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This time on Killers Caught on
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Camera in Austin, Texas.
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A woman is shot three times on the eve
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of a bike race. Do I stop? I don't know
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what happened. I just walked in on her.
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after a lunch date with a friend shapes
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a fatal love triangle. This might lead a
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bike that evolves into an international
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manhunt. There's a showcasing to the
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right. There's another one.
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Somebody had stood over her and fired
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one shot through her after she had
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already fallen to the floor. And in the
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north of England, a suspected Gangland
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hit involves a shotgun and sulfuric
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acid. He's got a lot of white powder
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around him as well that seems to be sort
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of giving off gas.
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Why would an orchestrated hit like this
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happen in such a quiet residential area?
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[Music]
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It just sounds like something bad is
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happening here. We know what happened
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because the video tells us what
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happened. I heard some gunshots. Drop
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it. Whatever it is, drop it. That does
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not prove that I killed my wife. The
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camera doesn't lie.
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In central Texas, the state capital,
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Austin. In May 2022, emergency services
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received a panicked call.
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Austin 911. Um, my friend is staying
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with me and I just walked in and she's
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laying on the bathroom floor and there's
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blood everywhere. There's blood all over
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her face and all on the back of her
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head.
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Austin police were the first on the
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scene.
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Austin police.
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First responders found a young woman
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lying on the bathroom floor. The friend
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who had called 911 was performing CPR.
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Do I stop? I don't know what happened. I
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just walked in on her
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on the right right here. As the first
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responding patrol officers arrived and
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emergency medical services, they quickly
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realized that the victim was deceased
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and they pronounced her um dead on
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scene.
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Okay, I'll let you go. You can talk to
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them. Okay.
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She doesn't live here. She's staying
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really close with her family.
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Police questioned the friend to find out
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who the deceased woman was.
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What's What's her name? Her name is
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Mariah. Mariah is her middle name. Her
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first name is Anna. She's 26.
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[Music]
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[Applause]
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Mariah Wilson, known as Mo, was staying
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in Austin to take part in the gravel
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locos race.
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Well was a remarkable
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friend. She was introverted, but she
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really had this intensity and fierceness
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and this like quiet
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power. Mo grew up in East Burke,
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Vermont. She was born into an athletic
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family.
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Mo comes from an athletic family. Her
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dad was a very successful ski racer. She
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also had a younger brother who was also
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a ski racer.
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When Mo went to study engineering at
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Dartmouth College, she joined the
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women's alpine ski
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team. She was a competitor through and
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through. But after a series of injuries,
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Mo moved on from skiing to focus on
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competitive bike racing. Cycling was the
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next best thing for her. She was really
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good at it and she could channel that
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competitive energy.
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In 2019, Mo graduated from Dartmouth and
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moved to San Francisco. She started
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competing in gravel racing competitions.
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Her first few races, she just dominated
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the field and a world class field at
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that. And then from there, her star was
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on the rise as one of the premier racers
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to come along in a long, long time.
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At the crime scene, police began a
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meticulous search for evidence. If you
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get a chance, you check the calls around
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the area.
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There had been fired cartridge cases
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located near her body and she had wounds
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consistent with being shot. There's a
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showcasing to the right. There's another
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one right here.
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So, there's one in the bathroom.
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Three showcases. We got three
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showcasing. Nobody heard any shots. Do
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you know how long she's been down? No.
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They also discovered that Mo's bike was
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missing bike.
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Anywhere you see a bike. She said she
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would put it right by the door. No bike.
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But the bike wasn't far from the
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apartment.
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Hey, come here. Somebody might be in
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here. This might be the bike.
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[Music]
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My initial thought is why is this
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property belonging to the victim several
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feet down and hidden in the bushes? We
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felt pretty certain that the possible
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suspect in the homicide had removed that
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bike.
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Mo's injuries also gave the police
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another clue about her killer.
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We located a gunshot wound in her chest
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that went through her chest, through her
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back, and into the floor below her. And
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it appeared that somebody had stood over
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her and fired one shot through her after
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she had already fallen to the floor. I
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began to get the feeling that whoever
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did this, there could have been a
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personal aspect to
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it. Police began searching the area for
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surveillance footage. They discovered a
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camera pointing down the alley beside
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the apartment where Mo had been found.
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There was a vehicle observed on that
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video footage that was identified as a
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black Jeep. We also observed the brake
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lights going on and off which showed us
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that the person was possibly unsure of
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where they were going. We found the
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black Jeep also had a very distinct
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wheel pattern.
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[Music]
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Police questioned Mo's friend to find
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out who Mo had been with that night.
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She was with my friend Colin. Yeah.
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Colin Strickland. Colin. Strickland.
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Yeah. Yeah. I They went swimming.
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Colin Strickland was a professional bike
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racer. He'd won some of gravel cycling's
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most prestigious races.
