Capturing Moriah Wilson's Killer | Full Episode + Post Mortem | Forensic Files

[Music] here with the fabulous Mo Wilson you are like ready I'm ready I'm so excited to
be here um feels like the first big race of the year so um yeah I'm ready to kick
it off I'm still getting better I'm still learning it's an exciting time there's
still so much for me to learn her name was Mariah but everybody called her Mo my name is polar Melendez and I am a
senior reporter with The Daily Beast funny and friendly and smart and driven Mo was a rising star she
graduated from Dartmouth and Engineering everyone thought she was about to make her big break in cycling
[Music] I have always relied on other people to push [Music] myself what happened to Mo was a
tragedy they found Mo inside the residence it was pretty grizzly scene she had been
shot multiple times at first detectives thought it was a robbery you're looking into this possibility of a robbery or a
burglary but parallel to that there is this name Colin Strickland my name is Colin Strickland I
am a bicycle racer Colin Strickland was a top biker and he was also friends with
Mo I mean Colin you know he was an interesting character had a lot of like you know cool qualities about him
motorcycled professional athlete I mean Colin had dated like a few girls in the cycling scene you know girlfriends here
and there but you know pretty standard stuff Colin's relationship with Mo like was like they were both bike racers they
had like a romantic relationship there had definitely been something romantic between
them colins said they had broken up the situation was complicated there was another woman in
colins Lake her name was Caitlyn Armstrong Caitlyn you know first impressions she was really nice Globe
hopping around the world was you know really interested in yoga like very attractive person uh both inside and out
at least the Caitlyn and I you know initially knew homicide detectives were very
interested in talking to Caitlyn Armstrong he's starting to get this sense that there could be some jealousy
to it she has a gun few things like that start to paint a picture of like it could definitely be
her we were still trying to figure out are they going to have enough information to sit down and scratch out
a warrant at this point she kind of disappears no one knows where she [Applause]
is Caitlyn Armstrong vanished seeming in a thin air sparking what would become an
international Manhunt first leading authorities across the United States and then eventually here to the beaches of
Costa Rica along the way she used multiple identities and changed her appearance even getting plastic
surgery how smart was Caitlyn Armstrong she did some pretty intelligent things the thing that people don't know is you
don't have to be just smarter than 1 2 three or four of us cuz there's a team of 20 plus people you have to be smarter
than a lot of people to get away with it it almost worked it almost worked [Music]
[Music] hello I'm here with the fabulous Mo Wilson you are like ready I'm ready ready in March of 2022 upand cominging
PR gravel bike racer 25-year-old Anna Mariah Wilson known as Mo to some appeared on the pre-ride show an online
program about cycling so excited to be here um feels like the first big race of the year so um yeah I'm ready to kick it
off just two months later Mariah was found murdered the news shocking the cycling
Community I don't think anybody could really believe it at first you know why would anybody want to hurt or harm or
kill this lovely talented young woman Lisa gosin Len is the editor of Vermont Sports magazine and Vermont ski and Ride
magazine she's also a CBS News consultant Mariah Wilson right there coming in Lynn had been following Mariah
Wilson's career for many months before her tragic death is all Mariah Wilson as she is snaking through into the finish
of Mariah was pretty much winning every race that she entered Mariah Wilson the winner of round one of winning or
finishing in the top two and the races that she entered were top tier first place Mo Wilson Mariah had the potential
to be one of the top bike racers definitely in the country and probably in the world MO
phenomenal race remarkably Lynn says that Mariah was new to the procycling world her first Passion had been
downhill ski racing a love shared by her close-knit family she was born into a family of really great athletes her
father Eric had been on the US ski team and Mariah's Aunt actually was a two-time Olympic Nordic ski racer and
it's no surprise that Mariah was drawn to outdoor Endurance Sports she was raised in Northern Vermont next to
Kingdom Trails a mecca for skiers and mountain bikers and that was her playground
Mariah attended Burke Mountain Academy an elite ski school that produced Olympic rates like two-time gold
medalist Michaela schiffren Mariah had hoped to make the US ski team but knee injuries eventually ended her skiing
career that's when she switched Sports she had used cycling as a way for rehabbing and kind of building back her
strength what was fascinating to me was she then went on to Dartmouth she got an
engineering degree and after doing that she went to her mother and said hey Mom I think I want to be a professional
cyclist and Mariah told the podcast we got to hang out that she wanted to do much more than just win
races how can I inspire people how can I give back to the cycling Community how can I bring more people into the sport
how can I make it more inclusive like I want to find meaning purpose in cycling that goes like far beyond the the
result Mariah eventually moved to San Francisco where she focused on cycling and quickly Rose to the top of the sport
Mariah was forging her own path she knew what she wanted to do and she was working hard to pursue
[Music] it on May 10th 2022 just one week before her 26th birthday Mariah arrived in Austin Texas
to prepare for the gravel Loos bike race a race she was favored to win Mariah stayed with a close friend in
this Austin apartment but the next evening just before 1 p.m. the friend returned home
and discovered Mariah who had been shot multiple times she called 911 she's laying on the bathroom floor and there's
blood everywhere Mariah's friend tried CPR but it was too late it sound like started off near the door and went
backwards like she was trying to get away or there was some sort of struggle or Austin police officers Mark McLoud
and Jonathan Riley worked the case from the beginning whoever shot her at that point stood over top of her and shot her
at least once Char you're in apartment investigators wondered who could have murdered this promising young athlete as
they canvas the immediate area police discovered a possible clue I2 all located the bike Mariah's expensive
racing bicycle had been discarded in the bushes so that point okay is this a burglary a robbery gone wrong but that
theory was quickly dismissed because there was no sign of a Breakin then police learned that just hours before
Mariah was found murdered at around 8:30 p.m. she had been dropped off by another
professional bike racer named Colin Strickland so obviously the focus would be who's this Callin
Strickland Colin Strickland was a very good gravel racer he was at the top Echelon Colin Strickland who was 35 was
considered a Pioneer in the sport he had won some of the most prestigious races and was sponsored by the industry's top
brands like Red Bull my name is Colin Strickland I am a bicycle racer and general
Entertainer in 2020 he appeared in an online video called Wahoo Frontiers about his long and successful career
pretty early on I looked up to Colin when I was coming up in the scene please welcome for Chris
T Chris T is friends with Colin Strickland they met on the racetrack he was the one to beat he loved to kind of
create a show around bike racing uh kind of selling bike racing he was really passionate about
