DailyMail.com has revealed that a fugitive yoga instructor who is accused of murdering her Texas love rival volunteered as a yoga instructor and on the front desk at a $50 per night Costa Rican “treehouse hostel.”
Before she was apprehended yesterday after six weeks on the lam, Kaitlin Armstrong, posing as a woman named “Ari,” was characterised as a “strange” loner who would “stay to herself” despite sleeping in an eight-bunk hostel at Don Jon’s Lodge in Santa Teresa.
The other visitors, who mistook the 34-year-old for having left because they never saw her return after her shifts at the resort, would sit in separate seats from her.
Exclusive images obtained by DailyMail.com reveal the simple top bunk where the alleged killer stayed while leading a double life with a fake passport and name.
Other pictures showed the picture-perfect treehouses that gullible visitors stay in at the ‘yogi mecca,’ which brags online about its surfing and exercise facilities in the tourist hub.
However, Armstrong’s new way of life came to an abrupt end when she was apprehended by local police who were unable to locate her fictitious name during a routine search of their database.
US authorities have been looking for the alleged murderer since May 11 after she is accused of shooting love rival Anna Moriah “Mo” Wilson, 25, to death in Austin, Texas, during a dispute involving her boyfriend Colin Strickland.
She is presently sulking in a Costa Rican jail before she is anticipated to be repatriated and may be sentenced to death for the heinous murder.
A source informed DailyMail.com that Armstrong first came at the hotel on June 8 after frequently being turned down for employment as a yoga instructor by the employees.
But ultimately they gave in, and she began assisting in the sessions when the regular teacher was absent and working shifts at the front desk in the lobby.
The source said: ‘When the [regular] yoga girl couldn’t make it, [Armstrong] carried out the class instead of the other one. She didn’t always work.’
They continued: ‘She didn’t talk to anyone. She didn’t have to work in the morning and slept late. When she got up, she drank a lot of coffee. And she sat in some chairs, apart from the others.’
They added Armstrong was ‘strange’ and would mysteriously only leave the hostel at night before returning late while other guests were fast asleep.’
Staff were apparently bamboozled when cops swooped on the resort and demanded her her passport but she claimed it was in a nearby resort in Tamarindo.
The officers allegedly marched her away as the accused murderer remained quiet and looked at the floor while baffled hostel workers watched on in disbelief.
Don Jon’s Lodge is a four-minute walk from Santa Teresa Beach and is one of the cheapest places to stay in the exclusive area, with prices at around $50 a night.
The hostel offers shared dorm rooms with a community kitchen along with a mud path lined with outdoor showers.
It provides instructors and employees, including Martin, who ‘makes people high through breathing, he lets people release stress through breathing’, Don Jon’s Lodge Instagram says.
The lodge was founded by American expat Jonathan Pacheco, a former surfer who visited Santa Teresa in 2005 and decided he wanted to stay and open a hostel there.
Armstrong led cops on a mammoth six-week chase across multiple countries and US states, including Texas, New York and New Jersey before she was snared by Costa Rican cops yesterday.
She was stopped by agents assigned to the Santa Teresa de Cóbano Tourist Police division and provided the police a different name.
But no record of her entry into the country came up when the name she gave was cross referenced with the country’s immigration registry.
She told the agents her real last name, which was checked with a data base that revealed she was wanted on an international arrest warrant.
Any family or friends of hers that had been in contact with her during that time could reportedly face charges.
She stands accused of the May 11 shooting of Wilson, a cyclist who Armstrong thought was having a relationship with her boyfriend Strickland.
Earlier this week DailyMail.com exclusively revealed footage of the alleged killer being marched into a police station in Costa Rica with a dramatically changed appearance.
She had dyed her hair from ginger to brown, cut it into a bob as well as reportedly had plastic surgery before she was nicked.
The US Marshal for the Western District of Texas Susan Pamerlea said yesterday: ‘The Marshals Service elevated the Kaitlin Armstrong investigation to major case status early in this investigation, which likely played a key role in her capture after a 43-day run.’
Armstrong was wanted in connection to the death of Wilson after authorities found the victim ‘bleeding and unconscious’ after sustaining multiple gunshot wounds on May 11 at her friend’s apartment in Austin.
