22-year-old University of Oxford grad charged with murder of elderly landlord

A former University of Oxford student has been charged with the murder of an 82-year-old landlord.

Maximilian Bentley Snyder is accused of stabbing Curtis Lind to death on 17th January 2025 in Vallejo – a city near San Fransisco in California.

Synder studied philosophy and computer science at the University of Oxford from 2020 to 2024.

According to the San Fransisco Chronicle, a witness claims to have seen a man walk up to Lind, wrap his arm around his neck, then use his other hand to stab Lind’s chest several times. The witness says the attacker ran down the street, then returned to the scene and slashed Lind’s throat.

Curtis Lind was going to testify in April at the trial of two of his former tenants – Suri Dao and Alexander Leatham. These people were accused of attacking Lind in 2022. Prosecutors say three of Lind’s tenants stopped paying rent, so Lind tried to evict them. The prosecutors claim the three tenants lured Lind to a purported water leak, then stabbed him with a sword and knives at least 50 times. Lind lost his right eye. He shot at his alleged attackers, and killed one of them. Prosecutors are arguing that Synder may have killed Lind in order to prevent him from speaking at the surviving tenants’ trial in April.

Curtis Lind’s neighbour, Jon Jenkins, acted as his armed bodyguard after the 2022 attack. He told the San Fransisco Chronicle: “We tried the best we could to keep him safe. We kind of failed.”

Maximilian Snyder
(Credit: Vallejo Police Department)

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The US authorities believe Snyder and these two tenants were linked to a “militant vegan” fringe movement called the Zizians. Prosecutors say the leader of the Zizians, Jack “Ziz” LaSota, was at this attack in 2022, even though LaSota was reported to have died a few months earlier. It was claimed that LaSota fell off a sailboat in San Francisco Bay and drowned. The Coast Guard never found her body, despite searching 167 square miles of the sea for 29 hours. We now know Jack LaSota is alive, as she was arrested on 17th February.

Snyder has not publicly commented on whether he has killed Lind. He has said he was not one of “Ziz’s friends” – seemingly referring to LaSota.

Court records show the killing of Curtis Lind is one of at least six linked deaths across the US.

Snyder previously applied for a marriage license with 21-year-old Teresa Youngblut, who has been arrested after her suspected involvement in a shootout on the Canadian border on 20th January. A border patrol agent and Youngblut’s companion died.

Snyder and Younglut went to the very prestigious Lakeside School in Seattle. We don’t know if they ever got married, but Snyder’s mother thought they had.

Lakeside School
(Credit: Ragesoss via Creative Commons license)

Youngblut has pleaded not guilty to firearms charges.

The US authorities are also looking into the shooting of an elderly Pennsylvanian couple, whose daughter was arrested alongside LaSota.

Snyder’s mother lives in Germany. She thought her son was living in a condo she owned in Kirkland, Washington. On 25th January, she hadn’t heard from her son in a while, so she asked the Kirkland police to check on him. The police informed her there was no need for a welfare check, as her son was in prison in California on suspicion of murder.

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Featured image of Maximilian Snyder via his Linkedin.