True Crime All The Time - Kaitlin Armstrong

Episode Date: January 29, 2024

On May 11th, 2022, professional cyclist Moriah Wilson traveled to Austin, Texas. She planned to participate in the 157-mile Gravel Locos race in Hico, Texas, on May 14th. She stayed with a friend and told Colin Strickland she was in town. The two made plans to see each other, but it was not a date. That night, she was found shot to death in her friend's apartment.Join Mike and Gibby as they discuss Kaitlin Armstrong. Armstrong was dating Colin Strickland, and the two had an on-again, off-again relationship. During one of their breaks, Colin dated Moriah Wilson. After Moriah's murder, Kaitlin became the police's prime suspect. But they would have to find her and then try to put their case against her together. You can help support the show at patreon.com/truecrimeallthetimeVisit the show's website at truecrimeallthetime.com for contact, merchandise, and donation informationAn Emash Digital productionSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Hello everyone and welcome to episode 368 of the True Crime All the Time podcast. I'm Mike Ferguson and with me as always is my partner in true crime. Mike Gibson, give me, how are you? Hey, I'm doing pretty good. How about you? I'm doing well. I thought you were going to say you weren't because you kind of hesitated there for a minute. I just wanted to see if you were paying attention.

I'm always paying attention. You're the one that fell asleep during our Patreon episode. I don't know if I fell asleep. I just yawned. You yawned and then tried to hide it from the camera as if they couldn't see that you were young. They would never have known if you didn't call it out. Speaking of that,

we dropped a brand new Patreon episode on Saturday. And it's on Lars Itso. And, you know, this is a guy who fired a shotgun into the dark hallway of his home because he thought someone had broken in. At least that was his story.

Yeah. He ended up shooting his wife, Debbie in the heart. So he said it was an accident. Investigators and the prosecutors thought it was something different. And there's still a lot of questions in this one. So it's an interesting one for sure. Join Patreon and go check it out. We also have a new episode out on Unsolved where we're talking about Alvin Matlock, a 21 year old army veteran who went missing from his cabin outside the city

of Spokane, Washington in 1951. So there was a lot of rumors. Police thought it was foul play, but they didn't have a lot of lead, so there's a lot to discuss. There is, a lot of sketchiness, too. Let's go ahead and give our Patreon shoutouts. We had Casey. Hey, Casey. David Herman II. What's going on, David?

Laura Taylor. Hey, Laura. My Sharon Ann 80. Well, hello, 80. April Latham. What's going on, Latham? Helen Hume. Hey, appreciate that, Ellen.

Diane. What's going on, Diane? Melanie Lynn Kimmerer. Well, thank you, Kimmerer. Sarah. Agonillo jumped out at our highest level. What's going on, Agencello? Deeta Zwarte.

Hey, Deeta. Kelly. Oh, I appreciate that, Kelly. K. UK listener. Well, I love you, UK listener. And last but not least, Bowser Walker. Bowser. I know.

Cool name. Yeah. And if we go back into the vault. This week, we selected Diana D. What up, Diana? We also had a great PayPal donation from Awakening's of Bel Air. Well, thank you, awakenings. Yeah, thanks to everyone.

So Gibbs, I can't believe it, but CrimeCon is coming up in a couple of months. It is. Very quickly, if you're going, make sure you use our code T-C-A-T-T at checkout. You'll get 10% off your standard badges. And we'd love to see you there. We would. All right, buddy, are you ready to get into this episode of True Crime all the time? Well, can't you tell?

I got my Jose A. Banks shirt on. Yeah, Jose A or Joseph A. because I believe it's called. We're talking about Caitlin Armstrong. Caitlin Armstrong is a former yoga instructor who was found guilty of killing professional cyclist Anna Mariah Wilson, who briefly dated Caitlin's on again, off again, boyfriend during a break in their relationship. So it sounds like we're in for a love triangle here, maybe a little Ross and Rachel type break.

They were on a break, but Caitlin couldn't live with it. Depends on how you define the break. What kind of break are you on? Well, Ross had that same question. Yeah. Caitlin Armstrong was born on November 21st, 1987. She grew up in Livonia, Michigan. Caitlin's parents divorced when she was young.

She lived with her mother and her sister. Caitlin's father later said in court that she went to high school in Michigan. She was a popular student athlete. Caitlin graduated from Eastern Michigan University's business school. She started her career in banking and real estate. Sounds a lot like you and me. Yeah. Banking in real estate.

Good career choice. Caitlin made a big career change in 2012 when she moved to Austin, Texas and started teaching yoga. I'm pretty good at that yoga. Are you? No. Name one position. Preacher. I don't really know if that's true or not.

You could be right or you could be completely making that. And there are one called like downward facing dog? I think so. The child's pose. Child pose. I've heard of that one. Yeah. Other than that, I don't know, because I've never done yoga.

The Medusa. I do. Now you're making stuff up. I do know it's extremely hard, much harder than people make it look. Yeah. Why do that hot yoga? Mm-hmm. With goats.

With goats. Yeah, there's hot yoga. And then they have goats to that just as you're, June yoga, they just jump on top of you and stuff. I thought you were going to say you were doing hot yoga with Mama June. In 2019, Caitlin started dating a professional cyclist named Colin Strickland. Colin specialized in gravel cycling, which combines mountain biking and road cycling per the New York Times.

Never heard of that. Sounds more dangerous. Why don't do any of that? Mountain biking, road cycling. exercising walking there's a there's a stationary bike right there is a really good one that i think you used what it's got about three miles on yeah Colin rose to prominence in the cycling world in 2019 when he won an event called unbound gravel a 200 mile race in kansas this is considered one of the top gravel races in the industry is that 200 miles all at one time

Yeah, I don't know. That can't be, right? I can barely drive 200 miles at the same time. It's probably like maybe broken up. Maybe not though. Maybe it's just a straight out you didn't go. That's an endurance feat. Colin was sponsored by major companies like Red Bull.

