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[Music] here with the fabulous Mo Wilson you are like ready I'm ready I'm so excited to
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be here um feels like the first big race of the year so um yeah I'm ready to kick
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it off I'm still getting better I'm still learning it's an exciting time there's
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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
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senior reporter with The Daily Beast funny and friendly and smart and driven Mo was a rising star she
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graduated from Dartmouth in engineering everyone thought she was about to make her big break in
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cycling I have always relied on other people to push [Music] myself what happened to Mo was a
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tragedy they found Mo inside the residence it was pretty grizzly scene she had been
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shot multiple times at first detectives thought it was a robbery you're looking into this possibility of a robbery or a
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burglary but parallel to that there is this name Colin Strickland my name is Colin Strickland I
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am a bicycle racer Colin Strickland was a top biker and he was also friends with
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Mo I mean Colin you know he was an interesting character had a lot of like you know cool qualities about him
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motorcycled professional athlete I mean Colin had dated like a few girls in the cycling scene you know girlfriends here
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and there but you know pretty standard stuff Colin's relationship with Mo like was like they were both bike racers they
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had like a romantic relationship there had definitely been something romantic between
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them colins said they had broken up the situation was complicated there was another woman in
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colins's leg her name was Caitlyn Armstrong Caitlyn you know first impressions she was really nice glow
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hopping around the world was you know really interested in yoga like very attractive person uh both inside and out
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at least the Caitlyn I you know initially knew homicide detectives were very interested in talking to Caitlyn
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Armstrong he's starting to get this sense that there could be some jealousy to it she has a gun few things like that
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start to paint a picture of like it could definitely be her we were still trying to figure out
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are they going to have enough information to sit down and scratch out a warrant at this point she kind of
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disappears no one knows where she [Applause] is Caitlyn Armstrong vanished seeming in
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a thin air sparking what would become an international Manhunt first leading authorities across the United States and
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then eventually here to the beaches of Costa Rica along the way she used multiple identities and changed her
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appearance even getting plastic surgery how smart was Caitlyn Armstrong she did some pretty intelligent things
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the thing that people don't know is you don't have to be just smarter than 1 2 three or four four of us cuz there's a
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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
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[Music] worked [Music] [Music] hello I'm here with the fabulous Mo Wilson you are like ready I'm ready
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ready in March of 2022 upand cominging PR gravel bike racer 25-year-old Anna Mariah Wilson known as Mo to some
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appeared on the pre-ride show an online program about cycling so excited to be here um feels like the first big race of
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the year so um yeah I'm it ready to kick it off just 2 months later Mariah was found
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murdered the news shocking the cycling Community I don't think anybody could really believe it at first you know why
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would anybody want to hurt or harm or kill this lovely talented young woman Lisa gosin Len is the editor of Vermont
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Sports magazine and Vermont ski and Ride magazine she's also a CBS News consultant Mariah Wilson right there
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coming in Lynn had been following Mariah Wilson's career for many months before her tragic death it is all Mariah Wilson
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as she is snaking through into the finish of Mariah was pretty much winning every race that she entered Mariah
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Wilson the winner of round one winning or finishing in the top two and the races that she entered were top tier
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first place Mo Wilson Mariah had the potential to be one of the top bike racers definitely in the country and
