tuesday morning.

LaSota, also known as “Ziz,” is the leader of the “Zizians,” a cultlike group of vegan, tech-centric activists whose members include Zajko and the suspects in the Vermont Border Patrol shooting, according to investigators.

Authorities say the Zizians are connected to a string of assaults and murders in recent years, spanning from coastal California to the Canadian border.

For years, knowledge of the Zizians was limited to esoteric tech blogs. But the group was launched onto the global stage in recent weeks following a flurry of international news articles about their alleged crimes — all while investigators searched for both Zajko and LaSota.

Staff writers Jesse Bunch and Zoe Greenberg contributed to this article.