After the murder of Mariah Wilson, several sponsors dropped him. And this is something you often see in sports. I mean, you know, when anybody is involved in something, negative. You know, the one thing that sponsors don't want to be associated with, things that are negative. Yeah, they're definitely, uh, removed themselves from that possibility. Yeah, they'll drop you in a hard beat, especially if you're not Tiger Woods. And they drop Tiger Woods. It just took them a little bit longer. Yeah. But if you're, you know, kind of on the fringes, you're going to get dropped very quickly. If you're LeBron James, it'll take a little bit longer.

But if you're the last guy off the bench, they'll boot you. Yeah. I mean, they got to protect their brand is what they're doing. Absolutely. Colin and Caitlin lived together in a house in Austin. They became business partners in 2021. However, according to Colin, their relationship was on and off. And they both dated other people during breaks.

And I get that couples, you know, sometimes go through that. You've heard that term. We've used that term. on again, off again, relationships. I don't know. I've never been involved in something like that. The only relationships I've ever been in have been start, finish over. Yeah.

Except for the 26 years with my wife, which is still going on. Yeah. So you never been in the start, stop, start stop. No, no. And I don't think I would like that, especially if the person that I was dating, was dating other people in between. And come back and say, yeah, that didn't work out. So I'll go ahead and stay with you.

Yeah, I don't think that would go over. Well, for me at least, I know some people are able to do it. Oh, of course, yeah. In October 2021, Colin briefly dated a cyclist named Moriah Wilson while he and Caitlin were on a break. The two dated for about a week, but they remained friends after Colin and Caitlin got back together. Anna Mariah Wilson was born on May 18th, 1996.

She grew up in Vermont and was living in San Francisco at the time of her death. Mariah, who went by the nickname Moe, was a rising star in gravel cycling according to the New York Times. She started off skiing. Her dad was a professional skier and she excelled in that sport. She enjoyed cycling as well. One of Mariah's high school coaches told her to try mountain biking. When she was finished with skiing, she considered switching to biking after she injured her knee. But she decided to continue skiing.

She continued using cycling as a training method for skiing and biked as a form of rehab after she tore her ACL a second time. So she's pretty athletic. Yes. I mean, I think, you know, all the people we're talking about here pretty athletic. I do want to talk about skiing for a second because, I think recently we had an episode where skiing came up. I know I think I told you I watched that kind of documentary on the trial between

Gwyneth Paltrow and that guy where they got into a skiing accident. Yeah. And I think you've asked me on numerous occasions whether or not I've skied. I never have. And I know for a fact the minute I tried it, I would tear an ACL, an MCL, a UCL. I don't know how many CLs that. there are. But if they're there, you would tear it. But however many there are, I would tear them. Yeah. Mariah attended Dartmouth and studied engineering. She worked as a demand planner

at a company called specialized bicycles. Hey, Dortmund. Pretty good school. Very, very good school. And engineering is no joke as far as a major. In 2022, she decided to quit her job to pursue a full-time career as a professional cyclist. And I think those are very tough decisions for people. You know, whether you're talking about, you know, you and I starting a podcast, well, we didn't quit our jobs. We did it on the side. Right.

But to actually give up what you would consider a very good job to pursue a goal or pursue a dream. That's not an easy decision for a lot of people. Now, she was still pretty young. Yeah, and I think she was confident. I think she was seeing that she was pretty successful at what she was doing out there in the cycling world. So maybe it wasn't as big a leap as it would be for people trying to do other things.

I just worry about, you know, younger people quitting their career to start a YouTube channel or, you know, something like that. Well, I think if you're going to do something, You know, I mean, as long as you feel like you can make it happen, you got to believe. But everybody feels like they can make it happen. You got to believe to achieve. But not everybody can. Yeah.

No, there is something to be said about, you know, pursuing your dreams. But Mariah won 10 races before the start of the summer season. In April 22, she won a 137 mile off-road race called the Belgian Wollison. ride California. I'm just hungry for a Belgian waffle. Oh, man, I love a good Belgian waffle. Now, I can't ride a bike 137 miles, but I can eat me some Belgian waffles. I think we already clarified that.

You can't even ride a bike inside here for three miles and five years. I did write it for three miles. It took you five years to do it. No, I did it all at one time. I just never did it again. Okay. Ooh, I'm good. Betsy Welch from Velo News.

told the New York Times that Mariah was a newcomer to gravel racing, but her name was well known in the industry after her series of wins. And it does sound like she had a streak there or a great stretch of races. Mariah did an interview with Velo News where she talked about one of her biggest strength. She said, beyond my actual riding capabilities, I'm pretty comfortable with being very uncomfortable. I love to push myself to the cusp of what I think I'm capable of and then trying to dig a little deeper and see how long I can hang out in that space. That's a great comment. It is.

It really is. I mean, if you talk about, you know, any of these endurance sports or, you know, any sport, really,

whether it's swimming or cycling or whatever it is, you're not going to be comfortable. there's going to be pain. You're going to have to fight through the point where you think you can't go any further. Yeah. If you want to be successful, if you want to win. Just like you did on going from two miles to the third mile. Yeah. I was very uncomfortable.

Mouye had plans to participate in multiple races in the late spring and summer of 2022. On May 11th, 2022, Mariah. had traveled to Austin, Texas. She planned to participate in the 157-mile gravel, low-coast race in Hico, Texas on May 14th. She was staying with a friend and told Colin Strickland that she was in town. The two made plans to see each other, but it was not a date. Just hooking up as friends. Yeah, I think getting together as friends.

I think you using the term hooking up is a little strange. But, you know, is it that weird? You did date for a week. You knew each other. Sure, you did. You're going to be in town. Is it that big a deal to say, hey, do you want to grab a drink, catch up? I don't think it is.

