In this episode, Payton and Garrett ride into the case of Anna Moriah Wilson. When she was found dead in her friend's home, police investigate the scene and what they find is straight out of a true crime movie.
ABC’s 20/20 - https://www.hulu.com/watch/ea96ae7e-9fcb-41e1-8dc9-f8499beffa3d
Statesman.com - https://www.statesman.com/story/news/local/2024/01/05/anna-moriah-wilson-murder-kaitlin-armstrong-austin-texas-abc-2020-true-crime-episode-how-to-watch/72108302007/
NBCNews.com - https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/texas-jury-sentences-killer-bicyclist-moriah-mo-wilson-90-years-bars-rcna125691
APNews.com - https://apnews.com/article/bicyclist-murder-trial-costa-rica-mo-wilson-cad77497b26a55ab75b9f739dae6b561
WCAX.com - https://www.wcax.com/2023/11/16/jury-convicts-woman-fatally-shooting-vt-cyclist-anna-mo-wilson-jealous-rage/
GranFondoGuide.com - https://www.granfondoguide.com/Contents/Index/7628/mo-wilsons-final-moments-heard-as-audio-leaked-from-court
Fox7Austin.com - https://www.fox7austin.com/news/kaitlin-armstrong-moriah-wilson-family-lawsuit
CBC.ca - https://www.cbc.ca/sports/olympics/summer/cycling/kaitlin-armstrong-sentenced-killing-of-anna-mo-wilson-nov-17-1.7026595
The Austin American Statesman - https://www.statesman.com/story/news/local/2024/06/17/kaitlin-armstrong-wrongful-death-lawsuit-texas-judge-awards-15-million-anna-moriah-wilson-parents/74127164007/
The Moriah Wilson Foundation - https://moriahwilsonfoundation.org/mos-story/
TheGuardian.com - https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/nov/18/killer-of-pro-cyclist-anna-moriah-wilson-sentenced-to-90-years
CyclingNews.com - https://www.cyclingnews.com/news/colin-strickland-tortured-by-proximity-to-mo-wilsons-murder/
CBSNews.com - https://www.cbsnews.com/news/moriah-mo-wilson-kaitlin-armstrong-how-us-marshals-captured-pro-cyclists-killer-48-hours/
CBSAustin.com - https://cbsaustin.com/news/local/fitness-app-tracking-body-cam-footage-bullet-casings-what-the-jury-heard-day-1-of-kaitlin-armstrong-trial
FoxNews.com - https://www.foxnews.com/us/texas-murder-suspect-kaitlin-armstrong-through-years-love-triangle-fugitive-decades-old-photos
Wikipedia.com - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_Moriah_Wilson
You're listening to an Oh No Media podcast.
Hey everyone, welcome back to our podcast. This is Murder with My Husband.
I'm Payton Moreland.
And I'm Garrett Moreland, and he's the husband.
I'm the husband. If we sound different, if we look different, it's because we are in a different studio right now. But hey, we're here, we're recording, and we're so excited for another episode.
It's because we are different. Yeah, we're different. We're built different.
Oh no. Thanks, everyone. We are in a different studio, different place. We are traveling, kind of, right? Yeah, whatever you want to call it. Thanks for being here.
Just a reminder, we have our Patreon and our Apple subscriptions if you want ad-free content and bonus episodes. We do two bonus episodes a month, and all of the content is ad-free.
Okay, wait. Before we jump into your 10 seconds, you need to address all the comments about the tipping that you talked about on last episode's 10 seconds because people, they were rallying for you.
I feel like there's not really much to rally about. It's pretty black and white, right? Yeah, like you just tip people when you're at a restaurant, and that's that.
I'm curious. I'm waiting to see if I get any different opinions yet because so far, there haven't been really many other opinions, you know what I'm saying?
Yeah, I don't know.
Okay, what you got for this week?
So, a couple of things. A couple of weeks ago, I didn't even address this. Payton and I were driving, and I got pulled over. Remember that? I was going 40 in a 25. It looked like a normal road, right? Like, I wasn't crazy for doing that.
No.
And then we saw these lights, and I went, "All right, pulling over." Pulled over. He didn't give me a ticket.
I don't know. What do you think? He just didn't give me a ticket. It was surprising.
Well, we told him we weren't from there and that the road doesn't look like it would be 25.
No, not at all.
And then we asked if we could take a picture for the podcast.
That was after he didn't give us a ticket, right?
If he gave us a ticket, you still would have asked.
I probably would have asked and held the ticket up. Yeah, like, "Hey." But no, he was pretty cool. Didn't give us a ticket. I'm surprised he didn't give us a ticket.
Maybe he just felt the vibes.