it and tally said although his friend had been popular with women he eventually became serious with a woman
named Caitlyn Armstrong however in a social media post after the crime Strickland wrote that about six months
before Mariah's murder during a short breakup with Armstrong he did have a brief romantic relationship with Mariah
that spanned a week or so he said that it ended and their relationship had turned into a platonic and professional
one he just wanted to be friends with like someone who was going to do great things in cycling
the day after Mariah's murder police visited and spoke to Colin Strickland at his home my personal take was he was
being very Cooperative being very forthcoming um obviously he was in shock being very transparent very transparent
yeah an investigators say when he agreed to go down to the police station to be interviewed he didn't seem to hold back
when telling them about the day he spent with Mariah a day that would end up being her last that day in May it was
hot in the80s and this story started with a swim right here it's a famous old outdoor pool and Colin Strickland told
detectives he took the victim Mo Wilson on the back of his motorcycle here to cool off they went swimming then they
got food Mariah and Strickland are seen here on the restaurant's security camera
I know he's being transparent at this point during this questioning but what he's saying is starting to sound a lot
like a date oh yeah 100% investigators had a lot of questions and their prior visit to
Strickland's home had raised even more on the night of Mariah's murder police discovered an important clue on video
from a neighbor security camera the video was taken just one minute after Mariah was dropped off there's a video
from a ring doorbell camera that clearly shows like a black SUV with a bike rack
can't see the license plate because of the bike rack on it so it was obviously like we need to focus on this and a
vehicle that fit that description was outside Strickland's house who was driving the black Jeep SUV with the bike
rack the answer would lead directly to another woman [Music] the day after Mariah Wilson's murder
investigators quickly had an answer to who could have been driving that black Jeep that was seen on security cameras
shortly before her death investigators had spotted a similar looking Jeep in Colin Strickland's driveway when they
spoke to him they see a black jeep with the bike rack on the back of it so at that point we run the license plate and
it comes back that it's registered to Caitlin Armstrong Caitlyn Armstrong Colin Strickland's
Girlfriend Chris T says he knew her very well you know we connected pretty early
on Caitlyn and I became friends they were both from the Midwest we kind of had a similar uh like upbringing and so
I think that kind of uh you know helped us become like even better friends she'd
come over to parties I would have Armstrong had a background in finance and loved yoga she had a really strong
you know kind of uh you know love for travel love you know she spent time pretty much you know glob hopping around
the world really you know kind of interesting person Armstrong got certified as a yoga instructor in Bali
after she met Colin Strickland in 2019 she also started getting into cycling he was very willing to kind of show her you
know what his passions were and how passionate he was for cycling and and you know get her involved with it and
she also became you know kind of addicted to cycling along with Colin Armstrong even started racing on an an
amateur level at the end of the day like I feel like they had a pretty like normal relationship they both ride bikes
together they would you know do fun stuff and you know then 2020 happened and the pandemic started so everyone was
kind of you know forced with uh you know Close Quarters with their significant others the couple eventually moved in
together the moment I I saw the relationship become more serious is you know they talked about uh that they
purchased a house recently uh together which I thought you know was a pretty big indication that it's a you know a
serious relationship they also start started a business together restoring classic trailers I think she was helping
with the finance side of things Colin was doing a lot of the operations their relationship went from you know just a
normal couple to also owning a business together but things got bumpy in late 2021 the breakup I personally didn't
know like they were split up at the time neither of them mentioned anything to me
it was during this time that Colin Strickland and Mariah Wilson had briefly dated although Strickland had said they
had broken It Off Mariah seemed confused in the aftermath po Melendez covered the case
for The Daily Beast around this time I think Mo was pretty confused about her the status of her relationship with
Colin and she literally wrote this weekend was strange for me if you just want to be friends that's cool honestly
my mind has been going in circles it sounds like someone who's in her early 20s who just wants to know the status of
her relationship with someone that's confusing her and it seems totally reasonable that she might be
confused Strickland had a lot to say about his relationship with Caitlyn Armstrong he starts to portray her as
being the jealous type even saying things like I can't keep people in my phone like Mo's not in my phone as Mo
Strickland told investigators he kept Mariah's phone number under an alias in his contacts and on that evening after
he'd been out with Mariah at the pool he texted Armstrong that he'd been running
an errand and that his phone had died that was not true investigators say there were other
Clues pointing toward Caitlyn Armstrong on the night of the murder Caitlyn Armstrong's phone was not
connected to a cell network not connected correct so whether she powered it off whether she put it in Airplane
Mode uh there's some something happened that her phone was not communicating with any cell phone towers do you think
this was on purpose absolutely in this day and age if your phone is off and not connected to a network you're either the
victim of a crime or you're probably committing one a silent phone speaks louder in some cases than actions oh
absolutely Strickland also shared that he had bought handguns for Armstrong and himself for personal
security he talks about how they purchase guns and that there are these two guns and that she has a gun um
they've taken lessons and that th these guns are back at the house and so few things like that start to paint a
picture of like this could it could definitely be her police worked quickly that same day investigators picked
Caitlyn Armstrong up on an old warrant for failing to pay for a Botox treatment she's just kind of sitting there and
she's not showing very much emotion at all what were you doing yesterday I would like to leave I think typically
when we see some interviews going on and if you didn't do it this is your like you're going to be like you know not me
not it I want out of this room what do you want to know so you don't come back looking for me and there was none of
that is there any explanation as far as why the vehicle would be over there I would like to leave she was almost
completely disinterested in in hearing what the detectives had to say so it sounds like this is a big red flag
immediately oh oh absolutely but investigators had to let Armstrong go there was a problem Armstrong's birth
date did not match the date on the warrant so the warrant wasn't valid and police didn't have enough to charge her
with anything else 2 days after that interview police got an unexpected call it was from a
friend of Caitlyn Armstrong police say the caller told them that Armstrong was so angry about Strickland's relationship
with Mariah that she wanted to kill her it was yet another indication that they were on the right
