National, Regional and Local News

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The ‘murder gang’ of computer whizzkids linked to the killings of a Border Patrol agent and a landlord 3,000 miles apart
Investigators are exploring whether two apparently unrelated murders could be linked, by way of an alleged cult made up of highly educated computer scientists with an interest in animal rights, Andrea Cavallier reports

Wednesday 29 January 2025 10:47 EST

January 20, a Border Patrol agent was shot dead during a traffic stop in Vermont. It quickly emerged that a German citizen had also died and that a 21-year-old woman had been arrested.

Now investigators are exploring whether those deaths are linked to a fatal stabbing of a landlord 3,000 miles away in California, and a mysterious alleged cult made up of highly educated young computer scientists obsessed with veganism, animal rights, and theories about the nature of human consciousness.

Teresa Youngblut, 21, the woman accused of killing Border Patrol Agent David Maland in Vermont last week, is believed to be closely acquainted with 22-year-old Maximilian Snyder, the man arrested on Friday in the landlord’s death.

The pair were in “frequent contact with each other” prior to the killings on opposite sides of the country, according to a motion filed Monday by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Vermont.

So acquainted, in fact, that Youngblut and Snyder had applied for a marriage license on November 5, according to public records viewed by Open Vallejo.

They both studied computer science in Washington and appeared to follow the “vegan Sith” ideology of a fringe Bay Area group that has been described as a “murder gang,” the outlet reported, citing an interview with a person familiar with the group.

Youngblut has been charged in the death of Border Patrol Agent David Maland, 44, who was killed on January 20 during the shootout in Coventry, about 20 miles from the Canadian border. Her passenger Felix Bauckholt, a German citizen, also died in the shooting.

U.S. Attorney Michael Drescher said in the motion filed on Monday that the gun allegedly used by Youngblut, along with the one that Bauckholt was carrying, were both purchased by a third person in Vermont last February – who is a person of interest in a double homicide investigation in Pennsylvania. In that case, Richard Zajko, 72, and 69-year-old Rita Zajko were found shot dead at their home in Chester Heights, near Philadelphia, according to the Toronto Sun. Police said the killings were “not random.”

Drescher said Youngblut and Bauckholt “are acquainted with and have been in frequent contact with” the person who was detained during that investigation and who also is a “person of interest” in a homicide investigation in Vallejo, California, the motion said.

On Monday, Maximilian Snyder was charged with murder in the stabbing death of 82-year-old Curtis Lind, the landlord who was killed on January 17.

The Vermont shooting

Youngblut and her passenger, Bauckholt, were driving a 2015 Toyota Prius with a North Carolina license plate in Coventry, Vermont, when the shooting unfolded.

They had been under FBI surveillance since January 14 after a hotel employee in Lyndonville, Vermont, reported seeing them dressed in black tactical clothing and protective equipment, with Youngblut carrying a holstered firearm, according to the FBI affidavit.

That day, investigators approached Youngblut and Baukholt, but the pair “declined to have an extended conversation,” according to the affidavit, which also stated that they claimed they were “in the vicinity to look at purchasing property.”

Days later, on the afternoon of January 20, multiple Border Patrol agents conducted a traffic stop and pulled the Prius over for an immigration inspection. According to Open Vallejo, investigators discovered that Bauckholt appeared to have an expired visa, although they later determined it was current.

Youngblut pulled out a gun and fired at an agent “without warning,” and Baukholt attempted to draw a gun when at least one of the border agents returned fire, according to the affidavit.

Both Youngblut and Baukholt, along with Agent Maland, were struck by gunfire in the shootout. Baukholt was pronounced dead at the scene and Maland died at North Country Hospital, according to the affidavit.

Youngblut was transported to a New Hampshire hospital for her injuries and has been charged with intentional use of a deadly weapon while forcibly assaulting or interfering with federal law enforcement, and use and discharge of a firearm during and in relation to an assault with a deadly weapon, according to court records.

A search of the Prius revealed the pair had been traveling with a ballistic helmet, night-vision goggles, 48 rounds of ammunition, used shooting range targets, and a dozen electronic devices, including cell phones wrapped in aluminum foil, according to the affidavit.

