Disclaimer: This article contains mentions of murder. Reader discretion is advised.
Kaitlin Armstrong, now convicted of murdering pro cyclist Anna Moriah Wilson, had fled the US in May 2022 after facing murder accusations. According to CBS News, days after fatally shooting Wilson, Armstrong fled to Costa Rica and had her face altered in San José. US Marshals arrested her on June 29 at a hostel on Santa Teresa Beach after she responded to a phony ad the feds placed for a yoga instructor. The arrest came after a 43-day international manhunt.
The outlet reported that investigators first ruled Kaitlin Armstrong a suspect in Anna Moriah Wilson’s May 11 shooting death based on security camera footage. Camera’s had reportedly captured her Jeep outside the apartment in Austin where the victim was staying shortly before the crime occurred.
In November 2023, a jury convicted Armstrong of first-degree murder in Wilson’s murder, reported CNN. The same jury then sentenced her to 90 years in prison.
CBS 48 Hours revisited the international manhunt for Armstrong after she fatally shot Wilson. The episode titled “Capturing Moriah Wilson’s Killer” premiered on Saturday, January 27, 2024.
Why did Kaitlin Armstrong fatally shoot Anna Moriah Wilson?
The New York Post reported that, as per accusations, Anna Moriah Wilson, a Vermont native and professional cyclist, had been staying in a friend’s Austin apartment ahead of a race in Texas. In the same apartment, on May 11, 2022, Kaitlin Armstrong fatally shot Wilson three times. The security camera outside the home placed her Jeep in the area shortly before the crime occurred.
According to CNN, Armstrong’s then-boyfriend, Colin Strickland, another cyclist, was the last to have seen Wilson before her death. Strickland and the victim had previously shared a brief romantic relationship in the fall of 2021. At the time, he and Armstrong were on a break before eventually getting back together.
Strickland and Wilson stayed in touch even after their brief romance ended. Moreover, on the day of the murder, the duo went for an afternoon swim. Reportedly, Strickland and Wilson also ate dinner together, after which he dropped her off at the friend’s place. Wilson’s friend arrived home that night to find her dead of multiple gunshot wounds on the bathroom floor, as per The Washington Post.
The New York Post reported that Armstrong killed Wilson in a jealous rage over her relationship with Strickland. Investigators said that the former used a fitness app to track Wilson to the apartment.
How was Anna Moriah Wilson’s killer, Kaitlin Armstrong, caught using a phony ad?
According to The Washington Post, on May 17, 2022, investigators matched shell cases from the scene to a pistol that Colin Strickland had previously bought for Kaitlin Armstrong. After the discovery, Austin police issued an arrest warrant for Armstrong in Anna Moriah Wilson’s murder. However, authorities failed to find Armstrong, who was last spotted at Newark Liberty International Airport in New Jersey. They spent weeks hunting for the suspect, but the case escalated from Austin police to federal investigators.
CBS News reported that the Lone Star Fugitive Task Force began tracking Armstrong. They eventually suspected that she fled to Costa Rica on May 18, 2022. According to CNN, a spokesperson for the US Marshals Service stated that authorities believed Armstrong used “the passport of a close associate” to flee the country.
Deputy Marshals Emir Perez and Damien Fernandez went to in San José, Costa Rica, on June 20, 2022. They believed that Kaitlin Armstrong had been using several aliases while moving several times to a new town. A subsequent tip then led them to another beach town, Santa Teresa. There, after a few failed attempts, they decided to “put an ad out for a yoga instructor,” Perez told 48 Hours.
According to Perez, they initially did not receive any responses, but just as they were about to head home, they got a lead. A woman identifying herself as a yoga instructor responded to their ad and said that she wanted to meet. Their plan finally worked, and they arrested her on June 29, 2022, at a hostel on Santa Teresa Beach.
The Marshals later discovered that their initial attempts had failed because Armstrong got plastic surgery in San José. They found a receipt for cosmetic surgery at the hostel where she was arrested. At the time of her arrest, she had a bandage on her nose, but Deputy Marshal Emir Perez said her eyes gave it away.
According to the Texas Department of Corrections, Kaitlin Armstrong is now serving a 90-year prison term in Gatesville’s Dr. Lane Murray Unit.
