Warning: Graphic content, readers’ discretion advised. This article contains a recollection of crime and can be triggering to some readers discretion advised.
Texas in may 2022 ,the callous killing of a young athlete sends shock waves throughout the comunity and the pursuit of Justice takes a very unpredictable jorney across borders in this tale of jealousy and murder.
may 11 th 2022 caitlin cash is just arrived back at her apartment to find her friend 25 year old Anna mariah wilson lying on the floor of her bathroom.
when cash came back to her house she had no reason tobelieve that anything was brong .this is a relatively compact home so it pretty easy to have line of sight from where the front door is to sort of the laundry area.
she was a real hero in this ,because she tried to save her friend’s life…
…unfortunately it didn’t work.
by the time,first responders arrive on scene they’re too late
it almost looked like she had been the victim of the beating ,there was clearly blood in and around her head.pretty early on they determined that this was something other than say for instance a natural event.
Mo had sustained essentially threegunshot wounds, mo’s got a wound that passes through her hand, this gives detectives an indication that she’s throwing it upp almost in a defensive posture.
and this round actually winds up striking her in the head
there’s another gunshot wound to the head.
but even more interesting is the fact that she has got what’s referred to a as a through and through gunshot wound,center mass to the chest would actually pass through the heart and create a divot in the the floor.
law enforcement immediately pick up the fact that it doesn’t lool like any typ of burglary or robbery , nothing’s disheveled around the house, drawrers opening really doesn’t appear like anything’s missing.
and that execution style killing immediatelly takes detectives to this was personal.
police at the scene need to get a better idea of what they might be dealing with so they speak to caitlyn cash.
Anna Moriah “Mo” Wilson for short is originally from New England and she had grown up a lot of her life skiing.
and from that she got into cyckling and all kinds of sports
she was an extremely athletic young lady…..
and she sort of was takinmg the cycling world by storm
she is someone you could classify as a top tier athlete, she’s into mountain bike racing and that’s completely different level anybody that had come to know Mo.
pretty much had nothing but glowing things to say about her , it was almost the equivalent of taking a brick and throwing it through a sytained glass window. why in the world would you want to destroy someone that’s beautiful.
when law enforcement gets on scene on any type of crime scene the biggest thing they’re looking at is crimr scene preservation,detectives are going to start looking for shell casings. looking for a murder weapon,canvasing inside out
officers search the immediate area
and they find something out of place.
a puzzle piece,there not sure where it fits.
as police are looking around the crime scene , a short distance away in like a heavy kind of wooded area they find mo wilson’s bicycle.
they knew that maybe just maybe there were some value in this ,because who would take what is a pretty expensive bicycle and merely just toss it over into the weeds as it were .
and that’s not the only thing …
..detectives find cameras on nearby homes ,capture what could be key evidence that only adds to the mystery of the case.
one ofthe things that they do look for are patterns are there people in and around the time of the crime . are there vehicles making multiple trips in and around the scene of the crime.
and what they ultimately did see was an SUV cirkling the neighborhood. there’s a dark colored SUV with a bilke rack on the back , unfortunately they cant get a license plate from the vehicle because the bike racks in the way but it’s right close to the crime sceme and throughout that day it drives by there several times .
and as investigators canvas the neighborhood further they make another chilling discovery more amd more evidence is being discovered they realixe there’s a gentlemen close by that has ring doorbell
the footage may be one of the most chilling ring doorbell footages detectives ever watched in their life. you actually hear some type of altercation, followed by three gunshots
it’s incredibly sad ,you hear pops which detectives know now was the gun being fired as well as a scream . one of the interesting things about this case which you don’t always get is an exact time of death .
and an exact time when the crime occurred.
so now detectives have the ring door footage, you got a time stamp right there on on it and a suspect vehicle or at least a vehicle that detectives need to look at a little bit further.
so Colin Strickland,that’s probably someone that police may want to talk to next.
with the clock ticking, investigators need to get to the bottom things and that means to talk to Colin strickland.
anytime two parties have obviously had some type of relationship and you were the lst person to see mo wilson you better have a dang good alibi.
wednesday may 11th 2022 Austin Texas .
police are investigting the coldblooded killing of 25 year old up and cominging cyclist Anna Mariah wilson aka Mo.
