Guns in Vermont shooting bought by Orleans resident

By Michael Donoghue, Vermont News First

A Washington State woman, who authorities say was involved in a shootout that killed two people, including a veteran U.S. Border Patrol Agent in Orleans County last week, may be linked to one or more suspects in three other out-of-state homicides, according to federal court records in Burlington.

A federal judge ordered Teresa Youngblut, 21, on Monday to remain in custody until at least Thursday when a detention motion will be heard.

Authorities need to further investigate her background, review the evidence collected, conduct ongoing interviews and search property that has been seized, according to the office of Acting U.S. Attorney Michael P. Drescher. She is both a danger to the community and a risk to flee.

Youngblut’s association with other individuals suspected of violent acts also warrants caution before a decision is made about her possible release, Assistant U.S. Attorney Matthew J. Lasher wrote in his detention motion.

Youngblut was wounded and her companion Felix Bauckholt, a German national, was shot dead during the shootout with the U.S. Border Patrol on Interstate 91 in Coventry about 3:15 p.m. Jan. 20.

Border Patrol Agent David “Chris” Maland, 44, of Newport, who made the initial traffic stop, was wounded in the neck and was taken to North Country Hospital in Newport where he was pronounced dead about 4 p.m.

Lasher wrote the individual who purchased the firearms that the defendant and Bauckholt possessed on Jan. 20 “is a person of interest in a dual homicide investigation in Delaware County, Pennsylvania. Bauckholt flew into the United States in the hours preceding that Pennsylvania homicide.”

Both Youngblut and the person who purchased the firearms in Vermont that the defendant and her companion possessed on Jan. 20 “are acquainted with and have been in frequent contact with an individual who was detained by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania during that homicide investigation,” Lasher said.

“That individual is also a person of interest in a homicide investigation in Vallejo, California” he wrote in a 5-page motion seeking her detention.

“The defendant’s possession and use of a firearm, combined with her itinerancy and associations, suggests she poses a current and substantial danger to the community that could not be addressed by a condition or a combination of conditions of pretrial release,” Lasher said.

Based on the serial numbers on the two firearms used by the suspects, they were reportedly purchased by an Orleans resident from a federal licensed gun dealer in Mount Tabor, south of Rutland in February, Lasher wrote.

The gun buyer from Orleans was not identified in court papers.

Officials have said a third person was known to associate with Youngblut and Bauckholt in Orleans County.

Federal Magistrate Judge Kevin J. Doyle agreed during a court hearing Monday afternoon to continue the detention motion until 10 a.m. Thursday at the request of the government. Doyle said Youngblut will remain in custody at the Chittenden Regional Correctional Facility in South Burlington.

He agreed to appoint the office of the Federal Defender to represent Youngblut. He said he would make the assignment based on a financial affidavit she filled out on Sunday. Assistant Federal Defender Steven Barth, a senior lawyer in the office, was with Youngblut at the hearing.

Doyle noted that Youngblut had refused to be interviewed by the Pre-Trial Services Office, which helps determine if a defendant should be released.

Barth did tell Doyle the defense would contest the detention request.

“An originally peaceful interaction between the United States Border Patrol and the occupants of a vehicle became confrontational based on the defendant’s conduct, and she then unnecessarily and inexplicably escalated to deadly violence,” Lasher said.

Barth declined comment to the media as he left the courtroom.

Security was extremely tight for Youngblut’s seven-minute court hearing. There were about 40 people attending the hearing in the small courtroom.

There also were at least nine members of the U.S. Marshals Service and their court security staff in the courtroom along with about a dozen federal officers from the Border Patrol, FBI and other agencies.

Youngblut had her right arm in a blue sling as she was escorted into a fourth-floor courtroom by two deputy marshals. She had a chain around her waist to hold at least one wrist. She was dressed in an off-white sweatshirt and sweatpants. Youngblut, who wore flip-flops, had her face covered with a blue COVID-style mask.

Her parents, Eric and Carla Youngblut, sat in the second row with an older gentleman and another younger man in a suit. They declined to speak to reporters.

When the hearing ended, Carla Youngblut attempted to make hand signals to her daughter, but she had no reaction.

The Seattle Times reported in recent days that Youngblut and her parents became estranged last May. The parents reported to Seattle Police that they believed she was in a controlling relationship and had been directed to move out of the home.

There also is some evidence that Youngblut may have been in Chittenden County last summer.

“At least one document recovered from the car she was driving purported to be a lease for a shared workspace” in Shelburne from June 2024, Lasher said.

Investigators are still trying to verify the existence of an actual lease agreement in Shelburne, he said.

Youngblut was wounded during the shootout on I-91. She was discharged from Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center in Lebanon, N.H. Friday and jailed at the Chittenden Regional Correctional Facility in South Burlington pending her court hearing.

Youngblut is charged in U.S. District Court in a criminal complaint with two felony counts: The intentional use of a deadly weapon while forcibly assaulting a federal law enforcement while in the performance of his official duties. The second felony charge is for discharging a firearm during an assault with deadly weapon, records show.

Maland was joined by two other Border Patrol members just before the shooting started, officials said. One report indicated that one was a trainee or probationary agent, and the other was a Field Training Officer.

Seven spent 9-mm casings believed fired by one or more of the Border Patrol Agents were found on the ground and collected as evidence by the Vermont State Police Crime Scene Search Team.

A Glock .40-caliber pistol, believed to belong to one of the shooting suspects, two spent casings and two .40-caliber magazines were seized on the ground near Youngblut, records show.

A .380 caliber pistol also believed to be owned by the suspects was confiscated near Bauckholt’s body, they note.

Lasher, who specializes in crimes in the Northeast Kingdom and with immigration cases, is the lead prosecutor on the case. Lasher was flanked by Assistant U.S. Attorney Jon Ophardt, chief of the criminal division.

No plea was requested from Youngblut during the hearing. No plea is entered in federal court until an indictment is filed by a grand jury.

There is considerable interest nationwide in the case and media members at the hearing, included news outlets in Massachusetts and New York.