A woman named as a suspect in the murder of a rising off-road cycling star in Texas last month has been arrested in Costa Rica, authorities said Thursday, ending a 43-day search.
The US Marshals Service said suspect Kaitlin Marie Armstrong was found at a hostel on Santa Teresa beach in Puntarenas province on Costa Rica’s west coast. The authorities said she would be deported to the United States.
Ms Armstrong, 34, had been wanted in the death of Anna Moriah Wilson, who competed in gravel cycling, a discipline that combines mountain biking and road cycling. Ms Wilson, 25, died shortly after she was found unconscious and bleeding from multiple gunshot wounds at a friend’s home in Austin, Texas on May 11, authorities said.
Costa Rican authorities, the State Department’s Diplomatic Security Service, Homeland Security Investigations and the US Marshals Office of International Operations worked together to locate and arrest Ms. Armstrong, who the Marshals Service said used a fake passport to travel from Newark to Fly to San José, Costa Rica, on May 18th.
A police affidavit revealed that Ms Wilson and Ms Armstrong were both romantically involved with another cycling star, Colin Strickland, 35.
Police said Ms Wilson, known as Mo, was shot multiple times and the shots did not appear to be accidental.
Police questioned Ms. Armstrong on May 13. She is believed to have boarded a flight to Houston the next day before traveling to New York, the Marshals Service said. On May 18, a day after Austin police received a warrant for her first-degree murder, Ms Armstrong was seen at Newark Liberty International Airport, but no outbound flights were booked under her name.
The Marshals Service Ms. Armstrong said was armed and dangerousShe offered a $5,000 reward for information leading to her arrest. Additionally, Capital Area Crime Stoppers offered $1,000 and an anonymous donor $15,000, for a total bounty of $21,000.
On the night Ms. Wilson was killed, she and Mr. Strickland had visited Deep Eddy Pool in Austin and had dinner together at a restaurant, according to the police affidavit released by The Austin American-Statesman .
Mr. Strickland told police that he dropped Ms. Wilson off at her friend’s house and did not go inside.
He told investigators that he was romantically involved with Ms. Wilson last October during a one- or two-week hiatus in his roughly three-year relationship with Ms. Armstrong, according to the affidavit.
The affidavit said an anonymous caller told police that Ms Armstrong said she wanted to kill Ms Wilson in January after learning Mr Strickland was in a romantic relationship with her.
According to the affidavit, a vehicle similar to Ms. Armstrong’s was seen outside the Austin home where Ms. Wilson was staying an hour before police responded to her friend’s 911 call. Ms Armstrong did not explain why her vehicle was near the crime scene, police said. According to Marshals Service, Ms. Armstrong sold the car, a Jeep Grand Cherokee, on May 13 at an Austin CarMax location for $12,200.
In December or January, Mr. Strickland bought two 9-millimeter handguns, one for himself and one for Ms. Armstrong, the affidavit said. A police analysis of Ms. Armstrong’s gun, found at Mr. Strickland’s home, found she had “significant” potential to be the one that killed Ms. Wilson, the affidavit said.
“There is no way to adequately express the regret and anguish I feel at my closeness to this horrific crime,” Mr. Strickland said in a statement to The Austin American-Statesman. “I’m sorry and I just can’t understand this unfathomable tragedy.”
Mr Strickland said he had a brief romantic relationship with Ms Wilson last autumn “which lasted for a week or so” and then reconciled with Ms Armstrong. He said that he and Ms. Wilson no longer had a romantic relationship after that, but instead had a platonic and professional relationship and often saw each other at cycling events.
“Moriah and I were both leaders in this lonely niche sport of cycling and I greatly admired her and considered her a close friend,” Mr Strickland said in his statement. “I deeply mourn her loss.”