Yeah, maybe the vibes were good.
The next thing was, if you saw on Instagram, or if you didn't see on Instagram and you're just listening on audio here, I was waxing my nose the other night. I have a mustache now. It's not super big, but I have one, right?
Yeah.
And I got wax stuck in my mustache—a lot of wax just stuck—and I didn't know what to do. A whole glob. I was freaking out, so I posted on Instagram right away. I said, "What do I do, everybody?" Dozens and dozens of people were just like, "Use oil. Use oil." And it worked. Payton put some oil on my mustache, rubbed it around, and yeah, it came right out. No hair.
No hair. So I was happy because I thought I was going to have to go and shave my mustache, which wouldn't have been the end of the world, but I didn't have to do it.
So, recap: Tip people at restaurants, don't put wax on your mustache, and go the speed limit.
Go the speed limit. That's what I got.
Alright, let's get into the episode.
Our sources for this episode are ABC's 2020, Statesman.com, NBCNews.com, APNews.com, WCAX.com, Grand Fondo Guide.com, Fox 7 Austin.com, CBC.ca, The Austin American Statesman, The Mariah Wilson Foundation, The Guardian.com, CyclingNews.com, CBSNews.com, CBSAustin.com, Fox News, and Wikipedia.
If Payton and I sound a little off, or our voices sound weird, maybe we're not vibing. We're just so used to being in our studio, and so it's so different when we're not.
I know, and it's like the vibes, you guys. I know you can't see unless you're watching on YouTube, but Garrett and I record in the dark with the red light, and it's very murdery and moody. And like right now, we're in an all-white studio with fluffy white pillows, and it's like, now I'm supposed to—it's just weird. I don't like it—talking about murder.
Yeah, okay. So, in all the years of doing this podcast, we've seen a lot of different motives for committing murder. I would say the main ones have been money, drugs, and revenge. But one of the most timeless, age-old classics is that Shakespearean trope of killing out of jealousy, particularly when it comes to love.
Now, love is a powerful weapon—something that's been causing even the most level-headed people to act irrationally for centuries. But back when Shakespeare was writing, or other stories about lust and betrayal, there was no social media, there were no tracking apps, and there was no fleeing to Costa Rica to get facial reconstruction surgery. And those are all things that the antagonist in today's story used to commit her crime and then to try and escape it.
But it's clear that our villain didn't read Shakespeare, because if she did, she might know that his stories typically don't end well. And I'll just say, hers doesn't either.
This is funny that we're doing a case on this because just yesterday we were in the car. This is going to sound so bad. I don't think I can say it.
Say it.
Just yesterday, we were in the car, and I was like, I don't understand anyone killing anyone. Like, I don't get it. But this is a very, very minuscule, very small 'but.' I could see why someone kills someone out of, like, jealousy or anger.
Or anger. Like, I can't see it, but there's a very small 'but' where I can see it.
Well, because it's like—I don't know how. I don't know, maybe people on the podcast—this is going to come off so bad. I think I'm just trying to—
No, we're not justifying any murder, and all murder is wrong.
I'm just trying to understand, like, okay, putting yourself in their shoes, I guess. So, I don't know. F me, I'm insane. I'm just—I was just kind of expressing my thoughts.
Well, no, what got us on the conversation is that—and maybe people listening haven't felt this way—but like, have you ever been so angry, like, so angry to the point where you are being irrational?
Yes.
You are saying irrational things, you are doing irrational things because anger has just consumed your body to the point where it almost feels like your spirit kind of leaves, and it's just like your brain on autopilot at that point. We were talking about how, like, I've felt that before, Garrett's felt that before. And then that's when he said, "Do you think that's what people who kill out of anger—do you think they get to that point, and then because they had the ability to kill, they just did it?"
That was a lot better way to explain it.
Yeah, exactly.
The fact is, when you're angry, you do irrational things. People who are that angry might do something irrational. Not excusing it, but people do irrational things when they're angry, and it's interesting.
No, I'm not saying that when I'm angry, or when Garrett's angry, we would have the ability to kill someone, or the capability. I don't feel like I want to kill someone. But it's almost like, when you get that angry, if someone is the type of person who doesn't care and is kind of a bad person, and they get this angry, that's the straw that's going to break the camel's back.
Right, right. I think that's what—
Yeah.
Yeah, okay. So, our story today starts with a little girl named Anna Moriah Wilson, or Mo, as her friends called her, and we will also be calling her Mo.
Born on May 18, 1996, Mo grew up in Kirby, Vermont, to a family of proficient athletes. Almost before she could walk, as a baby, Mo was skiing and cycling. Growing up, Mo dreamed of competing in the Olympics one day as a ski racer, and with her father a champion skier and coach, the goal actually did seem very within reach.
