Moriah ‘Mo’ Wilson: Everything we know about star cyclist’s killing as fugitive yoga teacher arrested
Kaitlin Armstrong arrested in Costa Rica after more than a month on the run
The latest headlines from our reporters across the US sent straight to your inbox each weekday
Your briefing on the latest headlines from across the US
Your briefing on the latest headlines from across the US
The fugitive yoga teacher wanted for the murder of professional cyclist Moriah “Mo” Wilson has been arrested after more than a month on the run.
The US Marshals Service announced the arrest of Kaitlin Armstrong on 30 June, nearly seven weeks to the day after Wilson was shot dead at a friend’s apartment in Austin, Texas, on 11 May.
Ms Armstrong, 34, is charged with first-degree murder after police said she killed Ms Wilson when a dramatic love triangle turned deadly.
Ms Armstrong was arrested at a hostel on Santa Teresa Beach in Provincia de Puntarenas following a joint investigation by the US Marshals Office of International Operations, Homeland Security Investigations, and the Department of State Diplomatic Security Service, along with authorities in Costa Rica.
She was deported to the US to face first-degree murder charges.
Everything we know about Kaitlin Armstrong’s 43 days on the run
In the immediate aftermath of Ms Wilson’s murder, police briefly detained Ms Armstrong before letting her go because of an invalid warrant.
According to the arrest warrant, Ms Armstrong told detectives during her interview that her boyfriend had come home and told her that “one of the woman [sic] in the cycling community had passed away”.
Police said that she was “was very still and did not move at all” when answering.
When she was confronted about her boyfriend “talking to this girl” and told that her name had cropped up in the investigation, Ms Armstrong “continued to stay quiet and completely still”, the warrant states.
She also had “no explanation” when she was confronted with surveillance footage of her car close to the crime scene and “did not make any denials surrounding the statements presented to her,” the warrant says.
When detectives suggested “maybe you were upset and just in the area,” she allegedly nodded in agreement.
Police said that she became angry when asked about Mr Strickland meeting with Ms Wilson.
“I didn’t have any idea that he saw or even went out with this girl… as of recently,” she allegedly told investigators.
Investigators then “confronted Armstrong on how seeing her vehicle in the area, coupled with the statements made by Strickland, made things not look too good,” according to the warrant.
However, during the interview, detectives learned that the arrest warrant was not valid and so she was free to leave.
An arrest warrant revealed that Ms Armstrong was taken into custody one day after the murder.
After learning that Ms Armstrong had a warrant out for her arrest on an unrelated charge, the Lone Star Fugitive Task Force detained her and took her to the Austin Police Department Homicide Unit office for an interview.
However, during the interview, detectives learned that the arrest warrant was not valid and so she was free to leave.
US Marshals later determined she then boarded a flight from Austin International Bergstrom Airport to Houston Hobby Airport on 14 May, before taking a connecting flight to LaGuardia Airport in New York City.
Prior to her arrest, police had said Ms Armstrong’s last known sighting was on 18 May - one day after an arrest warrant was issued - when she was dropped off at Newark Airport in New Jersey. At the time, investigators said there was no record of her having gotten on a flight.
On Thursday, US Marshals revealed she had used a counterfeit passport to board United Airlines Flight 1222 from Newark International Airport on 18 May bound for San Jose, Costa Rica, the US Marshals said in a statement.
There were unconfirmed sightings of Ms Armstrong at a campsite in upstate New York where her sister had previously stayed.
This led to speculation she might have been using her sister’s identity to evade detection.
Sources told Velonews that Ms Armstrong had undergone plastic surgery to change her appearance.
Escape attempt
On 11 October, 2023, Ms Armstrong was scheduled to attend a medical appointment, and required transport to a physician.
She was accompanied by a corrections officer to the medical facility, where she received treatment. While she and the officer were leaving the facility, Ms Armstrong began running.
A recording captured the moment Ms Armstrong attempted to escape her corrections officer. In the video, she can be seen running across a yard toward a brown wooden fence. The corrections officer pursues, but slips and falls in the grass.
Ms Armstrong leaps onto the fence as the video cuts out. She was eventually caught and returned to jail by the corrections officers.
The Independent has reached out to Ms Armstrong’s attorney for comment.
Moriah ‘Mo’ Wilson’s murder left the cycling world in mourning
The murder, which has shocked the cycling community, unfolded on the night of 11 May when Wilson was found suffering from multiple gunshot wounds at her friend’s home in Austin.
Ms Wilson had flown from San Francisco to Austin one day earlier and was staying with the friend as she planned to take part in a 150-mile gravel bike race that weekend.
Police were called to the home at around 10pm that night when the friend returned to the house to find the front door unlocked.
The friend went inside and found Wilson lying on the bathroom floor covered in blood from multiple gunshot wounds.
Officers arrived on the scene as the friend was performing CPR.
The victim was pronounced dead minutes later.
Investigators say Ms Armstrong shot Wilson because she believed she was having an affair with her boyfriend Colin Strickland.
Family and friends from the cycling world were left in shock from her death.
An alleged love triangle
On the day she was killed, Mr Strickland told investigators that he picked her up on his motorcycle and the pair went a swim at the Deep Eddy Pool public swimming pool.
Mr Strickland said he dropped Ms Wilson off at her friend’s home in Maple Avenue at around 8.30pm.
According to law enforcement, Ms Armstrong was secretly using cycling app Strava to track the pair’s movements.
A neighbour’s surveillance camera captured a dark-coloured SUV that matched a vehicle belonging to Ms Armstrong pull up at the house one minute after Ms Wilson was dropped off.
Mr Strickland denied claims he was having an affair with Ms Wilson at the time of her death.
Mr Strickland admitted dating Ms Wilson in October 2021 during a break from his relationship with Ms Armtrong, adding that she was also seeing other men at the time.
But he insisted that since then his friendship with Ms Wilson, a champion gravel cyclist, had been “strictly platonic” since then.
During his police interview, Mr Strickland spoke in glowing terms about Ms Wilson’s prospects as a pro-cyclist, describing her as the best gravel cyclist in the United States, and possibly the world.
He was not nearly as flattering about his girlfriend Ms Armstrong, also a “competitive” cyclist, telling officers he had asked her not to ride with him because she “holds him back”.
He cooperated with the police investigation and was not treated as a suspect.
‘Furious and was shaking in anger’
After Ms Armstrong went on the run, friends told authorities that she had been angry after discovering that Mr Strickland was still communicating with Ms Wilson.
According to the affidavit, a friend called police on 14 May to say that Ms Armtrong had learned of the “on again, off again” relationship in January.
Another caller, identified by the pseudonym Jane to shield her identity from Ms Armstong, said she “became furious and was shaking in anger” and stated that she wanted to kill Ms Wilson.
She began calling Ms Wilson and ordering her to stay away from her boyfriend, according to the affidavit.
In an interview with police, Mr Strickland said around that time he purchased 9mm handguns for himself and Ms Armstrong.
Detectives compared shell casings found at the scene to Ms Armstrong’s handgun. “The potential that the same firearm was involved is significant,” detectives wrote in the affidavit.
What is gravel racing?
According to bikeradar.com, gravel racing “sits somewhere between road, cyclocross and mountain bike racing” and events are usually held on open gravel roads and dirt tracks sometimes with some stretches of paved road.
The discipline has only been around for a few years, and is said to promote a “strong ethos of inclusivity and fun”, while still being highly competitive for serious racers.
Cyclists in the tight knit held a memorial for Ms Wilson at Republic Square Park in Austin in the days after her death.