track a few days later an arrest warrant was issued but when police went looking
for Caitlyn Armstrong she was [Music] gone after Caitlyn Armstrong vanished US Marshall got the job of
tracking her down plain and simply the Marshals are manhunters Chris godik hosts and
produces a podcast with the US Marshall service I'm Chris godik and this is chasing
evil his podcast tells the stories of some of the US Marshals biggest cases including the hunt for Caitlyn
Armstrong nobody thought Caitlyn Armstrong was going to run and she surprised the ball she disappeared
Caitlyn Armstrong ran from a murder charge but the US Marshals Lone Star fugitive task force had a different
plan so take me through this where do you begin when you're looking for somebody that does not want to be found
you know it depends on the case honestly we look for friends sometimes we look for family one of the things that I did
was collect as many photos as I could Damen Fernandez and Amir Perez are Deputy US Marshals
they joined Austin police officers Jonathan Riley and Mark McLoud on the case the team based in Texas is known as
the Lone Star fugitive task force with no sign of Caitlyn Armstrong the task force suspected Armstrong may have left
town headed for her sister christe's place in Upstate New York we were thinking maybe she's
driving cross country we didn't know their instincts were right in Upstate New York another Deputy Marshall managed
to track down Armstrong's sister what did the sister say the sister ultimately said that her sister had come to visit
her had stayed with her a couple of days but that she had dropped her off at the
airport in New York and uh last she heard she was going to board a flight back to Austin but then called her back
later and said that she decided that she was going to drive back and which made absolutely no sense
to any of us that you would just drive back when the task force checked outbound flights at Newark Airport No
Reservations have been made in Caitlyn Armstrong's name we never got a hit on Caitlyn Armstrong's passport but the
team had a hunch unaware because christe told the deputy Marshall in New York that she didn't know where her passport
was so they checked with their contact at Homeland Security and within minutes of reaching out to him he got back to me
and he's like yeah we're showing a Christy Armstrong traveled out of nework New Jersey International Airport on a
one-way flight to Costa Rica you knew it and I said there's no way that the sister left and we're looking for her we
can't find Caitlyn no that's Caitlyn the Marshall suspected that Caitlyn Armstrong had used her sister's
passport to flee Christy Armstrong later emphasized to authorities she did not give her sister the passport she has
never been charged with any crime related to this case [Music] [Music] and this is where Caitlyn Armstrong
landed Costa Rica Gem of Central America home to mountains tropical rainforests and white sand beaches as far as the eye
can see but she didn't spend much time here in San Jose shortly after arriving Caitlyn AR Armstrong disappeared again
and she had a huge lead on the US [Applause] Marshals Marshall's Amir Perez and Damen
Fernandez arrived in Costa Rica a month after Armstrong this is you guys now on the
hunt how intense is it once you touch down in Costa Rica what happens you're on a timeline I hear timeline and I hear
the pressure's on pressure's on I know we were sitting in the plane and we're talking what's the game
plan although they would have help from the Costa Rican authorities and US state
department officers on the ground they knew finding Armstrong was going to be a big challenge we had other intelligence
indicating that she was staying in hostels in Costa Rica and I don't know if you know anything about Costa Rica
but Costa Rica has a lot of hostiles a lot an unbelievable amount of hostiles the marshals wouldn't tell us exactly
how their intelligence gathering worked but their team back in the States had managed to track down the phone number
for an American businessman they believed had connected with Caitlyn Armstrong at some point we didn't know
what city he was in so we decided hey let's just cold call him so we call him and we're on the conference room he
answers and we're like hey it's the US Marshals U my name is Mark and he goes I don't want any click just hangs up like
it's a like a Tark Tark a scam call yeah after three or four call attempts the businessman finally stayed on the line
to answer the Marshall's questions and we actually end up sending a picture of Caitlyn while we're on the phone with
him he looks at it and he goes yes but she doesn't look like that and she not using that name and did he tell you her
new name he did it was B going by B and the businessman said Armstrong no longer looked like this she
had cut her hair and changed it color went Brown instead of red she dyed her hair the businessman told the marshals
he had no idea that the woman who called herself Beth was actually Caitlyn Armstrong but he did tell them where
they might find her he's like well I met her at a yoga studio in hako this is hako a popular tourist
destination known for its nightlife and its beaches and the perfect place to hi hied it was the Marshall's first real
tip so they rushed out here they canvased the area comb through hours of surveillance video but could
not find a single sign of Caitlyn Armstrong anywhere it was a bust but the marshals have one more
solid lead and that takes them to a beautiful touristy Beach Town one street town called Santa Teresa
[Music] one month after Caitlyn Armstrong disappeared the US Marshals were in Hot
Pursuit of her and in another area of Costa Rica a source had suggested she might
have gone to a small village on the Pacific coast the marshals took a fery like this one to reach a remote
Peninsula once there they drove by car through those mountains to the Tiny Town of Santa Teresa but when they finally
arrived they ran into an unexpected problem get to Santa Teresa was it easy to identify her there
from the other people that were there I think from the GetGo we were told you're
going to be in for a surprise cuz a lot of the women in Santa Teresa look just like K A lot of them and it turns out
that advice was right the town was full of foreign tourists Deputy Marshalls Fernandez and
Perez arrived in Santa Teresa after dark so we get there and he starts walking down a main strip that's there uh like
down the street only one road on on that town and he sees Main Road he sees a girl and he says you know that looks
just like her well couple of minutes later we see another one and it's late at night and we're like well oh man
that's too and then there's another one as the marshals tried to find Armstrong they even had one of their
female operatives start going to yoga classes to see if they could spot her she actually did three different
classes for us and they Captain to local contacts oh yeah we made friends with people there that would send us pictures
oh look I I think I saw her at this restaurant yesterday and she's in the back in the background of a photo that I
took stuff like that in fact people had seen Caitlyn Armstrong at local spots in Santa Teresa
but they didn't realize who she was Armstrong was hiding in plain sight using different
names she had like multiple names yeah um she came inth um Beth it wasn't Beth Ari Ari Ari Ari right so she came in as
Ari Greg Haber is an American from the New York area who owns a restaurant called Cook's Smokehouse and bar here in
Santa Teresa Ari what did Ari look like did she stand out to you pretty came in introduced herself as a yoga teacher
which is basically anybody else down here hey I moved here teaching yoga down the street and that was it what was her
General Vibe like she definitely seemed like she was trying to establish Roots here like this was going to be her new