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probably in the world phenomenal race remarkably Lynn says that Mariah was new to the pro cycling
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World her first Passion had been downhill ski racing a love shared by her close-knit family she was born into a
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family of really great athletes her father Eric had been on the US ski team and Mariah's Aunt actually was a
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two-time Olympic Nordic ski racer and it's no surprise that Mariah was drawn to outdoor Endurance Sports she was
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raised in in Northern Vermont next to Kingdom Trails a mecca for skiers and mountain
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bikers and that was her playground Mariah attended Burke Mountain Academy an elite ski school that produced
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Olympic rates like two-time gold medalist Michaela schiffren Mariah had hoped to make the US ski team but knee
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injuries eventually ended her skiing career that's when she switched Sports she had used cycling as a way for
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rehabbing and kind of building back her strength what was fascinating to me was she then went on to Dartmouth she got an
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engineering degree and after doing that she went to her mother and said hey Mom I think I want to be a professional
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cyclist and Mariah told the podcast we got to hang out that she wanted to do much more than just win
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races how can I inspire people how can I give back to the cycling Community how can I bring more people into this sport
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how can I make it more inclusive like I want to find meaning and purpose in cycling that goes like far beyond the
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the result Mariah eventually moved to San Francisco where she focused on cycling
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and quickly Rose to the top of the sport Mariah was forging her own path she knew
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what she wanted to do and she was working hard to pursue [Music] it on May 10th 2022 just one week before her 26th
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birthday Mariah arrived in Austin Texas to prepare for the gravel Loos bike race
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a race she was favored to win Mariah stayed with a close friend in this Austin apartment but the next evening just
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before 1 p.m. the friend returned home and discovered Mariah who had been shot multiple times she called 911 she's
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laying on the bathroom floor and there's blood everywhere Mariah's friend tried CPR but it was too late it sound like
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started off near the door and went backwards like she was trying to get away or there was some sort of struggle
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or Austin police officers Mark McLoud and Jonathan Riley worked the case from the beginning whoever shot her at that
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point stood over top of her and shot her at least once sorry you're in apartment
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investigators wondered who could have murdered this promising young athlete as they canvas the immediate area police
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discovered a possible clue 432 I located the bike Mariah's expensive racing bicycle had been discarded in the bushes
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so at that point okay is this a burglary a robbery gone wrong but that theory was
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quickly dismissed because there was no sign of a Breakin then police learned that just hours before Mariah was found
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murdered at around 8:30 p.m. she had been dropped off by another professional bike racer named Colin Strickland so
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obviously the focus would be who's this Colin Strickland Colin Strickland was a very
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good grapple racer he was at the top Echelon Colin Strickland who was 35 was considered a Pioneer in the sport he had
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won some of the most prestigious races and was sponsored by the industry's top brands like Red Bull my name is Colin
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Strickland I am a bicycle racer and general Entertainer in 2020 he appeared in an
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online video called Wahoo Frontiers about his long and successful career pretty early on I looked up to Colin
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when I was coming up in the scene please welcome for Chris T Chris T is friends with Colin
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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
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of selling bike racing he was really passionate about it and tal said although his friend had
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been popular with women he eventually became became serious with a woman named Caitlyn Armstrong however in a social
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media post after the crime Strickland wrote that about 6 months before Mariah's murder during a short breakup