Police performed CPR on Wilson before pronouncing her dead at the scene. Wilson, a Vermont native and ‘world-class’ cyclist, was staying in Austin for a race.
Armstrong’s car was seen in the area around the time of the shooting, leading authorities to believe she had killed Wilson out of jealousy.
They later found out that earlier that night, Wilson had gone to dinner with Armstrong’s boyfriend Strickland, who told police the two of them had been swimming at Deep Eddy Pool before getting burgers at Pool Burger.
Strickland said he picked her up from the apartment of her friend Caitlin Cash on his BMW motorbike at 5.45pm and dropped her off again at 8.36pm – stopping shortly after to text Armstrong to tell her he had been dropping off flowers to another friend and that his phone had run out of battery.
But unknown to Strickland, Armstrong had allegedly been tracking both him and Mo using cycling app Strava which shows the routes runners and cyclists take.
A neighbor, who asked not to be named, previously told DailyMail.com her security camera caught Armstrong’s black Jeep Cherokee driving up to the property – above a garage at the back of a larger home – at 8.35pm.
She also told DailyMail.com that Armstrong had been caught on camera the previous day, riding a bike in the same spot.
Armstrong was questioned by Austin police officers on May 14 after they discovered that the yoga instructor had an open misdemeanor warrant on a theft of services charge.
The cops then used the opportunity to briefly question her about Wilson’s death several days earlier – after they received an anonymous tip that Armstrong flew into a rage when she discovered that Strickland had previously been romantically involved with Wilson.
During the interview, cops showed Armstrong video surveillance of her SUV apparently coming to a stop outside the apartment where Wilson was found dead on May 11.
The footage was time stamped just one minute after Wilson, 25, entered the building following a swim and dinner with Strickland.
During the interview, Armstrong reportedly admitted it ‘doesn’t look good,’ and a probable cause document for her arrest says she ‘had no explanation as to why it was in the area, and did not make any denials surrounding the statements presented to her.’
On May 13, five days before she fled the country, it was discovered that Armstrong had sold her black Jeep Grand Cherokee to a car dealership in Austin for $12,2000.
A police tipster, who did not want to be identified, earlier told investigators that Armstrong flew into a rage on discovering cyclist Strickland’s romance with fellow cyclist Wilson in January 2022.
The informant told police: ‘Armstrong became furious and was shaking with anger. Armstrong told the caller Armstrong was so angry Armstrong wanted to kill Wilson.’
Three days after Wilson was killed, on May 14, the tipper contacted the police. Police then questioned Armstrong before releasing him on a technicality.
After realising Armstrong had fled, the US Marshals Service ‘elevated the investigation to major case status early in this investigation, which likely played a key role in her capture after a 43-day run.’
According to prior reports, Strickland said that his relationship with Wilson started after things with Armstrong became difficult.
The elite cyclist allegedly said that after their relationship ended last year, he had only had “minimal communication” with Wilson and that the affidavit hinted anything more.
Additionally, Strickland insisted that their connection was platonic at the time and denied having any sexual encounters with Wilson on the day of her death.
There was purportedly no indication that “anything was off” with Armstrong, according to Strickland, who has allegedly been in a “shell-shocked grieving mode” since Wilson was killed.
The rider had earlier expressed his sorrow at Wilson’s passing, but he would not say whether he had been in touch with Wilson’s family.
However, he did mention that Armstrong and Wilson spoke face to face in January at a cycling competition in Arkansas.
After the event, Wilson allegedly texted Strickland: ‘This weekend was strange for me and I just want to know what’s going on.
‘If you just want to be friends (seems to be the case) then that’s cool, but I’d like to talk about it cause honestly my mind has been going in circles and I don’t know what to think.’
Friends of Strickland, 35, earlier told DailyMail.com he feared becoming Armstrong’s second victim and had ‘got out of Dodge completely’.
Close friend David, 42, of Lockhart, Texas, said: ‘None of us can sleep. He’s staying out of sight until she’s caught. I do know where he is but I’m not mentioning where for his safety.
‘He’s not in Texas – he’s got completely out of Dodge.’ Strickland has not confirmed those allegations himself. Armstrong was languishing in a Costa Rican jail cell pending extradition to the US to face murder charges.