Three Shots in the Dark (Rebroadcast)

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Speaker 3 In the dark.

Speaker 4 Ambulance, what's the address paper?

Speaker 3 There's a stranger in

Speaker 3 the dark.

Speaker 6 That 911 call was the most traumatizing thing I've ever heard.

Speaker 3 My friend is staying with me, and I just walked in, and and she's laying on the bathroom floor, and there's blood everywhere.

Speaker 9 This is a horrific tape.

Speaker 10 Gut-wrenching. Is she awake?

Speaker 11 She's not awake.

Speaker 3 There's blood all over her face and all on the back of her head. Something

Speaker 3 strange.

Speaker 14 Got the paramedics on the way to help you.

Speaker 10 Stay on the line, Kayla.

Speaker 6 The operator then starts walking her through, performing CPR.

Speaker 14 We're gonna do this

Speaker 16 Okay, okay.

Speaker 14 Pump the chest hard and fast, at least twice per second and two inches deep.

Speaker 3 Okay.

Speaker 14 And then count out loud so I can count with you.

Speaker 6 You just hear her counting.

Speaker 3 One, two, three, four, five, six.

Speaker 14 Good.

Speaker 6 She was not giving up.

Speaker 8 Keep going.

Speaker 3 Nine, ten, eleven.

Speaker 6 Doing everything she possibly could to try and save her friend.

Speaker 17 12, 13, 14, 15.

Speaker 3 This is stranger in

Speaker 18 the dark.

Speaker 19 I'm Mariah Wilson.

Speaker 13 I also go by Mo.

Speaker 20 She just had this like amazing smile that would just pull you in.

Speaker 6 And she's a beautiful woman, super super smart, really athletic.

Speaker 22 Athletes,

Speaker 22 I mean, sometimes they're boring. And she wasn't, you know.

Speaker 12 I think coffee in any vessel is

Speaker 3 pretty good.

Speaker 22 A wonderful mix of like serious and driven, but also like up for having a fun time.

Speaker 5 Mo grew up in Vermont.

Speaker 6 It's really beautiful area, really rural.

Speaker 20 Mariah's family, they've been in Eastbury for a long, long time.

Speaker 20 The mountain bike riding is just spectacular.

Speaker 20 And then the snow starts to arrive.

Speaker 20 You get to sled, you get to ski, you get to snowshoot.

Speaker 7 Mariah Wilson came from a pretty active outdoorsy family. In fact, her dad had been a champion skier and coach.

Speaker 6 When she was young, she dreamed of being an Olympic ski racer.

Speaker 20 I met Mariah Wilson when she first came to Brookmount Academy, the prep school that specializes in teaching alpine skiing.

Speaker 6 And then went on to compete for Dartmouth while getting an engineering degree.

Speaker 26 And it wasn't until she finished her downhill ski racing career that she really started picking up the bike and discovering not only that it was fun, but that she had the ability to be a great athlete.

Speaker 20 We'd be out on these early morning rides when it'd be like 40 degrees and cold and muddy.

Speaker 29 That's where your true grit would come out.

Speaker 6 At the point where most people would drop off or quit, this smile would break out on her face.

Speaker 19 I kind of like discovered that gravel cycling was a thing and like ended up buying a gravel bike.

Speaker 5 I was like, whoa, this is so cool.

Speaker 19 Like I want to do this.

Speaker 22 Gravel racing is probably like the newest form of bike racing.

Speaker 22 It's meant to be ridden on dirt roads, gravel roads.

Speaker 9 You're out in the country exploring these beautiful terrain.

Speaker 22 So it's sort of like biking's answer to like the marathon. It can take anywhere from like five to 12 hours.

Speaker 7 Gravel races are unique because they're open to everyone from the top professionals to the weekend warriors.

Speaker 30 Ends in the line for their 100 mile event.

Speaker 31 You're all ripping

Speaker 31 the same tough terrain and you're all cheersing a beer after.

Speaker 15 I've really enjoyed the broader experience that gravel racing offers, That laid-back feeling that often accompanies the really serious racing.

Speaker 34 Congratulations on your win!

Speaker 6 She had thrown herself in to the biggest races in the country. Mariah Wilson, the winner.

Speaker 6 She was winning races by 25 minutes over the women's field, leading a really talented lineup of men's racers as well.

Speaker 35 Mo, phenomenal race.

Speaker 7 Mariah Wilson, just untouchable.

Speaker 22 It was pretty clear that she had a pretty bright future as a sponsored athlete.

Speaker 12 I really like to race bikes as well and I'm one of their sponsored athletes.

Speaker 9 She quit her job and started to focus full-time on being a professional bike racer.

Speaker 20 I mean that was a pretty bold decision to say okay I'm gonna see if I can do it.

Speaker 37 I'm

Speaker 37 here with the fabulous Mo Wilson. You are like ready.

Speaker 8 I'm ready.

Speaker 12 So excited to be here.

Speaker 33 It feels like the first big race of the year.

Speaker 6 She started her 2022 racing season with a huge amount of success.

Speaker 7 Mariah Wilson arrives here in Austin, one of the sportiest cities in America.

Speaker 7 She's got a race in the area and she heads to the garage apartment of her friend Caitlin Cash who she'll be spending a few days with.

Speaker 39 So around 5.30 in the evening, Mariah Wilson announces to this friend, her host, who she's staying with, that she is meeting up with someone named Colin.

Speaker 7 Caitlin Cash was also out that night and gets an alert on her security app that Mo Wilson has come back, entered the lock code, and gone inside the apartment.

Speaker 39 Caitlin Cash arrives back at her home. She notices that the door to the home is unlocked.

Speaker 3 In the dark,

Speaker 39 She walked in the bathroom and saw Mo Wilson on the floor, bloody. She frantically calls 911.
Is she breathing? No.

Speaker 39 Okay.

Speaker 6 Throughout those six minutes, she believed she could save her life and she did absolutely everything she possibly could.

Speaker 14 Don't leave her alone and don't stop.

Speaker 7 As police arrive, they're about to plunge into a tragic web of lies, jealousy, and obsession.

Speaker 7 One, two.

Speaker 3 Yeah, keep going, Caitlin. That's a perfect rate.

Speaker 14 You're doing good. Keep going.
They're almost there.

Speaker 7 Caitlin Cash desperately performs over 350 CPR chest compressions in just five minutes, trying heroically to save her friend, Mariah Wilson.

Speaker 3 Keep going, Caitlin.

Speaker 14 Don't let, don't stop. Keep going.
You're doing good. Keep going.

Speaker 6 And then the moment the police arrive and take over for her, you just hear her fall apart again.

Speaker 14 What's up? Caitlin, is that the police officers with you?

Speaker 16 Yeah, that's the police officer.

Speaker 43 So by the time paramedics get in there, they realize that she's deceased.

Speaker 39 It's apparent to them almost immediately that this is a homicide scene. They found spent shell casings on the floor, but they saw no weapon.

Speaker 43 It is certainly a murder. And then the next step in the analysis is what kind of murder is this? Because Mo Wilson has been shot twice in the head.
She's not exercising any form of self-defense.

Speaker 43 She's on her back. She's helpless.

Speaker 47 And there's the coup de grace round right through her heart.

Speaker 27 It was personal.

Speaker 32 It was definitely personal.

Speaker 10 Whoever did this stood over Mariah after they had initially shot her.

Speaker 36 and then fired one time directly over her.

Speaker 32 Their intent was to make sure that Mariah was dead.

Speaker 39 One of the neighbors told investigators that he saw someone on a bicycle leaving that area.

Speaker 39 Mariah Wilson's bike is missing.

Speaker 50 The first things that ran through my head is this a possible robbery gone wrong, a burglary gone wrong, somebody's tried to steal the bicycle, and the victim walked in on that person.

Speaker 6 And at some point, they find Mariah's bike down down the street tossed into a bamboo grove.

Speaker 32 And so actually right in here, so it's all been cut down now. Off to the right, that's where the bike actually was.

Speaker 20 I thought that that was kind of strange.

Speaker 48 You know, if they stole it from inside, why would they just abandon it there?

Speaker 43 Almost as if somebody was trying to make this look like a robbery in order to steal an expensive bike.

