A Washington state woman charged in connection with the fatal shooting of a U.S. border patrol agent in Vermont had been in frequent contact with someone whom authorities have linked to homicides in Pennsylvania and California, a federal prosecutor said in court documents Monday.
Teresa Youngblut, 21, faces two weapons charges in connection with the death of Border Patrol Agent David Maland, 44, who died Jan. 20 during the shootout in Coventry, a small town about 20 miles (32 kilometers) from the Canadian border. She had been traveling with Felix Bauckholt, a German citizen who also was killed, and the pair had been under surveillance for several days.
In a motion filed Monday, U.S. Attorney Michael Drescher said Youngblut should be detained as the case proceeds due to the nature of the crime, the weight of evidence against her, her lack of ties to Vermont, and the danger she poses to the community.
According to the motion, the gun used by Youngblut and one that Bauckholt was carrying were purchased by a third person in Vermont last February. The buyer is a person of interest on a double homicide investigation in Pennsylvania, Drescher said.
And both Youngblut and the buyer “are acquainted with and have been in frequent contact with” someone who was detained during that investigation and who also is a person of interest in a homicide investigation in Vallejo, California, the motion said.
“The defendant’s possession and use of a firearm, combined with her itinerary 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,” the prosecutor wrote.
Youngblut made an initial appearance in a federal court in Burlington on Monday and was scheduled for a detention hearing on Thursday. The public defender assigned to represent Youngblut in U.S. District Court in Burlington did not return emails seeking comment. A spokesperson for the U. S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Vermont declined to comment.
According to an FBI affidavit, a border agent pulled over Youngblut and Bauckholt on Interstate 91 to conduct an immigration inspection. At the time, Bauckholt appeared to have an expired visa, according to a Department of Homeland Security database, but investigators later confirmed that his visa was current, the FBI said.
Youngblut, who had been driving Bauckholt’s car, got out and opened fire on Maland and other officers without warning, the FBI alleges. Bauckholt tried to draw a gun but was shot, the affidavit states.
At least one border agent fired on Youngblut and Bauckholt, but authorities haven’t specified whose bullets hit whom.
“This investigation remains very active, and the legal process continues,” FBI spokeswoman Sarah Ruane said in a statement over the weekend.
Investigators had been performing “periodic surveillance” of Youngblut and Bauckholt since Jan. 14 after an employee at a hotel where they were staying reported concerns after seeing Youngblut carrying a gun and she and Bauckholt wearing black tactical gear, according to the affidavit. Investigators tried to question the duo, who said they were in the area looking to buy property but declined to have an extended conversation, the FBI said.
During a search of the car after the shootout, authorities found cellphones wrapped in foil, a ballistic helmet, night-vision goggles, respirators and ammunition, the FBI said. They also found a package of shooting range targets, including some that had been used, two-way radios, about a dozen “electronic devices,” travel and lodging information for multiple states, and an apparent journal.
In May, Youngblut’s parents reported to Seattle police that she was missing, according to a police report. In the account, first reported by The Seattle Times, they said she had left home with duffel bags full of personal belongings, including her passport and medical records.
The parents said her behavior had changed and that she had been lying about where she was going and who she was seeing. They said she also had broken off contact with friends and changed her phone number. The parents said they were concerned she was being “forced to take these actions or that she may be in a controlling relationship.”
A Teresa Youngblut took out a marriage license to a man who was not Bauckholt in November, according to a search of records in Washington state’s King County.
A man reached at a phone listing for Youngblut’s family Friday identified himself as Youngblut’s grandfather and declined to comment. No one answered the door at homes in Seattle and Redmond, Washington, associated with Youngblut’s name, and neighbors declined to comment.
Bauckholt graduated with an honors degree in mathematics from Waterloo University in Canada in 2018, according to online records. He competed and won honors in computer programming competitions and held an office in the university’s computer science club. He had received a scholarship and was one of several students who had won medals at international olympiads for either mathematics or informatics, according to a school news release from 2015.
A now-deleted LinkedIn profile for a Felix Bauckholt said he had been working as a quantitative trader for a financial firm based in New York since October 2021. An email was sent to the firm seeking confirmation.
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