Agent Maland’s family told the Associated Press his career spanned nine years in the military and 15 years in the federal government, including working security duty at the Pentagon during the 9/11 terror attacks.

“He was a devoted agent who served with honor and bravery,” they said. “He had a tremendous respect and pride for the work he did; he truly embodied service over self.”

‘What in the world is going on with these people?’
Prior to the shooting in Vermont, Youngblut and Bauckholt were living in separate duplexes in the same neighborhood in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, according to the building owner, the Associated Press reported.

Bauckholt rented one unit through Airbnb starting in July 2023 and moved to the second unit later that year, the owner said Tuesday. Youngblut began renting the original unit in November 2024 and had paid nearly $10,000 to extend her stay until the end of March, he said.

The owner, who did not want to be identified for safety reasons, said he had sent messages to all his renters during a recent cold snap asking them to let their faucets drip to avoid frozen pipes. He never heard back from either one, but an individual renting the other half of Youngblut’s duplex said her hot water wasn’t working, so the owner went to check on the plumbing.

“The thing that struck me the most was that there was a stretcher in the living room. Like, what in the world is going on with these people?” he said.

“The hair on the back of my neck is still up and I just can’t believe it’s being connected to my Airbnb.”

The owner recalled that his last contact with Bauckholt was about a month ago when the tenant was trying to negotiate a more traditional lease instead of using Airbnb. Box trucks were parked outside of both units, he said, and Bauckholt was running an electrical cord to one of them.

“There would be times when I would come to get the trash and as I’m coming up the driveway, he’d be crawling out of the cab,” he said.

The California stabbing

On January 17, three days before the shooting at the border, Curtis Lind was attacked and stabbed to death by a man wearing a mask and black beanie outside his gated property on the 300 block of Lemon Street in Vallejo, according to police.

It wasn’t the first time Lind had been attacked, according to court records and a GoFundMe account that describes Lind as a loving grandfather who was “generous with what he had to help a friend or a stranger in need in need.”

In 2022, the landlord was impaled by a sword during a violent incident following a dispute with his tenants at the time, who were living in box trucks on his property.

Lind shot two of his alleged attackers during the assault on him, killing 31-year-old Emma Borhanian and injuring another person, which authorities ruled to be self-defense, according to court records obtained by Open Vallejo. But he was left seriously wounded and blinded in one eye.

Suri Dao and Alexander Jeffrey Leatham were charged with murder, attempted murder, and aggravated mayhem for the death of Borhanian, and the attempted killing of Lind, according to court records.

Thomas Young, who was a friend of Lind’s, told Open Vallejo that when he searched the box trucks after the attack, he made a “creepy” discovery.

Stashed inside the trucks, which were allegedly registered in Vermont, were used surgical equipment, more than a dozen laptops, and expensive electronics.

“It was actually very uncomfortable,” Young said. “You kinda wanted to put on a hazmat suit before going into it. It was really just creepy in the extreme.”

Before his death last week, Lind was set to testify against his alleged assailants at their trial in April, according to court records.

In 2019, Leatham and Borhanian had been among four people arrested wearing black robes and Guy Fawkes masks at a protest against a Berkeley, California non-profit focused on rational thought. They were arrested on suspicion of felony child endangerment, false imprisonment and conspiracy as well as misdemeanor counts of resisting arrest, wearing a mask while committing a crime and trespassing, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.

Who are the suspects and what is their alleged connection to the ‘Zizians’?
Youngblut and Snyder, as well as Bauckholt, allegedly followed a self-described “vegan Sith” ideology, according to Open Vallejo, which reviewed their social media posts and spoke to a friend close to the group.

Jessica Taylor said she was a friend of Bauckholt, who she knew by the name Ophelia. She recalled warning Baukholt about Zizians, a group she described as a “murder gang.”

“I remember warning Ophelia that Zizians were a death cult with a high local death rate…,” she wrote in a post on X after hearing about her friend’s death. “Idk if this involved Ziz or associates but... well, Bayesian evidence (lefty radical violence + violent women).”

Several online posters attributed the attack to the “Zizians,” which was referred to as a “cult” on various online forums. The group is a radical offshoot of the Rationalist movement, an ideology centered on using scientific techniques to enhance human decision making, Open Vallejo reported.

