'I Didn’t Murder My Parents:' Daughter Of Slain Delco Couple Speaks Out

CHESTER HEIGHTS, PA — The daughter of a slain Delaware County couple who is part of a cult-like group that's connected to several other killings says she did not kill her parents.

Michelle Zajko, 32, of Media, issued a letter to the Associated Press via her attorney recently. In the letter, Zajko flatly denied murdering her parents Rita and Richard Zajko, 69 and 72, respectively, on New Year's Eve 2022 in their Chester Heights home.

"I didn’t murder my parents," the letter reads in part.

Their bodies were discovered in their home at 18 Highland Drive in Chester Heights Borough on Monday, Jan. 2, 2023 during a wellness check.

In February this year, Zajko was identified as a person of interest in their killings after being linked to the killing of Border Patrol Agent David Maland Jan. 20 in Coventry, Vermont, federal authorities said.

Pennsylvania State Police said an investigation into the shooting revealed that the weapon used in Maland's killing was purchased by a person of interest in the Zajko murders.

Zajko is a member of the cultlike group called the "Zizians," that the two people connected to Maland's killing are also involved in.

The group's reported leader, Jack LaSota, of California, was charged with obstruction of justice in Delaware County, just days after Rita and Richard Zajko were found dead, for refusing to answer detectives' questions. A bench warrant for LaSota's arrest was issued for failing to appear for a court hearing in Delaware County.

The Delaware County Daily Times reports authorities determined the bullet found in Richard Zajko's body matched ammunition she purchased in Vermont in February 2022.

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives recently released an alert to all federal firearm dealers regarding Michelle Zajko, saying she is a person of interest in Maland's killing, according to VTDigger.com.

Zajko was taken into custody Feb. 16 in Maryland and charged with trespassing, obstructing and hindering, resisting arrest, and handgun on person, according to Maryland State Police.

Additionally, LaSota, and Daniel Arthur Blank, 26, of Sacramento, California were taken into custody that same day.

Lasota was charged with trespassing, obstructing and hindering, firearm in vehicle; while Blank was arrested and charged with trespassing and obstructing and hindering.

All three were transported to the Allegany County Detention Center.

"You, the public, are being lied to," Zajko wrote in her letter. "And while I don’t promise to answer all your questions, I think the truth about my friends and I will make a lot more sense than what you’ve been reading about in the papers."

She said coverage of the group has painted them as "Satan's lapdogs, the devil & the Manson family all rolled into one."

The Zizians are a focused on veganism, gender identity, rationalism, and artificial intelligence.

Lasota's ideologies are believed to have stemmed from his reading of a though experiment titled "Roko's Basilisk" that was made popular among online rationalist communities. The experiment states that an otherwise benevolent artificial superintelligence in the future would be incentivized to create a virtual reality simulation to torture anyone who knew of its potential existence but did not directly contribute to its advancement or development to incentivize said advancement.

LaSota was charged with obstruction of justice in Delaware County, just days after Rita and Richard Zajko were found dead, for refusing to answer detectives' questions. He was issued a bench warrant after failing to appear for court dates in Delaware County.

According to Zajko's LinkedIn profile, she graduated from Temple University's Bioinformatics Masters Program, with an undergraduate degree from Cabrini University.

She previously interned at NASA's GENELAB program, Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, and did a one-year internship in genome annotation.

Federal gun charges were filed against Zajko in February, with authorities saying she made false statements when purchasing firearms. According to court documents, Zajko gave a false address when buying three guns at a Vermont business about a year ago.

Two of those firearms were involved in the Maland's killing, court records show.