Assailant's gun in killing of Border Patrol agent in Vermont linked to two Pennsylvania murders

A gun used in connection to the fatal shooting last week of U.S. Border Patrol agent in Vermont is connected to a double homicide in Pennsylvania in January 2023, a federal prosecutor said earlier this week in court documents.

The fatal shooting occurred Jan. 20 when Border Patrol agent David Maland stopped a vehicle being driven by Teresa Youngblut on Interstate 91 near the Canada border. 

The 21-year old Youngblut was traveling with Felix Bauckholt, a German citizen who also was killed in the shootout. They had been under surveillance for several days, according to the Associated Press.

Maland pulled over Youngblut and Bauckholt to conduct an immigration inspection, according to an FBI affidavit. 

At the time, Bauckholt appeared to have an expired visa, according to a Department of Homeland Security database, but investigators later confirmed that his visa was current, the FBI said.

Youngblut, who had been driving Bauckholt's car, opened fire on Maland, 44, and other officers without warning, also according to the FBI. Bauckholt tried to draw a gun but was shot, the affidavit states.

The guns were allegedly provided to them by Michelle J. Zajko, who is a "person of interest" in the Pennsylvania double homicide of her mother and father, Richard and Rita Zajko, according to a report Thursday by the regional newspaper The Times Union.

Zajko, 32, bought the guns in Vermont in February 2024, and public records indicate she owns property about 10 minutes away from the inn at which the Youngblut and Bauckholt were staying, in Newport, Vermont, before the fatal shootings. 

Officials still have not said which bullets hit which victims. 

Youngblut, 21, has been charged with one count of using a deadly weapon while assaulting a U.S. Border Patrol agent, and one count of using and discharging a firearm during and in relation to that assault. 

U.S. Magistrate Judge Kevin J. Doyle on Thursday ruled at a detention hearing in Burlington that Youngblut will remain in federal custody as her criminal case progresses because she is a potential danger to the community.

Authorities are looking for Zajko in connection with the Pennsylvania murder and she reportedly has an “anti-law enforcement ideology."