Speaker 6 Pretty quickly, the police made a public statement.

Speaker 9 There's some suspicious activity going going on in there so we definitely went with a suspicious death.

Speaker 51 They were canvassing the empty lot over there for with their flashlights potentially to find evidence.

Speaker 43 It's becoming a part of normal forensic routine for detectives to literally walk up and down the street looking for cameras.

Speaker 51 The authorities come by the house and They ask, hey, we noticed that you had a home security system And then the side yard is where the security camera is.

Speaker 51 And at the top there, you can see the security camera that points to the viewpoint of Chestnut and 18.

Speaker 43 Police gather videos from several cameras around the crime scene and immediately notice this black Jeep circling near Caitlin Cash's home.

Speaker 43 One minute after Mo Wilson comes back and punches in the code on Caitlin Cash's apartment, apartment.

Speaker 46 There is a neighbor that captures this black SUV.

Speaker 39 You see the brake lights go on, indicating that the vehicle appears to be stopping very close to Caitlin Cash's home.

Speaker 50 There was a bike rack on the back of the Jeep and a roof rack on top of it, but we weren't able to see any occupants.

Speaker 43 There's another camera across the street. It's only recording this porch, but the microphone picks up some chilling audio that may be difficult to listen to.

Speaker 48 A female scream, and then I hear two gunshots.

Speaker 48 And then I hear a six-second pause, followed by one more gunshot.

Speaker 48 So that tells me that I now know when my shooting occurred.

Speaker 7 It's late at night by the time police question Caitlin Cash, and she is clearly shell-shocked.

Speaker 7 But she is able to give them a crucial piece of information: that Mariah Wilson had spent the evening with a professional cyclist and local celebrity named Colin Strickland.

Speaker 48 I had no idea who he was, but it was very, very important because now I know that this person was probably the last person to see her alive.

Speaker 35 I want to talk with this guy.

Speaker 46 Colin Strickland is 10 years older, he's 35 years old.

Speaker 43 He lived in Austin, Texas, also a freakishly talented athlete.

Speaker 7 He has been one of the biggest names in the up-and-coming sport of gravel racing. And just about six months earlier, Colin Strickland and Mariah Wilson had a short-lived fling together.

Speaker 6 The day after Mariah's murder, police

Speaker 6 show up at Colin's home.

Speaker 39 They realize the vehicle that they saw in the video matches the same vehicle in Colin Strickland's driveway.

Speaker 28 There's a black SUV.

Speaker 48 It has a bike rack on it. It has chrome around the windows.
It matches the description of what is seen on that video.

Speaker 48 He was already outside in his garage, so I approached him. And of course, at that time, I didn't know that she went by Mariah.
I didn't know that she went by Mo.

Speaker 48 So whenever I asked, do you know Anna Wilson?

Speaker 28 He says, no, I don't know who she is.

Speaker 48 Well, so now that's red flag number one, because you just went out on a date with her the night before, and now you're telling me that you don't know who this girl is.

Speaker 7 But pretty quickly, Colin realizes that the Anna Wilson he's being asked about is the woman he knows as Mariah Wilson. Then Detective Spittler breaks the tragic news.

Speaker 48 He seemed very shocked. And so go into asking Kim, well, where were y'all last night?

Speaker 8 And, you know, what happened?

Speaker 7 And so he outlines his day with Mariah Wilson, taking her on his motorcycle to a local pool.

Speaker 6 Deep Eddie Pool is a gathering place in Austin. It is a great place to go and exercise, unwind, hang out with friends.

Speaker 39 Colin Strickland also says, from Deep Eddy Pool, they went up a hill to a place called Pool Burger, and it's this fun,

Speaker 39 hip kind kind of young people place.

Speaker 39 They leave Pool Burger and they are traveling on Colin Strickland's BMW motorcycle back toward Caitlin Cash's home where Mariah Wilson is staying.

Speaker 6 Colin tells police that he drops off Mariah, does not go inside.

Speaker 48 The more that he would mention his motorcycle to me, it seemed like he was distancing himself from that Jeep. I'm thinking, you're lying to me.

Speaker 48 I have you on camera driving the black Jeep that is sitting in your driveway.

Speaker 48 So at that point, I figure, okay, I need to talk with you at the headquarters.

Speaker 7 Now, Colin Strickland faces over six hours of tough questioning.

Speaker 7 Just hours after Mariah Wilson's body is found, police bring Colin Strickland in for questioning. They're eyeing him because they believe he was the last person to see her alive.

Speaker 7 For the last few years, he's been the king of the Austin cycling scene.

Speaker 56 This is my racing bicycle.

Speaker 32 It looks like a 1980s movie theater.

Speaker 8 I love it very much.

Speaker 6 He was really the first star in the sport of gravel racing.

Speaker 32 Gravel seems to have captured everyone's interest.

Speaker 13 He was one of the first people to consistently win big races.

Speaker 48 I think the secret to my success is I don't actually ride my bike that much.

Speaker 40 I ride my bike very hard and I ride my bike when necessary to prepare for a race.

Speaker 22 I always kind of thought he was like this funny mix of sarcastic and kind of dark. Kind of had this air of, you know, he had everything figured out.

Speaker 9 In the fall of 2021, I got the feeling from Colin that he was beginning his transition out and bike racing was slowly starting to fall to the wayside.

Speaker 6 As far as a competitor, he was no longer the guy to beat.

Speaker 7 At the same time, Mariah Wilson is getting her own status on the gravel circuit. And when the two of them meet, it's at a race in Idaho and the sparks definitely fly.

Speaker 39 That is where we saw this relationship begin to develop between the two of them.

Speaker 6 According to Colin, Mariah came to Austin.

Speaker 6 During that time, they had about a 10-day romantic affair. They went on a trip outside of Austin and they went on bike rides.

Speaker 40 I saw Colin and Mo at the driveway hanging out together.

Speaker 40 The driveway is like the linchpin to the Austin scene. They've run bike races out there every Thursday night for over 15 years.

Speaker 40 Everyone's kind of there watching the races together.

Speaker 60 When I saw him, I was like, oh, Mo's in town. And I saw she was with Colin and like it was kind of like confusing, I think, for some people.

Speaker 7 Confusing because most people who knew Colin also knew he had a longtime girlfriend, Caitlin Armstrong.

Speaker 7 And while they may have been on and off, Caitlin and Colin had been an item for years and everybody knew her as a fixture in his life.

Speaker 13 I had invited Colin over to dinner one night and he asked if he could bring his lady friend. I had never met a girlfriend of Colin's before.

Speaker 13 We became pretty close. She was one of my best friends.

Speaker 13 We both liked writing and loved good food and drinks.

Speaker 13 She really cared about her friends and had a lot going for her.

Speaker 6 Caitlin grew up outside of Detroit, moved around quite a bit, and finally landed in Austin, Texas.

Speaker 27 She flew right through business school like a blink of an eye.

Speaker 39 Caitlin worked in the finance industry, worked in real estate, but also was a yoga instructor. She had actually gone to Bali to train in yoga.

Speaker 52 Caitlin was quiet, very enjoyable to be around, very happy, very smart.

Speaker 43 Caitlin's apartment became uninhabitable due to a storm, so she temporarily moved in with Colin. That turned out to be a permanent stay.

Speaker 6 Outside of their romantic relationship, they had business ventures together. They had a company called Wheelhouse where they renovated vintage trailers.

Speaker 60 Colin would sometimes call Caitlin like a roommate or a friend in public.

Speaker 40 I was like, oh, maybe they're just business partners now.

Speaker 60 Like, it was a little unclear.

Speaker 9 The gist of what I would get from Colin was, I love her dearly,

Speaker 25 but I'm not sure of our future.

Speaker 13 It was just always like, are they dating? Aren't they dating? Nobody knows.

Speaker 13 I don't know.

Speaker 13 Caitlin wanted more out of their relationship, and Colin wasn't going to give her a monogamous long-term committed relationship.

Speaker 7 They'd broken up more than once, and in fact, that romantic interlude Colin had with Mariah Wilson, it came during one of those breaks.

Speaker 7 Now, Colin and Mariah at this point are just friends, and that's where things stand when she lands in Austin and gets in touch with him.

