On May 11, 2022, cyclist Anna Moriah Wilson was shot three times in her friend's home in Austin, Texas, where she was preparing for an upcoming gravel race. Her death devastated the cycling community, where Wilson was seen as a rising star and potential future Olympian. She was 25.
Within days, police identified a suspect in Wilson's murder: Kaitlin Marie Armstrong, 36, a local yoga instructor and real estate agent, and the girlfriend of Colin Strickland, 36, a professional cyclist Wilson had briefly dated. Wilson and Strickland spent the evening together before her death, and police believe Armstrong killed Wilson out of jealousy.
After 43 days on the run, Armstrong was apprehended at a hostel in Costa Rica, returned to the United States and charged with first-degree murder. She pleaded not guilty and has been held at the Travis County Correctional Complex in Texas on a $3.5 million bond. As her trial begins this week in Austin, here's what we know about the case.
Who was Anna Moriah Wilson?
Her family called her Moriah. Her friends and peers within the cycling community called her "Mo." She was, as VeloNews stated in a story the day of her death, "the winningest woman in the American off-road scene."
Wilson grew up in an athletic family in Kirby, Vermont, riding mountain bikes on the Kingdom Trails with her mom, Karen, dad, Eric -- a former member of the U.S. ski team -- and younger brother, Matt. She attended Burke Mountain Academy, a private school known for training some of the best alpine skiers in the country, and joined the Dartmouth ski team in 2015.
After graduating in 2019 with an engineering degree, Wilson began competing in mountain bike and gravel racing and quickly became a dominant force and one of the most popular riders in the sport. In 2020, she won her first gravel race as a pro and finished second at Colorado's prestigious Leadville 100 mountain bike race, a cross country test of endurance and grit. By April 2022, she was beating Olympic contenders and had quit her job with the bike company Specialized to focus on racing full time.
What is gravel racing?
Gravel cycling is a hybrid of mountain biking and road cycling that takes place mostly on unpaved roads on bikes that are also a middle ground between mountain and road bikes. Gravel races are typically less technical than mountain bike races and longer than road races, but feature mass starts and minimal on-course support.
Who is Colin Strickland?
Raised in Texas, Strickland was the biggest star in American gravel cycling. The 2017 and 2018 world champion, he won Unbound, a prestigious 200-mile race across eastern Kansas, in 2019, and earned sponsorships from Specialized and Red Bull.
How did Wilson and Strickland know each other?
They met in September 2021 at a four-day gravel race in Idaho. At the time, Strickland and Armstrong, who dated for three years, were broken up, but still living together in Austin. Wilson was also recently single.
In late October 2021, Wilson traveled to Austin, and she and Strickland had a brief romantic relationship "that spanned a week or so," according to a statement Strickland released shortly after Wilson's murder.
Strickland wrote that after Wilson returned home to San Francisco, he and Armstrong reconciled, and he and Wilson's relationship became professional and platonic. They saw each other only in public settings at cycling events. "Moriah and I were both leaders in this lonely, niche sport of cycling," he wrote, "and I admired her greatly and considered her a close friend."
Who was the last person to see Wilson alive?
Strickland and Wilson spent the evening together before her murder. According to police reports, Strickland picked Wilson up from her friend Caitlin Cash's apartment on his BMW motorcycle around 5:45 pm and they went to Deep Eddy, the oldest swimming pool in Austin.
After a swim, they ate at Pool Burger. Strickland then dropped Wilson off at Cash's apartment shortly after 8:30 p.m. Cash returned home around 10 p.m. and found Wilson on the bathroom floor, bleeding and unconscious, and called 911. Wilson was pronounced dead minutes later.
How did police identify Armstrong as their main suspect?
According to the arrest warrant issued on May 19, 2022, a car matching the description of Armstrong's 2012 Jeep Cherokee was caught on a neighbor's security camera driving past Cash's house one minute after Wilson arrived back at the apartment.
A few days after the murder, a friend of Wilson's told police that Armstrong had contacted Wilson repeatedly over the previous few months and told her to stay away from Strickland. Another anonymous caller told police that she had been with Armstrong in January 2022 when Armstrong discovered Strickland had a romantic relationship with Wilson. She said Armstrong told her she wanted to kill Wilson.
Strickland told police that around January 2022, he purchased guns for himself and Armstrong, who wanted a gun as a means of protection. Ballistics tests performed on Armstrong's Sig Sauer P365 9mm showed, "the potential that the same firearm was involved is significant."
How and when was Armstrong arrested?
Austin Police interviewed Armstrong on May 12, 2022. The next day, she sold her Jeep Cherokee to a local CarMax dealership for cash, then flew from Austin to Houston to LaGuardia Airport in New York. On May 18, cameras captured her at New Jersey's Newark Airport, where U.S. Marshals later discovered she flew to Costa Rica on her sister's passport.
On June 29, police officers in Costa Rica arrested Armstrong at a hostel in Santa Teresa, a remote area known for its ecotourism, surf breaks and yoga retreats. While in Costa Rica, police said Armstrong had changed her appearance. She cut her strawberry-blonde hair short and dyed it black. Receipts for a plastic surgeon's office were found among her belongings, and she is believed to have had a nose job. Armstrong faces an additional charge for misuse of passport.
On Oct. 11, 2023, 16 months after she was arrested, Armstrong attempted to escape from custody while leaving an off-site medical appointment with two officers. She has been charged with escape causing bodily injury. According to that arrest warrant, officials believe Armstrong planned her escape attempt for months.
What is expected during the trial?
Strickland is expected to testify, as is Cash. Armstrong is not expected to testify, and a pool camera will be allowed in the courtroom only for opening statements and closing arguments. If convicted, Armstrong could face life in prison without parole.