Kaitlin Armstrong, a 34-year-old yoga teacher from Texas accused of killing a love rival in a jealous fury, was ultimately returned to Austin after six-day detention in Costa Rica. She has been charged with murder in the first degree.
She appeared to have had $6,300 in cosmetic surgery to change her appearance. According to Deputy U.S. Marshal Brandon Filla, she had cropped her hair and then dyed it a deeper shade than her prior light brown-reddish tone, yet she was nonetheless captured from a hostel the previous week. He further said that she was wearing a bandage on her nose and that the region around her eyes was injured as a result of an alleged surfboarding incident.
Armstrong was arrested on July 5, 2022, for May 11, 2022, murder of 25-year-old Anna Moriah Wilson. Kaitlin Armstrong is also being prosecuted in Travis County, Texas, for an “unnamed first-degree felony offense and a Class B misdemeanor charge for theft of service equal to or higher than $100 and less than $750” after reportedly skipping out on a $654 botox payment at a spa in 2018.
On Saturday, July 2, Armstrong was deported to the United States, and a video from that day showed her being escorted by U.S. Marshals from Houston’s George Bush Intercontinental Airport. She is being held in custody on a $3.5 million murder bond and a $3,500 service theft bail.
Kaitlin Armstrong tried to elude capture, resulting in a month-long search.
The stunning murder, as well as Kaitlin Armstrong’s sophisticated effort to evade capture, spurred a worldwide hunt that lasted more than a month and received national attention. After a falling out with Armstrong, her longtime lover and fellow cyclist Colin Strickland started dating Wilson in October 2021. According to a police affidavit obtained by the Austin American Statesman, Armstrong told a friend that she “wanted to murder Wilson” after learning about the affair.
Even when Armstrong and Strickland reconciled, Strickland remained close with Wilson. While he claimed to deny having a connection with Wilson, he allegedly lied to Armstrong about his whereabouts on May 11 when he met Wilson. Wilson had traveled from San Francisco to Austin to prepare for Gravel Locos, a 150-mile race across Texas.
Strickland, according to the complaint, drove a motorcycle to Wilson’s friend’s house, took her swimming, and then out to supper before dumping her off. A vehicle matching Armstrong’s black Jeep Grand Cherokee was observed approaching the victim’s residence shortly after Wilson was dropped off. Wilson was shot many times in the house’s bathroom. According to the affidavit, she was given CPR but was confirmed dead at the site.
BREAKING: @insideedition saw the passport of Kaitlin Armstrong – along with her sister Christine’s – when we did an interview with folks at the hostel in Costa Rica where Kaitlin was arrested yesterday. Also reportedly left behind in a locker was a receipt for plastic surgery. pic.twitter.com/Y9TRsOETaF
— Trevor Boyer (@trevormail) July 1, 2022
Kaitlin Armstrong was allegedly questioned about the incident later, but she was presumably released because the warrant for the botox tab included a technical mistake. Kaitlin Armstrong also sold her Jeep for $12,200 and traveled from Austin to New York City around this time. She was sent off at Newark Liberty International Airport a few days later when she boarded a flight to Costa Rica using her sister’s passport.