Speaker 41 Colin had been the last person to be seen with Mariah before her death, and that was why he had been called down to the station and spent about six hours answering questions with detectives.

Speaker 8 I want to talk with this guy.

Speaker 48 I want to find out what happened.

Speaker 28 My potential theory is that Colin Strickland murdered Mariah Wilson.

Speaker 39 One of the things that he does disclose as part of that interview is that he had lied to Caitlin Armstrong about his whereabouts.

Speaker 39 So she would not become angry at the fact that he was spending time with Mariah Wilson.

Speaker 48 He also had changed Mariah's name in his phone to Christine Wall.

Speaker 48 Obviously, you're doing this because you know that she's going to get mad. You know that she doesn't like Mariah.
You know that she doesn't want you talking to her.

Speaker 41 Colin knew that Caitlin did not want him having a friendship with Mariah and Colin felt like her concerns were misplaced. He thought he should be able to have a friendship.

Speaker 7 Investigators want to ask about the black Jeep that was parked right here outside Colin's driveway because it seems to match the vehicle that was captured on security cameras just before the murder.

Speaker 43 He immediately says, this is my girlfriend, Caitlin Armstrong's.

Speaker 62 He basically said that that's her Jeep. She's the only one that drives it.

Speaker 43 This is a big deal and now changes their focus. Colin Strickland may have been an obvious suspect, but now they're thinking he's not the only one.

Speaker 48 So I might be talking about two suspects here. We need to know where she was.

Speaker 64 Is there any explanation as far as why the vehicle would be over there?

Speaker 7 And when investigators sit down with her to talk, they are taken aback by her response.

Speaker 41 She was almost emotionless.

Speaker 62 It was a very weird interaction.

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Speaker 7 Colin Strickland is in the middle of a marathon, six and a half hour long questioning session with Austin police.

Speaker 7 He and his live-in girlfriend, Caitlin Armstrong, are now both under suspicion in this murder.

Speaker 43 And then there's some more nefarious information that starts coming out.

Speaker 39 Colin Strickland discloses that he had purchased a couple of guns some months before Mo Wilson's murder.

Speaker 39 He says that Caitlin Armstrong was the victim of road rage and that she was so deeply rattled by it that he wanted a way for her to protect herself.

Speaker 41 And he said she had done research and she picked out the gun that she wanted and we bought them together.

Speaker 48 It's the same caliber as what we found on scene at the murder. So this was definitely a red flag.

Speaker 43 As Colin is being questioned, Detective Connor is out investigating his alibi.

Speaker 62 I started trying to track down video surveillance and stuff to basically corroborate his story and figure out, okay, is he telling us the truth?

Speaker 43 Video surveillance confirms that Colin rode his motorcycle directly home after dropping Mariah off. He could not have pulled the trigger.

Speaker 43 So now Detective Spiller begins shifting the focus of his questions to Caitlin Armstrong.

Speaker 48 He describes Caitlin Armstrong as being a very sweet, loving person,

Speaker 48 never gets mad at anybody.

Speaker 7 Strickland insists it's unimaginable that she could have harmed Mariah. Still, investigators are left with the impression that Caitlin Armstrong is jealous of Mariah Wilson.

Speaker 62 She's got a little bit of motive. She's got the access to a weapon, and then she's got the capability to be in that area.
So it was starting to add up to where we needed to talk to her.

Speaker 39 They realize that she's got an outstanding warrant for her arrest.

Speaker 43 So it turns out, in 2018, she went to a med spa one day and got a Botox treatment. According to that arrest warrant, she's about to pay.

Speaker 43 She allegedly says, hold on, let me just go to my car and I'll be right back with my credit card. They say that instead, she drives away without paying.

Speaker 6 They brought her in for questioning based on this warrant.

Speaker 62 So she was brought in on that warrant, and that's when I interviewed her.

Speaker 58 When she walked in, what was your impression of her?

Speaker 62 She didn't move much at all.

Speaker 7 What does that tell you if someone is very still?

Speaker 62 Sometimes it can mean absolutely nothing at all. It can also mean that they're extremely nervous because naturally somebody's going to move a little bit.

Speaker 62 When they're completely still that's usually a little bit of a red flag.

Speaker 38 You're here for a warrant right now I guess.

Speaker 64 Are you familiar with what you have going on with that?

Speaker 12 No idea.

Speaker 62 So in the middle of the interview I got a knock on the door

Speaker 62 and they pulled me out and they said, hey, the warrant's not good.

Speaker 39 They realized that the warrant has some issue, that it does not match the birth date with Caitlin Armstrong's birth date.

Speaker 64 So that's not, you're not under arrest, okay?

Speaker 8 Okay.

Speaker 64 I know it's a little crazy.

Speaker 71 Yeah, so you're... They just came to my house and put me in handcuffs for no reason.

Speaker 64 So there was some miscommunication on that. So,

Speaker 64 but I would really like to talk to you and clear some stuff up

Speaker 64 because Colin did bring your name up and I think there's a lot more information that you have that can kind of clear some stuff up.

Speaker 64 Does that make sense?

Speaker 71 It makes sense. I feel like I should have an attorney present.

Speaker 7 So you tell her that she's not under arrest

Speaker 7 and yet she stays.

Speaker 62 Yes.

Speaker 64 The door is unlocked. You can leave at any time.

Speaker 11 So I would love to leave.

Speaker 64 He would love to leave.

Speaker 71 He just arrested me in front of my house, in front of all of my neighbors, and carried me in here in handcuffs in front of downtown Austin. It was incredibly

Speaker 3 imagined.

Speaker 7 You tell her she can leave, but then you sort of just keep talking and asking questions.

Speaker 62 Yes, so that is the tactic that we use. Even if the person stands up and starts to walk towards the door, you kind of stay seated and just keep talking and see if they re-engage.

Speaker 64 Did you hear about what's happened over the past 24 hours?

Speaker 71 Colin walked in the house and said one of the women in the cycling community passed away.

Speaker 16 Yes.

Speaker 62 Just passed away, which is kind of an interesting choice of words.

Speaker 7 As if from illness. Correct.
But in fact, it was murder.

Speaker 64 It sounds like there are some issues between you and this girl, and I think that there's probably a lot more to it that you could help explain.

Speaker 62 When I had brought up her being jealous or upset over him seeing Mariah, she kind of pops her head up and that was the first time I saw any emotion from her.

Speaker 71 I didn't have any idea that

Speaker 71 he saw or went out with this girl.

Speaker 11 Okay, yeah.

Speaker 64 Has he been like talking to her?

Speaker 11 I would like to deny.

Speaker 71 I don't actually know

Speaker 71 and I would like to leave.

Speaker 62 I really wanted to get her side of the story so that we could get some information and kind of clear things up.

Speaker 64 You're welcome to leave, but again, that limits us to where we only have one side of the story. And your vehicle was seen next to her house

Speaker 64 and

Speaker 64 we needed to talk about that, okay?

Speaker 62 We honestly didn't even know that was her vehicle at that point. So when I confronted her with that,

Speaker 62 she could have easily said, no, that's not me. And here's the logical explanation behind it.

Speaker 7 But she didn't. So somebody else would have said, how do you know those mine cheap?

Speaker 28 I wasn't there.

Speaker 18 Exactly.

Speaker 64 When I can't explain that, and all I see is that your vehicle's over there,

Speaker 64 that kind of makes it look not too good, right?

Speaker 62 Okay.

Speaker 64 And then when we're talking to Colin and we're hearing, like, yeah, there was some jealousy stuff going on. Like, that doesn't sound very good.

Speaker 62 It is very intense talking to her. She had this almost flat stare that just stares right through you.

Speaker 7 Sounds pretty off-putting that someone is staring right through you.

Speaker 62 This is not a normal response, especially if this is somebody that's just a witness and has nothing to do with this.

Speaker 43 Caitlin Armstrong clearly isn't talking. She states seven times that she'd like to leave, and finally she does.

Speaker 71 I would like to leave.

Speaker 54 I'm free to leave. Okay.

Speaker 62 She could have provided a very logical explanation as to why her vehicle was over there. Maybe that wasn't her vehicle.
Maybe that was another vehicle that looked like hers.