home and Haber says one day he noticed something different about her I saw her on the beach I walk my dog on the beach
every night for Sunset and you're walking through and you see the bandage on her face it's like ah what happened
she like ah surfboard hit me in the face it's like well happens to everybody right at least once so you wouldn't even
question that story here like you see people all the time turns out that bandage with later proved to be an
important part of this story and one of the reasons the Marshalls say Armstrong was so hard to find so you're this close
to giving up yes finally they decided on one last tactic they turned to a local Facebook page we decided we were going
to put an ad out for a yoga instructor and see what would happen so this is the equivalent of Craigslist yes correct
pretty much and a little of a more lively but yes and just saying hey we're this hostel we're looking for a yoga
instructor the soon as the possible please contact us at this number but after almost a week of hunting even that
didn't seem to be working Sunday we decided we haven't gotten any response back from anything we're burned so
Sunday are like okay we're done none of them have panned out so we're going back
to San Jose now back in San Jose the marshals were getting ready to head home when suddenly
we got a bite somebody that identified herself as a yoga instructor and said that wanted to meet with us at a
particular hostel and we said this is this is our chance Deputy Marshals Perez and Fernandez rushed back to Santa
Teresa just ahead of a tropical storm tourism police Lieutenant Juan Carlos solano's team helped the marshals
in their search for Caitlyn Armstrong they did surveillance on a hostel called Don John's where the yoga instructor the
one who answered the online ad was believed to be so there is this massive International Manhunt and of all places
in the world it ends in this very discreet hosle it was now time for the marshals
to make their move so I walked up and I got in they decided that deput Marshall Perez would approach the woman alone
they didn't want to scare her off he would pretend to be a tourist and try to get a really good look at her face and I
saw two individuals sitting there at a table off to the left uh as soon as I walked in he says one was a woman she
looked like Caitlyn but not 100% so I thought well how can I approach her or get close enough where I start asking
questions where she doesn't suspect something so I decided that I was going to speak to her in Spanish so I spoke to
her in nothing but Spanish so you're communicating she goes to use her phone for Google translate and then so I got a
little closer cuz I saw that she was trying to get to Google Translate on her phone and she'd rais it up to me and I
got even closer and I noticed that she had a bandage on her nose and possibly her lips were swollen and I saw her eyes
the eyes are the exact same ones that I saw in the picture and this is her 100% % he gets in the car and he's like
that's her she's in there local police moved in to make the actual arrest and soon the marshals discovered
why Armstrong had been so hard to find she had been getting plastic surgery when they first arrived in Santa Teresa
at the hospital they found a receipt the receipt for surgery plastic surgery plastic surgery in these side
by-side photos you can see that Armstrong changed the shape of her nose the deputy Marshall said their
female operative the woman they sent to yoga classes to try to find Armstrong told them Armstrong's New Look would
have tricked her and she told me I think if I would have run into her at the yoga
studio I don't think I would have recognized her wow it almost worked it almost worked the marshals took Armstrong back
to Texas where she was charged and held in jail but just weeks before she was due to stand trial for the murder of
Mori Wilson Caitlyn Armstrong escaped again what do you make of the investigators undercover operation chat
now with the 48 Hours team on Facebook andex almost 3 weeks before her trial former fugitive Caitlyn Armstrong
somehow managed to escape from custody she was at a doctor's appointment and tried to escape as they were walking out
parar Melendez from The Daily Beast says Armstrong didn't get far before deputies
caught her it was pretty astonishing that she did that given the fact that she had tried to escape prosecution
prior this was just more evidence of her guilt Jose Garza is Travis County's district attorney he says his team of
prosecutors Ricky Jones and guo Gonzalez were more than ready to try the case when we learned that um she had tried to
escape um it just added to our confidence level in the facts of this case that we would be able to secure
Justice for Mariah and her family on November 1st 2023 Armstrong's trial began the Last Thing mo did on this
Earth was SC and Terror in opening statements Jones told the jury about chilling audio from a security camera
that captured the last moments of Mariah's life those scams are followed by two gun shots kayen
Armstrong stood over Mo Wilson and put a third shot right in Wilson's prosecutors said Armstrong had
been tracking Mariah Wilson using a sports app Caitlyn prior to the murder had been following Mo on a straa app
which is basically an app that athletes used to track their miles running biking
and she knew exactly where she was and they said that Armstrong on the night of the murder was most likely
tracking Colin Strickland as well she did have the ability to monitor his Communications she had access to all of
his passwords so she had access to um his Instagram account I believe that when Mo sent Colin a
text letting him know the address of where she was I believe that Kaylin Armstrong was at
home on Colin Strickland's laptop she saw that message after murdering Mariah and before leaving the scene Jones told
the jury that Armstrong took Mariah's bike and discarded it in the bushes just yards away from where her sheep was
parked our belief is that she maybe staged it to look like a robbery or something or another theory is Mo
Wilson's bike is a tool of her trade it might have been like the bullet shot in the
heart I'm going to shoot you in the heart I'm going to throw away your bike but they said Armstrong made one
big mistake she left her DNA behind on the handlebars and seat of Mariah's bike and that's on all the evidence
prosecutors had against Armstrong there was that receipt that showed Armstrong had received plastic surgery while
hiding out in Costa Rica everything she does it's all consistent with trying to evade the
authorities but when it was the defense's turn attorney Jeffrey puer told the jury there was no direct
evidence including security footage that actually showed Armstrong was at the scene of the crime not one witness
saw Caitlyn Armstrong allegedly Commit This murder then why would Armstrong flee and hide from the authorities
defense attorney Rick kofer pointed the finger at Colin Strickland was she scared what do you
think do you think that she may have been concerned a little bit that her boyfriend had killed someone fear
results in fight or flight and it was flight but said there was a big problem with this Theory
because Strickland had nothing to do with the murder of Mariah Wilson in fact at the time of the murder
he was actually on the phone speaking with someone it wasn't Colin Strickland Armstrong's defense team did
not respond to our request for an interview after a two-e trial the defet will please rise it took the jury around
2 hours to decide Armstrong's we the jury find the defendant Caitlyn Armstrong guilty of the offense of
murder as a prosecutor the first row right behind you is the family and you begin to feel their pain and their
desire for a just outcome for their loved ones one day after her conviction Armstrong was sentenced to 90 years
