By Michael Donoghue, Vermont News First

A former Orleans County woman has been officially charged with the illegal purchase of two firearms used by friends in a deadly shootout with the U.S. Border Patrol last month in Coventry.

Michelle J. Zajko, 32, was named in a one-count criminal complaint filed today in U.S. District Court in Burlington by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

She is charged with making false statements while buying four handguns on Feb. 13 and 14, 2024 at The Last Frontier, a federally licensed gun dealer on U.S. 7 in Mount Tabor, south of Rutland.

The complaint maintains Zajko was living in Orleans when she later provided two firearms carried by Teresa Youngblut, 21, and Felix Bauckholt, 28, during the deadly traffic stop by the U.S. Border Patrol on Interstate 91 in Coventry about 3 p.m. Jan. 20.

A court affidavit also provides a slightly clearer picture about the shootout after Border Patrol Agent David “Chris” Maland pulled over the 2015 Blue Toyota Prius registered in North Carolina to Bauckholt. The affidavit also appears to support earlier reports that Maland was fired upon without warning or a chance to return fire.

“When Border Patrol Agents had Youngblut and Bauckholt exit the vehicle, Youngblut drew a handgun and pointed it at BPA Maland. Two .40-caliber casings recovered at the scene support the inference that she fired the handgun twice,” ATF Task Force Special Agent James F. Loomis said.

“Another Border Patrol Agent returned fire, wounding Youngblut; that agent then observed Bauckholt attempting to draw a firearm, and the agent fired at and wounded Bauckholt,” Loomis said.

“Both BPA Maland and Bauckholt died as a result of gunshot wounds sustained during the exchange,” according to Loomis, who is with the Border Patrol, but assigned to the statewide ATF task force.

“Following the incident, Youngblut and Bauckholt were each found to be in direct possession of a handgun — Youngblut was holding a Glock 23 .40-caliber semi-automatic pistol, and Bauckholt had a Smith & Wesson M&P Shield EZ .380-caliber semiautomatic pistol in a holster on his waistband,” Loomis wrote.

The FBI had been mostly closed-mouth about the fatal shooting, including whether Maland died from friendly fire in the line of duty.

Loomis said he soon started a national ATF trace for the serial numbers on both weapons and learned the Glock .40-caliber pistol had been obtained at The Last Frontier.

Investigation revealed Zajko bought three firearms on Valentine’s Day 2024, including the .380-caliber pistol recovered from Bauckholt.

The Glock .40-caliber pistol recovered from Youngblut also appeared to be part of the 3-gun purchase by Zajko, Loomis said.

The serial numbers listed by the store on the ATF documents were not completely accurate. In the case of the .380-caliber, the ATF form said PEP6547, while the gun was actually REP6547.

The .40-caliber pistol had been recorded on two ATF forms as PO118 when the gun recovered in Coventry was PG118US, Loomis said.

Loomis said his further investigation definitely confirmed both guns recovered in Coventry were the guns sold in Mount Tabor, about a half hour south of Rutland City.

Zajko also bought a Ruger LCP .22LR pistol at the same time, but Loomis said as far as he can tell that gun has never been recovered by law enforcement.

Loomis said he also learned Zajko bought a fourth gun — a Sig Sauer P365 pistol from The Last Frontier one day earlier, Feb. 13, 2024.

In all four gun purchases, Zajko claimed her current address was 1300 Webster Road in Orleans and maintained the guns were for her and not for anybody else, Loomis said.

Loomis said the ATF investigation revealed the 1300 Webster Road address was actually owned by a trust bearing the name of her former romantic partner, who was familiar to law enforcement.

As it turned out, Loomis learned from a real estate company that a plumber had been hired by the trust one year earlier in February 2023 to handle some burst water pipes because the home had been abandoned without being winterized, court records show.

The real estate firm said the truste was preparing to sell the property and eventually it was purchased on July 28, 2023, Loomis said.

The new owners never rented the property to Zajko despite her claims on the federal forms buying the guns that she still lived at the Orleans residence, Loomis said.

He said he was aware of two court-ordered search warrants at the property in January 2023 and April 2023.

Those were associated with the double homicide of her parents on New Year’s Eve 2022 in Pennsylvania, records show. Vermont and Pennsylvania State Police were looking for the firearm used to shoot both parents in the head at their Chester Heights home, records show.

She remains a person of interest in the double homicide case, Loomis wrote in his 8-page affidavit on Tuesday. Her driver’s license was found in the home, police have said.

Loomis said 10 days after Zajko’s parents were killed, she was back in Pennsylvania for their funerals, but was uncooperative with law enforcement.

Investigators found Zajko and her associates at a hotel and brought her to a nearby state police barracks, Loomis said. She eventually left the barracks despite being asked to remain in the lobby until they could return her vehicle to her. Instead, she left behind about $40,000 and her vehicle, Loomis said.

Zajko has failed to respond to inquiries by state police from both states, Loomis said.

A subsequent court-ordered search of a hotel room that her associates were using uncovered a Smith & Wesson M&P 9-mm firearm and five boxes of 9-mm bullets from the room, Loomis said.

A trace showed that Zajko bought the gun at an Orleans County gun dealer on Feb. 4, 2022, Loomis wrote. He did not name the store, but other records indicate it was the Green Mountain Sporting Goods in Irasburg.

A search of Vermont Department of Motor Vehicle Records shows Zajko got her first license here on Feb. 3, 2022, the day before she went to the Orleans County gun store to buy the 9-mm handgun, records show.

Zajko claimed her residence was 1300 Webster Road in Orleans. Later she sought a replacement license on Oct. 4, 2023 and claimed she was still at Webster Road, but wrote that her mailing address was now 9169 West State Street #436 Garden City, ID.

Investigation revealed that was a commercial mail receiving agency offering a “virtual mailbox,” Loomis said.

He said license plate readers in New York State recorded Bauckholt’s North Carolina registered Toyota Prius headed northbound on I-87 on Feb. 13, 2024 and headed south three days later.

Loomis said that was consistent with Bauckholt heading toward southwestern Vermont the day Zajko bought the Sig Sauer pistol in Mount Tabor and leaving two days after she made the triple gun purchase.

The criminal complaint filed Tuesday came two days after Zajko’s arrest in Maryland on unrelated charges.

Maryland State Police in Allegany County said they arrested Zajko and Jack “Ziz” LaSota, 33, on Sunday on charges of gun possession, trespassing and other misdemeanor counts unrelated to the Vermont case.

Also arrested was Zajko’s former Vermont roommate from two years ago, Daniel Arthur Blank, 26, now with a hometown of Sacramento, Calif., police said.

They appeared in criminal court in Maryland and a judge ordered them held both as a risk to flee and a danger to the public.

A police bulletin maintained Zajko was believed to be “armed and dangerous.”

The gun used to kill her parents was believed to be the firearm purchased at Green Mountain Sporting Goods in Irasburg, records show.

Youngblut, formerly of Seattle, Wash. is in federal custody in the Vermont case, while Maland, the veteran Border Patrol Agent and Bauckholt died in the shootout.

Since Vermont News First initially broke the Vermont double homicide story on Jan. 20, Youngblut and Bauckholt are now linked to a radical leftist transgender militant cult believed involved in at least six homicides sprinkled across the United States, according to news accounts about the various killings.

LaSota, who police have said faked his own death at least twice, is the leader of a cult that call themselves “Zizians” and appear to be vegans and highly educated, officials reported.

The case becomes more convoluted as the ongoing criminal investigations plays out day by day.

There are now links to Vermont, Washington State, California, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Maryland and possibly other states.