Now, if you're that person's partner, you might not think it's the greatest thing in the world. Yeah, they might have a problem with that. Like, wait, you're going to see who? Your old girlfriend? Colin picked Mariah up at her friend's house at her friend's house. 5.43 p.m. They visited the deep Eddie pool, a public swimming pool in Austin. Afterwards, they ate at the pool burger cafe. Colin dropped Mariah off at 835 p.m. He didn't go inside. An electronic lock recorded Mariah entering the home at 836 p.m.

It sounds like it was just a innocent night. A couple friends getting together. Nothing else. No, yeah, that's exactly what it sounds like. Mariah's friend, Caitlin, Cash arrived home around 9.50 p.m. and found Mariah unconscious and bleeding on the bathroom floor. She called 911 at 9.56 p.m. Cash said in her 911 call is quoted by people. I can't tell what's happened. She's not awake and there is blood all over her face. So I'm just kind of looking at the timeline here. You know, Colin drops Mariah off at 835. There's this record of the, electronic lock at 836, her friend gets home at 950, finds Mariah, and then makes the 911 call six minutes later. You know, in a lot of the cases that we do, we're often questioning. Why did it

take someone so long to call 911 or, you know, questioning some other aspect of the timing? All of this seems extremely straightforward to me, as far as you find somebody at 9.1,000. 50. Are you going to spend a few minutes just trying to figure out what the heck is going on and whether you can help that person or not? And I would say probably yes. So six minutes to me doesn't, you know, doesn't sound like it's anything to be concerned about. No, I don't think so either. Now, what we do have is roughly an hour and 15 minutes of time between the time that Mariah got home and the time that her friend came. And Caitlin arrives home and finds her. Cash and first responders performed CPR, but Mariah was pronounced dead at the scene. She had been shot multiple times. And you know on that 911 call,

they probably gave Caitlin direction on how to perform CPR, what to do. You know, on our Patreon episode this week, there was a 911 call. The dispatcher told the husband to perform CPR, PR, but when first responders got there, he didn't have any blood on him.

Yeah. Didn't make him look good. When he should have probably had blood on him. Yeah. If you're doing CPR and especially on someone who had a gunshot wound to the chest, which is what happened in that episode, you would expect to have blood all over you. The police canvassed the neighborhood and they asked neighbors to review their doorbell security footage.

One camera captured a black 2012. Jeep Grand Cherokee at 8.37 p.m. just one minute after Mariah entered her friend's house. This Jeep had a bicycle rack on the back and a luggage rack on the top. Authority soon learned that Mariah went out with Colin and found the same type of Jeep in the driveway. The Jeep was owned by Caitlin Armstrong. Man, how many times lately are we talking about these doorbell security cameras? Yeah, they're popping up everywhere.

Yeah, they're pretty ubiquitous now. I mean, I'm not going to say everybody has one, but a lot of people do. They do. And they are catching a lot of footage that, you know, in the old days, police would have had no shot at getting their hands on because it just wouldn't have existed. Yeah, I think sometimes people forget about how many different cameras are out there in your neighborhood now. That weren't there before. Mariah's bike was found in a patch of bamboo, 60 feet from her friend's house.

Later testing found Caitlin's DNA on the bike. On May 12, the police obtained a search warrant for Caitlin and Collins' home, and they found a 9mm handgun belonging to Caitlin. It matched shell casings found at the scene. Numerous sources reported that the gun had significant potential to be the murder weapon. Well, that's a pretty strong way of saying, I think we have it. Well, it's also, to me, almost kind of an understatement. You find a 9mm handgun, and the shell casings found at the scene are tested and found to have

gotten from that handgun. They can't say with certainty that that was the murder weapon, but it's pretty hard not to think that it was. Especially if you know that Caitlin's Jeep was seen a minute after Mariah went in the house. But investigators learned that Colin purchased two nine millimeter handguns for himself and Caitlin in December 2021 or January 22. Caitlin was arrested that day on a misdemeanor theft warrant. Back in March 2018, she went to a med spa in Austin and received $650.50. worth of Botox injections.

She gave an employee a credit card, but stopped the transaction because she wanted to use a different card she had in her car. She went outside and never returned. Well, the old Botox and Dash. Yeah. Like Dining Dash, but. Botox and dash. Is that a lot of Botox?

I don't know how much Botox costs. I think that's a normal amount, you know, for, you know, probably a man in his mid-50s. I'm wondering how you know what a normal amount is. Yeah, I've never, I've never done Botox. You're looking better in the last three or four weeks. Except I got a drool coming out in my mouth because I can't keep it from coming out. But here's a crime that I just do not understand. Like, they didn't know who this lady was.

She hadn't filled out a bunch of paperwork. She gave them one credit card and then canceled that transaction. because she was going to go get another one out of her car? Yeah, I mean, I think they knew who she was because they had the warrant for her, but probably wasn't a high priority. But how do you think you're going to get away with that? Yeah, I don't know what. She said, maybe she wasn't thinking.

Maybe she went out to get the other card, got a call, got distracted, forgot to go back in. And, you know, maybe she said, hey, I'm not paying for them. I'm not paying for this. This is, you know, expensive. Well, not according to you. It's a very normal, reasonable amount for a man in his mid-50. You know, for that individual, it wants to get, you know, some frown lines erased or some, you know, what they call crows feet?

Yeah. And some forehead lines taken care of and maybe a little, you know, puff up in your lips or something. I don't know. Yeah, just those are just random off the top of your head. Yeah, just, you know, things I've seen in the movies. Colin also came in for a voluntary interview that day. He said he dropped Mariah off at her friend's house and did not go inside. He admitted that he was in a relationship with Mariah in October 2021 during a one to two week break in his relationship with Caitlin.

Colin told the police that he lied to Caitlin about his whereabouts on the night of the 11th. He told her he dropped flowers off for someone and his phone. of. Okay, you and I said it seemed like a very friendly night out. It takes on a little bit of a different context for me when you find out that Colin lied to Caitlin about it. Yeah, either he was afraid to tell her because he knew that she'd be like, no, don't be seeing your ex, even though you only saw her for a week or two. Or maybe there was more feelings that he had for her, besides just wanted to hang out with a friend. Colin said that Caitlin didn't know where Mariah was staying, but she might have gotten the

information from Mariah's Strava account. Strava is a fitness tracking app that allows viewers to see location details and comment on photos uploaded to the app. Mariah uploaded a bike ride to Strava that started and ended at her friend's house. Yeah, as I said, I knew about Strava, you know, from my biking and my uploading my stuff to the app. Okay. My journey.