behind bars you may be seated but before the case came to an end judge Brenda Kennedy allowed Caitlyn cash
Mariah's close friend whose apartment she'd been staying at and who had found Mariah's body to take the stand and
speak directly to Armstrong so many people in this room have lost so much I'm angry at
you at the UT utter tragic nature at the senselessness at not being able to hear Mo's voice
again I feel deep sadness for the road ahead then it was Mariah's mother's turn I hate what you did to my beautiful
daughter it was very selfish and cowardly that violent act on May 11 it was cowardly because you never chose to face
her Woman to Woman in a civil conversation she would have listened she was an amazing
listener she would have cared about your feelings but despite the pain Karen Wilson closed with words of love and
optimism because she said that's how Mariah would have wanted it you killed her Earthly body but her spirit is so
very much alive and you can never ch change that today in Kingdom trails in Northern
Vermont a place that was sacred to Mariah a trail was built in her honor it's called Mariah's
Ascent Mariah was a vermonter she was giving she was hardworking she was honest she was caring and she came from
a wonderful family and that family really wants that Legacy and all of her good qualities to inspire
[Music] others a good family man disappears I knew something bad was happening to him
I felt it then a high-speed chase reveals Clues it was like the scene out of a movie and a powerful motive Revenge
I had no idea the type of evil we were dealing at 48 hours Saturday on CBS screaming on Paramount
[Music] [Applause] [Music] plus hello and welcome back to another episode of 48 Hours postmortem I'm CBS
News correspondent and Marie green and today we are talking about the episode capturing Mariah Wilson's killer we're
going to discuss an international law enforcement hunt the killer getting plastic surgery to evade the authorities
and not just one but two Escape attempts all right so let's get into it uh here with me today is CBS News correspondent
Jonathan Vigliotti and Fields producer Hannah ver who reported on this mindboggling case thanks so much for for
joining us today hi thanks for having us thank you for having us Amry I know you
probably have a lot to say about this episode but of course before we jump in what we're going to do is just play some
of it for the listeners a bit of a recap of the case in June 2022 one month after
Caitlyn Armstrong suspected of murdering Mariah Wilson disappeared Deputy US Marshals Damen Fernandez and Amir Perez
traveled to Costa Rica they knew finding Armstrong was going to be a challenge we had intelligence indicating
that she was staying in hosts in Costa Rica and I don't know if you know anything about Costa Rica but Costa Rica
has a lot of hostiles a lot an unbelievable amount of hostiles A source told them Armstrong could be hiding out
in the small village of Santa Teresa but it was challenging because the town was
full of tourists many who look similar to Armstrong the marshals would later learn that Armstrong had also used
different names and had changed her appearance she had cut and colored her hair and even had gotten plastic surgery
they hit dead end after dead end so you're this this close to giving up yes so after many intense days of searching
for Armstrong with no luck the marshals decided to try one last tactic hoping that Armstrong's love of teaching yoga
would pay off for them they turned to a local Facebook page we decided we were going to put an ad out for a yoga
instructor and see what would happen and just saying a we're this hostel we're looking for a yoga instructor the soon
as the possible please contact us at this number but after almost a week of hunting even
that didn't seem to be working we haven't gotten any response back from anything none of them have panned out so
the marshals were about to head back to the United States when suddenly they got
a break we got a bite somebody that identified herself as a yoga instructor and said that wanted a meet with us at a
particular hostel and we said this is this is our chance all right listeners told you this was
going to be a big one um Jonathan how did you first learn about this case I came to learn about this case I think
like most people did back in May 2022 when it first broke and grabbed all of the international headlines and really
came to learn about all of the many layers when we started to dive deep into this for 48 hours and you know just the
Manhunt that unfolded uh from First Interstate to then International uh really was as you said
mindboggling and I and I think it's a really eye-opening exploration into the hard work that investigators in this
case a Joint Task Force um had to engage in just to bring someone like Caitlyn Armstrong eventually to Justice yeah I
want to talk about the motive here investigators believe that Caitlyn murdered Mariah because she was jealous
of the relationship that Mariah had with Colin but they only dated for a really short period of time and then it seems
like you know this was a platonic professional relationship in your experience reporting for 48 hours how
convincing is this as a motive yeah I thought it was a very compelling motive yes Colin Strickland described it as
professional and platonic at one point but he also did acknowledge that he was seeing Mariah he claimed when he was
broken up at the time with his girlfriend Caitlyn Armstrong so as he's trying to establish these clear
boundaries and lines there were overlaps though I mean what sounded like a date that he took the day of the night that
Mariah was murdered they went on a motorcycle to a pool and then out to have a meal and to me and I think to a
lot of people that will listen to this story while Colin Strickland tried to separate himself from having a
relationship with Mariah it certainly felt like it could be more and Colin and Mariah were in this um cycling world so
they knew they were going to be seeing each other at a lot of you know bike race events and stuff um but Colin at
some point felt he had to change what Mariah's name was in his phone and Caitlyn kind of figured that out and you
know he told Caitlin he was running errands but this is when he was actually hanging out with Mariah um the day that
she was killed so he essentially told Caitlyn a story that wasn't true of what he was actually doing that day see sorry
I got to say this guys need to know this it is the cover up that is always worse
than the crime actually kind of to what you're saying when you have to change someone's name in a phone that says
something obviously there was something more going on maybe not with his relationship with Mariah but he
obviously knew that there was this sensitivity with Caitlyn Armstrong and obviously that fueled a bigger fire was
Colin Strickland ever considered a suspect he he was initially and that's because at the time it was believed he
was the last person to have seen Mariah and it appeared that way but then when police looked into his phone records uh
he was on the phone at the time that this murder took place at that point though they still did not know who the
suspect was but it was becoming clear that Colin may not be the focus so you know one of the things I think that made
Caitlyn look perhaps more suspicious to police is that she had her cell phone off um on the night of the murder here's
Task Force officer Jonathan Riley from the show I just want to play some sound on the night of the murder Caitlyn
Armstrong's phone was not connected to a cell network not connected correct so whether she powered it off whether she
put it in Airplane Mode uh there's some something happened that her phone was not communicating with any cell phone