Speaker 62 But she didn't say any of that.

Speaker 7 So she goes into that interview, a person of interest, and comes out of it a suspect.

Speaker 62 She was our top interest at that point.

Speaker 7 And then an ominous tip, a good friend of Caitlin steps forward and says Caitlin told her she'd called up Mariah and warned her to stay away from her man.

Speaker 13 And I think Caitlin just kind of wanted Colin for herself.

Speaker 43 In every homicide investigation, you have to keep an open mind and detectives keep coming back to this relationship thing.

Speaker 13 Caitlin was in love with Colin and you know maybe

Speaker 13 even slightly obsessed with Colin. It was almost like Caitlin had felt this ownership over Colin and that Colin was hers.

Speaker 43 And detectives are noticing a difference in how Colin speaks about professional cyclist Mariah Wilson and how he talks about his live-in girlfriend and amateur cyclist Caitlin Armstrong.

Speaker 48 Mariah was an equal to him and she could keep up with him.

Speaker 36 They were peers in the cycling world. But whenever he spoke about Caitlin, it was, she's holding me back.

Speaker 9 I've told her, don't ride with me.

Speaker 7 Authorities develop a theory that Caitlin felt threatened by Mariah.

Speaker 48 It seems like it could have been a form of jealousy of, you know, this is my boyfriend and not going to let anybody else have him. Or, hey, like, I'm really jealous of how good of a rider you are.

Speaker 48 And I think that I am your equal, even though my boyfriend believes that I'm not.

Speaker 13 Caitlin felt like Mariah was what Colin wanted Caitlin to be.

Speaker 39 She did not like the fact that they were in communication. She did not like the fact that there was this ongoing friendship.

Speaker 7 As authorities start to laser their focus on Caitlin Armstrong, they also begin to wonder what kind of relationship did Colin and Mariah really have?

Speaker 6 I think their connection was about the sport. She saw someone who could mentor her, and he saw someone he could mentor.

Speaker 7 Detectives learn about an incident in January 2022 some four months before Mariah's death.

Speaker 7 It seemed to mark a turning point for Mariah in terms of how she viewed her brief romantic relationship with Colin.

Speaker 6 In January 2022, Colin, Caitlin, and Mariah are all in Arkansas for networking reasons around a race

Speaker 6 and they they end up at a sponsored dinner together that by all accounts was pretty awkward.

Speaker 43 Detectives learned about a text message from Mariah Wilson to Colin Strickland. Words to the effect of saying, this weekend was strange for me.
If you just want to be friends, it's totally cool.

Speaker 43 My mind has been going in circles and I don't know what to think.

Speaker 6 His response to her text was to apologize for putting her in an awkward position at that dinner and to explain that Caitlin was in town with him for a business meeting.

Speaker 6 And he admitted that, in hindsight, this was not a good idea.

Speaker 41 And I believe from that point on, there was no ambiguity between Mariah and Colin. The gist of it was that, yes, we're just friends.

Speaker 7 But police are learning that Caitlin Armstrong was far less clear on her own status with Colin after they'd gotten back together.

Speaker 41 When they broke up, it was a very clear breakup, but they never separated their housing. Caitlin had a home that she was renovating.
Caitlin said, I would move out, but I would have to get a lease.

Speaker 41 And Colin said, your house is almost ready. If you just want to stay here, you can.

Speaker 41 And as a result, it was easy to slide back into a relationship.

Speaker 41 He said that, in retrospect, that was a mistake.

Speaker 7 And then police got a crucial tip about a conversation that took place at this popular cyclist hangout.

Speaker 13 Caitlin was really angry, almost like shaking. And she started telling me how Colin

Speaker 13 was dating Mariah. She was like, but you know, me and Colin, we'll just, we'll always be really close.
We'll always be best friends.

Speaker 7 During that conversation, Mariah Wilson actually happened to walk into the restaurant.

Speaker 13 I asked Caitlin, what if he all of a sudden is in like a long-term committed relationship with someone else? She said, oh, I'd kill her.

Speaker 7 Caitlin told Nicole that she'd called Mariah and confronted her that day.

Speaker 13 She's like, I'm Colin's girlfriend.

Speaker 7 We live together.

Speaker 13 Stay away from him. I didn't take it seriously, but there was...

Speaker 13 Something about it that in the back of my head like kind of believed. But it wasn't like I didn't consciously realize that, you know, I think I realized, realized it later.

Speaker 7 A second tipster also calls police to say that she was with Caitlin Armstrong in Arkansas several months before Mariah was killed, alleging Caitlin had also used the words, kill her, in a conversation with her about Mariah.

Speaker 43 This anonymous tipster goes on to say she distinctly remembers Caitlin Armstrong talking about getting a gun.

Speaker 43 She doesn't remember if if she said she had a gun or if she was going to get a gun, but she distinctly remembers her saying the word gun.

Speaker 39 Police execute a search warrant on Colin Strickland and Caitlin Armstrong's home and they recover a gun that they then conduct ballistic testing on.

Speaker 43 And what they do is they take the casings found next to the body of Mo Wilson and they compare it to test firings from this nine millimeter SIG sour that Colin Strickland bought for Caitlin Armstrong.

Speaker 43 Meanwhile, this case is starting to get a lot of attention in the media with sensational claims about a love triangle gone wrong, which both Mariah Wilson's family and Colin Strickland are quick to say is absolutely untrue.

Speaker 7 Colin Strickland releases a statement expressing his sympathy to the Wilson family and his regret over his connection to the horrible crime.

Speaker 7 He writes, we weren't in a romantic relationship, only a platonic and professional one. It was not my intention to pursue a long and auxiliary romantic relationship that would mislead anyone.

Speaker 7 Mariah Wilson's family also said at the time of her death that Mariah had made it clear to those that she loved that she wasn't in a romantic relationship with anyone.

Speaker 41 There was no active love triangle.

Speaker 13 Mariah just happened to be the person that Colin had kind of dated briefly and Caitlin became obsessed with that.

Speaker 13 I think that Caitlin thought that there was a lot more going on and built it up in her head into something more.

Speaker 7 So armed with new details about Caitlin Armstrong and evidence that would appear to clear Colin, authorities want to question her again. And that's when they make a stunning discovery.

Speaker 59 She seems to have disappeared.

Speaker 13 Her phone was off. Her Instagram was gone.
Nobody knew where she was.

Speaker 43 Essentially, Caitlin Armstrong drops off the map.

Speaker 48 We have no idea where she is.

Speaker 7 And then a shocking new video of Armstrong surfaces.

Speaker 46 She shows up at the Austin airport, dressed casually.

Speaker 14 She's got a yoga mat.

Speaker 43 She's got a COVID mask on. She boards a flight.

Speaker 6 Now, this is a huge story about a fugitive who is running from the law.

Speaker 39 They begin suspecting that she has left the country.

Speaker 7 The question everyone is asking is, where has Caitlin Caitlin Armstrong gone? And so the investigation now becomes an international manhunt.

Speaker 7 The last thing Moe did

Speaker 3 on this earth

Speaker 73 was scream in terror.

Speaker 53 And the gunshots were to Mariah's face, the first two,

Speaker 7 which also feels personal.

Speaker 13 Mariah just kind of happened to be the person that Colin had kind of dated briefly and Caitlin just became obsessed with that.

Speaker 7 This is really what catapulted this story into the international news. The fact that Caitlin fled.
She fled the country. She changed her identity.
She changed her looks. She took on new names.

Speaker 74 Tonight, the urgent search underway for a suspected killer.

Speaker 53 What is it like to hear that your daughter is a fugitive?

Speaker 69 No, it's just unbelievable.

Speaker 22 What are you running from if you're innocent?

Speaker 32 She goes, oh, I'm thinking about giving up my U.S. passport.

Speaker 49 They just grabbed her and said, we're taking you in because you have no documents.

Speaker 49 I knew she did something bad.

Speaker 7 What would drive her to take those actions?

Speaker 10 I think fear.

Speaker 53 Fear of what?

Speaker 47 Fear of what had happened.

Speaker 14 Fear that she might be also murdered.

Speaker 7 So you're saying that she was afraid that she might be the next victim?

