A member of the cultlike Zizians group is charged in the killings of her parents in Pennsylvania

By — Holly Ramer, Associated Press Holly Ramer, Associated Press Leave your feedback Share Copy URL https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/a-member-of-the-cultlike-zizians-group-is-charged-in-the-killings-of-her-parents-in-pennsylvania Email Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Pinterest Tumblr Share on Facebook Share on Twitter A member of the cultlike Zizians group is charged in the killings of her parents in Pennsylvania Nation Jun 24, 2026 4:59 PM EDT A member of the cultlike group known as Zizians has been charged with murder in the shooting of her parents at their Pennsylvania home on her 30th birthday, and a prosecutor said Wednesday that authorities don't believe she was acting alone. Michelle Zajko, who has been jailed in Maryland on other charges since February 2025, has been charged with murder, burglary and conspiracy charges in the deaths of Rita and Richard Zajko, Delaware County District Attorney Tanner Rouse said at a news conference. The prosecutor said she did not act alone. READ MORE: Leader of Zizians, cultlike group linked to 6 killings, ordered held without bail in Maryland Rouse said that Zajko is known to have been among those who killed her parents "to the extent that if she wasn't the one who actually pulled the trigger, she was certainly aligned with those who did." Online court records didn't immediately indicate whether Zajko had an attorney in the Pennsylvania case as of Wednesday. An attorney representing her in Maryland did not immediately respond to a message seeking comment, and the Delaware County Public Defender's office declined to comment. The couple was shot to death in their home on New Year's Eve after police say a neighbor's doorbell camera captured video of a car pulling up to their home in Chester Heights, a voice shouting "Mom!" and another voice exclaiming, "Oh my God! Oh, God, God!" Michelle Zajko has denied any involvement, and in court filings suggested her father might have killed her mother and then himself. "I didn't murder my parents," she wrote in an April 2025 "Open Letter to the World." Authorities, however, had long described Zajko as a person of interest in the double homicide, two of the six deaths linked to a group of young, highly intelligent computer scientists who appear to share radical beliefs about veganism, animal rights, gender identity and artificial intelligence. READ MORE: A timeline of cultlike 'Zizian' group tied to killing of a Border Patrol agent in Vermont Since 2022, members have been tied to the death of one of their own during an attack on a California landlord, the landlord's subsequent killing, the Zajkos' deaths in Pennsylvania, and a highway shootout in Vermont that left a border agent and another Zizian dead. Zajko, who is charged with providing the gun used to kill U.S. Border Patrol Agent David Maland in January 2025, was arrested in Maryland a few weeks later along with Daniel Blank and Jack "Ziz" LaSota, whom authorities describe as the group's leader. Police who responded