Prosecutors say years of ballistics, digital records and surveillance analysis tied Michelle Zajko to the 2022 double homicide.

CHESTER HEIGHTS, Pa. — More than three years after Rita and Richard Zajko were found shot to death inside their suburban Philadelphia home, authorities have charged their daughter with arranging or participating in the killings, saying a long and unusually complex investigation connected her to the scene.

Michelle Zajko, 33, faces charges that include first-degree murder, conspiracy and burglary in connection with the Dec. 31, 2022, deaths of her parents. Delaware County District Attorney Tanner Rouse said investigators have not determined who fired the fatal shots or identified everyone believed to have taken part. He said, however, that prosecutors are convinced Zajko was inside the Chester Heights home and was aligned with those responsible. Zajko has denied killing her parents and has offered an alternate theory in court filings that her father may have killed her mother and then himself. The charges are allegations, and she is presumed innocent unless convicted.

The case remained unresolved for years despite investigators’ early focus on Zajko as a person of interest. Authorities said the breakthrough was not based on one piece of evidence but on the combined weight of surveillance recordings, ammunition comparisons, cellphone analysis and records gathered across several states. Rouse described the inquiry as one of the most exhaustive investigations he had encountered during his career. The evidence, he said, showed that at least two people arrived outside the Zajko home shortly before the killings and that Michelle Zajko had knowledge of mistakes allegedly made during the crime and its aftermath.

A neighbor’s doorbell camera became a central part of the reconstructed timeline. According to prosecutors, the recording captured a vehicle approaching the property and at least two people getting out. A voice could be heard calling “Mom,” followed by another person crying out in distress. Authorities have not publicly identified the speakers. Investigators believe the recording places multiple people at the house and supports the prosecution’s position that the deaths were not a murder-suicide, as Zajko has suggested. The couple were later found in a room that had once served as their daughter’s childhood playroom, where dolls and toys from earlier years remained.

Ballistics testing supplied another major link, prosecutors said. Investigators recovered shell casings from the Pennsylvania home, although they have not located the gun used in the killings. Rouse said ammunition associated with Zajko’s Vermont residence and a firing area behind that home matched the type of ammunition connected to the casings at the scene. Authorities have not said the evidence proves which person handled the firearm. Their case instead relies partly on the claim that Zajko helped arrange the attack or acted in concert with people who carried it out.

Prosecutors also pointed to a written list they attribute to Zajko. Rouse said the document described errors made during the alleged operation, including leaving shell casings in Pennsylvania and failing to dispose of ammunition later recovered in Vermont. The list also referred to plans involving phones and text messages, according to authorities. Prosecutors have not released the full document, explained when it was written or detailed how investigators obtained it. Its meaning and admissibility are expected to be contested as the criminal case moves forward.

The allegations followed a period of estrangement between Zajko and her parents. Rouse said investigators found messages showing tension within the family during the year before the deaths. In one January 2022 message to her father, Zajko complained that her mother had assumed the worst about her since childhood and criticized a life she did not understand. Hours before Rita Zajko was killed, prosecutors said, she sent her daughter a birthday message that included an apology for the distance between them and an attempt to repair the relationship. Rouse said the message received no reply.

The killings occurred on Michelle Zajko’s 30th birthday and on the final night of 2022. Investigators later questioned her in Vermont, where she was living with Daniel Blank. When she returned to Pennsylvania for her parents’ funeral several weeks later, police briefly detained her at a hotel but released her without filing homicide charges. Jack “Ziz” LaSota, who was staying at the same hotel, was accused of obstructing the investigation and disorderly conduct. An attorney representing LaSota in that matter said she was innocent. The release of Zajko without charges underscored the evidentiary challenge investigators faced at the time.

The Pennsylvania deaths have since drawn broader attention because authorities have associated Zajko and several acquaintances with a loose group commonly called the Zizians. Law enforcement officials and news reports have linked people in that circle to six deaths in Pennsylvania, California and Vermont. Attorneys for LaSota have rejected the label “Zizian” and denied that the people involved formed a cult. Membership in or association with a group is not itself evidence that Zajko committed the crimes charged in Pennsylvania, and prosecutors must prove her responsibility for her parents’ deaths independently.

Zajko has been jailed in Maryland since February 2025 on separate allegations involving trespassing and illegal possession of guns and drugs. She, Blank and LaSota have pleaded not guilty in that case. Zajko also has been accused of supplying a firearm connected to the January 2025 shooting death of U.S. Border Patrol Agent David Maland in Vermont, but the Pennsylvania murder prosecution concerns a separate set of alleged acts. Authorities have said the process of transferring Zajko to Delaware County for arraignment will require coordination between Maryland and Pennsylvania officials.

In an open letter sent to The Associated Press by her attorney in April 2025, Zajko wrote that she did not murder her parents. She has argued that authorities and news organizations have misunderstood her and people associated with her. As of the announcement of the Pennsylvania charges, online records did not identify an attorney representing her in the Delaware County homicide case. Her Maryland attorney did not respond to a request for comment reported by the AP, and the Delaware County Public Defender’s Office declined to comment.

Relatives of Rita and Richard Zajko said the filing of charges followed years of grief and uncertainty. Roseanne Zajko, Richard Zajko’s sister-in-law, thanked investigators and prosecutors for continuing to work on the case. She said the family did not know whether a trial would ease its loss but believed every available step had been taken in pursuit of justice. Rouse said investigators continue trying to identify the alleged co-conspirators, determine each person’s role and establish what led to the killings. No trial date has been announced.

Author note: Last updated July 23, 2026.