Speaker 75 I'm afraid this Helen Armstrong escaped from Travis County. Stop.

Speaker 75 Holy

Speaker 53 Is this a murderer who's good at covering their tracks or someone who's just really good at running away?

Speaker 60 It felt insane. What the hell is going on?

Speaker 7 It's only been days since cyclist Mariah Wilson's shocking murder.

Speaker 7 And after initially suspecting a prominent fellow racer, Colin Strickland, who Mariah had previously had a brief romantic relationship with, police have cleared him and quickly shifted their focus to his on-again, off-again girlfriend, Caitlin Armstrong.

Speaker 43 Colin Strickland told police that right at the end of December 2021, he goes to a local gun store and he purchases two firearms, two handguns.

Speaker 43 One is a Springfield Armory non-millimeter for himself, and he buys a Sig Sauer, which is a very high-quality gun, for his girlfriend, Caitlin Armstrong.

Speaker 13 I keep seeing everybody saying, why would Colin buy her gun if he knew that she was so crazy and jealous? He bought her gun because she would, you know, maybe need to protect herself at some point.

Speaker 41 He hasn't said this to me, but I feel secure in saying that Colin certainly regrets purchasing any firearms, given the terrible things that happened in this case.

Speaker 43 Police are now convinced Caitlin Armstrong didn't use the gun for self-defense. She used it to commit cold-blooded murder.

Speaker 76 The reports from the ballistics exam

Speaker 7 came back.

Speaker 76 So ballistics evidence indicated that the gun that Colin said belonged to Caitlin Armstrong was the murder weapon.

Speaker 62 We knew she had access to a gun, and then seeing her vehicle over there was definitely a turning point that we needed to talk to her.

Speaker 48 Once that warrant is signed, I send it over to our Lone Star Fugitive Task Force, which has our tactical intel guys on it.

Speaker 48 What the problem was, was that they they couldn't find where Caitlin was currently located.

Speaker 43 She also went dark on social media. So essentially, Caitlin Armstrong drops off the map.

Speaker 41 I asked Colin if he had reached out to Caitlin or if he had heard anything from her. And he said he had contacted her.
She never contacted him back. I believe he thought that was strange.

Speaker 41 Hey, are you doing okay? Are you all right?

Speaker 7 While the Austin law enforcement enforcement community is scrambling to track down Caitlin Armstrong, the cycling community is reeling from the loss of Mo Wilson.

Speaker 41 She was so smart and so talented.

Speaker 22 And, you know,

Speaker 22 she was taken.

Speaker 9 There was a race the weekend following Mo's death.

Speaker 28 It was called Gravel Locos.

Speaker 59 And she was supposed to be at that race.

Speaker 52 I'm sure many of you have heard

Speaker 28 we lost Mo, I believe it was Wednesday evening

Speaker 28 and her family sent me a statement and they basically said

Speaker 48 we want you all to do what Mo wants you all to do.

Speaker 9 She wants you to race.

Speaker 22 We had a moment of silence for Mo and then people started riding this 190 mile course in the middle of Texas.

Speaker 46 Race

Speaker 46 your best race.

Speaker 46 Race it for Mo or race it for yourself, but race your best race.

Speaker 6 The start was really emotional and people rolled out sort of together,

Speaker 41 not racing.

Speaker 6 I can't imagine how hard that was, especially for her peers,

Speaker 6 the other women in the race, especially.

Speaker 32 The Gravel community is a tight-knit community.

Speaker 9 and it's very protective. We don't want to have drama or bad attention brought to the sport.

Speaker 9 This is new.

Speaker 24 This is scary.

Speaker 27 So there's going to be some serious hesitancy on people's parts to talk about

Speaker 9 a difficult subject like this.

Speaker 7 And the story is only escalating, quickly making national headlines.

Speaker 48 But authorities now have a lead.

Speaker 43 She is seen on camera at the Austin Airport.

Speaker 32 walking through the airport really casually, dressed casually.

Speaker 43 She's got a yoga mat under her arm. She's got a COVID mask on her face.
And she boards a flight from Austin, Texas to LaGuardia Airport in New York.

Speaker 39 So there's a mobilization of the Marshal Service to try to find her.

Speaker 32 The search tonight for a suspected killer on the run.

Speaker 37 The U.S. Marshal put out a wanted poster for Caitlin Armstrong.

Speaker 56 Investigators now believe Caitlin Armstrong fled from Texas to New York City. She's been missing since police in Austin questioned her about the murder.

Speaker 48 At this time, we're still getting tips. People are still calling in.
Somebody had mentioned something about a sister that lived in New York.

Speaker 76 Eventually, members of the U.S. Marshal Service speak to Caitlin Armstrong's sister who lives in upstate New York.
But by then, Caitlin is no longer there.

Speaker 29 It's obvious that after a few days, she's made an attempt to disappear.

Speaker 7 Someone else who desperately wants to find Caitlin, her father.

Speaker 9 And now we're going to turn to the Texas yoga instructor, Waned for Murder. Her father is now speaking out.

Speaker 4 We love you, Katie, and we are going to figure this out. I know her, and I know how she thinks, and I know what she believes, and I know that she just would not do something like this.

Speaker 4 There are a lot of unanswered questions.

Speaker 43 But right now, the number one question everyone is asking is, if you're Caitlin Armstrong, where would you run?

Speaker 7 Was that yoga man caught on surveillance cameras at the airport a clue?

Speaker 6 She was into health and fitness and wellness and yoga and that eco-lifestyle.

Speaker 6 So, in some ways, it was the perfect place for someone like Caitlin Armstrong to hide, and in other ways, it probably was

Speaker 33 the exact place

Speaker 6 authorities would expect she would go to hide.

Speaker 74 The urgent search underway for a suspected killer.

Speaker 58 Authorities Authorities have charged Caitlin Marie Armstrong with first-degree murder.

Speaker 6 The bigger the story became, the harder it was going to be for her to hide. Putting her name and face at the forefront of the story was essential in finding her.

Speaker 7 But as authorities in the United States were still trying to track down Caitlin Armstrong there, she was landing here in Costa Rica, hiding in plain sight as a new tourist seeking out a wellness hideaway by the beach.

Speaker 43 Costa Rica is a very, very small country and it is absolutely inundated with American tourists.

Speaker 48 It's close, it's cheap, the surfing's fantastic, the waves are great.

Speaker 43 It's a mecca for surfers from all over the world.

Speaker 46 There's also a thriving yoga community down there.

Speaker 5 Costa Rica is an amazing place for yoga because the nature of Costa Rica helps a lot to bring your soul and your mind back to the roots.

Speaker 7 In late May, Caitlin Armstrong takes a bus several hours from the capital of San Jose to Haco Beach.

Speaker 43 She signs up for a class at the Aurora Yoga Studio just off the city's busy main strip, telling the instructor her name is Liz.

Speaker 5 The woman who called herself Liz, she told me she was in the area, not just in Hako, but in Costa Rica, discounting for a place to teach yoga. And she came to class very shy, very quiet.

Speaker 5 There was another guy also really fit

Speaker 5 and started chatting at the end of the class. I thought, well, he's nice looking, she's nice looking, so they are flirting or something like that.

Speaker 5 She asked him where he was from and he was from Austin, and she was really interested that he was from Austin. They keep shouting for a long time.

Speaker 5 I have to tell them that I have to close the studio, so they went outside and keep shouting.

Speaker 43 The two grab a meal down the street, but Armstrong doesn't stay in town long.

Speaker 43 Within days, she's heading further west by boat to another surf town on the Pacific coast called Santa Teresa.

Speaker 6 Santa Teresa is on the Nicoya Peninsula,

Speaker 32 in the middle of nowhere basically, six hours from the main city.

Speaker 49 There's only one road in and one road out.

Speaker 6 It attracts people who are looking for great surf, yoga, health and wellness,

Speaker 6 or people who are

Speaker 6 drawn to how remote it is.

Speaker 39 It's a perfect place for someone who maybe wants to hide.

Speaker 32 Lots of people pick up, start their lives over.

Speaker 32 Lots of yoga teachers move down here, restart their lives down here.

