The automobile at the center of the case against a fugitive yoga instructor from Texas who killed a professional cyclist out of jealous rage was sold the day after she was questioned by police.
On May 14, Austin police investigators questioned 34-year-old yoga instructor Kaitlin Marie Armstrong after learning that she was wanted on a misdemeanor theft of services allegation, according to the Daily Beast.
After receiving an anonymous tip that Armstrong lost her cool when she learned that her live-in boyfriend, Colin Strickland, had formerly been romantically engaged with Wilson, the police took the opportunity to question her briefly about Anna Moriah “Mo” Wilson’s death a few days earlier.
Police showed Armstrong video surveillance of her SUV appearing to come to a stop outside the apartment where Wilson was discovered dead on May 11 during the interrogation.
Even though Strickland, 35, allegedly told Armstrong, his girlfriend of three months, that he was dropping off flowers for someone and that his phone had died, the video was time stamped just one minute after Wilson, 25, entered the building after swimming and dinner with Strickland.
A probable cause affidavit for Armstrong’s arrest claims that she “had no explanation as to why it was in the vicinity, and did not make any denials surrounding the statements made to her.” During the questioning, Armstrong apparently confessed it “doesn’t look good.”
Armstrong received a check for a Jeep Grand Cherokee the following day from a CarMax business in South Austin for $12,200, but Austin police ultimately forced to let Armstrong go after realizing the warrant for her arrest had run out.
Prior to being brought in for interrogation on May 13, she reportedly sold the car to the dealership, according to US Marshals Lone Star Fugitive Task Force officers, who made the announcement on Thursday.
Armstrong allegedly boarded a plane from Austin International Bergstrom Airport after that and has been missing since since.
Debra Cronin, a former spouse of Wilson’s grandfather who pleaded for justice in the murder of Wilson, said to the Daily Beast, “It’s like she just vanished into thin air.”
Before boarding a subsequent flight to New York’s LaGuardia Airport on May 14, Armstrong is thought to have scheduled a trip from Austin International Bergstrom Airport to Houston.
Authorities have released CCTV images of a woman they suspect to be her walking through the Austin airport while carrying what looks to be a yoga mat on her shoulders, wearing a black mask over her face, a denim jacket, a black blouse, and white leggings.
On May 18, just one day after Austin police issued a homicide warrant for her arrest, Armstrong was last spotted being dropped off at the Newark Liberty International Airport.
Armstrong reportedly obtained a ride to the airport in New Jersey but discovered she didn’t have tickets for an outbound trip, according to US Marshals.
Later, a guest at the Camp Haven complex in Livingston Manor, New York, told Fox News that Christine Armstrong, Armstrong’s sister, had been residing there and that he had last seen Armstrong a month before.
She was [here] not too long ago, he said. “Just before everything blew out,”
According to NewsNation, Armstrong may be using an alias, according to former FBI special agent Tracy Walder, and private investigators have received information suggesting that she may be using her sister’s name.
The location of the encampment has been confirmed by the marshals, but they would not confirm whether Armstrong is assuming her sister’s identity.
The distance from Newark Liberty International Airport to the camp is about two and a half hours.
Authorities have increased the prize to $21,000 in the interim for any information regarding Armstrong’s whereabouts.
Armstrong is described by authorities as being white with long, curly light brown hair and hazel eyes. She is about 125 pounds and five feet eight inches tall.
When Wilson’s friend called the police to report that she had discovered Wilson with multiple gunshot wounds just before 10 p.m. on May 11, police claim they first became aware of the shooting.
When the police came, they saw Wilson being given CPR by the person she had been staying with, as well as several shell casings on the ground.
Wilson was quickly pronounced dead by authorities.
Reportedly, they learned that Wilson had gone to supper with Strickland earlier that evening. Strickland later told police that the two of them had been swimming at Deep Eddy Pool before grabbing burgers at Pool Burger.
