Prosecutors say Michelle Zajko did not act alone in the New Year’s Eve killings.
MEDIA, Pa. — A woman tied to the cultlike Zizians group has been charged with killing her parents at their suburban Philadelphia home in 2022, with prosecutors saying evidence shows she helped arrange the shooting deaths.
Michelle Zajko, 33, faces murder, burglary and conspiracy charges in the deaths of Rita and Richard Zajko, who were found shot inside their Chester Heights home on Dec. 31, 2022. Delaware County District Attorney Tanner Rouse said Wednesday that investigators believe Zajko was inside the home and was not acting alone. The case adds another criminal proceeding tied to the Zizians, a small group linked by authorities to several violent deaths in multiple states.
Rouse said the couple was killed in Michelle Zajko’s childhood playroom, near dolls and toys from her youth, on the day she turned 30. Investigators said a neighbor’s doorbell camera captured a car arriving at the home, two people getting out, a voice calling “Mom!” and another person crying out in distress. “At this time we do not know who her co-conspirators were, but we are very certain that Michelle Zajko was in the home and arranged for the death of her parents,” Rouse said.
Authorities said they have not recovered the gun used in the killings. Rouse said investigators linked shell casings from the home to ammunition found at Zajko’s Vermont residence and to a firing range in her backyard. He also said Zajko wrote a list of mistakes that included leaving shell casings behind. Zajko has denied killing her parents. In an April 2025 letter sent by her attorney to The Associated Press, she wrote, “I didn’t murder my parents.” Court filings also raised the possibility that her father killed her mother and then himself, a theory prosecutors reject.
Prosecutors said Zajko had been estranged from her parents in the year before they died. Rouse said Rita Zajko texted her daughter hours before the shooting, apologized for a family rift and wished her a happy birthday. “That text went unanswered,” Rouse said. Investigators questioned Michelle Zajko in Vermont shortly after the deaths. Weeks later, police briefly detained her at a Pennsylvania hotel when she returned for the funeral, but she was released without charges at that time.
The Zizians have drawn law enforcement attention in several states. Authorities have described the group as made up of highly intelligent young computer scientists with radical views involving veganism, animal rights, gender identity and artificial intelligence. Zajko has been jailed in Maryland since February 2025 on other charges. She was arrested there with Daniel Blank and Jack “Ziz” LaSota, whom authorities have described as the group’s leader. The three have pleaded not guilty to trespassing and illegal gun and drug possession charges. LaSota also faces a federal gun charge.
Zajko also is charged with providing the gun used to kill U.S. Border Patrol Agent David Maland in Vermont in January 2025. Teresa Youngblut has pleaded not guilty to murder in that case and could face the death penalty if convicted. In court filings, LaSota’s lawyers have denied that LaSota and her friends formed a cult. Zajko has claimed authorities arrested the Maryland group to stop them from helping Youngblut. Prosecutors in Pennsylvania have not publicly named the alleged co-conspirators in the Zajko killings.
Richard Zajko’s sister-in-law, Roseanne Zajko, thanked police and prosecutors after the charges were announced, saying the family had endured “countless days of darkness and despair” while waiting for the case to move forward. Rouse called the deaths a crime that “goes beyond comprehension” and said investigators continued to review evidence gathered over several years.
Online court records did not immediately list an attorney for Zajko in the Pennsylvania case. The next steps include her transfer or appearance in Delaware County court, where prosecutors are expected to pursue the murder, burglary and conspiracy charges.
Author note: Last updated June 27, 2026.