Speaker 7 It's that yoga scene and the isolation there that seemed to draw Caitlin Armstrong. She settles in at Don John's Lodge, one of several hotels on Santa Teresa's main street.

Speaker 49 It has a couple two dorm rooms, probably like, I think there's like eight beds per room.

Speaker 49 And then there's the yoga deck in the back it was mostly backpackers and surfers and the place wasn't too busy so she was like had the room to herself in the back

Speaker 7 by now Caitlin Armstrong has taken to calling herself Ari and she's gotten a discounted room by working short shifts at the front desk and welcoming new arrivals she never wore makeup had her hair back and just really sat to herself Every day I would see her, just say hi, and she would say hi and we'd have a little talk and laughed at my jokes.

Speaker 49 So she, I guess she had a sense of humor.

Speaker 7 Armstrong begins making friends and integrating into this little expat community down in Costa Rica. And she clearly intends to stay there for a while.

Speaker 7 She's going out, she's been socializing, she's heading to popular spots to eat.

Speaker 43 The barbecue restaurant and sports bar Kooks became one of Armstrong's regular hangouts.

Speaker 32 We had parties Tuesdays, Fridays, Sundays, two, three times a week. She'd be here at night.

Speaker 32 So I'm usually talking to everybody, you know, where are you from, how long you're here for.

Speaker 32 And with Ari, you know, I just moved here. I'm teaching yoga, staying at Don John's.
And then she was just in here a lot. She was usually with guys.
Ari wasn't a bad-looking girl.

Speaker 32 That's probably why Teal was talking to her.

Speaker 6 Teal Akerson was a local surfer in Santa Teresa who Armstrong started to spend time with.

Speaker 7 Ari was a

Speaker 57 strange person, but she was kind and nice.

Speaker 31 I met her right outside the tattoo shop. I was out there having a beer in the lounge and she scooted over by me and started talking to me.

Speaker 31 It became apparent to me that she was trying to have a conversation, trying to get to know me. We went on a couple dates.

Speaker 31 But she said that she had just been through a real traumatizing breakup and she hadn't healed from it yet and wasn't ready to get close at all so we were just big friends

Speaker 7 in the few weeks that armstrong was living in santa teresa she changed her appearance gradually at first she had long beautiful hair but then she dyed it and cut it short so ari was about the first month she didn't have anything wrong with her nose and she disappeared for like four days and everyone was worried about her and she just came back with a bandage on her nose and says it was a a surf accident.

Speaker 32 It happens to people all the time, especially learning surfings. It's just like, oh, you got hit in the face with your board and kind of move on.

Speaker 49 She said she went to the doctor. And to me personally, though, I was like, there's no way it's too perfect.
Man, how did the surfboard hit you? That's a perfect hit directly on the nose.

Speaker 7 Despite that nose injury, Armstrong is still busy at Don John's taking part in yoga classes in its treehouse studio.

Speaker 43 She's not hiding. She's not laying low.
She clearly intends to stay for a while.

Speaker 32 I think she was trying to make this home. One funny conversation we had, she goes, oh, I'm thinking about giving up my U.S.
passport.

Speaker 32 And I was like, that's probably a bad idea because when you travel, your U.S. passport's like gold, right? You could go to almost every country.

Speaker 32 Like, looking back, obviously, that's like a pretty interesting thing to say.

Speaker 7 While Caitlin Armstrong seems to be settling into her new life in this tropical paradise, U.S. Marshals are picking up on her trail using that yoga mat from the Austin airport as a major clue.

Speaker 6 That yoga mat changed their line of thinking.

Speaker 79 She got comfortable in Costa Rica and she made a mistake.

Speaker 49 I just put my hands up and I'm just sitting here just like, whoa, this is hardcore. I've never seen that happen in Santa.

Speaker 49 Santa Teresa is awesome because of the ocean that's there. That's why I'm there so I can do my in-water photography.

Speaker 49 It's not making me rich, but it pays for food.

Speaker 49 A normal day is four hours in the water in the morning, and then I go get a smoothie and then just hang out and find things to do.

Speaker 49 Really relaxing, no one's in a hurry. It's really chill.

Speaker 46 In Costa Rica, you hear this term pura vida.

Speaker 25 It means pure life.

Speaker 47 It's about living a good life, living a clean life.

Speaker 7 After several weeks, Caitlin Armstrong is settling into the Santa Teresa lifestyle. She's dating, teaching yoga classes, and maybe feeling that she's gotten away.

Speaker 7 But back in the U.S., for authorities, their search for Armstrong is front and center, and it's gaining momentum.

Speaker 7 Authorities discover that just a day after being questioned by police, Armstrong sells her Jeep in an Austin CarMax for about $12,000 at a discount and then flies to New York to see her sister.

Speaker 39 Authorities become aware that Caitlin Armstrong is traveling on someone else's passport. Using that passport, they then trace her to Costa Rica.

Speaker 43 Another major clue for the U.S. Marshals was the yoga mat Armstrong had with her in that Austin airport security video.

Speaker 6 They were looking at places where it'd be really easy to get a job as a yoga instructor. The U.S.
Marshals are working with local authorities and zeroing in on her whereabouts.

Speaker 32 We collected mobile devices, laptops, because things like that.

Speaker 48 They can also show me specific location data. The Marshals are able to find she had created another Gmail account.

Speaker 48 One of the things that Gmail saves is your search history, and she did not opt out of that information being stored in their system.

Speaker 43 In this case, Caitlin Armstrong left a forensic trail that led authorities basically right to her doorstep.

Speaker 60 She was making on reservations to different hotels. She was using different aliases, Beth, Liz, Elizabeth Martin, Ari Martin.

Speaker 7 And significantly, investigators find a search history that leads them to one specific city, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica.

Speaker 6 The U.S. Marshals, along with local investigators, went door to door

Speaker 6 looking for women who matched her description, wearing Hawaiian shirts.

Speaker 39 It was an undercover operation for them that was quite extensive. They were on the ground there for multiple days.

Speaker 6 They were worried they were going to get found out because while everyone on the beach was looking at the surfers, they were looking at their phones comparing the people they saw.

Speaker 7 Investigators organized a sting on a Santa Teresa community Facebook page focused on her passion for yoga.

Speaker 48 There was a yoga studio that was there. They spoke with the owner and told him, can you do us a favor?

Speaker 48 I want you to post a Help Wanted ad, just saying that you are in need of an experienced instructor and that y'all are hiring. Sure enough, she actually responded to it.

Speaker 48 She never showed up for that actual interview, but that was kind of a clue. She's here, she's somewhere here, and she has to be nearby.

Speaker 8 We just don't know where.

Speaker 43 But authorities got a tip that she might be at a local hotel.

Speaker 7 That local hotel was Don Johns.

Speaker 7 On June 29th, 2022, the owner of Don John's leaves Caitlin Armstrong in charge, greeting guests at the front.

Speaker 49 I noticed Ari was alone, so I just started talking to her, just making stupid jokes, and she started talking more to me, and she sat back and relaxed.

Speaker 49 And then some guy came in who said he was from Mexico. So she said, yeah, there's a room available.
And he said, okay, I'm going to go eat real quick and then I'll come back. And then he left.

Speaker 60 It was the deputy marshal. He pretended to be a Spanish-speaking tourist and told our team member and Costa Rica law enforcement that he had found Caitlin on site.

Speaker 39 At that point, they summoned local officials.

Speaker 49 Ten minutes later, three uniformed cops came in and they just went right for her.

Speaker 49 Documents, give me your documents.

Speaker 32 And she says, I don't have any.

Speaker 49 I just put my hands up and they're like, where are you staying? And she said, Punta Reynas. And then they're like, where are your documents?

Speaker 32 Punta Reynas?

Speaker 49 And she's like, yes, no. And she just couldn't answer the questions.
And then they said, where is your room? And she didn't want to tell them.

Speaker 49 They just grabbed her and said, we're taking you in because you have no documents.

Speaker 49 And I'm just sitting here just like, whoa, this is hardcore. I've never seen that happen in Santa.
The police don't do stuff like that.

Speaker 49 So I knew she did something bad the way these cops are talking to her.

Speaker 7 Armstrong was taken to the local police station just up the road, and she initially gives authorities a false name, Ari,

Speaker 7 but eventually admits her true identity.

