John Jefferson
Left: Maximilian Snyder (KGO). Right: Teresa Youngblut, who is charged by the FBI in connection to the shooting death of US Border Patrol Agent David Maland, is seen in the office at the Newport City Inn on Jan. 14, 2025 in Newport, Vermont, in this still frame photograph from video released by the inn, who confirmed her identity (Newport City Inn photograph via AP).
A woman facing charges in a Vermont traffic stop shootout that killed a U.S. Border Patrol agent and also left her companion dead was linked through a marriage license to a man suspected of an entirely different murder in California.
Teresa Youngblut, 21, faces federal charges in the death of U.S. Border Patrol agent David Maland, 44, the U.S. Attorney’s Office announced in a press release.
According to a Washington state court docket, Youngblut was named in a marriage license application with Maximilian Snyder, who was charged with murder and appeared in court on Tuesday in Vallejo, California, more than 40 miles northeast of San Francisco. The two went to high school at Lakeside School, the same private school where Microsoft co-founders Bill Gates and Paul Allen met, The Seattle Times reported.
Youngblut is accused of shooting Maland on Jan. 20, 2025, during a traffic stop on Interstate 91 in Coventry, Vermont, a small town about 20 miles from the Canadian border, authorities said. He and other agents pulled over a Toyota Prius that Youngblut and her companion, Felix Bauckholt, were in, court documents said.
Without warning, Youngblut apparently got out of the car and fired a gun at agents. Maland and Bauckholt suffered fatal wounds in the exchange of gunfire, documents said, and Youngblut was wounded.
At the scene, authorities found a Washington state driver’s license belonging to Youngblut, as well as cellphones and laptops, authorities said. Law enforcement also found a ballistic helmet, night-vision-goggle monocular, a tactical belt with holster, a magazine loaded with cartridges, two full-face respirators, 48 rounds of .380 caliber jacketed hollow point ammunition, a package of shooting range targets, two handheld two-way radios, electronic storage devices, and a journal mentioning hallucinogenic drugs.
Youngblut and Bauckholt had been on law enforcement’s radar since Jan. 14, when a hotel employee in Lyndonville saw them armed and dressed in tactical clothing, authorities said. Law enforcement had also spotted them in the Prius at a Walmart parking lot in Newport, Vermont, before they were pulled over later in the traffic stop. They briefly spoke with law enforcement, saying something about purchasing property in the area but adding little else during the encounter, court documents show.
Details about Youngblut’s alleged connection to the Vallejo homicide suspect — who is not named in the affidavit — were laid out in court documents arguing for detention for Youngblut, who they said was dangerous and a flight risk. Prosecutors said they were concerned about her alleged association with other individuals suspected of violence, saying the person who bought the firearms the defendant and Bauckholt allegedly possessed on Jan. 20 is a person of interest in a dual homicide investigation in Pennsylvania.
They also said that Bauckholt flew into the U.S. in the hours preceding that Pennsylvania homicide. Prosecutors said the defendant and the unnamed firearms purchaser are “acquainted with and have been in frequent contact with” an individual who was detained in Pennsylvania during the homicide investigation. That individual is also a person of interest in a homicide investigation in Vallejo, California, they noted.
“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,” prosecutors wrote.
Prosecutors said she has no known ties to Vermont, and her only verified connection to the state is through the firearms she and Bauckholt possessed. The guns were bought by an individual purporting to be a resident of Orleans, Vermont, from a federal firearms licensee in Mount Tabor, Vermont, in February 2024, prosecutors said.
Prosecutors said the defendant was from Washington state and was estranged from her parents.
According to The Seattle Times, Youngblut broke off contact with family and friends and left with duffel bags full of items, including a passport and medical records, without explanation, her parents told The Times.
Maland, an Air Force veteran, was remembered as “a man of courage, honor, and unwavering dedication,” his GoFundMe page said.
Youngblut is set to appear for a detention hearing on Thursday.
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