Federal prosecutors are seeking the death penalty against a member of the radical 'Zizians' group accused of murdering a U.S. agent in Vermont.
Milo Youngblut, 21, was stopped by border cops on January 20 after being put under surveillance by the Department of Homeland Security while apparently shopping for houses near Coventry in the north of the state.
When the agents asked them to exit their vehicle, the privately-schooled Seattleite allegedly drew a pistol and opened fire, killing border agent David 'Chris' Maland and sparking a gunfight that left their traveling companion Ophelia Bauckholt dead.
In court documents filed Thursday, acting U.S. Attorney Michael P. Drescher charged Youngblut (who is reportedly non-binary and known in court records as Teresa) with Maland's murder and said he would seek execution for the willful killing of a U.S. officer.
The decision is part of a wider push by the Trump administration to execute more criminal defendants, with Youngblut's case one of two specifically mentioned by U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi when she ordered prosecutors to seek capital punishment wherever possible this February.
"We will not stand for such attacks on the men and women who protect our communities and borders," acting Assistant Attorney General Matthew Galeotti said in a press release.
The deaths of Maland and Bauckholt are among six killings connected to the so-called 'Zizians', a radical network of hardcore vegans that split off from Silicon Valley's eccentric 'rationalist' subculture in 2019, and which U.S. officials have described as a violent extremist group.
Michelle Zajko, another Zizian whom feds accuse of supplying the weapons carried by Youngblut and Bauckholt during the Vermont shootout, has denied those claims, writing in an open letter from jail that she and her friends are "not a murder cult" and are victims of a transphobic smear campaign.
Other incidents linked to the group include the murder of Zajko's parents on New Year's Eve 2022, a deadly confrontation with California landlord Curtis Lind in November 2022, and the murder of Lind this January as he was due to testify in court.
Youngblut’s connection to all this remains unclear. But news reports have described them as being deeply influenced by the writings of the Zizians’ alleged leader Ziz LaSota, and later living with Bauckholt and LaSota in North Carolina.
In June, Youngblut's defense lawyers accused the government of skipping procedural safeguards in a rush for the death penalty, and had asked the judge to give them more time, but were refused.
Elite student who ‘ran away to join cult’
According to The Cut, Youngblut grew up homeschooled in a devoutly Christian family in Seattle, before attending the super-selective private high school where both Bill Gates and Jeff Bezos sent their kids.
That was reportedly where they became besotted with Maximilian Snyder, an Oxford-educated data scientist two grades above them who would later be charged with killing Curtis Lind.
The pair reportedly embarked on an intense BDSM romance, obsessing over esoteric online theories. Youngblut is said to have secretly moved out of their parents’ house and cut off contact, causing the university counselling service to suggest they had become "part of a cult, or a dominant, abusive relationship".
By July 2023 Youngblut and Snyder told their friends that they were embarking on a secret plan, seemingly influenced by LaSota's theories about saving the world from malevolent A.I. But the couple split up in November 2024, apparently leading Youngblut to fall in with LaSota's crew,
According to a charging document filed by the FBI earlier this year, DHS agents in Vermont put Bauckholt and Youngblut under "periodic surveillance" on Jan 14.
A hotel employee in Lyndonville had grown suspicious of their all-black "tactical" garb and visibly holstered pistols, and reported them to police.
"Investigators with the Vermont State Police and Homeland Security Investigations attempted to initiate a consensual conversation with Bauckholt and Youngblut, but they declined to have an extended conversation, claiming that they were in the vicinity to look at purchasing property," the document said.
On Jan 19, a border agent reported the pair to the U.S. Border Patrol. At 2:36 p.m. on Jan 20, according to DHS, a different agent stopped Bauckholt's Toyota Prius on Interstate 91 near Coventry.
More agents arrived at 3pm, and the pair were told to exit their car. That, authorities allege, is when Youngblut drew their Glock.
Prosecutors initially refused to say whose bullet killed Maland and took months to charge Youngblut with murder, sparking speculation that he was killed by friendly fire.
But in May DHS and other law enforcement officials said that according to their investigation, Maland had been struck fatally in the neck by one of four shots fired by Youngblut.
This story was originally published at 2:39 p.m. Pacific Time on Thursday August 14, 2025, and updated at 7:36 p.m. to add further details of Milo Youngblut’s reported life and history,