Speaker 60 And she finally gave the name, okay, I am Caitlin Armstrong.

Speaker 6 After Caitlin was captured, the owner of the hostel where she was staying opened opened a locker, a lockbox belonging to her.

Speaker 6 And inside, he found a receipt for more than $6,000 for plastic surgery in the name of Allison Page.

Speaker 43 She'd gotten this nose job and forever altered her face.

Speaker 6 Also, he found her passport with Caitlin Armstrong's name on it, a second passport not belonging to her.

Speaker 48 They found her sister's, Christine's passport. This passport is the one that had the stamp on it for entry into Costa Rica.

Speaker 7 Caitlin's sister, Christy Armstrong, says she doesn't know how Caitlin got her passport.

Speaker 7 After 43 days on the run, Caitlin Armstrong was detained on an immigration violation and later charged for misuse of a passport.

Speaker 7 Armstrong was deported back to Texas, where she was formally charged with the murder of Mariah Wilson. She pleaded not guilty.

Speaker 48 Former fugitive Caitlin Armstrong is now back in the U.S.

Speaker 58 after weeks on the run.

Speaker 48 When I saw her mugshot, it was this weird contrast because the person that I knew didn't belong in that mugshot. It didn't make sense.

Speaker 61 Why do you fled to out of the country, man?

Speaker 13 I was very surprised that she had gotten a nose job. I was like,

Speaker 13 thought that you were going to be able to get away with this. I was also thinking about Caitlin who was my friend.

Speaker 13 I was like thinking she must be terrified,

Speaker 13 but I was angry at

Speaker 13 this new Caitlin. Thought that she deserved what she was going to get.

Speaker 7 Armstrong was transferred to the Travis County Correctional Complex, but life behind bars isn't for Armstrong. who on the eve of trial dramatically tries to escape yet again.

Speaker 75 So breaking breaking news, Caitlin Armstrong escaped from Travis County deputy custody this morning. Holy

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Speaker 39 going on with the situation.

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Speaker 7 After 43 days on the run, Caitlin Armstrong is back in the United States for the 4th of July holiday, but she's not going to be celebrating her independence because she's been brought here back to Texas in the custody of the Travis County Sheriff's Department.

Speaker 39 She faces a murder charge and her bond is set at $3.5 million.

Speaker 39 Judges will often increase a bond amount if they think someone is a flight risk or has, in fact, tried to flee in an effort to avoid a charge.

Speaker 79 According to foreign officials, Armstrong altered her physical appearance.

Speaker 79 She dyed her hair brown, she cropped her hair shorter to about shoulder length and had a bandage on her nose where she claimed it was from a surfboard incident just days before.

Speaker 49 I'll tell you this, she did not look like the pictures that were shown on the news. She did not look like that.

Speaker 49 So even if people seen those pictures, they probably wouldn't be able to guess it was her.

Speaker 60 You know, hearing that she had got plastic surgery, she had fled to to Costa Rica, that she had someone else's passport was, it was just kind of, it felt insane.

Speaker 60 Your heart's like, kind of like, what the,

Speaker 9 you know, it's like, what the hell?

Speaker 40 Like, what the hell is going on?

Speaker 60 Like, this is not, it feels like a movie.

Speaker 39 Caitlin Armstrong, once she is back in Austin, retains one of the city's most prominent defense attorneys.

Speaker 39 And she pled not guilty in court and said that she did not kill Mariah Wilson.

Speaker 7 Just weeks before Caitlin Armstrong will appear before a jury to decide her fate, another unbelievable twist.

Speaker 7 Our 2020 team is in Texas interviewing Austin investigative reporter Tony Plehetsky in the Kayview newsroom when suddenly the news breaks.

Speaker 48 Please, Margaret, Tony Poletsky interview.

Speaker 10 Take one marker.

Speaker 39 60 feet away from Caitlin Cash's home.

Speaker 75 So, breaking news, Caitlin Armstrong escaped from Travis County

Speaker 75 custody this morning. Holy

Speaker 39 okay, hold on.

Speaker 48 I can call right now.

Speaker 52 Hold on.

Speaker 45 Yeah, yeah. Will you guys stop for a second? Let's stop me.

Speaker 39 Immediately, we wanted to just try to find out everything

Speaker 39 going on with the situation. So, we called TCSO, the Travis County Sheriff's Office, which operates the county jail.

Speaker 39 We learned that Caitlin Armstrong escaped custody while being taken to a doctor's appointment. At that time, they say that she bolted and began running.

Speaker 6 And you see her in her black and white prison outfit, makes a run for it.

Speaker 6 And then you see her attempting to climb a fence.

Speaker 21 Caitlin Armstrong was just two weeks away from the start of her murder trial. She made a go for it.

Speaker 83 Authorities say Caitlin ran a mile away, stripping off her prisoner's uniform, even freeing a hand.

Speaker 6 She had different clothes on underneath the black and white jumpsuit, so that at a point she would be able to strip that and not look like she had just escaped from police custody.

Speaker 39 She made it about a block into a neighborhood behind a complex of doctors' offices.

Speaker 39 They were able to detain her a few minutes later.

Speaker 7 Caitlin Armstrong bolts for about a mile, then darts down this side street into this neighborhood.

Speaker 7 And perhaps there is a karmic twist to the fact that she's recaptured on the street bearing the name of the woman she's accused of killing, Wilson.

Speaker 7 Now police say that this was not a spur-of-the-moment decision to try to escape, but that Armstrong plotted and planned this out.

Speaker 83 An affidavit now detailing the 35-year-old put in a medical request restricting the use of leg restraints and then utilized an injury complaint, getting herself an appointment outside the prison in Austin, Texas.

Speaker 6 Looking back at video of her over the past couple of months, she had been training physically. She'd been running, doing squats.

Speaker 62 I was so glad that they caught her because I did not want to go through another manhunt of trying to find her for God knows how long.

Speaker 7 Caitlin Armstrong's attempt at avoiding justice fails.

Speaker 7 And at her upcoming trial, prosecutors are about to say they're going to present evidence proving that Caitlin Armstrong circled and stalked Mariah Wilson.

Speaker 39 Circling the area, waiting for something to happen.

Speaker 39 Waiting for Mariah Wilson.

Speaker 7 This is the Blackwell Thurman Justice Center.

Speaker 7 It's a long way from Costa Rica, but it's here after two attempts to escape that Caitlin Armstrong will finally face a jury of her peers who could decide her fate.

Speaker 7 The trial of Caitlin Armstrong is underway in Texas.

Speaker 23 All right.

Speaker 35 Trial to have you district courts now in session.

Speaker 73 The honorable Brady Kennedy is starting.

Speaker 39 There appeared to be a greater level of security in the courtroom and frankly a greater level of security around her.

Speaker 73 The last thing Mo did on this earth

Speaker 73 was scream in terror.

Speaker 73 You hear those screams.

Speaker 4 Joe's screaming, you're followed by, ah,

Speaker 73 ah, two gunshots. You won't hear any more screams out there.

Speaker 7 Why was it important for the jury to hear that ring video and to see the video right off the bat?

Speaker 29 I wanted to come out with a bang. I wanted them to

Speaker 29 feel the passion of how the murder happened right up front.

Speaker 7 Thanks to Colin Strickland's police interview and other legal documents, we know what Colin and Mariah Wilson were up to on May 11th, 2022.

Speaker 7 But what was Caitlin Armstrong up to? If she's not going to tell us, Prosecutor Ricky Jones says the evidence he's about to present in this courthouse will.

Speaker 39 Colin Strickland is very clear that he never told Caitlin Armstrong that he was going to see Mo Wilson.

Speaker 39 One of the big questions that I think so many people had going into the trial is how Caitlin Armstrong knew where Mariah Wilson was that night.

Speaker 43 A forensic analysis of Caitlin's personal devices showed that Caitlin is obsessively looking at Mariah's Strava account in the days leading up to her arrival in Austin.

Speaker 43 Strava is an app that cyclists use to track and share where they are arriving.

Speaker 73 On May 11, 2022, Caitlin Armstrong looks up over some stuff.

Speaker 57 You see that.