But here's again is another issue I have with social media. Now this is a fitness app. I get it. But at it's hard, it's still kind of social media. Yeah, I think so. You're giving out a lot of information

that you probably don't even think about where you are, when you're at that location, when you got back to that location. I think it's just one of those things, though. I mean, obviously, I was joking about having it, but it's a, uh, something that you probably feel like you shouldn't have to worry about, but in today's world, you do. You do. Sadly. Yeah. You know, but here you are just enjoying what you're doing, trying to share those moments with people with similar likeness. Well, and you think a lot of times you're sharing it with your friends, but who knows who's seeing it. It's like the people who go out for a great night, they buy a fancy meal, they take a picture of the meal or whatever it is, or they take a selfie and say, hey, celebrating at such and such restaurant. Right. Okay. People now know now know that makes me sound a little paranoid and maybe I am a little bit. According to an affidavit during Caitlin's interview, she was told that the arrest warrant was not valid and she was free to leave

at any time. Caitlin did not leave. So detectives continued questioning her. her about Mariah's murder and Collins' relationship with her. Good idea, Gibbs? Absolutely not. Get up and leave. And if you're going to stay, make that one phone call. But I'm kind of honing in on, hey, there's no reason for me to be here. You know, I'm going to leave.

But you're right. You know, the last thing you should be doing is just sitting there and voluntarily answering questions and talking. Which is the worst thing you can do. Because unless you're going to always be consistent with your story, all you're doing is giving the police and prosecutors something to use against you down the road later. Well, even if your story is consistent, if it doesn't track, you're still giving them. That's true. Something.

Now, we're glad that murderers do that. Caitlin was shown video evidence of her car at the crime scene. she silently nodded in agreement when the detective said that her vehicle in the area, plus earlier statements from Colin about her jealousy of his relationship with Mariah, made things not look too good. And Caitlin didn't deny what the detective said, and she didn't have an explanation for her vehicle being at the crime scene. She requested to leave in the interview ended.

On May 13th, Caitlin sold her Jeep at a CarMax dealership, in Austin for $12,000. It wasn't found until June 23rd. Well, that's enough time for the Jeep to be cleaned and other people's DNA to be introduced. Introduced. But does it make you look good when detectives are, you know, questioning you about why your Jeep was at that, was that a crime scene? And then you immediately go out and sell it right after that. Yeah, not good.

No. Colin told the police he had not seen Caitlin since May 13th. Investigators discovered that she deleted her social media profiles. On the 14th, Caitlin flew to Houston and boarded a connecting flight to New York where her sister lives. The Austin police issued a homicide warrant for Caitlin on May 17th. And how could they not? I mean, everything she's doing is kind of a red flag. Making her look guilty.

Yeah. I mean, deleting your social media accounts, guess what? They can get the information off your social media account even after you delete it in most cases. The selling over the Jeep, you know, flying to New York, it just, none of it looks good. On May 18th, Caitlin took a flight from Newark, New Jersey to San Jose, Costa Rica. She used her sister's name to buy the ticket and used a fake passport to board the flight. Investigator saw footage of her at the airport. But there was no record of her taking the flight because she didn't use her name.

Okay, there could have been some doubt before. Yeah. Maybe you didn't want that Jeep anymore. Maybe you just wanted to go see your sister. But once you board an aircraft going to Costa Rica using a fake name, I think any goodwill you have, any doubt kind of flies out the window. Yeah. At this point, you look.

100% guilty. On May 20th, the U.S. Marshals' lone star fugitive task force released a wanted poster for Caitlin. It's that Chuck Norris's division? Walker, Texas Ranger? Yeah. Maybe. Maybe he called in Tommy Lee Jones.

It's an all-star U.S. Marshal event. Colin Strickland issued a statement to the Austin American statesman, emphasizing that he and Mariah had a fling that turned into a platonic and professional relationship. He said, there is no way to adequately express the regret and torture I feel about my proximity to this horrible crime. I am sorry, and I simply cannot make sense of this unfathomable tragedy. He's right. It's hard to make sense. It is. He's also using a lot of words in there that are very hard to say. Oh, I mean, I could have said them. Well, I know you could. The state statement continued, it was not my intention to pursue a long and auxiliary romantic relationship that

would mislead anyone. Mariah and I were both leaders in this lonely niche sport of cycling. And I admired her greatly and considered her a close friend. I am deeply grieving her laws. So again, we don't know exactly what the relationship was, but it could have been exactly that. You know, they had this flame. that didn't last very long at all. They were both professional cyclists. Yeah. And maybe it did kind of morph into like a platonic professional relationship.

We just don't know. I think the only thing that Colin really has going against him at this point is the fact that he lied about going out with Mariah that night. Now, he might have had really good reasons for doing that. like you said, maybe he knew Caitlin was going to take it badly, fly off the handle. We don't know. But even when I say it kind of makes him look bad, has nothing to do with the murder. No, it doesn't.