who was visting from out of town to attend an annual racing event . Mo was staying with her friend cash and had just arrived back at the apartment .
that’s when police believe she was possibly ambushed and shot several times, left for dead on the bathroom floor.
with moe being from out of town,she has few connections in Austin which at first leaves police at a loss for possible leads that is until….
cash gives police a name, a man mo has been growing closer to in recent months.
colin strickland himself was actually well known in the cycling world and he was pretty highly decorated.
much of the public believes thatt homicides arestranger on stranger crimes, they’re not generally its going to be somebody that¨s in the victims orbit , not knowing the nature of the relationship that colin strickland had with mo, he’s going to be number one on investigators list. they gonna to have to check him off.
police tracked down 35 year old colin strickland the next morning to see if he could potentially be involved.
the two of them had met because colin was also a professional cyclist and mr strickland is actually very complimentary of miss wilson in everything he has to say, he talks about how talented she is ,how much of a future she has in this cyckling world
her professional world as you can imagine is very small world,it’s not suprising that Mo would have stgruck up a friendship perhaps a relationship with colin.
colin strickland’s in his garage area , and they deliver that news and immediately it isa look of shock ablank stare and like the life has been taken out of colin strickland.
Strickland offers up what he siad was his last interaction with Mo the previous night shortly before she was killed.
that day she and mr strickland had met up to go to sort of a community pool and they hung out there then they went and got diner.
there’s actually surveillance footage of them eating.everything seems normal and fine but that’s the last person she was seen with.
Colin goes to drop Mo off she goes to the door , she knows the pin code on the door handle tobe able to get in.goes inside and thatäs where things take a turn for the worst.
its’s believed that he dropped her off at home ,about 1 to two minutes from when she was dropped off an intruder came in and took her life.
there’s other evidence to suggest that she wasbeing followed, there was actually CCTV ffootage and it demonstrates colin driving away on his motorcycle.
the rest of that particular interview hasn’t been been publicly released.
but according to case documents police noticed several cars in strickland’s driveway including one that looks very fimiliar.
when police go totalk to mr strickland,they kind of take an inventory of vehicles that are there . that’s incredibly normal you take the plates , you rum the plates, they found BMW,mercedes jeep,he does say that the 2012 jeep cherokee that’s there is not his vehicle.
investigators thining in their minds ” okay we’ve got this kind of nondescript dark colored SUV that they saw in CCTV could this be the same vehicle.
law enforcement asks whos SUV, he says that’s my roomate who’s my on and off again girlfriend kaitlin armstrong.
strikland volunteers to speak with investigators more at the police station wheere they learn quite a bit about his relationship with then 434 year old caitlyn armstrong.
colin strickland a great cyclist meets kaitlin armstrong in that community,they start a relationship
they move in together and it’s kind of this on and of relationship for about three years. they even start a business together where thery’re restoring trailers things like that
when theat are broken up colin srickland meets Mo wilson and they really hit it off. collin and Mo had a casual romantic relationship really for about a months or two .
but then seemingly kind of fizzled out and part of why that fizzled out is because strickland’s girlfriend kaitlin armstrong .
Mo wilson was dating colin to caitlyn cleaimed to be her current boyfriend but what he claimed to be is that they were on a break.
so as law enforcement continues their questioning of colin strickland and they ask him do you own any firearms he comes right out and says” yeah i’d purchased two handguns in the past .
Austin police departement came in with a search warrant of his home and they did find two 9mm handguns.
he was very forthcoming, he said actully” i purchased two ,just a while back”..
as matter matter of fact i bought one for my girlfriend kaitlin armstrong and not only that .
both he and she had gone to the firing range in order to practice. the police at that point in time knew they were on to something.
investigators now need to speak with kaitlin armstrong could she somehow be involved
may 20022 law enforcement in Austin Texas make a connection between 34 year old kaitlin armstrong and an SUV seen on surveillance footage circling the neighborhood where 25 year old Mo wilson was killed.
kaitlin was in an on and off relationship with colin stickland a fellow cyclist Mo had recently gotten to know better .
when the detectives discover there’s an existing active warrant for armstrong on an unrelated charge. they track her down .
