A Texas woman accused of fatally shooting a rising professional cyclist after getting angry over a relationship the woman previously had with her boyfriend living at home sold her Jeep to a local car dealership before leaving angry, authorities said Thursday.
Kaitlin Marie Armstrong, the amateur cyclist and yoga teacher who has been missing for more than a month, faces charges of the May 11 murder of 25-year-old Anna Moriah Wilson, a Vermont native who was in Austin for an upcoming race. There is currently a $ 21,000 reward for the information that led to Armstrong’s arrest, according to murder authorities believe she was spurred on by jealousy by another cyclist, Colin Strickland, who had been briefly related to Wilson. and had seen him on the day of his death.
U.S. Marshals fugitive task force Lone Star painted a picture of Armstrong, 34, on Thursday, carefully orchestrating an effort to get out of the network.
Authorities say two days after Wilson was found shot dead in an Austin apartment, Armstrong sold his black Jeep Grand Cherokee to a CarMax dealer in southern Austin for $ 12,200.
“Armstrong received a check from the dealership a day after being questioned by Austin authorities,” the Marshals said Thursday. “He left Austin Airport on May 14.”
Investigators now believe Armstrong took a flight from Austin Bergstrom International Airport that afternoon to Houston, before embarking on a flight connecting the southwest with LaGuardia Airport in New York.
On May 18, Armstrong was last seen at Newark Liberty International Airport, a day after Austin police issued a homicide warrant for her arrest in connection with the murder of Wilson. Authorities say Armstrong arrived at New Jersey airport, but found he had no flight reservation for a outbound flight.
The video of her at the airport showed Armstrong wearing a blue denim jacket, white jeans, a black COVID mask, and possibly a yoga mat on his shoulders.
For Debra Cronin, who used to be married to Wilson’s grandfather, the idea that Armstrong may have been able to evade authorities for more than a month is “really annoying.”
Pointing out that Wilson was part of his life for 15 years, Cronin told The Daily Beast that he could barely think of the idea that “Moriah was brutally murdered by a yoga teacher, who is not very Zen, but that the teacher is getting away with it! “
“It’s amazing that someone can get away with their murder now,” Cronin told The Daily Beast. “The police had her in custody and they let her go! It’s a shame. Moriah deserves justice and there is nothing.
The sad saga began shortly before 22:00 on May 11, when authorities received a call from one of Wilson’s friends, with whom he was, who discovered her with multiple gunshot wounds. When officers arrived, they found the friend doing CPR and multiple cartridges on the ground. Officers declared Wilson’s death shortly thereafter.
Prior to his death, authorities learned that Wilson had gone swimming and had dinner with Strickland, a champion of gravel runners described by his sponsor, Red Bull, as one of the sport’s “main lights”. Wilson is believed to have returned home after spending time with Strickland around 8:36 p.m.
Images from a neighbor’s security camera, obtained by Fox 7, gave police the first clue. It showed a “dark-colored SUV” passing in front of the friend’s house at 8:37 p.m., exactly a minute after Wilson returned from his bathroom with Strickland.
“The dark – colored SUV slowed down, looking like it was stopping, right next to it [the friend’s] residence, “according to a sworn statement of probable cause for Armstrong’s arrest. The windows. No other video surveillance vehicles were seen passing until marked emergency vehicles arrived. “
The next day, authorities went to Strickland’s home and observed a 2012 Jeep Cherokee “with a large bicycle rack mounted on the hitch of the vehicle’s trailer, a roof rack mounted and chrome-plated around the windows that appeared to be the same vehicle. observed in surveillance images “.
Strickland said he and Armstrong had been together for about three months and admitted to having dated briefly with Wilson in October 2021. He added that Armstrong returned home the night before in his Jeep around 9:30 p.m.
Authorities briefly interviewed Armstrong after discovering he had an open criminal order for a service theft charge. During the interview, “Armstrong faced video testing of his vehicle, [and] he had no explanation for why he was in the area and did not deny the statements that were presented to him “, the affidavit continues.
Armstrong, however, was released after detectives determined the order was “invalid” and she could leave.
This left those who knew Wilson baffled by the authorities and, to some extent, admired why an accused killer was so successful in evading capture.
“It’s like it’s just gone in the air,” Cronin said.