The leader and two other members of the extremist Zizian group, which authorities have connected to the killings of a Pennsylvania couple and a border patrol agent in Vermont, will remain jailed in Western Maryland after a judge denied them bond on Tuesday.

Jack “Ziz” LaSota, Michelle Zajko and Daniel Blank are charged with trespassing and obstruction in Allegany County. LaSota and Zajko face gun charges, too. The three were arrested Sunday evening while trying to camp on private property, according to police. They wore dark clothing, gun belts and had two box trucks with multiple firearms, police said.

During a bail hearing Tuesday in Allegany County District Court, Judge Erich Bean said the three could pose a danger to the community if released, and there’s a risk they could take off on the run.

The Zizians are a dangerous, extremist group, Allegany County State’s Attorney James Elliott told the judge.

“This group is believed to be involved in multiple homicides in the United States,” he said.

The group’s leader, LaSota, interrupted the judge to say she was refusing food.

“I might starve to death if you do not intervene. I need the jail to be ordered to have a vegan diet,” she said. “It’s more important than whatever this hearing is.”

LaSota also told the judge that she did not belong in jail.

“I haven’t done anything wrong,” she said.

A public defender described the three as brilliant, saying LaSota and Blank were computer scientists. Zajko was a biologist who interned at NASA.

Authorities have described the three as persons of interest in the killings of Zajko’s parents west of Philadelphia. The parents’ bodies were found in January 2023. Law enforcement has connected the Zizians to at least six deaths across the country.

An offshoot of a Berkeley, California-area rationalist movement, the Zizians have a fairly complex set of beliefs. They seek to understand human cognition, and are anarchists and radical vegans. LaSota, a former computer programmer, believes that the two hemispheres of the human brain can operate separately from one another, with one side holding different beliefs and existing as a different gender than the other, according to The Associated Press.

As leader of the Zizians, LaSota tended to target “smart, mostly autistic-ish transwomen who were extremely vulnerable and isolated” for recruitment, The San Francisco Chronicle reported.

A widespread search for the trio ended Sunday in rural Western Maryland.

Not long after 3:30 p.m. on Sunday, the Maryland State Police, Allegany County Sheriff’s Office and Maryland Natural Resources Police responded to a property on Piney Mountain Road off Coon Club Road in Frostburg after a man called and reported that two white box trucks with chains on the tires were trespassing on his property.

The man informed police that he told the three people who were wearing all black that they were not allowed on his property. They asked him if they could camp there for one month.

The property owner told law enforcement that the three people appeared suspicious and he wanted them removed from his property, police reported.

When Master Trooper Brandon Jeffries approached the vehicles, he alleges he saw a man sitting in the passenger seat of one of the trucks and ordered him to show his hands. That’s when Blank stated that he had a learning disability and did not understand, police reported.

Then, Jeffries asserts, he saw someone wipe the window in the other truck because it had fogged up.

Police reported that they found two people in that truck who were wearing gun belts that contained ammunition.

Next, Jeffries ordered them to get out of the vehicle. Michelle Zajko, he claims, cried and pleaded with him not to kill her.

Jeffries alleges that he told Zajko and Jack LaSota about the complaint that they were trespassing. The two agreed to leave, police reported, but they then refused to show their IDs.

As Jeffries looked through the back door of the truck, he asserts, he spotted a rifle and a handgun.

The three refused to give their names, police reported. Law enforcement arrested Blank and LaSota.

Police then took Zajko to the ground after they claim she refused to put her hands behind her back. Officers reported that they found a loaded handgun in her waistband.

The FBI identified Blank, LaSota and Zajko after looking at pictures.

Blank, 26, of Sacramento, California, is charged with trespassing and obstructing and hindering.

Zajko, 32, of Chester Heights, Pennsylvania, is charged with trespassing, resisting and interfering with an arrest, obstructing and hindering and a handgun offense.

LaSota, 33, of Berkeley, California, is charged with trespassing, obstructing and hindering and a handgun offense.

Correction: A previous version of this story misstated when the bodies of Michelle Zajko’s parents were found.