A theft of service warrant basically is saying she received a service and didn’t pay for it and that’s what they ultimately brought her in on .
she didn’t pay for her Botox treatment.
what a wild typ of warrant that’s for but that gives them probable cause now to go and approach her and arrest her and bring her in on that charge.
as the police begin to tighten their focus in regards to Mo , police want to get to the heart of the matter and you can tell that she’s progressively getting more and more uncomfertable in this in this environment .
she’s trying to understand what exactly is theft of service , but you can tell that the emphasis is not necessarily on that particular charge.
they bring kaitlin armstrong in on that theft of service warrant , they do explain to her what it is but it was filed incorrectly and it was filed with the incorrect birth day.
with the incorrect birth date it’s not a valid warrant therefore she’s free to go.
that kind of just clears the ear,” hey listen you were actually free to go but before you leave just real quick had a few questions to ask you”
and they starting to lay that foundation out to start to ask her more questions about where she was the night of Mo wilson’s murder. now kaitlin armstrong immediately kind of puts her guard up.
she does act multipe times like” can i leave “, she never says ones i would like an attorney, so invoking your right to counsel, she just asks ” do i need one”.but that’s not the same thing.
her behavior is telling that she will sit there and have the details of the theft of service warrant explained to her and when it turns to colin strickland and Mo wilson she wants to leave.
at that point she doesn’t want to speak to them but at the same time she wants to know what they know and that’s why she does hang around for a while.
what is very unteresting, is her body anguage during this interview , initially she’s very just relaxed but a little arrogant and cocky as that investigator kind of starts to open up that door and ask about colin strickland and issues that she had with Mo Wilson , that’s where you see her become more uncomfortable and she is ready to get out of there as quickly as possible.
In one push for information the investigator confronts armstrong about her SUV.when the part about the vehicle being seen in the area is brought up kaitlin armstrong immediately wants to distance herself and get the heck out of that room.as an investigator that was he like to call a clue ,someone that doesn’t want to lay out their side of the story.
police really don’t have any other choice but to release her ,there weren’t serving warrant to arrest her for the death of mariah wilson, they don’t have enough quite franly to arrest her .
however what that shows them though ” is this our probably prime suspect”
it is become clear s the investigation moves forward ,kaitlin armstrongis someone detectives need to keep a close eye on.
and now what police are really going to do is working on subpoening her cell phones records. any digital evidence, any forensic evidence as well as that 2012 jeep cherokee that she drives.
Kaitlin armstrong decides that it’s time to sell the jeep,so she goes to a car dealership and sells the jeep.typically when you see a suspect liquidating things to get 1, 000 in cash i s a very telltale sign that they’re looking to flee.
at this point detectives seem to have an idea of what possibly happened the night Mo wilson was killed.
but as officials are keeping track of caitlyn armstrong she somehow falls off the map …..
she then boards a flight up to new york flies into there where her sister lives close by and is there at her sisters house a short time.
the thing that came into most handy in terms of looking for her was the airport surveillance video of her sort of with her yoga mat going throug security at the austin airport.
they knew she went from Austin to LaGuardia because that was all in her name.when she left they wereable to track her name on that flight.it’s there that the case sort of went cold .
that’s when local law enforcement decide to call in the big guns . several federal and international agencies join the search for kaitlin armstrong.
she is off the radar.gone. detectives have an investigation that’s gone from Austin to new york , new nersey area and this is where this case takes a wild turn .
the focus of the investigation is becoming tighter and tighter and right now caitlyn armstrong is rising to the top , authorities are working to track down 34 year old Kaitlin armstrong.
who ‘s disappeared amid the murder investigation into the shooting death of 25 year old cyclist anna mariah ” Mo” wilson .
Investigators have put together several pieces of the case and have determined armstrong is likely the one responsible, but she’s nowhere to be found
that is until authorities makes some headways…
law enforcement reaches out to the sister and come to find out sister’s passport is missing.
so that gives law enforcement the opportunity to say:
” oh my gosh ,we’ve checked flight logs under Kaitlin armstrong, we need to see if the sister’s name has been used.”