towers do you think this was on purpose absolutely in this day and age if your phone is off and not connected to a
network you're either the victim of a crime or you're probably committing one a silent phone speaks louder in some
cases than actions oh absolutely I mean we live with our cell phones attached to our hip they're
they're an appendage so it it makes sense that if the phone is is not on is not being uh tracked by Towers
something's going on if you're not literally up in the air flying and and we know that Caitlyn Armstrong was was
not flying at that point yeah it's surprising to me people don't realize even now that whatever you do with your
phone it's going going to be discovered and your digital footsteps can tell a very detailed story of what you're doing
right and so it's very telling when that goes silent yes the following day they pick Caitlyn up on an old warrant for
something that happened four years earlier an outstanding payment for Botox of all things I clearly no one was in a
rush to pin her down about this payment uh but it was fortuitous to a certain degree for for police because they were
able to bring her in um but the police almost had her in their grasp but ultimately they had to let her go
because of a clerical error her birthday did not match the one on the warrant that must have been frustrating for
investigators Hannah yeah I definitely think that it was and the female detective was asking Caitlyn you know a
few questions about this case and there was no big reaction from her and um what
Task Force officer McLoud also said is you know somebody innocent is going to be sitting here like you know what like
you've got the wrong person like you know have some kind of something reaction to say and she was just kind of
like she wasn't showing much emotion there which they thought was a red flag yeah and this also could have been a
triggering moment for Kaitlin Armstrong realizing that she was now truly the focus of this investigation and in a way
investigators showed their hand here but because of this cleric clerical error they weren't able to hold on to her her
you know you can't help but think had they been able to hold on to her just a little bit longer this International
Chase may never have happened so then of course as you point out she goes on the
lamb first to New York and then to Costa Rica of all places uh so when we get back we're going to discuss the
incredible police work that was done by the US Marshals a lonar fugitive task force and how Caitlyn Almost Got Away
With Murder stay tuned welcome back about a week after Mariah's murder Caitlyn flies to Costa Rica using
her sister's passport Jonathan you did a a round table interview with the special
task force uh assigned to this case I want to hear a clip from how investigators made that
Discovery when the task force checked outbound flights at Newark Airport No Reservations have been made in
Caitlyn Armstrong's name we never got a hit on Caitlyn Armstrong's passport but the team had a hunch unaware because
Christy told the deputy Marshall in New York that she didn't know where her passport was so they checked with their
contact at Homeland Security and within minutes of reaching out to him he got back to me and he's like yeah we're
showing uh Christy Armstrong traveled out of Newark New Jersey International Airport on a one-way flight to Costa
Rica you knew it and I said there's no way that the sister left and we're looking for her we can't find Caitlyn no
that's Caitlin I think it's important to point out that Caitlyn's sister christe has
never been charged with anything she told authorities when they first talked to her that the passport was missing and
then later emphasized to authorities that she did not give her sister the passport yes my first thought was was
this all part of Caitlyn Armstrong's master plan to go to New York to get this passport to then be able to flee to
a place like Costa Rica I think I'm just trying to get myself into the mindset of
Caitlyn Armstrong at this point yeah do we know why she picked Costa Rica well she has the background in yoga and the
marshals when they were like you know what is the motive for going to Costa Rica it was this yoga connection that it
made at all make sense Costa Rica has become a little bit of a yoga Mecca I know a lot of people go to Costa Rica to
do good yoga on the beach so in Costa Rica Caitlyn attempts to start a whole new life with a whole new identity the
task force first tracked down an American businessman who they believed had connections to her but when they
sent him a photo of Caitlyn he tells them that the woman he saw in Costa Rica had short brown hair which was different
from the hair that Caitlyn had in the photo and he also told them that she was going by a different name the name was
Beth and that he'd met her at a yoga Studio was this a big lead for investigators I think this was a huge
lead for investigators and and from that lead uh they really started looking into
yoga classes even sending in a female operative to take some classes all in an effort to try to spot Armstrong there
amongst the other people yeah and um this this guy that Armstrong had met in hako he's the one that kind of told her
about Santa Teresa and said you know this place is going to be more your style because you're into yoga so he
suggested that to her and that made perfect sense to the marshals and you know when they didn't find her in hako
that was their next destination was Santa Teresa um so 48 Hours doesn't often go to another country to pursue a
story I mean how do you land as a crew from New York in Costa Rica and start pursuing this story I mean do you have
help on the ground how do you do it there was four of us um from 48 Hours Jonathan myself and two other producers
that went down to Costa Rica but we worked with a local crew which was awesome because they know the lay of the
land the best they were all from Costa Rica it offered a very unique perspective so it's one thing to report
from the states on this Manhunt it's another thing for us to be there on the ground really tracing the steps that
Caitlyn Armstrong allegedly took it was from the perspective of that Journey we really got an idea of
just how hard Caitlyn Armstrong tried to evade capture so you know after we landed in San Jose we have to you know
do this long trk to get to Santa Teresa it kind of felt like we're off-roading the way the roads are there and our crew
ended up getting a flat tire in their vehicle and it happened where we were waiting to get onto the ferry and so
we're in this long line of cars and we have to change this tire before we load the car onto the ferry so we're taking
all of our production stuff out of the trunk to get the you know the extra wheel and we're just like rushing to get
this tire changed just like added to the urgency of everything that was going on
it was crazy but they did it successfully and we were fine the rest of the trip that's amazing cuz that's a
nightmare just when you're at home in a place you're familiar with right so 48 hours in the criw you actually find
someone who interacted with Caitlyn it's Greg Haber he's a local restaurant owner
Jonathan you spoke to him and he had some very helpful insight I want to play a clip from the broadcast what was her
General Vibe like she definitely seemed like she was trying to establish Roots here like this was going to be her new
home and Haber says one day he noticed something different about her I saw her on the beach I walk my dog on the beach
every night for Sunset and you're walking through and he you see the bandage on her face it's like ah what
happened she like ah surfboard hit me in the face it's like well happens to everybody right at least once so you
wouldn't even question that story here like you see people all the time you know Greg in that conversation we were
