Matthias Gafni

2 months ago | sfchronicle.com | Michael Barba |Matthias Gafni |Megan Cassidy |Kelsey Piper

Even in a circle of people who have made headlines for faked deaths and perplexing bursts of violence, Suri Dao is an enigma. Dao, who is awaiting trial in a 2022 knife and sword attack on a Vallejo landlord, is one of roughly 10 known associates of a cultlike group of vegans and computer savants who some call the "Zizians" and have been linked to six violent deaths around the country.

2 months ago | timesunion.com | Michael Barba |Megan Cassidy |Matthias Gafni

Among those most bewildered and frightened by a coast-to-coast convulsion of violence linked to a cultlike group of hardcore vegans and well-educated computer savants are the parents of young people who’ve spent time with the “Zizians.”People like Brett Danielson.

2 months ago | sfchronicle.com | Megan Cassidy |Michael Barba |Matthias Gafni

A few miles north of Half Moon Bay and just a stone’s throw from the famed Mavericks surf spot, an abandoned tugboat slowly rusts and rots in the shallow waters of Pillar Point Harbor, its stern partially submerged. Once destined for the scrapyard, the World War II-era vessel, the Caleb, gained an unusual second life in the summer of 2017 when it fell into the hands of a strange crew of young idealists, who bought it in Alaska and then pointed it south toward the Bay Area.

2 months ago | timesunion.com | Michael Barba |Matthias Gafni |Rachel Swan |Megan Cassidy

SAN FRANCISCO — Ziz was dead. Or at least it seemed that way. Just before midnight on Aug. 19, 2022, the Coast Guard steamed through San Francisco Bay after an alarming report. The eccentric computer programmer and blogger, born Jack Amadeus LaSota before adopting the name Ziz and feminine pronouns, had fallen from a boat. For hours, rescue crews searched by air and sea. They found nothing. Article continues below this adAn obituary appeared in a newspaper.

2 months ago | sfchronicle.com | Michael Barba |Matthias Gafni |Rachel Swan |Megan Cassidy

“Ziz” was dead. Or at least it seemed that way. Just before midnight on Aug. 19, 2022, the Coast Guard steamed through San Francisco Bay after an alarming report. The eccentric computer programmer and blogger, born Jack Amadeus LaSota before adopting the name Ziz and feminine pronouns, had fallen from a boat. For hours, rescue crews searched by air and sea. They found nothing. Article continues below this adAn obituary appeared in a newspaper.