Exclusive | Zizian cult defector believed to have died in 2022 has been in hiding, fearing maniac vegan groups revenge

A former Zizian cult member widely believed to have died by suicide is actually alive and hiding from the “dangerous” group, The Post can reveal.Gwen Danielson was thought to be dead in 2022 even by a lawyer representing her in an active case, but has instead been laying low at an undisclosed location. Danielson – who, like many Zizians, is transgender and legally became a woman in 2017 according to court papers – still “fears for her life,” according to her father, Brett Danielson.“She checks in regularly and I heard from her very recently but she’s not ready to come out of hiding just yet,” he told The Post.Danielson split from the increasingly unhinged group of ‘rationalist’ computer scientists over an argument within the group, according to her father.“Their political ideology was that killing animals is just as violent as killing people and therefore everybody is guilty of violence,” he said.“And that probably led some of them to a self-justification for their own propensity for violence.” Authorities are now investigating four killings across the US linked to various members of the loose-knit group, including a double homicide in Pennsylvania, a murder in California, and a shootout which left a US border guard dead in Vermont.Jack “Ziz” Lasota, 34, who has been described as the leader of the group, was arrested on February 16 alongside Michelle Zajko, 32, and Daniel Blank, 26, in Maryland after they were seen trespassing, raising suspicion.

A gun was also found in their vehicle.Prosecutors in different jurisdictions across the country are now thought to be preparing further charges.Zajko is a suspect in the murder of her parents in Pennsylvania but has not been charged in that case.Two others tied to the group are also in custody, both for murder.

Maximillian Snyder is charged over the Jan.17 death of Curtis Lind, who had at one time let the group camp on his property, and Teresa Youngblut over the shooting of the David M...