After reportedly shooting Anna Morah “Mo” Wilson, yoga instructor Kaitlin Armstrong informed her new partner that she had gone through a “difficult breakup” and was running from the police.
After meeting Teal Akerson outside a tattoo parlour in Costa Rica while she was on the run for the death of her love rivals, Armstrong, 34, pretended to be “Ari” and started dating him.
When he tried to kiss her, she rebuffed him, saying that she hadn’t “healed” from a recent breakup and “wasn’t ready” to be close to him.
Additionally, Teal disclosed that the two had gone on multiple dates when Armstrong was evading capture prior to her being apprehended on June 29.
After discovering it “made sense” that she “insisted” they go to remote locations, he was astonished to see that she had changed her appearance.
Armstrong allegedly shot Wilson, 25, after learning that she was having an affair with her boyfriend, a cyclist named Colin Strickland.
Wilson was found shot twice in the head and once in the chest on May 11 in an apartment in Austin, Texas.
The dirt bike champion had been sleeping at Wilson’s friend’s house when Armstrong’s black Jeep Grand Cherokee was seen driving by.
According to search warrants, Armstrong visited a shooting range with her sister prior to the murder and received $450,000 from Strickland.
He also acknowledged getting two guns for himself and Armstrong between the end of 2021 and the beginning of 2022.
Just moments after Wilson and Strickland returned from an outing, the room where he was shot was discovered to contain shell casings from the weapon marked “9mm JAG.”
According to authorities, the yoga instructor paid for a nose job and had her hair dyed brown before leaving the country, using her sister’s passport to board a flight out of Newark Airport in New Jersey.
Teal told the Austin American Statesman that he was aware of the case but “didn’t put any of it together” because of the change in her appearance.
Before they smoked marijuana and spent time together, he first spoke to her outside of a tattoo parlour and saved her in his phone as “Ari Tattoo.”
They continued to speak for another three days before she was arrested.
“Air was a strange person,” Teal remarked. She was sitting on a bench outside the tattoo parlour while her pals got ink, and I met her when I was drinking a beer in the bar.
I started talking to her more and more, and eventually we exchanged numbers since it was clear that she was trying to talk to me and get to know me.
We went on a lot of dates, but she said that she had recently gone through a really traumatic breakup and wasn’t quite ready to be close to anyone, so we were just friends.
We travelled to many various locations since we wanted to go somewhere new, but she preferred quiet, isolated locations most of the time.
You wouldn’t believe it if I said, “I didn’t put any of it together.”
It made sense to me why she didn’t want to be seen after everything that had transpired and I had learned what she was actually doing while fleeing.
It all started to make a little more sense as to why she preferred to visit remote locations.
He stated that he didn’t identify Armstrong in the police-released photos and that Armstrong had a bandage on her nose, which she claimed was the result of a surfing accident.
Teal acknowledged that he was “shocked” to learn that “Ari” was actually Armstrong after viewing the police-released photos of her following surgery.
Armstrong was deported to Houston after confessing to being “Ari” while under arrest.
She was brought to the Travis County Jail on July 5 and is still there while her $3.5 million bond is being processed.
Other Costa Ricans claimed that Armstrong had “seemed normal” and had spent the majority of her time teaching yoga and working part-time at the hostel where she had stayed.
She allegedly paid less than $20 per night to lodge at Don Jon’s Surf and Yoga Lodge and partied at a barbecue joint run by a former New York attorney.
When the police took her into custody for an immigration infraction, they discovered two passports inside her hostel lockbox.
During an interview with US police in May, they discovered two iPhones and Armstrong’s passports in her purse.
Armstrong flipped homes, according to a May statement by Texas Deputy Marshal Brandon Filla to the New York Post, and he “may have the money to continue to hide.”
He continued, “[Armstrong’s escape] wasn’t anything that was abrupt; it was planned out methodically and at the right time. She had a plan in certain ways.
Armstrong allegedly lent Strickland money for an investment account, but she kept it before departing for Costa Rica on May 18.
In telling the police about his relationship with Wilson, he said that he had changed Wilson’s identity on his phone so that Armstrong wouldn’t recognize the caller.
Strickland continued, saying that despite his girlfriend’s suspicions, he had also deleted earlier texts.
Officials suspect Armstrong killed the cyclist out of envy when her automobile was seen in the neighbourhood around the time of the event, which led to links between her and Wilson’s killing.
Wilson and Armstrong’s boyfriend had supper together the night of the murder, the police later learned.
Before dining, the two of them went swimming at Deep Eddy Pool, according to Strickland, and he dropped her off there at 8.36 p.m.
He momentarily paused to send a text to Armstrong informing him that he had visited a buddy and that his phone’s battery was low.
Using the cycling and running tracking app Strava, Armstrong is said to have been keeping tabs on Wilson.
After receiving an anonymous tip and seeing the yoga instructor’s automobile on surveillance footage outside Wilson’s apartment, police detained the instructor.
They questioned her about Wilson’s killing using her open misdemeanour warrant for theft of services after getting a tip that she had lost her cool in January.
Armstrong apparently found out that Strickland had dated Wilson before they started dating.
When Armstrong was questioned by police on May 14, they showed her footage of her SUV stopping outside the apartment where Wilson was discovered dead on May 11.
A minute after Wilson left the building after her time with Strickland, the video was timestamped.
A probable cause document for Armstrong’s arrest notes that she also acknowledged it “doesn’t look good” and that she “had no explanation as to why it was in the area and did not offer any denials surrounding the claims made to her.”
Armstrong’s black Jeep Cherokee was spotted by a neighbour’s security camera pulling up to the property at 8:35 p.m., she previously revealed to DailyMail.com while requesting anonymity.
Additionally, she revealed to DailyMail.com that Armstrong had been seen on camera the day before riding a bike in the same location.
Before releasing Armstrong, police officers seized two of her cellphones and noted that she was carrying two passports in her purse.
Armstrong sold her black Cherokee in Austin for more over $12,000 five days before she left the country and before being questioned by authorities.
On May 18, she allegedly boarded a flight out of Newark Liberty International using her sister Christine’s passport.
Christine might not be aware that her sister stole her passport.
Armstrong next took a flight to Costa Rica, where she remained for roughly 43 days before being apprehended on June 30.
Before Armstrong was detained, police conducted a nationwide manhunt for her, concentrating in Texas, New York, and New Jersey.
After six weeks of knocking on doors in San Jose hostels, they found her.
The yoga instructor had been using three names to conceal her identity.
She stated that in addition to going by the name “Ari Martin,” she was also known to locals as “Beth Martin” and “Liz Martin.”
She was recognized by the officers after they displayed a pre-surgery photo of her, and when they detained her, they found out she had cut and dyed her hair brown.
Additionally, according to reports, Armstrong had a nose job to alter her appearance.
When authorities searched Armstrong’s possessions, they discovered a $6,000 bill for cosmetic surgery.
She was arrested and put into the Travis County Jail in Austin on charges of first-degree murder and service theft involving $100 to $750.