It's like how he brought up auxiliary romantic relationship. Yeah. Yeah. That's a new way to say that. Guy's got a good vocabulary. He does. On May 21st, Mariah's family issued a statement to KXAN, clarifying details surrounding her relationship with Colin Strickland, they said they wanted to clarify that she was not

in a romantic relationship with anyone at the time of her death. Investigators previously said that based on their search of her phone, text messages indicated Mariah was still in a romantic relationship with Colin, even though he was currently dating Armstrong. Well, maybe it was just based on how the texts were worded. Maybe it was something like, you know, I really enjoyed it. like being with you or something like that or I miss you or I mean you could try to make that into something well we don't know that's exactly right what what the text messages said in an interview with the British tabloid the son Colin said that Caitlin is one of the least volatile people I've ever met

and that's why it's so absolutely shocking and it is kind of shocking you and I have done so many episode. Normally, there is something in someone's past that comes out where, let's say they have an anger management problem. Yeah. They have issues dealing with whatever scenario that crops up. And now here he's saying that she wasn't volatile at all. Maybe she just had some form of jealousy towards Moriah when she learned about her. Maybe she felt threatened that she could actually lose calling to her. Maybe she never felt that way with anybody else, but with Mariah for some reason, she did. And that's when she became volatile? Yeah. There was no indication of violent behavior in their relationship. On May 25th, 2022, the Austin police revealed that they could have arrested

Caitlin earlier, were it not for a birth date discrepancy? Their report management system listed Caitlin's birthday in April, which didn't match the date of birth on the misdemeanor warrant. And this made the warrant invalid. So we said it, right? They came into the interview room. They said that the warrant was invalid and she was free to go. Yeah, because otherwise she would be in local jail waiting to be sentenced for that. At the time that the murder warrant was issued.

Yeah. The police received an anonymous tip. informing them that Caitlin learned about Collins' relationship with Mariah in January. She became furious and was shaking in anger, per the Austin American statesman. Caitlin said she wanted to kill Mariah. So again, back to your point, she may not have been a volatile person in the past, but I don't think there's any doubt, at least according to this tip, if it's correct, she became very volatile in that moment after learning.

of the relationship or the supposed relationship. Yeah. You think about things that people say, you know, we've all, well, I think we've all heard people say, I'm going to kill that person. You know, when they're upset, when they're angry, you know, do we ever believe that's what they mean? That they're doing anything more than just really venting. Yeah.

Yeah, my wife's heard me say that about you. Oh, my gosh, thousands of times. I know. But I've never done it. Not yet. Not yet. meanwhile after landing in costa rica katelyn traveled to a beach town called santa teresa katelyn was on the run for 43 days i do want to go back a little ways to this um date mess up

doesn't make you look real great as a police department when there's a murder fugitive on the run for 43 days and it's basically the result of some type of records management air. Yeah. Probably not one of their more proudest moments. In the late spring, she met some travelers and told them her name was Airy. She tried to establish herself as a yoga teacher. Caitlin frequented yoga studios and took classes, saying she was trying to better her profession to teach a certain type of yoga. She was staying at a hostel and spent most of her time on her laptop in the common area. She occasionally met others for drinks at a local bar. She traveled to San Jose, the capital of Costa Rica, several weeks into her stay using the name

Allison Page. She spent over $6,000 on facial plastic surgery to change her appearance. It's pretty intense. Yeah. So it seems pretty cheap. That's what I was thinking. Now, she is in Costa Rica. So does $6,000 go a lot further than it would if you were seeing a plastic surgeon in Beverly Hills?

and I would say, yeah, the answer is probably yes. I know you've been down there a number of times for what you've told me were medically necessary. Hey, surgeries. My butt got that big by doing squats. Okay. It's not any implant inside my rear end.

By June 23rd, the U.S. Marshals were interviewing people in Santa Teresa. They found Caitlin at the hostel on June 29th. She was sitting at a table in the patio area. Amir Perez from the U.S. Marshals later testified as quoting by people. Initially, it did not appear to be her. But as I got closer, I realized it was her. It appeared she had a bandage on her nose and her lips were a bit swollen.

Her hair was a little bit lighter. So it sounds like she's still healing from the $6,000 worth of plastic surgery. It sounds like it wasn't worth of money. Well, not if she got caught. Yeah. Caitlin had cut her hair and she had dyed it brown. She had a bandage on her nose and discoloration under her eyes, which she claimed was caused by a surfboard accident. The U.S. Marshal Service announced the arrest on June 30th.

Caitlin arrived in Austin, Texas on July 5th. On July 12th, the Austin police filed a search warrant for Caitlin's email account. The police believed she used this account. when she fled Austin. She also bought a new phone and a prepaid debit card after her phone was taken during a search of her home. She used the card to pay for a flight with a ride service to the airport. So they're honing in on all this.

Yeah, they are. I mean, I don't want to give this woman any credit at all, but she did do some things that were, you know, a little devious, a little smart. I,

you'd have to say, you know, using a prepaid debit card. Now, I didn't even know you could pay for a flight using that. But if you don't want to be tracked, it seems like a pretty good way to do it. Yeah. Rick Koffer, Caitlin's attorney said the legal team had questions. According to KXAN, they wanted to know why the police ignored a tip about

Mariah's former boyfriend. And they wanted to know who vandalized Caitlin and Collins Holand. on the night of Mariah's murder. Caitlin pleaded not guilty to first degree murder on July 20th, 2002. Her attorney requested a speedy trial. The judge set the docket call for October 19th of that year. So that's pretty quick.

I think so. It's a few months. Yeah. Well, actually a little bit less than three months. On August 19th, Caitlin's attorneys filed new documents to try to throw out certain evidence, arguing that she was not. questioned correctly. They claimed the police interrogated her and obtained evidence with an illegal

arrest warrant. The defense motion argued that the arrest affidavit was full of false statements, material omissions, reckless exaggerations, and gross mischaracterizations made with a reckless disregard for the truth. That was a mouthful too. That was. The affidavit falsely stated Collins' words to fabricate a theory of jealousy as a presumed motive for the murder, according to the Austin American statesman. The affidavit did not include Collins' multiple statements where he adamantly insisted that Caitlin could not have killed Mariah. Finally, the defense argued that the surveillance video of the Jeep never showed the license plate number or the driver. So that's interesting. You have a Jeep that looks exactly

like Caitlin Armstrong's, but you don't have a plate number and you don't see the driver. It does seem like something that the defense would try to hone in on. I think it's good tactic because if you don't know, it's her Jeep, besides speculating, because she has one that looks like that. How do you know that was her Jeep? Or how do you know it was her driving it? That's true too. A judge issued a gag order in August 22,

forbidding the prosecution and defense from commenting on the case. Caitlin's trial was postponed in May, 2003. On October 11, 2023, a few weeks before her trial was scheduled to begin, Caitlin attempted to escape from corrections officers at a doctor's appointment outside jail.