sitting at the bar that he owns there a bar and restaurant drinking a beer and he described Caitlyn Armstrong as like
most expats that move to a place like Santa Teresa uh just very comfortable very at ease he said uh she was very
nice when he met her and you get a really good sense of how she understands the area and how to play that area to
her Advantage is when he talked about the bandage and the story that she told him about a surfboard he's right what
better what better excuse can you make for having a bandage on your nose than you went surfing and got hit by a
surfboard she knew where she was she knew the environment she was in and she used those strengths to cover up what
she was hiding from and I was struck by the fact that he said you know she seemed like she was kind of dug in like
she was ready to make a whole new life which made me think to myself well she really didn't think she was ever going
to be caught right you it makes you wonder like how comfortable is she at this point so as it turns out the
bandage would later prove to be a really important part of the story is Marshall's learned that Caitlyn had
gotten plastic surgery while she was in Costa Rica according to the investigators they believe she
deliberately altered her appearance to avoid being recognized by police I want to play a clip from US Marshall Damen
Fernandez in these side by-side photos you can see that Armstrong changed the shape of her
nose the deputy Marshall said their female operative the woman they sent to yoga classes to try to find Armstrong
told them Armstrong's New Look would have tricked her and she told me I think if I would have run into her at the yoga
studio I don't think I would have recognized that wow it almost worked it almost
[Music] worked and it worked in more ways than one because not only did it change her
appearance but literally as the team was there trying to find her the first time
in Santa Teresa the reason they couldn't find her wasn't because they couldn't recognize her among people there she
literally was not there she was in another town actually getting that surgery at the time yeah those first few
days that they get to Santa Teresa she's back in San Jose that's where she gets the plastic surgery so they like had
just missed each other basically so the task force was uh hitting dead ends right and almost left
this is like they almost were like this is the end of the road but they got a response to that ad that they had put up
on Facebook looking for a yoga instructor and it led them to a hostel where Caitlyn was staying and and then
they finally arrest her I want to know what that moment was like for them I mean it's really an incredible moment if
you think about it because you have these investigators they're about to call it a quits they put out that ad as
a last ditch effort days went by they didn't hear anything they're about to make their way back to the US and then
they get a woman saying that she is an instructor of yoga that she is at this hostel come and meet me here it's like
this huge aha moment for the marshals so they had set up this meeting with the yoga instructor which ended up being
Caitlyn Armstrong at a specific time to meet with her but she contacted them again and said hey I like I can't make
the appointment because I'm left in charge of the front desk at the place where I'm staying and this actually was
good for the marshals because they had a very good idea of what hostile she was likely staying at at this point so they
were able to move in and find her working at that front desk they then move in and you have one of the marshals
that goes in prend to be a tourist so that he could get a closer look and of course as he's trying to get this closer
look because of the plastic surgery and all the other things that Caitlyn Armstrong had done to her
appearance initially he didn't even know if it was her until he locked eyes with
her eyes and it was those eyes that eventually gave her away it was a tremendous moment for them and obviously
the break in this case that they had spent so much time hoping for um they take her back to
Texas then incredibly just 3 weeks before her trial she makes another attempt at
Escape while being escorted by law enforcement to a doctor's appointment prosecutors felt that this was just more
evidence of her guilt because where why are you running this is your opportunity
to prove your innocence um what did the defense claim to explain that behavior um the defense said that the police
named Caitlyn as a suspect too quickly I think at one point they tried to paint Caitlyn as someone who was afraid of
Colin Strickland implying that Colin Strickland was somehow behind the murder of Mariah Wilson though prosecutors were
very quick to counter that saying there was no way Colin Strickland was involved
in this whatsoever because of his Alibi so as we've seen in many 48 Hours cases technology is making it easier to solve
crimes in this case prosecutors claim Caitlyn tracked both Mariah and cins whereabouts did the prosecution bring
this up at all in in making the case that Caitlyn was guilty yeah um we know Caitlyn looked um Mariah up on the straa
app which is something athletes specifically cyclists use to track you know their bike rides it shows you their
route you know kind of exactly where they're going I have it I'm not an athlete it's a very popular thing though
and so she looked Mariah up multiple times the day before Mariah was killed so she would was she was looking at this
more than once and then she also had access at the home where she lived with Colin you know to a laptop where his ey
messages could come up because if you have an iPhone and it's connected to your Mac laptop your iMessages can show
up there as well and so prosecutors believe that Caitlyn saw Mariah text Colin the address of the place that she
was staying in Austin while she was in town for that race um Mariah's family did not speak to you guys uh for the
broadcast but you did include a really touching statement from her mother that her mother made at sentencing I was in
the courtroom for the verdict and sentencing and was listening to Mariah's mother speak and emotions were really
high and you really felt the words that she was speaking it was it was really emotional to listen to I want to play
some of that I hate what you did to my beautiful daughter it was very selfish and
cowardly that violent act on May 11th it was cowardly because you never chose to face
her woman to woman in a civil conversation she would have listened she was an amazing
listener she would have cared about your [Music] feelings for me listening to that
statement I was able to picture an alternate reality where Caitlyn Armstrong shows up and and talks to
Mariah Mariah listens and they part ways with a new understanding and of course tragically that is not what happened
this was a brilliant young woman with a whole future ahead of her she was very smart she studied at Dartmouth she
wanted to be an engineer but she was so driven by her athleticism she was a skier before she got into biking and
then when she got into biking she not only rast the top she wanted to bring other women up with her and get them
into the pr gravel bike racing world and you know the career aside and a great career it was as young as she was she
was described by everyone that knew her as loving and caring and ultimately the unsuspecting victim of what was a very
deadly love triangle it was a really great hour I I kept on thinking I knew how it was going to end and I was wrong
at every turn until the very end um you guys did an excellent job and you did an excellent job at um just bringing
Mariah to life thank you thank you for having us so be sure to join us next Tuesday
for another postmortem and watch 48 hours Saturdays 109 Central on CBS and streaming on Paramount plus and if
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podcast

