Ex-Delco woman linked to Zizians faces felony drug and gun-trafficking charges in Maryland
Michelle Zajko, formerly of Chester Heights, has been in custody in Maryland since her arrest in February alongside the supposed leader of a California extremist group.
A former Delaware County woman whom federal prosecutors have linked to an extremist group known as the Zizians — and who is a person of interest in her parents’ unsolved murders — has been charged with felony gun and drug-trafficking charges in Maryland.
Michelle Zajko, 32, has been in custody in Allegany County since February, when she was arrested alongside two other members of the Zizians for illegally camping in two box trucks outside a home in Frostburg, Md.
Zajko was initially charged with trespassing, resisting arrest, and related crimes, all misdemeanors, along with Jack “Ziz” LaSota, the group’s de facto leader, and Daniel Blank.
But late last week, a grand jury approved the more serious charges of possessing two handguns, a .50 caliber rifle and LSD, a powerful hallucinogenic for all three defendants, according to court documents filed in Maryland.
Zajko’s attorney, George McKinley, did not return a request for comment Thursday. Zajko remains in custody, denied bail, after a Maryland judge ruled that she and her and co-defendants were a danger to the public.
Zajko, who grew up in Chester Heights, is the daughter of Richard and Rita Zajko, who were found shot, execution-style, in their home on New Year’s Eve 2022.
Zajko, a former bioinformatician who once conducted research at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, has not been charged in connection with the crime and has denied any involvement in her parents’ deaths.
Local, state and federal investigators have long sought to speak with her about the slayings and have said she is a person of interest in the investigation.
In the years before her parents were killed, Zajko became involved with the Zizans, a Bay Area group of activists linked to multiple violent crimes. Pennsylvania State Police briefly detained her and Blank after finding them together, with LaSota, at a hotel in Chester days after her parents’ funeral.
LaSota was charged with hindering a police investigation for refusing to answer questions during that encounter. She was released on bail and failed to show up to subsequent court proceedings. A warrant for her to appear in Delaware County to face those charges remains active.
In January, two other members of the Zizians connected to LaSota got into a gunfight with members of the U.S. Border Patrol near Vermont’s border with Canada. The weapons used in that shootout, in which one of the agents was killed, had been purchased by Zajko, according to federal prosecutors.
Shortly after her arrest in Maryland, Zajko was charged with federal gun offenses for allegedly arming the suspects in the shooting.
Earlier this week, LaSota was charged with a felony firearms offense for possessing guns and ammunition as a fugitive from justice.
In mid-February, a homeowner discovered two box trucks parked at the edge of his property along a remote mountain access road in Frostburg, Md., a rural community near the West Virginia border, according to the affidavit of probable cause for Zajko’s arrest.
The trucks’ occupants, clad in all black and wearing ammo belts, asked him if they could camp on his property for a month.
The homeowner said no and asked them to leave — they were strangers to him, and he said he found them suspicious. Maryland State Police arrived to investigate and found Zajko, LaSota, and Blank living in the trucks, armed with a military-grade, .50-caliber sniper rifle, body armor, and two handguns.
They refused to answer the troopers’ questions, identify themselves, or even sign their arrest paperwork.
Zajko gave the troopers a false name, Alex Clark, before her true identity and those of her traveling companions were confirmed with the help of federal investigators.