Around 8 a.m. that morning, Caitlin ran from officers while they were leaving the building. They caught her after a 10 minute one mile chase. She was caught when she attempted to scale a six feet tall fence. Not looking good. No, I mean, none of the stuff she's done makes her look good, right? You would have to say that.

Now, she did lead them on a one mile chase. So like we said, she must have been in pretty good shape. She must have been pretty quick, too. Well, she was a good athlete. Caitlin was charged with escape, causing bodily injury the following day because one corrections officer was injured while trying to apprehend her. An investigation found that Caitlin had been exercising vigorously over the past several months and obtained an outside medical appointment for an injury, along with a medical request that restricted the use of leg restraints.

And again, I don't want to give this woman any credit. But there is some real thinking and planning in some of this stuff. Yeah, man, it's definitely a strategy that she worked on. The jury was seated for Caitlin Armstrong's murder trial on October 30th. Opening statements started on November 1st. Prosecutor Ricky Jones told the jury that Caitlin was not happy, that Colin was still communicating with Mariah. Jealousy was the motive for murder.

Jones said per CBS Austin, the last thing Mo did on this earth was scream in terror. What a nightmare. He noted that Mariah's screams were recorded by surveillance cameras. So he's not making that up. He's not theorizing that the last thing she did was scream and terror. They had it. They heard it. Yeah.

Caitlin's defense attorney, Jeffrey, pure year, told the jury there was no direct evidence. that Caitlin was responsible for the crime. But she's done a good job of making herself look guilty by going off the Costa Rica, getting some plastic surgery, and then when apprehend it, tries to escape. Well, and let's not forget, you know, there was a handgun that was supposedly hers that matched the shell casings found at the scene. It's thought that it was her Jeep in the video. And you could poke holes in some of this stuff,

but there is a lot of things mounting. The defense attorney also said that the police named her as a suspect too quickly. Someone else could have killed Mariah. Defense attorney Rick Koffer said that the suggestion that Caitlin killed Mariah because she was jealous was an easy narrative for the prosecution. It might be an easy narrative, but it could also be the correct narrative. Yeah, it could be both of those. The jury heard the audio of Mariah's screams on the second day of trial.

The screams were captured by a neighbor's ring camera from 915 to 9.16 p.m. The camera recorded screaming, two gunshots, a pause, and then a third gunshot. This same camera captured the black Jeep driving past the house at least twice. Two more neighbor security cameras captured the same black Jeep. Caitlin's former friend Nicole Mertz testified that she once asked Caitlin what she would do if Colin started dating someone else, Caitlin said, I would kill her. It's a very jealous woman. Yeah, if the statement is true, then I think it probably has a pretty big effect on the jury.

According to Mertz, Mariah traveled to Austin in late 2021 to visit Colin. Caitlin was visibly angry when Mariah came to a restaurant where their mutual friends met up. Colin testified that Caitlin had access to his finances, his email. and his Instagram account because she managed a business for him. He said that he and Caitlin dated on and off for two and a half years. He never officially dated Mariah, but they had a brief fling in October 2021. They met at a race in September of that year. They continued their friendship afterward.

But the prosecution referenced several text messages during his second day of testimony on May 10th. Mariah asked Colin if he was back in Austin and told him she was flying there. They discussed going for a training ride on May 11th. They did not go for a ride that day. Colin went on a ride with another friend and Caitlin joined them for part of it. They planned to go swimming later in the day. In court, Colin acknowledged that he changed Mariah's contact name to avoid strife with Caitlin.

When questioned by the defense, Colin testified that Caitlin had never been violent. He said he did not know her very well, but later said, I thought so, yes, implying he thought he knew her well. If he dated for two and a half years,

even if it was on and off, you would think, you'd know somebody pretty well. Yeah. I do think that Colin had more interest in Mariah than maybe he initially said. You know, I don't know if that is true or not.

It could be. Yeah. But I could also see even if it was a platonic professional relationship, changing that person's contact name. I'm not saying it's the right thing to do, but not wanting to get into a big fight with your girlfriend about it. Yeah. I could see him doing it for that cause.

To avoid that turbulence. Yeah. Yeah, I could see it happening. Now, I don't know. The police have said they thought there was still some type of. of, you know, sexual relationship maybe going on. The prosecution presented incriminating cell phone evidence. Caitlin looked up Mariah on the Strava Fitness app at 4.54 p.m. on May 11,

2012, about five minutes after Colin and Mariah exchanged a text before he picked her up. There were multiple instances of Caitlin's phone tracking Mariah's Strava account. Caitlin used different emails to buy flights, a prepaid card, and a VPN. One of her accounts searched for her name and read news articles about the case while she was on the run. She also searched for information about pineapples burning off fingerprints. Okay. So we've got $6,000 worth of plastic surgery in Costa Rica. Right.

But then we find out that she was thinking about burning off her fingerprints. If they don't have my fingerprints, how can they tie me to whatever she's trying to hide? Detective Daniel Portnoy from the Austin PD testified about Caitlin's car data. They were able to verify the timing of her movements within four seconds based on comparisons with surveillance footage. Pretty impressive. It is and it's the difference between, you know, investigating a case, you know, six, seven, years ago versus a case that happened in the 1980s. You know, with all of the GPS on your cell phone, the GPS in your car, there's a lot of data.