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with Armstrong he did have a brief romantic relationship with Mariah that spanned a week or so he said that it
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ended and their relationship had turned into a platonic and professional one he just wanted to be friends with like
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someone who was going to do great things in cycling the day after Mariah's murder police
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visited and spoke to Colin Strickland at his home my personal take was he's being
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very Cooperative being very forthcoming um obviously he was in shock being very transparent at very transparent yeah an
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investigators say when he agreed to go down to the police station to be interviewed he didn't seem to hold back
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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
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hot in the 80s and this story started with a swim right here it's a famous old outdoor pool and Colin Strickland told
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detectives he took the victim Mo Wilson on the back of his motorcycle here to cool off they went swimming then they
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got food Mariah and Strickland are seen here on the restaurant's security camera
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I know he's being transparent at this point during this questioning but what he's saying is starting to sound a lot
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like a date oh yeah 100% investigators had a lot of questions and their prior visit to
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Strickland's home had raised even more on the night of Mariah's murder police discovered an important clue on video
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from a neighbor security camera the video was taken just one minute after Mariah was dropped off there's a video
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from a ring doorbell camera that clearly shows like a black SUV with a bike rack
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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
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vehicle that fit that description was outside Strickland's house who was driving the black Jeep SUV with the bike
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rack the answer would lead directly to another [Music] woman the day after Mariah Wilson's murder
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investigators quickly had an answer to who could have been driving that black Jeep that was seen on security cameras
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shortly before her death investigators had spotted a similar looking Jeep in Colin Strickland's driveway when they
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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
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it comes back that it's registered to Caitlin Armstrong Caitlyn Armstrong Colin Strickland's
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Girlfriend Chris tally says he knew her very well you know we connected pretty early on Caitlyn and I became friends
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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
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helped us become like even better friends she'd come over to parties I would have Armstrong had a background in
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finance and loved yoga she had a really strong you know kind of uh you know love
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for travel love you know she spent time pretty much you know Globe hopping around the world really you know kind of
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interesting person Armstrong got certified as a yoga instructor in Bali after she met Colin Strickland in 2019
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she also started getting into cycling he's very willing to kind of show her you know what his passions were and how
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passionate he was for cycling and you know get her involved with it and she also became you know kind of addicted to
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cycling along with Colin Armstrong even started racing on an amateur level at the end of the day like I feel like they
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had a pretty like normal relationship they both ride bikes together they would you know do fun stuff and you know then
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2020 happened and the pandemic started so everyone was kind of you know forced with uh you know Close Quarters with
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their significant others the couple eventually moved in together the moment I I saw the relationship become more
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serious is you know they talked about uh that they purchased a house recently uh
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together which I thought you know was a pretty big indication that it's you know
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a serious relationship they also started a business together restoring classic trailers I think she was helping with
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the finance side of things Colin was doing a lot of the operations their relationship went from you know just a
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normal couple to also owning a business together but things got bumpy in late 2021 the breakup I personally didn't