Mo trained her butt off for most of her youth, even attending Burke Mountain Academy, which was a prep school in East Burke, Vermont, that specialized in Alpine skiing. So, she literally went to school basically to become an Olympian. But even with her drive, ambition, and focus, everyone who knew Mo said she was someone who always had a smile on her face and an insatiable hunger for life. Mo knew when it was time to work and when it was time to play, and she managed to balance both of those things incredibly well.
By her sophomore year at Burke Mountain Academy, Mo was ranked third for her age nationally.
That's insane!
But around that same time, Mo actually suffered an accident that would inevitably change the course of her life forever. That year, she tore her ACL.
Like, she's third in the nation. That's the worst thing you could do, man.
I know. She managed to bounce back and get back in the game, even getting into Dartmouth College in 2019, and there she fulfilled a childhood goal of hers: getting onto the Dartmouth Alpine Ski Team. But her dreams of one day competing in the Olympics fell short after she tore her ACL a second time while in college.
Okay, so after several more months of rehab, Mo's skiing career—it just—you can't come back. It just wasn't the same. Which is when she turned to another early athletic pursuit of hers, and that was mountain bike racing. So, she was like, "Okay, I can't do the skiing anymore. I'm going to move on." And soon she was finding her niche in the sport. It was a more nuanced kind of cycling called gravel racing, and it was in this that Mo realized her true calling.
So, after graduating college, she opted out of a full-time job to pursue cycling as her career, and she began competing nationally and won so many races that sponsors were actually flocking to her. She was making money doing this. By 2022, the 25-year-old Anna "Mo" Wilson was at the height of her success. Those who followed the sport believed that she was about to enter her biggest year yet.
She was even scheduled to compete in the Migration Gravel Race in East Africa that summer of 2022. But before she flew East, Mo had another big race in Texas where she was easily favored to win.
So, in May of 2022, Mo flies down to Austin to stay with her friend Caitlyn Cash for a few nights before this big race. And keep in mind, Mo is my age—we were born in the same year—so she’s around my age back in 2022. Caitlyn, the friend she is going to stay with in Texas while she competes, is a fellow cyclist, and she had met Mo during a race in 2021. They had gotten closer over the last year. Apparently, Caitlyn was pretty close with Mo’s family as well. They met a year earlier and kind of just immediately clicked.
On the afternoon of May 11th, Caitlyn texted Mo’s mom a picture of Mo staring at her bike with the message, "Your girl is in safe hands here in Texas." So, this 20-year-old Mo goes and visits her friend Caitlyn, and Caitlyn actually snaps a picture of her and sends it to Mo’s mom, saying, "Hey, she got here. She arrived. We’re good to go."
Yeah, it's not weird; it’s normal.
Yeah, competition is coming up.
Yep. But little did Caitlyn know, that could not be further from the truth. At around 5:30 p.m. that day, Mo said she was going to meet up with another friend that she knew in the Austin area. It was a guy named Colin, and it sounded like a date—like she was going on a date in Texas. So, Caitlyn made her own set of plans for that evening, and then a few hours later, at around 8:30 p.m., Caitlyn got a security alert on her phone that Mo had made it back to the house. I don’t know if this was like a ring doorbell or a camera or whatever, but she realized that Mo was done with her date and back home.
Okay, so Caitlyn just kept her night going, but around 10 p.m., when Caitlyn got back to her place to meet up with Mo, she found her door was still unlocked. She walked inside and started calling Mo’s name, but no one was answering. She made her way towards the bathroom, and that’s when she saw blood all over the bathroom floor.
Oh gosh.
And Mo was lying there, unresponsive, with several gunshot wounds to her head and chest.
Holy hell.
Well, and I think this is so confusing because this is Caitlyn’s house—like, Mo is just a friend who’s come to visit, and now she’s dead in Caitlyn’s bathroom.
And also, it’s insane how one second everything's normal. I mean, she got there, Caitlyn sent a picture to her mom, and five hours later, she’s in the bathroom with several gunshot wounds.
Yeah, so Caitlyn fumbled for her cell phone, shaking as she called 911. She explained to the operator what happened, and the operator began walking her through how to perform CPR. Caitlyn pulled it together and managed to follow the instructions, focusing everything she had on trying to get her friend to start breathing again. But less than 15 minutes later, first responders arrived at Caitlyn’s house, where they pronounced 25-year-old Anna Mo Wilson dead.
Yeah, I mean, several gunshot wounds, right?
So, at this point, Caitlyn is beside herself. As you can imagine, just hours ago she was telling Mo’s mother that her daughter was safe, and now she’s going to have to call her mother and say, "I don’t know how, but your daughter has been shot in my bathroom, in cold blood, and she’s dead."