It really is. Tracking you. You know, whether you have OnStar or, you know, one of these other services. Around 7.35 p.m., Caitlin's car drove down Maple Avenue, the area where Mariah's friend lived, the car stayed in this area for at least an hour. The vehicle moved around 18th Street, Maple, and the back alley behind the house, the exact location where Mariah was staying with her friend, Caitlin Cash. The vehicle appeared to be at the alley by 837 p.m. The alley is the only way to enter the garage apartment where Mariah was staying. The tracking ended at 840 in a grassy parking area near Maple Avenue. So apparently the way it was reported was that the

tracking ended once the car was turned off. And then a new route started at 9.17 p.m. So this must have been something coming from the car itself. But obviously it only generated when the car was on. So you had that window of between 840 and 917 where no tracking occurred. Well, it doesn't look good, right? You park right by the apartment. You're out of your car for, let's say, 37 minutes. And then you compare that with some of the ring doorbell camera footage, right, screams from 915 to 917 and then two gunshots and a third gunshot. A timing fits. And then the person runs out of the house.

They get in that Jeep and start it up and start it off and take off. And then they get going at 917. The prosecutors asked Detective Portnoyneux. If he was aware, what time the gunshots went off? he testified that the gunshots went off five minutes or less before the second tracking route started. And that is true, right, based off the ring camera audio and timing that they had. This route tracked Caitlin from Maple Avenue to Fort Clark Drive, where she lived with Collin. State firearms expert Stephen Aston testified that he matched Caitlin's Sig SIG-Sour 9-millimeter pistol

to the cartridges from the crime scene. And he also testified that he was able to eliminate Colin's gun. And that makes a lot of sense. I mean, it's a pretty exact signs, right? The markings on the shell casings vary from gun to gun. You can match them up pretty well. So not looking good for Caitlin, right? Because they can show that Caitlin left the crime scene back to the place she was staying with Colin.

they also can match her gun to the ammo used to kill Moriah. Now, I think if I'm the defense, I'm saying, okay, you've proven that her gun was used. You've proven that her Jeep was there. But how do you know she was there? And how do you know she was the one who wielded the gun? Fair question. I mean, all the stuff she did after that makes it look like she was guilty. you'd have to say that.

ADA Ricky Jones said during closing arguments that Caitlin stood over Moriah's body after shooting her in the head twice and once in the heart. According to ABC, the defense argued that Caitlin was trapped in a nightmare of circumstantial evidence. The police focused on Caitlin

because she fit their jealous lover narrative and they didn't look into other potential suspects. Caitlin Armstrong was found guilty of first-degree murder on November 16, 2023. The jury only took two hours to deliberate. This says a lot. It does. It says they felt very strongly with the evidence that was presented. And my thought, Gibbs, is that what she did after the murder

probably played into it quite a bit. Well, I think so. I think if you're a juror and you see and hear about all that, you know, the fleeing to Costa Rica and plastic surgery and, you know, using the prepaid cards and things like that. And then when you are caught, when you have the opportunity, you try to escape. That does not go well when you're trying to tell them that you didn't do it. No, no, not at all. On November 17, the jury sentenced Caitlin to 90 years in prison plus a $10,000 fine. She'll be eligible for parole after 30.

30 years. $10,000 fine doesn't make sense to me, but, you know. Yeah, that kind of caught my attention to. And we've seen that in other cases. You know, what does she care about $10,000 when she just got a sentence for 90 years in prison? Right. Before sentencing, Moriah's friend Caitlin Cash said in court, as reported by CBS Austin, Caitlin, I want you to know. I fought for Mo with everything I had that night. I'll never forget that moment in the bathroom watching that sink turn red and wanting to put it back on my hands because it was the only thing I had left of her. Ooh, okay.

It gave me a little bit of chills right there. And we really didn't talk about Caitlin Cash all that much and what it must have been like to come back to, you know, her apartment and find her friend dead inside, cradle her. try to do CPR. But now you hear, you know, she's washing the blood off and realizing that it was the only thing that she had left of her friend. Yeah, I don't think she'll ever forget that moment. No. No, I don't think anybody would.

On December 15th, 20203, Katelyn's defense filed a motion for a new trial. Part of her motion stated that she was pregnant at or near the time she was arrested. But what does that have to do with the murder? Yeah, I really didn't understand that part of the motion and how that was supposed to get her a new trial. Her defense claims there is new evidence that was not available at the time of trial. The prosecution's rebuttal witness who testified about the DNA evidence overstated his qualifications and misled the jury. Caitlin alleges ineffective assistance of counsel. during the punishment phase because her attorney did not conduct a proper sentencing investigation

and did not contact witnesses who were willing to testify in her favor. Her new attorney argues that evidence of Caitlin's childhood and trauma history plus her pregnancy could have mitigated the sentence. Her appeal has not been decided yet. So I guess the pregnancy angle doesn't really have anything to do with the murder. It sounds. It sounds. It sounds. I guess the pregnancy angle doesn't really have anything to do with the murder. It sounds like they're saying it could have helped to mitigate the sentence if it had been known. Because how could a jury put away a mother for 90 years? Well, and then they're saying, okay, evidence of, you know, her childhood, trauma in her childhood should have been introduced. That may have mitigated the sentence. And maybe they're correct. I have

no idea. But I don't know how that would get her a new trial. I could understand maybe a new sentencing, but I don't understand how any of that would overturn the verdict. Yeah, I don't think it should. I mean, I could argue from Mariah's family saying, what about Mariah? She never got to be a mother because you took her life. So, you know, as we wrap this one up, Gibbs, it is somewhat of a strange case. Kind of all signs point to the fact that Caitlin Armstrong murdered Mariah. But I'd be remiss if I didn't say there are a couple of things nagging at me. Yeah.

You know, you don't have an eyewitness to the murder. You don't even have a picture of her driving the Jeep. So I think, you know, the prosecution is assuming, obviously, that she was in the Jeep. they're assuming that she used her pistol to murder Mariah. And more than likely, they're absolutely correct. And I think, you know, when you look at the evidence, jealousy probably is the correct motive. Seems so. You know, she did use an app to track Mariah's movements.