Taylor explained to the outlet that veganism and animal rights are central to the ideology and that the Zizians believe that there are two hemispheres in the brain, meaning that individuals can split their consciousness between two personalities by waking one side at a time.

Court records have not explicitly linked Snyder and Youngblut to the ideology, but posts on their social media accounts appear to display beliefs consistent with Zizianism.

Youngblut, who studied computer science and computer software engineering at the University of Washington, according to her LinkedIn profile, appeared in a federal court on Monday and was scheduled for a detention hearing on Thursday.

Snyder, who studied computer science and philosophy at the University of Oxford, according to a LinkedIn profile matching his name, is being held without bail at the Justice Center Detention Facility.

https://www.the-independent.com/news/wo ... 87992.html

[Owendonovan]

Hegseth’s Defense Department caused this is how this should be framed.

No Survivors After Plane and Helicopter Crash Near Washington, Officials Say
An American Airlines jet carrying 64 people plunged into the Potomac River after colliding in midair with an Army helicopter on Wednesday night. Recovery teams had pulled more than two dozen bodies from the icy water, officials said.

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I was trying to find the video I saw last night with no commentary but I guess that's futile at this point.

The actual crash is shown in the first six seconds of this video.

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Ben Raderstorf
‪@raders.bsky.social‬

Follow
Elon Musk, who has not been elected or officially appointed to any office, successfully pushed the FAA Administrator to resign 9 days ago.



Apparently he wanted to levy fines against SpaceX for safety violations...

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Phil Williams
‪@philinvestigates.com‬



You can hear the shock in the DCA tower when the crash occurs.


https://bsky.app/profile/philinvestigat ... wnq3xhdc2a

(audio file)

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Airport control tower was understaffed before collision
Two people were handling the jobs of four when the plane and helicopter collided in D.C., killing 67 people, report says

The position of helicopter controller — a role typically staffed until 9:30 p.m. — had been combined ahead of the crash with that of local controller, according to the report.

By Katie Shepherd, Victoria Craw, Olivia George, Ian Duncan and Aaron C. Davis50 minutes ago

The air traffic control tower at Reagan National Airport was understaffed on Wednesday evening when a passenger plane and a military helicopter collided in midair, according to a government report about the circumstances surrounding the disaster that killed 67 people and sparked renewed debate around the airport’s crowded airspace.

According to the report, described to The Washington Post, two people were handling the jobs of four among other colleagues inside National’s control tower at the time of the collision. The control tower staffing levels, the report concludes, were “not normal” for the time of day or the amount of air traffic over D.C, where an average of more than 100 helicopters a day zip underneath arriving and departing airline flights.

The crash occurred around 8:50 p.m., and its cause remained unclear Thursday evening.

While federal investigators hunt for answers — chiefly how this could happen when airplanes and helicopters are often equipped with software to detect nearby aircraft — a portrait emerged of a cramped and swarming airspace, the subject of safety warnings by federal officials and lawmakers and the site of a number of close calls in recent years, including about 24 hours before Wednesday’s collision. The day before, another plane had to abort a landing at National to avoid a crash with a helicopter.

On Wednesday evening, the position of helicopter controller — a role typically staffed until 9:30 p.m. — had been combined ahead of the crash with that of local controller, according to the report. Doubling up those roles can create challenges for an air traffic controller, especially if the airspace is busy. The roles use different radio frequencies, and airplane pilots and helicopter pilots cannot necessarily hear each other even if they’re both in touch with the tower.

Neither the Federal Aviation Administration nor the National Air Traffic Controllers Association (NATCA) immediately responded to questions about staffing.

National Transportation Safety Board officials said they would leave no stone unturned in an investigation that may not definitively answer the critical question — how did this happen? — for months. The board will examine the role played by air traffic controllers in the crash, officials said in a briefing Thursday.

Within hours the crash had also spurred a political fight, with President Donald Trump heaping blame at the feet of his Democratic predecessors on Thursday morning. Trump appeared to point the finger at air traffic controllers and the helicopter’s pilot.