I couldn’t make that call. I think I would make the cops or someone else do it. There’s no way.
To investigators, it’s immediately clear it’s a homicide. There were shell casings on the floor, but no murder weapon was left inside. Later, her autopsy confirmed Mo was shot three times—twice in the head and once in the chest while she was already lying back down on the floor. As she was on the floor, she was shot in the chest, which caused the police to conclude this didn’t really feel like a robbery because, once Mo was already down, the person shot her again in the chest. It was definitely out of anger, so they’re like, "This seems personal," especially because there was only one object taken from this apartment, and it was Mo’s prized possession—her bike, her racing bike.
Okay, so next, police started knocking on the neighbors' doors to see if they saw or heard anything. I think it’s important to clarify that it’s in an apartment, so technically, neighbors should have heard the shots, you know what I mean?
Surprised if she got shot multiple times, you would think for sure somebody hears that.
So, 47-year-old David Harris, who lived next door to Caitlyn, said he was home at the time but had heard nothing, which made investigators wonder if the attacker had used a silencer.
I was just going to ask that.
But David says what he did hear were footsteps running downstairs around the time of the murder and what sounded like the spokes of a bicycle clicking through the back alleyway, away from the apartment complex. But again, whoever came here and committed this crime didn’t just come for the bicycle because, later that night, the bike was found only 60 feet south of Caitlyn’s apartment. It had literally been ditched near some bamboo. So, whoever took the bike from the apartment then just ditched it 60 feet away and left it there.
That doesn’t make sense.
Luckily, investigators were able to get some security footage from the neighbor’s camera, and it provided them with one very useful clue. Only a few minutes after Mo walked back into the door, a black Jeep arrived and seemed to kind of be circling the apartment.
Which is weird, right? Like, there’s a black Jeep circling the apartment around the same time that she was killed.
So, when police spoke with Caitlyn that evening, she gave them the name of the last person to spend time with Mo. She’s like, "Hey, I mean, the reason I wasn’t with Mo was because she was on a date. The guy she went on a date with was another professional cyclist and Austin resident, a man named Colin Strickland."
Now, depending on who you asked, some said Colin was the first real big celebrity in the world of gravel racing. But by 2021, just as Mo was on the rise, Colin was kind of starting to phase out of the sport. He was winning fewer races; he was competing less and less, and Mo was like the up-and-comer, you know what I mean?
This is so interesting because I’m sure anyone that knows mountain biking knows this and knows about this, but I’ve never—I mean, until you did the research, you probably never heard about this.
No, no, no.
So, when the 35-year-old Colin met Mo at a race in Idaho the year prior, he saw himself in Mo, who was this up-and-coming rising star in their community, and the two instantly clicked. Colin's 35, and Mo was basically 24 or 25 at the time.
Around November or December of 2021, Colin and Mo actually did have a quick little fling, but the timing just didn’t seem right for either of them, so Mo called it off and dedicated herself solely to her career. But come May of 2022, she knew she was going to be visiting Colin’s hometown. She was going to be in Texas, and she figured, "Why not reach out, see if he wants to meet up, maybe for old time’s sake?" And it turns out, he did.
So, on the afternoon of the 11th, Colin swung by the apartment on his motorcycle, picked Mo up, and they went out for an afternoon swim at a public pool. They had some dinner, and then Colin dropped her back off at the apartment at around 8:30 p.m.
Hearing this, police knew they had to find and speak with Colin. By the following morning, on May 12th, they were showing up at his house with a whole lot of questions. I mean, he was essentially the last person to see her alive at this point.
So, when they got there, Colin was actually already outside. They just walked up to him and asked him flat out, "Do you know who Anna Mariah Wilson is?" And strangely, Colin was like, "No."
"Do you know Anna?"
"Um... Mo?"
"Yeah, everybody calls her Mo. Last name is Wilson. GR rider. Do you know her?"
"No, I’ve never heard of her."
Freak. Which is insane because, like, you’re a racer, she’s a racer—you 100% know her. Even if you’re trying to say you didn’t have a fling, if you were the last person with her, they’re going to find out. You can’t hide that, right?
So, police are like, "Dude, we already know the history of you guys. We know that you are both racers, that you’re big names in the community. Like, what?" This is a red flag. But that’s because Colin doesn’t call her Anna or Mariah, and most people don’t.
So, he says it takes him a minute to realize they were talking about Mo.
Okay, which... they say, "Do you know Anna Mariah Wilson?" and he’s sitting here going, "I only know Mo Wilson." So, that’s why he says he didn’t recognize it.