And it seemed as though she attacked her when she was alone and vulnerable. And, you know, her defense team said that she was a victim of, you know, circumstantial evidence. And to a large degree, that is true. There was a lot of circumstantial evidence. But man, when you add it all up, it's really hard. And I'm sure the jury thought so as well to not think that she was the one who pulled the trigger.

Yeah, I think these defense attorneys had a rough go. You know, I think they knew they were going to have a rough go based on what she did prior to being arrested. it and then what she did while she was arrested. Yeah. I mean, you could make the argument that somebody else drove the Jeep, that somebody took her gun, right? You could make that argument. Sure.

If so, why does she go to Costa Rica? Why does she spend $6,000 on plastic surgery? Why is she trying to figure out how to burn her fingerprints off using a pineapple? Yeah. If that's even possible, I don't know. And why is she trying to escape? And why does she try to escape? The one thing that we do know for sure is that Mariah Wilson had a bright future and most likely would have become a very successful pro cyclist.

Mariah's family established the Mariah Wilson Foundation as a way to fund youth programs in Vermont. The foundation was officially incorporated in October 2003 and has raised around $300,000 for different causes. That's awesome. You can learn more about the organization at, Mariah Wilson Foundation.org. Jealousy. How many cases, how many murders have been committed by someone who was jealous?

Yeah, a lot. A lot. And not just recently. I mean, it goes back as far as, I mean, even before you were alive.

Yeah. And that's a long time. It is a long time ago. But what does it get you? Nothing. You don't win that person. You don't get that person back in your life, right?

And you lose your freedom because you're going to go sit in a jail cell because you took someone's life. Do you think people think, well, okay, that's probably going to happen, but I don't care? Or do you think most people think, no, I'll figure out a way to get away with it? I think they don't think. I think it's sometimes it's just something that. The anger, the jealousy clouds their judgment. They just act. They just act.

And then afterwards they're like, oh, shit. It's a mad scramble to figure out how do I get the heck out of here? You could be right. But now, she did go through a lot of planning. Oh, I do think there was those cases, too, where, like you said, in this case, she went through a lot of planning, stalking her through the app and trying to figure out where she was and all of that. So I don't know, man. I mean, they say a little jealousy in your relationship's not a bad thing. Who says that?

People. Okay. Just people in general? Yeah. But I think it's not good. You know, jealousy is really not a good thing, especially if someone has extreme jealousy. But I also think sometimes jealousy is brought on because of the action of the other person, right? Mm-hmm. You know, if you're doing sneaky things. And that was part of this case that I had trouble with, trying to figure out what role, if any,

Colin played. Now, he had no role in the murder. No. But what role, if any, did he play in causing Caitlin to get jealous? Was he really seeing Mariah on the side? Or as he has said, was this really just a fling, a weak fling that then turned later into a platonic professional relationship? That could happen. Yeah, and it was started when he was on a break, you know, so it just depends on who do you believe. Yeah. And some of these cases are like that. You know, even in the solved cases, there are still questions that you can ask because there's no way to know every single detail. There's just no way. But that's it for our episode on Caitlin Armstrong.

We got some voicemails. You want to check those out? Yeah, it's hear them. You guys, you're cracking me up this week with the story out of Australia. We're talking about the Australian Ud's and Land Cruisers that have that funny exhaust thing on the front of it because that funny exhaust thing is a snorkel. It's the cold air intake for the engine. It's not the exhaust.

You silly willy. I know this because I missed the show Sunday because I was over in Moab. I can go four-wheeling, but it was a bit rainy, so we only got to do one trail. But I still miss you. Thank you. Good time. So I did get a lot of you know what. Oh yeah?

About that. Yeah. Because I probably, not probably, I'm sure I did say it was part of the exhaust or something like that. I might have said that. But I, or you could have said it too. I know we did talk about maybe it was so that it could go through water. I don't remember exactly what we said.

I had no idea what the freaking thing was. I thought about it later. I'm like, yeah, that makes sense. It should be the something to keep it from choking out when it go through water. So, yeah, it would be the air. It makes sense when you have time to sit and think about it. Yeah. But when I just bring it up to you, it's hard, right?

It's hard to think that quickly on your feet to know exactly what it is. You probably never even seen it. I just saw it on a YouTube video. Oh, I've seen it. Oh, have you? Yeah. Yeah. I wish I could say I've never seen it to make it easier.

But no, we, I love all the emails and everybody's been really nice about it. It's not like, it's not like, it's not like, oh my gosh, Ferg, you're so stupid. How could you not know? they just want to educate, which I always love. Sure. And you're going to hear about it for the next few years. Oh, yeah, yeah. People get caught up to this one.

And I love that too because that means new people are listening. They're finding the episode. Exactly. Hi, Mike and Gui. It's Danica calling from Murder with my mother. I was just listening to your guys' latest episode. And you guys always kill me with that. It's not bonjourno.

And I know, even I'm from Canada. not a whole lot of us up here speak French, at least where I'm from, but it's bonjour. Bonjour. Bonjour. Welcome to Canada. And also another thing, too, is the Victoria Stafford case. That is a really horrible case, and I would actually love to hear you guys cover it as well. It's definitely not unsolved.

They know the perpetrators and they are in prison, but there has been a lot of stuff surrounding that. So if you guys wanted to dig into that, it would be. awesome to hear you guys cover it. I hope you guys are doing well. Love listening to your episodes. Well, stay safe and keep your own time ticking. Bye guys. No, we love Danica. Yeah, her and her mom were a lot of fun at Yeah, met him at CrimeCon. They do their own podcast. I am hearing a lot about that Victoria Stafford case. So I think that is one that we should definitely look into. So I said something. Now you said something.

bonjourno bonjourno that you said was French yeah it's not what is it Italian oh yeah bonjour bonjour is French

yeah okay you know I get corrected you get corrected that's it's fair or we can just say it's a gibbism it's a gibbism

yeah we had no mailbag so that is it buddy for another episode of true crime all the time. So for Mike and Gibby, stay safe and keep your own time ticking.