On his BMW motorcycle, Strickland claimed that he picked her up from her friend Caitlin Cash’s apartment at 5.45 p.m. and dropped her off again at 8.36 p.m. Shortly after, he texted Armstrong to let him know that he had been dropping off flowers to another friend and that his phone’s battery had run out.
However, Armstrong apparently had been monitoring both Strickland and Mo using the riding app Strava, which displays the routes that runners and cyclists follow.
Armstrong’s black Jeep Cherokee was spotted approaching the property, which is located above a garage at the back of a larger home, around 8.35 p.m., according to a neighbor who requested anonymity in a previous interview with DailyMail.com.
Additionally, she revealed to DailyMail.com that Armstrong had been seen on camera the day before riding a bike in the same location.
Cash called the police at 9.26 p.m. to report that she had come home to discover Mo bloodied on the bathroom floor.
Although neighbors, including the owner of the residence connected immediately to the garage, claimed not to have heard any gunshots or other disturbances, police claimed she had been shot multiple times.
According to DailyMail.com, the neighbor whose home security system caught Armstrong’s car on tape thinks Armstrong was using a silencer.
Strickland, a professional rider who was once sponsored by Red Bull, claimed in a statement made earlier this month that he met Wilson through cycling and had a “brief” romantic involvement with her at the end of October 2021.
He said that at the beginning of December, he and Armstrong reunited, and he had no plans to pursue a “auxiliary relationship that would deceive anyone.”
However, he acknowledged in the police affidavit that after Armstrong learned about the liaison in January, he had erased Wilson’s number from his phone and changed it to an anonymous identity on his iPhone.
After their relationship with Armstrong became problematic, Strickland allegedly told The Sun that he began dating Wilson.
According to him, it was merely intriguing timing because Mo had visited a friend in Austin the same week that he had ended his relationship with Kaitlin. We did begin spending time together, and it was totally unanticipated.
Immediately after that, Kaitlin began dating other guys since “it was plainly stated to Kaitlin at that moment.”
We were obviously parting ways, but we just couldn’t muster the momentum to do so, he continued.
The professional cyclist also claimed that when their relationship ended last year, he only had “limited communication” with Wilson, claiming that the affidavit hinted anything more.
After that, Mo and I spoke to one another roughly twice a month, and Strickland felt that the affidavit had been very misleadingly distorted.
Because “Kaitlin and I were involved in multiple businesses together,” he added, “Kaitlin and I got back together.”
Additionally, Strickland reiterated that their connection was platonic at the time and denied having any sexual encounters with Wilson on the day of her death.
If it hadn’t been, he claimed, there would have been a plan to act differently, but that plan never materialized.
There was no sign that “something was awry” with Armstrong, according to Strickland, who has apparently been in a “shell-shocked grief mode” since Wilson was killed.
She is, in my opinion, one of the least erratic persons I have ever encountered, which is why it is so very shocking, he said. She had personality quirks that I don’t believe she ever revealed to anyone.
I had no prior warning of anything similar.
The rider admitted that Wilson’s death still grieves him, but he did not say whether he had spoken to Wilson’s family.
However, he did mention that Armstrong and Wilson spoke to one another in person in January at a cycling competition in Arkansas.
Following the incident, Wilson is said to have texted Strickland asking, “I just want to know what’s going on. This weekend was unusual for me.”
I’d like to chat about it because honestly, my head has been spinning and I’m not sure what to think. If you simply want to be friends, though, that’s great too.
Friends of Strickland, 35, have subsequently told DailyMail.com that he has ‘gotten absolutely out of Dodge’ until Armstrong is apprehended out of fear of becoming her second victim.
None of us can sleep, said close buddy David, 42, of Lockhart, Texas. Until she is apprehended, he will remain hidden. I do know where he is, but I won’t say where for fear of endangering him.
He has absolutely gotten out of Dodge and is not in Texas.
These claims have not been independently verified by Strickland.