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know like they were split up at the time neither of them mentioned anything to me
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it was during this time that Colin Strickland and Mariah Wilson had briefly dated
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although Strickland had said they had broken It Off Mariah seemed confused in the
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aftermath po Mendez covered the case for The Daily Beast around this time I think
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Mo was pretty confused about her the status of her relationship with Colin and she literally wrote this weekend was
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strange for me if you just want to be friends that's cool honestly my mind has been going in circles it sounds like
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someone who's in her early 20s who just wants to know the status of her relationship ship with someone that's
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confusing her and it seems totally reasonable that she might be confused Strickland had a lot to say
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about his relationship with Caitlyn Armstrong he starts to portray her as being the jealous type even saying
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things like I can't keep people in my phone like Mo's not in my phone as Mo Strickland told investigators he kept
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Mor's phone number under an alias in his contacts and on that evening after he'd
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been out with with Mariah at the pool he texted Armstrong that he'd been running
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an errand and that his phone had died that was not true investigators say there were other
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Clues pointing toward Caitlyn Armstrong on the night of the murder Caitlyn Armstrong's phone was not
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connected to a cell network not connected correct so whether she powered it off whether she put it in Airplane
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Mode uh there's some something happened that her phone was not communicating with any cell phone towers do you think
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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
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victim of a crime or you're probably committing one a silent phone speaks louder in some cases than actions oh
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absolutely Strickland also shared that he had bought handguns for Armstrong and himself for personal
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security he talks about how they purchase guns M and that there are these two guns and that she has a gun um
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they've taken lessons and that these guns are back at the house and so few things like that start to paint a
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picture of like this could it could definitely be her police worked quickly that same day investigators picked
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Caitlyn Armstrong up on an old warrant for failing to pay for a Botox treatment she's just kind of sitting there and
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she's not showing very much emotion at all what were you doing yesterday yesterday I would like to leave I think
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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
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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
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was none of that is there any explanation as far as why the vehicle would be over there I would like to
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leave she was almost completely disinterested in in hearing what the detectives had to say so it sounds like
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this is a big red flag immediately oh oh abely absolutely but investigators had to let Armstrong go there was a problem
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Armstrong's birth date did not match the date on the warrant so the warrant wasn't valid and police didn't have
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enough to charge her with anything else two days after that interview police got an unexpected call it was
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from a friend of Caitlyn Armstrong police say the caller told them that Armstrong was so angry about
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Strickland's relationship with Mariah that she wanted to kill her it was yet another indication that they
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were on the right track a few days later an arrest warrant was issued but when police went looking
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for Caitlyn Armstrong she was [Music] gone after Caitlyn Armstrong vanished us Marshals got the job of
00:19:59
tracking her down plain and simply the Marshals are manhunters Chris godik hosts and
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produces a podcast with the US Marshall service I'm Chris godik and this is chasing
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evil his podcast tells the stories of some of the US Marshals biggest cases including the hunt for Caitlyn
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Armstrong nobody thought Caitlyn Armstrong was going to run and she surprised of all she disappeared Caitlyn
00:20:31
Armstrong ran from a murder charge but the US Marshals Lone Star fugitive task force had a different
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plan so take me through this where do you begin when you're looking for somebody that does not want to be found