Speaker 3 Caitlin Armstrong's sleep.

Speaker 43 Investigators say Strava shows Mariah starting and finishing her May 11th ride at Cash's garage apartment on Maple Avenue. So now Caitlin knows Mariah is in Austin and where she is likely staying.

Speaker 73 It's Caitlin Armstrong

Speaker 61 who lived with Collin.

Speaker 73 It was business partner. As a result of that business,

Speaker 73 they shared an iPad on a laptop It was connected to Tom's phone.

Speaker 48 So anytime that he would receive a text message, that same text message would also come across on his computer.

Speaker 48 Caitlin had full access to be able to see anybody that he had already been texting with.

Speaker 41 She had access to his accounts so that she could do banking business. It was never intended that they share everything, every password, every correspondence that he had ever had.

Speaker 41 4.49 p.m., I made that move, send the tent copy.

Speaker 23 Caitlin Armstrong

Speaker 23 is back home.

Speaker 48 So that's pretty significant because now I know that Caitlin was aware of the conversations that Colin was having with Mariah.

Speaker 29 I believe that the triggering mechanism was that text message. I think she sees that message at 4.54.

Speaker 29 And shortly thereafter is when she's in that Jeep in the Lamar area.

Speaker 43 The prosecution says cell phone pings show Caitlin's Jeep driving to the address in East Austin.

Speaker 43 Experts show the jury the timestamps on those cell phone pings match the timestamps on video evidence collected on the the night of the murder.

Speaker 61 Now,

Speaker 54 there's four videos based on him

Speaker 73 that captures Caitlin Armstrong circling Cass's house.

Speaker 8 The car had passed through the neighborhood several times.

Speaker 7 She circles the block, and then at 7:30 p.m., she shuts off her phone.

Speaker 3 Yes.

Speaker 7 Caitlin shuts off her phone, or somehow the phone goes dead. Why is that significant?

Speaker 29 I think she knows the phone can be tracked.

Speaker 7 But something else is working in her car.

Speaker 32 Right.

Speaker 36 The infotainment system itself. It has just a built-in GPS.

Speaker 7 And once the cell phone lost connection with the tower, the GPS showed it continued over to Maple Avenue.

Speaker 29 GPS location

Speaker 73 puts Caitlin Armstrong

Speaker 3 Jeep

Speaker 73 in an alley about 15, 20 yards from

Speaker 73 those stairs that Mo Wilson went up at Cody 16.

Speaker 43 In a dramatic moment, the prosecution rolls out what they say is a silent witness to the murder, Mariah's bike.

Speaker 6 I will never forget the moment that the assistant DA carried Mariah's bicycle into the courtroom. I remember looking at her family and seeing their reaction.

Speaker 6 It was as close to having her in the courtroom that day, I think, as

Speaker 6 anything.

Speaker 50 We did swap for DNA on the bike that we found in the alleyway, and there was DNA that came back on the seat in the handlebar area of the bike that was showing to have a high likelihood to belong to Miss Armstrong.

Speaker 45 No one else in the world had a six-hour P365 and left their DNA at the scene. No one else in the world was angry that their boyfriend was out with Mo Wilson.

Speaker 45 Just her. No one else in the world had their Jeep circling for an hour before you heard that 9-15 shot.

Speaker 43 After eight days of testimony, the prosecution rests.

Speaker 54 There is a lot of system.

Speaker 17 There's not much stake.

Speaker 32 It's a case based on assumptions.

Speaker 54 It's based on confirmation bias, a lack of direct evidence.

Speaker 39 The defense absolutely focused on the fact that in this digital age with all of these cameras that not a single image of Caitlin Armstrong carrying out the murder was admitted into evidence.

Speaker 50 We were not able to see anybody in the driver's seat. It was dark at the time.
We weren't able to see any occupants in the Jeep.

Speaker 28 Was Caitlin in the Black Jeep?

Speaker 9 Who had access to the Black Jeep?

Speaker 54 Who had access to the key fob to the Black Jeep?

Speaker 7 You and your partner seem to imply that Colin may have been driving the Jeep that night. Do you think Colin was driving that black Jeep?

Speaker 24 It's not our role to solve that crime.

Speaker 32 We want to make sure the jury considers all the possibilities.

Speaker 41 The defense seemed to be implying and that it could have just as easily been Colin as it was thought to be Caitlin, which is absurd and ridiculous and really offensive.

Speaker 41 There's video evidence proving that Colin was elsewhere.

Speaker 39 One of the things that was so striking about the defense is that I think in the minds of many people sitting in the courtroom, it was like, that's it, that's all you have.

Speaker 43 After nearly 40 witnesses and almost 500 pieces of evidence, the case is in the hands of the jury.

Speaker 36 I remember I was very nervous, extremely nervous.

Speaker 48 I was thinking, you know, was that enough?

Speaker 48 The defendant will please rise.

Speaker 39 In a little more than two hours, the jury re-enters the courtroom.

Speaker 45 The defendant will please rise.

Speaker 45 We, the jury, having found the defendant Caitlin Armstrong guilty of the offense of murder,

Speaker 39 the jury delivered a 90-year sentence and a $10,000 fine.

Speaker 7 We take all

Speaker 63 acts of violence and gun violence really seriously. It is an entire team who works hard to live up to the aspirations of our community.
This case was no exception.

Speaker 48 You may be seated.

Speaker 43 Before Caitlin Armstrong is escorted out of court, Mariah's family and friends were given a chance to speak to her directly.

Speaker 13 Karen Wilson, young.

Speaker 17 I hate what you did to my beautiful daughter.

Speaker 17 It was very selfish and cowardly because you never chose to face her woman to woman in a civil conversation.

Speaker 35 She would have listened.

Speaker 17 If you allowed yourself to actually know her, this never would have happened.

Speaker 35 You killed her earthly body, but her spirit is so very much alive and you can never change that.

Speaker 7 While Caitlin Armstrong's father's heart breaks for his daughter, he also says he feels for the Wilsons.

Speaker 4 A wonderful young woman has lost her life,

Speaker 52 and I can't imagine the pain of the Wilson family.

Speaker 9 We'll never know, but I think that she could have been the greatest female bike racer to ever live.

Speaker 3 Welcome

Speaker 60 to the first annual ride from Mo.

Speaker 34 I'm Eric Mariah's dad. Mariah was a wonderful daughter, sister, and friend of many of you.

Speaker 34 We miss her dearly, and I know many of you do as well.

Speaker 35 I know there's 125 of you.

Speaker 44 We got like four.

Speaker 57 To ride Vermont to raise money for Kingdom Kids, to be a part of their family and support them.

Speaker 35 Kingdom Kids is a little organization to get kids out on these trails, and so many of us that volunteer for Kingdom Kids really love Mariah a lot.

Speaker 36 It's in an unheated holiday.

Speaker 61 It was a cold night.

Speaker 75 Support and

Speaker 5 do the things that she can't do in English. Right.

Speaker 26 It's impossible to overstate how tragic this has been. She had just barely begun to show the athlete that she was going to be in gravel cycling.

Speaker 84 So Mariah might say, enjoy the interchange of you and the environment today. May it lift you beyond your skin to a transcendent joy, beyond the ego, and into a different reality.

Speaker 33 Mo is like a phenomenal person. They're using the slogan, Ride for Mo.

Speaker 38 I think you can take that message and like apply it to anything in life.

Speaker 36 Life lessons, even in tragedy, and in fact, the third annual Ride for Mo was recently held in her honor. The proceeds going to expand access to recreation, sports, and educational programs.

Speaker 78 Mariah's killer, David, Caitlin Armstrong, has an an appeal that is still pending. That's our program for tonight.
Thanks so much for watching. I'm Deborah Roberts.

Speaker 36 And I'm David Muir from All of Us here at 2020 and ABC News.

Speaker 8 Good night.

Speaker 56 911, what is the address to your emergency?

Speaker 81 This 911 call began an investigation that would turn the town of Ashland, Ohio, into a crime scene. We've got something big going on here.

Speaker 80 The first thing that hit my mind is a monster.

Speaker 81 A new series from ABC ABC Audio in 2020: The Hand in the Window.

Speaker 81 Out now, wherever you listen to podcasts.