More than 300 first responders from the region, coming from as far away as Baltimore, mounted a difficult overnight rescue mission in frigid winds on the icy Potomac River. Divers, nauseated by the smell of jet fuel, pulled victims out of the water. The bodies were mangled. Blood pooled on board a fireboat. By morning, the hope for survivors had faded, and the mission turned to recovery.

The plane that departed from Wichita on Wednesday evening carried 60 passengers and four crew members, according to a statement by American Airlines. The U.S. Army helicopter had a crew of three soldiers. Bodies were taken to National and near the Frederick Douglass Memorial Bridge, where authorities had pitched red morgue tents on the banks of the Anacostia River. By Thursday morning, officials recovered the bodies of 27 plane passengers and one helicopter crew member. An emergency responder said more remains were being retrieved throughout the day.

On Wednesday night, according to the air traffic safety report that is distributed daily to air traffic managers and federal transportation officials, there were five controllers and one trainee controller on duty. In addition, there was one supervisor, and one supervisor in training.

The report said the helicopter control position, or HC, was combined with the local controller or LC position. It did not say what time that change occurred but said the “HC position is normally staffed” from 10 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. but “can be consolidated at the discretion” of the supervisor on duty.

Additionally, the roles of flight data controller and clearance delivery controller had also been combined that evening, according to the report.

NATCA, the controllers’ labor union, has warned in recent years that a thinly stretched workforce poses a risk to safety.

“Chronically understaffed facilities also introduce unnecessary safety risks into the system,” Rich Santa, then the union’s president, testified before a House subcommittee in November 2023.

The NTSB will seek to determine who was filling which posts in the tower and whether any of the controllers on duty were fatigued.

Reports of problems at National began to emerge late Thursday, including an incident one day before the fatal crash in which a different jet coming in for a landing alerted the tower that it had to abort a landing attempt because of a helicopter that appeared in its flight path.

A female voice in the cockpit of Republic Airways Flight 4514 informed the tower of the problem at roughly 8:05 p.m. Tuesday, according to the audio recording of air traffic control traffic. The plane took a sharp turn to the west, made a loop to try to make a second approach, and safely landed at 8:16 p.m., flight tracking records indicate. A spokesperson for Republic Airways said the company was reviewing The Post’s questions and the details of the incident and could not immediately comment.

The crowded airspace around National has long been a topic of heated debate among policymakers and members of Congress. Wednesday’s crash occurred in one of the most complex air traffic corridors in the United States, where military helicopters fly near passenger jets and key sites such as the White House, Capitol and Pentagon. The airport is operating well above its capacity: It was designed to handle 15 million passengers annually, but numbers have soared to 25 million.

Three close calls investigated by the FAA in recent years had led some to oppose adding new flights, like the nonstop journey between Wichita and D.C., that were added last year.

The morning after the crash, Trump opened a public address with a moment of silence for the victims. Minutes later, he launched into political speech baselessly casting blame for the collision on his Democratic predecessors and diversity, equity and inclusion programs despite acknowledging the cause of the crash was still unknown.

Trump spread blame for the crash without providing any evidence or information about what caused the collision. He said air traffic control warnings came “very very late.” He then suggested that the helicopter pilots should have “seen where they were going” and acted to avoid the accident. The president also harshly criticized former transportation secretary Pete Buttigieg for implementing DEI policies in the department and characterized the Democrat’s time over the agency as a “disaster.”

Buttigieg swiftly responded with an equally sharp retort, calling the president “despicable.”

The president did not mention his own administrations’ role in overseeing the FAA or the Transportation Department at the time of the crash. Trump also appointed a new acting FAA administrator, Chris Rocheleau, on Thursday morning. Rocheleau, chief operating officer of the National Business Aviation Association, fills the seat vacated by Michael Whitaker, who stepped down on the day of Trump’s inauguration.

Congress controls how National operates because the airport is owned by the federal government, and in May five round-trip flights were added when President Joe Biden signed the FAA Reauthorization bill into law. Lawmakers from both parties supported the move, especially those eager for a direct flight from their district to the airport closest to D.C.

But a group of Democratic senators from the region argued that additional flights would lead to congestion, delays and safety problems. In March 2023, Democratic senators representing Virginia and Maryland — Mark R. Warner, Tim Kaine, Ben Cardin and Chris Van Hollen — wrote to the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee outlining “strong opposition” to adding more flights. After the bill passed anyway, Kaine and Warner said the Senate had “abdicated its responsibility to protect the safety of the 25 million people who fly through DCA every year.”