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you know it depends on the case honestly we look for friends sometimes we look for family one of the things that I did
00:20:52
was collect as many photos as I could Damen Fernandez and Amir Perez are Deputy US Marshal
00:20:59
they joined ausome police officers Jonathan Riley and Mark McLoud on the case the team based in Texas is known as
00:21:08
The lonar Fugitive task force with no sign of Caitlyn Armstrong the task force suspected Armstrong may have left town
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headed for her sister christe's place in Upstate New York we were thinking maybe she's
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driving cross country we didn't know their instincts were right in Upstate New York another deputy Marshall managed
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to track down Armstrong's sister what did the sister say the sister ultimately said that her sister had come to visit
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her had stayed with her a couple of days but that she had dropped her off at the
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airport in New York and uh last she heard she was going to board a flight back to Austin but then called her back
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later and said that she decided that she was going to drive back and which made absolutely no sense
00:21:57
to any of us that you would just drive back when the task force checked outbound flights at Newark Airport No
00:22:06
Reservations had been made in Caitlyn Armstrong's name we never got a hit on Caitlyn Armstrong's passport but the
00:22:13
team had a hunch unaware because Christy told the deputy Marshall in New York that she didn't know where her passport
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was so they checked with their contct at Homeland Security and within minutes of
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reaching out to him he got back to me and he's like yeah we're showing uh Christy Armstrong traveled out of nework
00:22:30
New Jersey International Airport on a one-way flight to Costa ricao you knew it and I said there's no way that the
00:22:38
sister left and we're looking for her we can't find Caitlyn no that's Caitlyn the Marshall suspected that
00:22:45
Caitlyn Armstrong had used her sister's passport to flee Christy Armstrong later
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emphasized to authorities she did not give her sister the passport she has never been charged with any crime
00:22:56
related to this case [Music] [Music] and this is where Caitlyn Armstrong landed Costa Rica Gem of Central America
00:23:14
home to mountains tropical rainforests and white sand beaches as far as the eye can
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see but she didn't spend much time here in San Jose shortly after arriving Caitlyn Armstrong disappeared again and
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she had a huge lead on the US Marshals Marshall's Amir Perez and Damen Fernandez arrived in Costa Rica a month
00:23:41
after Armstrong this is you guys now on the hunt how intense is it once you touch
00:23:49
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
00:23:57
we were sitting in the plane and we're talking what's the game plan although they would have help from
00:24:04
the Costa Rican authorities and US state department officers on the ground they knew finding Armstrong was going to be a
00:24:11
big challenge we had other intelligence indicating that she was staying in hostels in Costa Rica and I don't know
00:24:20
if you know anything about Costa Rica but Costa Rica has a lot of hostiles a lot an unbelievable amount of
00:24:26
hostiles the marshals wouldn't tell us exactly how their intelligence gathering worked
00:24:32
but their team back in the States had managed to track down the phone number for an American businessman they
00:24:38
believed had connected with Caitlyn Armstrong at some point we didn't know what city he was in so we decided hey
00:24:45
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
00:24:50
Marshals U my name is Mark and he goes I don't want any click just hangs up like
00:24:54
it's a like a telemarketer tarket a scam call yeah after three or four call attempts the
00:25:00
businessman finally stayed on the line to answer the Marshall's questions and we actually end up sending a picture of
00:25:08
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's not
00:25:14
using that name and did he tell you her new name he did it was be going by Beth and the businessman
00:25:23
said Armstrong no longer looked like this she had cut her hair and changed its color went brown brown instead of
00:25:30
red she dyed her hair the businessman told the marshals he had no idea that the woman who called herself Beth was
00:25:38
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
00:25:49
hako this is hako a popular tourist destination known for its nightlife and its beaches and the perfect place to
00:25:58
hide it was the Marshall's first real tip so they rushed out here they canvas the area comb through
00:26:07
hours of surveillance video but could not find a single sign of Caitlyn Armstrong anywhere it was a
00:26:16
bust but the marshals have one more solid lead and that takes them to a beautiful touristy Beach Town one street
00:26:24
town called Santa Teresa [Music] one month after Caitlyn Armstrong disappeared the US Marshals were in Hot
00:26:56
Pursuit of her and another area of Costa Rica a source had suggested she might have gone to a small village on the
00:27:04
Pacific coast the marshals took a fery like this one to reach a remote Peninsula once there they drove by car
00:27:12
through those mountains to the Tiny Town of Santa Teresa but when they finally arrived they ran into an unexpected