And so, when they tell him, "Okay, well, Mo was found dead in her friend’s apartment the night before," Colin does look genuinely shocked and devastated.
There’s another red flag. Remember that black Jeep that was circling the apartment on the neighbor’s camera?
"It’s his, isn’t it? It’s literally sitting in the driveway."
So, the police ask him to come down to the station for questioning, and he agrees. He then spends the next six hours answering questions. Colin tells them everything he did with Mo the day before, including the fact that he dropped her off at 8:30 p.m. on his motorcycle and that he never stepped foot inside the apartment, and that he didn’t see anyone else lingering around when he left.
So, the police eventually call this out: "If he dropped her off by motorcycle, why was his car circling around the apartment around the same time?"
"Yeah, that’s true."
And that’s when Colin drops a pretty big bomb on them. Colin is like, "What?" And they’re like, "Your car—it's on footage driving around her apartment around the same time." And he goes, "Wait, that's not my car. That Jeep in my driveway? It's not my car; it's my girlfriend's car, who lives with me."
"No freaking way."
Okay, so maybe Colin is completely innocent here, and maybe he's just a little bit of a player, or he was just going out with a friend. That's crazy. An old friend, an old acquaintance—maybe they didn’t even do anything, maybe they didn’t kiss, and he really does live with his girlfriend. Could you imagine being in that moment and thinking, "What? Oh, wait..." You're definitely putting two and two together: "I dropped her off on my motorcycle, and then minutes later, my girlfriend's car was circling her apartment, and now she's dead." You're just like, "Oh yeah, I know what happened."
So, his girlfriend who lives with him is named Kaitlin Armstrong. Just to clarify, this is a different Kaitlin than the one that Mo was staying with. Remember, we have Kaitlin Cash, who Mo was staying with. This Kaitlin is a yoga teacher and real estate agent who'd grown up in Michigan. People described her as quiet but smart, fun to be around, seemingly happy—especially when she finally moved in with her on-again, off-again boyfriend of two years, Colin Strickland.
Now, Colin and the 34-year-old Kaitlin even started their own business together called The Wheelhouse, where they were renovating old trailers. Kaitlin was also a part of the cycling world, although she was nowhere near the point of success that Mo and Colin had reached. But those who knew Kaitlin and Colin said their status always seemed a little murky. They were the couple that wasn’t really sure—were they together, were they not? Are they just business partners, are they roommates, are they going to get married? Every day, the answer kind of seemed to be different.
And apparently, back when Colin and Mo had their fling in 2022—remember, they met and then had a little fling—it was actually during an off period for the couple. So, Kaitlin and Colin had called it quits, Colin started dating Mo, and then Mo broke it off with Colin. Colin went back to Kaitlin, and then they were on again. This was part of the reason it never amounted to anything between Mo and Colin—because he was still on and off with Kaitlin.
Still, as we know, Mo and Colin stayed in touch even when he was back together with Kaitlin in the following months. They remained friends, and obviously, because they were going to be seeing each other at races—they were both big names in the industry—it made sense that they would stay in touch.
And I need to clarify: for Mo, even after she broke it off with Colin, she was never really sure where he and Kaitlin stood, because I think Colin kind of left both of them in the dark.
"Yeah, because he was kind of dating both around the same time. He wanted options."
And so, he kind of left both of them in the dark about what was going on.
Now, Colin says on the night of Mo’s death, nothing happened between them. It was purely platonic—just two friends catching up. But he clearly knew it was wrong because he changed Mo’s name in his phone to something different, hoping that Kaitlin wouldn’t find out that they had been talking and were going to go out and hang out.
But he offered up a few other details to the police on the night of Mo’s murder. Caitlyn came home at around 9:30 p.m. in her Jeep. A few months prior, Caitlyn had told Colin she had a pretty harrowing experience as a victim of road rage, so he had bought her a gun. Colin explained to the police that he was kind of dating both women, never cheating on one, but kind of dating both. He lied to Caitlyn—she had no idea that he was out with Mo that night. And yes, that was Caitlyn's Jeep. She came home at 9:30 p.m. that night, and he also did buy her a gun a couple of months ago.
That's insane. I'm glad he's not trying to cover for her, right? He's just like, "No way, I'm telling you everything."
Yeah, so after hearing this, the police executed a search warrant for the house that Colin shared with Caitlyn. Inside, they found the gun that Colin said he bought for Caitlyn. It's a 9mm, and it's a perfect match for the shell casings found at the crime scene.
Now, investigators have to be sure that Colin isn't just trying to deflect the blame onto Caitlyn, right? And the best—and maybe only real—way to do that is to check his alibi. Colin says that he was still riding around on his motorcycle at the time that the shots were fired, and luckily for him, police found some video surveillance that confirmed he was telling the truth.