The chaos and tragic toll of Wednesday’s crash swiftly reopened that debate. Kaine said on Thursday that it wasn’t clear whether the complicated and crowded airspace contributed to the crash, but the issue has been a major concern for some lawmakers.

In a hearing before the Senate Armed Services Committee, Daniel Driscoll, Trump’s nominee to serve as Army secretary, said that the accident seemed to be preventable and that he would consider reevaluating when and where Army helicopters fly training missions to avoid future tragedies.

“I think we might need to look at where is an appropriate time to take training risk, and it may not be near an airport like Reagan,” Driscoll said.

Not long before 9 p.m. Wednesday, the small passenger plane and helicopter collided, bursting into a fireball that was visible for miles. A brief shower of sparks lit the night sky, and the two devastatingly damaged aircraft dropped into the icy, black water below.

The alarm from the airport’s control tower sounded at 8:48 p.m. “Crash crash crash. This an alert 3. Crash crash crash.”

That alert — the highest and most urgent priority signaling a confirmed aircraft crash — broadcast directly to the radios of D.C. firefighters and police officers assigned to the marine unit. Those rescue workers launched immediately, even as dispatchers called for help as the true scope of the crash its deadly consequences became more clear.

Officials have not yet released the identity of all who died in the crash, but some communities are already mourning losses.

Christine Conrad Lane, 49, and her adopted son Spencer, 16, were on the American Eagle flight returning to their home in Rhode Island from the U.S. Figure Skating Championships hosted in Wichita last week. Spencer had been training at the most prestigious annual event on the American figure skating calendar, a big step in the sport that the teenager hoped would be his future.

Spencer fell in love with figure skating watching YouTube, his grandparents said in a phone interview Thursday with The Post. Athletes twirling, leaping and gliding across smooth ice. He was hooked. He practiced four days a week, his grandparents said. He was working hard to pull off a triple axel. His eyes were set on the Olympics.

Then came the call from Christine’s husband late Wednesday.

“I don’t want you to panic like I’m panicking,” Wayne Conrad, Spencer’s grandfather and Christine’s father, recalled him saying. “But I heard a plane from Wichita went down.”

Christine and Spencer were due to fly into National and catch a connecting flight home to Rhode Island. Their flight to D.C. never landed.

“With every passing moment, we realized hope was gone,” Wayne Conrad said.

Other members of the ice skating community were also on the flight, including two former champion figure skaters from Russia, Evgenia Shishkova and Vadim Naumov.

At the Ashburn Ice House in Loudoun County, Virginia, a steady trickle of visitors stopped in with flowers, teddy bears and a balloon that they arranged on a shelf in the main lobby.

Four D.C.-area steamfitters were also on the plane, according to a statement by their union. They were members of Steamfitters Local 602 — a Prince George’s County, Maryland-based union that represents steamfitters and pipe fitters in the D.C. area.

“Our focus now is on providing support and care to the families of our Brothers as we continue to gather more information in the coming days,” the statement said.

Jenny Garthright, Teo Armus, Emma Uber, Gregory Schneider, Mariana Alfaro, Hannah Knowles, Peter Hermann, Nicole Asbury, Carol Leonnig and Andrew Ba Tran contributed to this report.


https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va ... mac-river/

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Re DEI:

Aaron Rupar
‪@atrupar.com‬

ALEXANDER: The implication that this policy is new or that it stems from efforts that began under Biden is demonstrably false.

TRUMP: Who said that, you?

ALEXANDER: It's been on the FAA's website since 2013. Why didn't you change the policy during your first administration.

https://bsky.app/profile/atrupar.com/post/3lgxxdbbmwv2q

Video at the link

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This should be used as the correction to what the felon said.

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There has to be a full transcript of the presser somewhere.

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Peter Sagal‬ ‪@petersagal.bsky.social‬
·
I missed this entirely:

The FAA Administrator criticized Space X’s safety record and threatened fines.

Musk demanded he resign.

He did.

On January 20th.

www.thedailybeast.com/faa-chief-mi...