00:27:21
problem get to Santa Teresa was it easy to identify her there from the other people that were there I think from the
00:27:31
GetGo we were told you're going to be in for a surprise because a lot of the women in Santa Teresa look just like K A
00:27:38
lot of them and it turns out that advice was right the town was full of foreign tourists Deputy Marshals Fernandez and
00:27:47
Perez arrived in Santa Teresa after dark so we get there and he starts walking down a main strip that's there uh like
00:27:57
down the street there's only one road on on that town and he sees Main Road he sees a girl and he says you know that
00:28:03
looks just like her well couple of minutes later we see another one and it's late at night and we're like well
00:28:11
oh man that's too and then there's another one as the marshals tried to find Armstrong they even had one of their
00:28:18
female operatives start going to yoga classes to see if they could spot her she actually did three different
00:28:25
classes for us and they tapped into local contacts oh yeah we made friends with people there that would send us pictures
00:28:34
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
00:28:40
took stuff like that in fact people had seen Caitlyn Armstrong at local spots in Santa Teresa
00:28:48
but they didn't realize who she was Armstrong was hiding in plain sight using different
00:28:55
names she had like multiple names yeah um she came in um Beth it wasn't Beth Ari Ari Ari Ari right so she came
00:29:05
in as Ari Greg Haber is an American from the New York area who owns a restaurant
00:29:10
called Cook's smok house and bar here in Santa Teresa Ari what did Ari look like
00:29:16
did she stand out to you pretty came in introduced herself as a yoga teacher which is basically anybody else down
00:29:23
here hey I moved here teaching yoga down the street and that was it what was her
00:29:28
General Vibe like she definitely seemed like she was trying to establish Roots here like this was going to be her new
00:29:33
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
00:29:40
every night for Sunset and you're walking through and you see the bandage on her face it's like ah what happened
00:29:45
she like a surfboard hit me in the face it's like well happens to everybody right at least once so you wouldn't even
00:29:52
question that story here like you see people all the time turns out that band would later prove to be an important
00:29:59
part of this story and one of the reasons the Marshalls say Armstrong was so hard to find so you're this close to
00:30:07
giving up finally they decided on one last tactic they turned to a local Facebook
00:30:14
page we decided we were going to put an ad out for a yoga instructor and see what would happen so this is the
00:30:20
equivalent of Craigslist yes correct pretty much and a little of a more lively but yes and just saying a we're
00:30:28
this hostel we're looking for a yoga instructor the soon as the possible please contact us at this number but
00:30:35
after almost a week of hunting even that didn't seem to be working Sunday we decided we haven't gotten any response
00:30:42
back from anything we're we're burned so Sunday are like okay we're done none of
00:30:47
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
00:30:55
when suddenly we got a bite somebody that identified herself as a yoga instructor and said
00:31:02
that wanted to meet with us at a particular hostel and we said this is this is our chance Deputy Marshals Perez
00:31:11
and Fernandez rushed back to Santa Teresa just ahead of a tropical storm tourism police Lieutenant Juan
00:31:23
Carlos solano's team helped the marshals in their search for Caitlyn Armstrong they did surveillance on a hostel called
00:31:30
Don John's where the yoga instructor the one who answered the online ad was believed to be so there is this massive
00:31:37
International Manhunt and of all places in the world it ends in this very discret
00:31:48
hosle it was now time for the marshals to make their move so I walked up and I got in they decided that Deputy Marshall
00:31:58
perezz would approach the woman alone they didn't want to scare her off he would pretend to be a tourist and try to
00:32:04
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
00:32:12
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
00:32:22
get close enough where I start asking questions where she doesn't suspect something so I decided that I was gonna
00:32:28
speak to her in Spanish so I spoke to her in nothing but Spanish so you're communicating she goes to use her phone
00:32:35
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
00:32:41
phone and she'd raise it up to me and I got even closer and I noticed that she had a bandage on her nose and possibly
00:32:48
her lips were swollen and I saw her eyes the eyes are the exact same ones that I
00:32:54
saw in the picture and this is is her 100% he gets in the car and he's like that's her she's in
00:33:01
there local police moved in to make the actual arrest and soon the Marshalls discovered
00:33:09
why Armstrong had been so hard to find she had been getting plastic surgery when they first arrived in Santa Teresa
00:33:17
at the hospital they found a receipt the receipt for surgery plastic surgery plastic surgery in these
00:33:26
sidebyside phot phot you can see that Armstrong changed the shape of her nose the deputy Marshall said their
00:33:32
female operative the woman they sent to yoga classes to try to find Armstrong told them Armstrong's New Look would
00:33:39
have tricked her and she told me I think if I would have run into her at the yoga
00:33:44
studio I don't think I would have recognized her wow it almost worked it almost worked the marshals took Armstrong back
00:33:54
to Texas where she was charged and held in jail but just weeks before she was due to stand trial for the murder of
00:34:02
Mori Wilson Caitlyn Armstrong escaped again what do you make of the investigators undercover operation chat