Wow.
So, after this, they’re like, "Hey, it's time to zero in on Caitlyn Armstrong." After all, the woman had access to a gun that fit the murder weapon, and if she knew about Mo, then it means that she clearly has motive too. So the police know they need to get her into the station to chat, and it turns out they have the upper hand because Caitlyn already had a warrant out for her arrest at this time.
What? For what?
It was over something ridiculous, I want to add. The warrant was from 2018. Caitlyn had gone to a place called the Travis County Spa for a Botox procedure. When she went to check out, she handed them her MasterCard, but it got declined. She said she had another one in her car—let her go grab it. She walked out the front door, and she never came back.
No way.
Yep, so she just stole $650 worth of Botox, and the owners of the spa went to the police and pressed charges. Which, like, as they should—it’s a business. It's kind of crazy, but I'd do the same thing. So, four years later, that decision would come back to severely bite Caitlyn on the butt because not only does it force her into a room with the detectives working Mo's case, but her interview and the behavior she expressed during it actually just nails it home for the police that this is their prime suspect.
In the interrogation room?
Yes. When Caitlyn was questioned about her Jeep being pictured in the security footage outside the apartment, she didn’t admit to being there, but she also didn't deny it either. She just rolled her eyes, got really frustrated, and acted upset that they were even asking her this. Plus, she was stiff as a board throughout most of the interview, which, to the investigators, is a very giant red flag.
And yet, she sat there, continuing to answer questions with just curt, few-word answers. That was until there was a knock on the door. Outside, another detective had come to let the officer know there was a problem with the warrant they had for her. It was that Caitlyn's birthday was listed incorrectly, which means that, technically, she's free to go.
Because that’s how it works?
Yeah, it was a minor technicality that would change the entire course of this investigation.
How do you mess that up, man?
But not before police uncovered other wildly incriminating details about Caitlyn in the weeks leading up to Mo's death. So this is kind of like when they start to learn, they let her go, and then they start to learn more—they keep investigating, and this is what they learn.
So, it turns out Caitlyn had been keeping a close eye on Mo for a while, like she had kind of been stalking her. Apparently, Colin had not outsmarted Caitlyn after all. Changing Mo's name to something else in his contacts did nothing because Caitlyn was looking through his text messages on his laptop, where her name wasn't changed. And the text messages were not just platonic messages; they were extremely flirty, so she knew Mo was on the other end of those messages and that Colin was trying to hide it from her.
So what did Caitlyn do next? Probably what any suspicious girlfriend would do: she started out by following her on Instagram. But one thing led to another, and each move after that got just increasingly dangerous. It's safe to say that Caitlyn was slowly becoming obsessed with Mo. Soon, Caitlyn was calling Mo, threatening her to stay away from Colin. A friend even came forward to say one night she was out with Caitlyn at a restaurant when Mo walked in, and Caitlyn became enraged by her presence. And when this same friend asked Caitlyn what she would do if Colin ever started dating someone else, Caitlyn just straight-up replied, “I would kill her,” and this was in a way that made this friend think Caitlyn just wasn't even using this as a figure of speech.
But the thing that really set off alarm bells for investigators was this: after completing a forensic analysis of Caitlyn's devices, they learned she'd been following Mo's every move. Other people had to have known this. Like, Colin had to have known. No, Colin doesn't know. So Mo was the only one who knew that she was calling. Like, had Mo ever said it to anybody else? I'm sure she had told people, but I don't think Mo knew it was to the extent that it was, which is what I'm about to tell you.
Also, don't think, "Oh, this person's just jealous or mad; they're not going to kill me." That step is so... it's not impossible; it's just so far above the others. You just think, "Oh, they're mad."
I think Mo just thought, "Oh, I pissed her off." Yeah, so police learned when they were going through Caitlyn's devices that she had been following Mo's every move in the days before her death, and it was thanks to a fitness app called Strava.
Is it Strava?
I'm pretty sure it's Strava. Strava, right? Peloton or Garmin?
I think it's Strava. I'm pretty sure it's Strava.
So this app is kind of like a social media tool for athletes. It lets you track your workouts and rides, usually for those who run and bike. You can post photos; it even documents the routes you're taking and lets others see those routes if you don't turn your location settings off, which was exactly how Caitlyn Armstrong knew where Mo was staying in Austin.
So she knew exactly where Mo was—at the other Caitlyn's house—because of this app. The police figured, okay, we have enough to file for an arrest warrant at this point. But when they went looking for Caitlyn, she was nowhere to be found. Her Instagram account had been deleted, her phone had been deactivated, and Colin hadn't seen her in days. That's because Caitlyn was already making her way out of the United States of America.
