A man who planned to marry the suspect in the killing of a U.S. Border Patrol agent has himself been arrested and accused of murdering a California resident just three days before the agent was fatally shot, court records show.
The charges against the man, Maximilian Snyder, are the latest twist in the saga involving his partner, Teresa Youngblut, 21, of Seattle. She is accused of opening fire on Border Patrol agents during a traffic stop in northern Vermont last week, setting off a shootout that resulted in the death of agent David “Chris” Maland. A German national traveling with Youngblut was also killed.
Youngblut was reported missing by her parents in May 2024, according to police records. Her parents told Seattle officers at the time that Youngblut had left home, changed her phone number and cut off contact with her friends, a police report obtained by NBC News says.
The parents were concerned that Youngblut may have been “forced to take these actions or that she may be in a controlling relationship,” the police report says.
The report does not identify Snyder by name, but he and Youngblut filed a marriage application in November 2024, according to court records in King County, Washington.
They had both attended the Lakeside School, a prestigious private high school in Seattle. Snyder went on to study philosophy and computer science at the University of Oxford in the U.K., according to his LinkedIn page. Youngblut had been studying computer science at the University of Washington.
Two months after the couple applied for a marriage license, police say Snyder fatally stabbed a man in Vallejo, California, 30 miles northeast of San Francisco, on Jan. 17.
The victim, Curtis Lind, 82, was killed not long before he was set to testify against two people charged in a horrifying assault on him in 2022.
Lind was “stabbed multiple times, had a sword impaled through his chest and ultimately lost his right eye” on Nov. 13, 2022, his family said on a GoFundMe page.
A man who was living in a mobile home on Lind’s property, Patrick McMillian, told NBC Bay Area in 2022 that the incident stemmed from an eviction dispute.
“He banged on my door and I woke up and came out,” McMillan said. “He said ‘I’m dying,’ and he had blood squirting out and a sword sticking through him.”
McMillan said Lind managed to shoot two of the attackers during that assault, killing one and wounding the other.
“C.L. was a witness to a crime who was intentionally killed for the purpose of preventing his testimony in a criminal proceeding,” Snyder’s criminal complaint says.
No other details were provided. But two of the suspects in the attack on Lind were set to go on trial this year, records show. Snyder’s connection to the suspects is unclear, and there are no allegations against Youngblut in the case.
Snyder has been charged with murder. His lawyer declined to comment, and his family could not be reached.
Prosecutors say the California killing may not be the only one carried out by associates of Youngblut’s.
Federal prosecutors in Vermont said in court papers that the guns possessed by Youngblut and Felix Bauckholt, the man she was with at the time of the shooting of the Border Patrol agent, were bought by an individual who is a person of interest in a double homicide in Pennsylvania. No other information was provided.
Prosecutors have not said whether they believe Maland, the fallen agent, was struck by one of the bullets Youngblut allegedly fired or by a shot from a fellow officer. Youngblut has been charged with two federal weapons counts. Her lawyer has declined to comment.
Prosecutors have said that Youngblut and Bauckholt were traveling with a large collection of weapons and tactical gear, including 48 rounds of .380-caliber jacketed hollow point ammunition, a ballistic helmet and night vision equipment.
The pair had been under surveillance by Homeland Security Investigations in the days prior to the shooting, according to court documents, after a hotel employee reported concerns about them. The pair were wearing “all-black, tactical style clothing with protective equipment,” and Youngblut was seen carrying a gun, court documents say.
When their Toyota Prius was pulled over, Bauckholt, the registered owner, appeared to have an expired visa in a Department of Homeland Security database, according to court documents. But the FBI has said that Bauckholt’s visa was, in fact, current.