It was in the realm of possiblity that she would have fled the country and so at that point they put out an international alert about her rather than just simply a domestic alert.
they look at flight logs under the sister’s name christie. and guess what it is .Costa Rica.
but several weeks go by without a trace of Kaitlin armstrong. federal agents make one last attempt to lure her out of hiding.
law enforcement solicit the help of the United States Marshall service. that is their bread and butter tracking down fugitives and this is a very heavily tourist area which it makes it very difficult for them but they start looking into hostiles.
kaitlin armstrong was an avid yoga instructor and so they thought maybe she’s down there teaching yoga and in one last ditch effort they decide they’re going to put a facebook ad out.
saying that a hostile is looking for a yoga instructor. a very astute hostile actually befriended her and then started realizing that this could be her .
she responded to the ad but the people waiting for her …. was law enforcement.
kaitlin armstrong was captured on June 29 th by foreign officials in the Republic of Costa Rika where she was detained on an immigration violation
and deported back to the United States.
she was in Costa Rica.living in a hostel sort of living her best yoga lifeshe had different name
she went so far as she had nose job.
Armstrong fled the Austin area days after being interviewed. armstrong was detained by authorities at the Don John’s hospital located in santa theresa beach following 43 day fugitive investigation.
she dyed her hair brown, she croppedher hair shorter and had a bandage on her nose where she claimed it was from a surboard incident.
Law enforcement starts diving into the forensic evidence . cell phone data what investigators start to see
is that kaitlin armstrong ,because of her business relationship with colin stricklandshe’s actually able to go in and read his text messages. see who he’s calling, read his emails.
it was during that time that kaitlin armstrong starts to have her suspisions on strickland’s rekatuonship with Mo wilson.
she really began to sort of harass Mo wilson ,kaitlin sent her nasty text messages , phone calls essentially digitally stalked her .
detectives think she reached a point where she really wasn”t getting any more reaction and she assumed that the two were still involved in a romantic relationship .
that’s when she decided to do what she was going to do.
Kaitlin armstrong is charged with murder . but while she’s in custody ahead of trialtheres another cray twist ….
so as kaitlyn is waiting for her trial date at some point they have to transport her to a medical facility , doctor’s appointment and as one last ditch effort kaitlin tries to flee. as you can imagine , she didn¨t make it very far.
if it wasn’t so tragic as it applies to Mo’s death it might be comical. detectives know that they have a murderer who’s trying to get away with killing this beautiful young women and not having to pay the ultimate price for it.
in november 2023 kaitlin armstrong’s trial begins for the murder of anna mariah wilson.
prosecutors at this point just want to make sure that they have an air sealed case.
law enforcement is pulling the GPS data on the jeep lo and behold .that GPS shovs that kaitlin had been driving right near the crime scene 0n the days of the homicide.
The defense however had a different argument…….
all of the circumstantial evidence pointed firectly back to kaitlin armstrong but CCT footage from day when Mo was murdered there was never actually an image captured of armstrong entering the home.
the defense argue that evidence is not indicative kaitlin armstrong is a killer . perhaps someone else had the motive and opportunity .
people and commentators will talk about how well she escaped so that’s admitting guilts, she ran away but the reality is that’s actually not a a usuaful tactic at a trial because you cant usually profs someones guilt just because they run away.
it was put forward that perhaps colin strickland was responsible that he had just as much reason to want Mo dead.
the shell casings obviously matched. the guns that we knew had been purchased by strickland but then was in the custody of armstrong.
however , prosecutors had one more trick up their sleeve.cold hard DNA.this is where it gets interesting we go back to that bike that was found.
kaitlins DNA was found on mariah mo wilson’s bicycle.
after days of testimony from 40 witnesses the case is handed off to the jury and after 2 hours of deliberations they return with their verdict.
the state of Texas versus Kaitlin armstrong verdict of the jury:
the jury find the defendant kaitlin armstrong guilty of the offense of murder as alleged in the indictment .
obviously this was a horrific and gruesome homicide . what really got her where she messed up like many of these cases that we see i that digital footprint.
a day later court reconvened for kaitlin armstrong to learn her sentence.
90 years in Texas Depratement ofcriminal justice and 10.000 fine as imposed by the jury.
Now if you thought that was the end of the story …. not quite….
On May 6, 2024, Wilson’s parents filed a civil wrongful death lawsuit against Armstrong, seeking $1 million in damages, but they will “ultimately ask that a jury determine the full value and extent of damages.” The compensation will cover burial and funeral expenses as well as emotional damages they suffered as a result of Wilson’s death. The lawsuit will also prevent Armstrong from profiting financially from her crime
On June 17, 2024, the judge ordered Armstrong to pay $15 million to the Wilson family.