How a traffic stop in Vermont cracked open a cultlike group linked to deaths in multiple states

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Associated Press
How a traffic stop in Vermont cracked open a cultlike group linked to deaths in multiple states

HOLLY RAMER, PATRICK WHITTLE and MARK SCOLFORO
Sat, February 15, 2025 at 12:03 AM EST
9 min read

https://s.yimg.com/ny/api/res/1.2/dUgUMLzL.TIxR8etA1VIhA--/YXBwaWQ9aGlnaGxhbmRlcjt3PTk2MDtoPTY0MA--/https://media.zenfs.com/en/ap.org/c01b5467376ae35ebd5df814d6b2c28f

Vermont Border Patrol Shooting
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This combination of images from top left shows 2019 Sonoma County Sheriff's office booking mug shots of Jack LaSota, Alexander Leatham, Emma Borhanian and, at bottom left, Gwen Danielson, court appearance of Maximilian Snyder and a Newport City Inn surveillance video image of Teresa Youngblut. They are associates of LaSota, also known as "Ziz." (AP Photo)

ASSOCIATED PRESS

In the wooded outskirts of Chapel Hill, North Carolina, a perplexed landlord noticed odd sights at two of his rental properties.

Tenants wore long black coats and parked box trucks outside the duplexes. They ran an electrical cord from one box truck into one of the condos, and kept a stretcher inside another.

A neighbor remembers similarly dressed figures walking around at night holding hands. They never spoke a word.

By the time the FBI searched the property last week, one of the most recent tenants had been killed in a shootout with U.S. Border Patrol agents in Vermont, and a second was under arrest. A third, a shadowy figure known online as “Ziz,” remains missing after authorities linked their cultlike group to six deaths in three states.

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