A promising young athlete is murdered and her suspected killer disappears. An international manhunt begins.

Watch "Capturing Moriah Wilson's Killer" and then catch up with "48 Hours" correspondent Jonathan Vigliotti and field producer Hannah Vair on "Post Mortem" as they go behind the scenes of reporting on the tragic murder of rising gravel cycling star Moriah Wilson. They’ll discuss the international chase that led a team of US Marshals to a remote beach town in Costa Rica, how plastic surgery almost kept the case unsolved, and the legacy that Moriah Wilson left behind.

00:01 Capturing Moriah Wilson's Killer 42:02 Listen to a post-mortem on the episode

Listen to "Post Mortem" wherever you get your podcasts: https://link.chtbl.com/WuNz2DVg?sid=YT

Crime. Social justice. Impact. "48 Hours" investigates the most intriguing crime and justice cases that touch on all areas of the human experience including greed and passion. "48 Hours," which premiered in 1988, has developed a rich history of original reporting and impact journalism that has helped exonerate wrongly convicted people, caused cold cases to be reopened and solved, and along the way changed lives.

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Brief Summary

Mariah Wilson was murdered, leading to a manhunt for Caitlyn Armstrong, who was ultimately convicted of the crime.

Key points

Mariah Wilson's Tragic Death. Mariah Wilson, a rising star in cycling, was found murdered just two months after her big race debut.
Caitlyn Armstrong Vanishes. Caitlyn Armstrong, the girlfriend of Colin Strickland, disappears after Mariah's murder, sparking a manhunt.
The International Manhunt. The US Marshals embark on a challenging search for Caitlyn Armstrong in Costa Rica.
Unexpected Identification. A businessman reveals Caitlyn's new identity and appearance, complicating the search.
The Arrest. The marshals finally locate Caitlyn Armstrong after a long and intense search.
Trial and Sentencing. Caitlyn Armstrong is found guilty of murder and sentenced to 90 years in prison.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

It almost worked.

4:08WatchAug 16, 2024

Tension

85/ 100High tension

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