That's insane!
Oh yeah. Okay, so right after that first meeting with police, Caitlyn went home and she cooked up a plan to get the heck out of Dodge. She was like, I'm in trouble, I have done this, and I need to get out. She sold her Jeep to, like, a CarMax-type place for $12,000. She packed a bag, grabbed her yoga mat, and took off for the airport. Police knew this because they spotted her on airport security a few days later.
How is she not on the no-fly list?
Well, because she's not even technically under arrest yet. Okay, that's true. That's true. So Caitlyn, on this security footage, has her yoga mat over her shoulder. She has a COVID mask on and a freaking yoga mat. She's blending in with the other travelers.
Oh, the mask too, because with masks on, everyone blends in.
Yeah, so they learned that her first stop was actually her sister Christine's place in upstate New York. After landing at LaGuardia in New York City, Caitlyn hitched a ride to Livingston Manor, about two hours away. There, Caitlyn met with her sister Christine, who lived in a camper van on this giant property called Haven for Humanity. So the police followed her trail there, and when they got there, they found Christine's neighbor, who said, “Oh yeah, Caitlyn was here, but she actually took off a few days ago.”
So now police were like, okay, where is she? Caitlyn had taken her sister's passport and booked a flight under Christine's name from Newark International in New Jersey to San Jose, Costa Rica. Okay, but that was all the police could really determine. Caitlyn could have gone anywhere in Costa Rica once she got off that flight, and if they were going to get their fugitive back, they were going to have to work with Costa Rican authorities to make that happen.
This is just... this is why they say get out of the United States because it is so hard.
I feel like Mexico is a better place because it's bigger, there's so many more places you could hide. Yeah, and it's Mexico, man.
So luckily for them, Caitlyn had actually chosen a pretty small country to flee to, which is what you just said. Um, and so she was pictured in that security footage in Costa Rica with her yoga mat. She has the yoga mat. Hilarious.
So after Caitlyn arrived at the San Jose airport, she took a bus down to Jaco Beach and then, a few days later, traveled to another Pacific Coast town called Santa Teresa. She started settling in there, going by a new name, Ari Martin. She got a room at a little spot on the beach called Don John's Lodge.
What is happening?
I mean, honestly, like, if she hadn't killed anyone, it kind of feels to me like she's living the dream. Like, she just showed up, changed her name, changed her identity, and was like, I'm here, I'm living in Costa Rica. She, at this point, for sure, is like, I got away with this.
Oh, for sure.
She begins integrating herself amongst the other kind of yogis, as it’s a place for yogis. So, I think that she knew that she was going to fit in there. Also, there are surfers in the area. She starts working shifts at the lodge to pay for her room and board. I mean, she’s actually kind of being smart about this, begins looking for a more permanent role as a yoga instructor in town, and she even starts dating a guy who lives there.
I mean, have you seen Safe Haven? It’s a Nicholas Sparks movie.
Yes.
Where she escapes, goes to the small town, and starts seeing that guy. Then her crazy ex-boyfriend comes and tries to kill her, yada. It’s a little Safe Haven but not in a good way.
Yes.
Yeah, because that ends happy. Well, and also, she was running because there was domestic violence happening in her home.
She murdered someone. She killed Mo, which is horrible.
Yes.
While she’s doing all of this in Costa Rica, Caitlyn starts making subtle changes to her appearance over the course of a few weeks. She has her hair cut short, it’s dyed, and one afternoon, she comes in with a bandage on her nose. She’s telling everyone that she got clocked with a surfboard the other day, but the truth is, Caitlyn had done this to herself. She had spent $6,500 getting plastic surgery to change her appearance. She got a nose job, lip filler, more filler in her face. Literally, she does the works on her face.
I need to see a before and after picture.
I know!
I think we will have one on Instagram and on the YouTube video.
Meanwhile, authorities were starting to close in on Caitlyn. So, as she’s doing all of this and thinking, wow, I’ve done a good job, authorities are tracking her. They find that she’s created a new Gmail account. One thing Gmail does is save your search history if you don’t opt out of it, so they’re able to see everything she’s Googling, including what hotels and restaurants she’s making reservations at, which leads them to the town that Caitlyn’s been staying in. This is how they track her down.
So, the U.S. Marshals fly down to Costa Rica. They begin going door-to-door, beach to beach, looking for her. They literally go to the small town and just start looking around, but after a few days in the town, they cannot find her. So, one of them gets this brilliant idea. They’re like, dude, she’s always traveling with this yoga mat; she’s probably been searching for a yoga job. So, they go to a little yoga studio in this town. They get them to cooperate, and they say, “Hey, post that you have a job opening for a yoga instructor online.”