00:34:13
now with the 48 Hours team on Facebook and X almost 3 weeks before her trial former
00:34:28
fugitive Caitlyn Armstrong somehow managed to escape from custody she was at a doctor's appointment and tried to
00:34:36
escape as they were walking out parar Melendez from The Daily Beast says Armstrong didn't get far before deputies
00:34:43
caught her it was pretty astonishing that she did that given the fact that she had tried to escape prosecution
00:34:50
prior this was just more evidence of her guilt Jose Garza is Travis County's district attorney
00:34:57
he says his team of prosecutors Ricky Jones and guo Gonzalez were more than ready to try the case when we learned
00:35:05
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
00:35:12
able to secure Justice for Mariah and her family on November 1st 2023 Armstrong's trial
00:35:21
began the Last Thing mo did on this Earth was frame and Terror in opening statements Jones told the jury about
00:35:32
chilling audio from a security camera that captured the last moments of Mariah's life those scams are followed
00:35:43
by two gunshots kayen Armstrong stood over Mo Wilson and put a third shot right in MO Wilson's
00:35:53
home prosecutors said Armstrong had had been tracking Mariah Wilson using a sports app Caitlyn prior to the murder
00:36:02
had been following Mo on a straa app which is basically an app that athletes used to track their miles running biking
00:36:08
and she knew exactly where she was and they said that Armstrong on the night of the murder was most likely
00:36:15
tracking Colin Strickland as well she did have the ability to monitor his Communications she had access to all of
00:36:24
his passwords so she had access ACC to um his Instagram account I believe that when Mo sent Colin a text letting him
00:36:35
know the address of where she was I believe that Caitlin Armstrong was at home on Colin strickman's laptop she saw
00:36:44
that message after murdering Mariah and before leaving the scene Jones told the jury that Armstrong took Mariah's bike
00:36:53
and discarded it in the bushes just yards away from where her Jeep was parked our belief is that she maybe
00:37:01
stays it to look like a robbery or something or another theory is Mo Wilson's bike is a tool of her
00:37:10
trade it might have been like the bullet shot in the heart I'm going to shoot you in the
00:37:16
heart I'm going to throw away your bike but they said Armstrong made one big mistake she left her DNA behind on
00:37:26
the hand hand lears and seat of Mariah's bike and that's on all the evidence prosecutors had against Armstrong there
00:37:33
was that receipt that showed Armstrong had received plastic surgery while hiding out in Costa
00:37:39
Rica everything she does it's all consistent with trying to evade the authorities but when it was the
00:37:45
defense's turn attorney Jeffrey puer told the jury there was no direct evidence including security footage that
00:37:52
actually showed Armstrong was at the scene of the crime not one one witness saw Caitlyn Armstrong allegedly Commit
00:38:02
This murder then why would Armstrong flee and hide from the authorities defense attorney Rick kofer pointed the
00:38:10
finger at Colin Strickland was she scared what do you think do you think that she may have
00:38:17
been concerned a little bit that her boyfriend had killed someone fear results in fight or
00:38:24
flight and it was flight but Janes said there was a big problem with this Theory because Strickland had
00:38:31
nothing to do with the murder of Mariah Wilson in fact at the time of the murder
00:38:37
he was actually on the phone speaking with someone it wasn't Colin Strickland Armstrong's defense team did
00:38:45
not respond to our request for an interview after a 2eek trial the defendant will please rise it took the
00:38:54
jury around 2 hours to decide Armstrong's Fe we the jury find the defendant Caitlyn Armstrong guilty of
00:39:02
the offense of murder as a prosecutor the first row right behind you is the family and you
00:39:12
began to feel their pain and their desire for a just outcome for their loved ones one day after her conviction
00:39:21
Armstrong was sentenced to 90 years behind bars you may be seated [Music] but before the case came to an end judge
00:39:31
Brenda Kennedy allowed Caitlyn cash Mariah's close friend whose apartment she'd been staying at and who had found
00:39:38
Mariah's body to take the stand and speak directly to Armstong so many people in this room
00:39:45
have lost so much I'm angry at you at the UT utter tragic nature at the senselessness at not being able to hear
00:39:59
Mo's voice again I feel deep sadness for the road ahead then it was Mariah's mother's turn
00:40:09
I hate what you did to my beautiful daughter it was very selfish and cowardly that violent act on May 11 it
00:40:20
was cowardly because you never chose to face her woman to woman in a civil conversation she would have
00:40:31
listened she was an amazing listener she would have cared about your feelings but despite the pain Karen
00:40:41
Wilson closed with words of love and optimism because she said that's how Mariah would have wanted it you killed
00:40:50
her Earthly body but her spirit is so very much alive and you can never change that today in Kingdom trails in Northern
00:41:03
Vermont a place that was sacred to Mariah a trail was built in her honor it's called Mariah's
00:41:11
Ascent Mariah was a vermonter she was giving she was hardworking she was honest she was caring and she came from
00:41:21
a wonderful family and that family really wants that Legacy and all of her good qualities to inspire
00:41:29
[Music] others a good family man disappears I knew something bad was happening to him
00:41:46
I felt it then a high-speed chase reveals Clues it was like the scene out of a movie and a powerful motive Revenge
00:41:54
I had no idea the type of evil we were dealing with 48 hours Saturday on CBS and screaming on Paramount Plus