Dude, that is so smart!
And who applies?
Ari Martin, a.k.a. Caitlyn Armstrong. Through this, they also learn that she’s currently working and staying at Don John’s Lodge. How predictable!
That’s insane.
Yeah, so an officer shows up there shortly after. It’s June 29th, 2022, when he approaches the front desk to find a woman with a bandaged nose and swollen lips working behind the counter. Doesn’t look like Caitlyn Armstrong, but once he looks her in her eyes, he’s like, “I feel like this is the girl we’re looking for,” and it is her.
And while she’s distracted, other officials go up and search her room. There, they find a receipt for the plastic surgery. They find Christine Armstrong, her sister's passport, along with Caitlyn’s passport.
Okay, I was going to ask how you confirm, yeah, how do you confirm this?
This is it; they have their girl.
So after 43 days on the run, Caitlyn Armstrong is arrested by authorities and deported back to Texas, where she’s formally charged with killing Anna Mo Wilson. Wow. Good. There, Caitlyn’s booked into the Travis County Jail and held on a $3.5 million bond.
But five months later, Caitlyn’s looking for new ways to dodge the charges. On October 11th, 2022, she’s just two weeks out from the beginning of her trial. That day, she puts in a medical request saying she has an injured leg and needs to get it looked at. So the deputies take her to a doctor’s appointment that afternoon. It’s offsite from the prison, and Caitlyn makes a run for it.
She takes off in her black and white prison jumpsuit before freeing one of her hands from the cuffs and stripping down to the plain clothes that she was hiding underneath. She jumps a fence. She makes it about a block away or so before she’s recaptured by authorities.
Okay, that’s insane.
And ironically, the name of the street that she’s caught on is Wilson Street, which is the last name of the victim.
But as I mentioned before, this wasn’t a spur-of-the-moment run for it. Caitlyn had clearly been working on this plan. This was a detail officials uncovered when they looked back on prison footage of Caitlyn, who’d been training rigorously. She was running, doing squats, lifting in the weeks leading up to this. She started to be like, I have to get in shape if I’m going to make a run for it. But she had failed, obviously, and two weeks later, she found herself facing a jury on charges of homicide.
And I think at trial, it’s important to note that they found DNA on the bike that matched. There was a ton of evidence. And after an eight-day trial, the jury agreed that the case was strong. Less than two hours after leaving to deliberate, they were back with a verdict, and Caitlyn Armstrong was guilty of first-degree murder. She was given a 90-year sentence and a $10,000 fine, and she won’t be eligible for parole for another 30 years, which means she’ll be in her mid-60s.
Good.
On May 6th, 2024, Mo’s parents filed a civil suit against Caitlyn for wrongful death. And on June 17th, the judge ruled in their favor, ordering Caitlyn to pay the family $15 million in damages.
But she doesn’t even have any money, so how does that work?
They know that she doesn’t have the assets. It will preclude her from profiting off of anything, which is a big reason why people do this.
Okay, that makes sense.
So she can’t do a tell-all, a book deal, anything like that.
And as for Colin Strickland, he was never charged with anything to do with Mo’s murder. In fact, he actually released a public apology to the family, saying, “There’s no way to adequately express the regret and torture I feel about my proximity to this horrible crime,” because if it wasn’t for Colin, the two girls would have never even been connected in the first place. And I’m sure he’s living with that guilt of, you know, he says he’s sorry. He cannot make sense of the tragedy.
And since Mo’s passing, her family has done a lot to honor her legacy. They've established a foundation in her name devoted to healthy living and community building. In Kingdom Trails in Northern Vermont, there's a hiking trail that has been dedicated to Mo, renamed as Mariah's Ascent. But while Mo's memory lives on through her charity and the cycling community, nothing can change the fact that her life was taken far too soon, proving no matter how much mankind evolves, lust continues to be a powerful motivator. And when wielded by the wrong person, it can be a dangerous weapon.
And that is the case of Anna Mariah Wilson. Devastating.
And also, you just never expect that that's what someone's going to do, right? You're just like, oh, she's mad; she's upset; duh, her ex-boyfriend; yada, yada, yada. It's insane how much it happens, and it goes back to what we were talking about at the beginning—how that pushes people over the edge.
And I mean, I think, like you said, it's only a certain amount of people; you have to have certain characteristics and qualities and so on. You have to be, you have to be crazy. I don't know what else to say.
Yeah, I don't know. I think, um, for sure, like it's just insane how many times a love triangle creates murder.
Yeah.
All right, you guys, that was our case. We will see you next week back in our original studio.
Let's go.
I love it.
And I hate it.
Goodbye.
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