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Colin and Mariah had a very brief
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relationship. That relationship ended
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when Mariah left to go back to
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California. They were still friends uh
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and would still meet up on rides every
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now and then if they happen to be in the
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same city or or at the same race.
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As the last known person to see Mo Colin
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was now a person of
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interest. The next morning, Thursday,
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May 12th, Detective Richard Spitler went
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to Colin's residence.
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At this point, I didn't know if Colin
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was the person responsible for this
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murder or if maybe he was just a
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witness. I decided that I would do a
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death
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notification. I don't really know what
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to say, sir. So, apparently last night
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she she passed away.
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How
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did she right now? It's a it's an open
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investigation, but it is being
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investigated as as a homicide.
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I didn't have any solid proof to
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indicate that Colin was the person
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responsible for this murder. So, I told
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Colin that I wanted his help in
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investigating this crime and I wanted to
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find out who was responsible.
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Colin was brought into the police
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department for an interview.
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if you just want to take a seat in here.
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I'll be right back.
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I began asking him, you know, more about
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Mariah, more about their outing. I had
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been in contact with Mo earlier in the
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day. We were thinking of coordinating a
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ride. He was able to show me different
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text messages, the plans that they were
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making, right? She sent me a photo of
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her on the bike. Is that Mo? Yeah,
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that's Mo. And this is more complexity,
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but I have it saved as a different name
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just because I am a I got you. His name
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is Christine.
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The name in Colin's phone for Mariah was
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Christine Wall.
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The question was, why did Colin have to
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keep Mo Wilson saved in his phone under
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someone else's name? He indicated that
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he does have a girlfriend named Caitlyn
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Armstrong.
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Caitlyn currently lives with him and she
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would tend to be jealous. In the past,
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Caitlyn has looked at my
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phone. Basically, that would always
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start fights. Exactly. Like, does she do
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that with like all of the girls that are
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in your phone or like just with most
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most of them? You know, she's she loves
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she loves me and she wants to be, you
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know. Yeah. Basically, nobody else can
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have you. Yeah. Yeah. You know,
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having a contact in your phone under a
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different name, it definitely feels
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shady in the first instance. If you have
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a partner who is jealous and you want to
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communicate with someone whom you've had
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a sexual relationship with before, then
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you might just put them under a
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different name, even if there's nothing
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else really going on. The problem with
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minor deceptions is that it can really
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amplify a jealous
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mind. When he says that Caitlyn is
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jealous of it seems all his female
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friends, that signifies that there's a
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bigger issue going on here with her
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general jealousy seems almost as if it's
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part of this idea of love for him and
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that he's thereby normalizing or
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rationalizing it. Even though it sounds
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like it might be jealousy that is quite
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severe, we were able to get an alibi. We
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were able to get a story of where he had
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been, what he had done, and so started
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trying to look to see if we could find
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surveillance video at that point to try
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and corroborate his story and his
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albby. Police obtained surveillance
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footage from the pool bar where Colin
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said they went after their
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swim. This video shows Colin and Mariah
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having a conversation. They appear calm.
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She doesn't look like she's in any kind
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of
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fear. She drinks from his drink. Very
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friendly. Mo and Colin left the pool bar
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together. They were then captured on
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multiple cameras on Colin's motorcycle
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heading towards the apartment where Mo
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was later found dead.
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This is another angle of Colin on that
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white motorbike. This is important
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because this corroborates the story that
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Colin has told us of what happened that
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evening. In his interview, Colin told
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police that he had dropped Mo off in the
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alley behind the house where she was
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staying.
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We said a pretty brief goodbye there. I
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didn't actually like watch her go
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up the stairs. I got back to my house.
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Um, a little bit before dark,
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investigators discovered that the
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apartment where Mo was staying had an
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electronic door lock. It logged her
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arriving home at 8:36
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p.m. Just 1 minute
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later, the black Jeep was captured on
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camera in the alley just outside the
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apartment.
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While we don't have a clear view of the
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license plate of this car, that doesn't
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stop us from getting a lot of
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information. This very obvious running
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stripe, as well as what appears to be um
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some sort of rack on the back of the
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vehicle. This car is in the area at the
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time of the
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homicide. In the hours leading up to
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Mo's murder, the black Jeep was caught
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on camera multiple times.
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circling the neighborhood.
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We're able to see that running stripe in
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the bike rack on the back. We've seen
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this vehicle now on several camera
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angles and traveling at a very slow rate
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of speed, really appearing to prowl the
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area. This is potentially the suspect in
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this
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homicide. Police had seen this vehicle
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before.
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It had been parked in Colin's driveway
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when they first visited his
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house. We noticed this dark SUV with a
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bike rack on the rear. We see that
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silver running stripe along the side of
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the vehicle.
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Detective Spitler asked Colin who owned
00:13:53
the Jeep. The Jeep is hers. Okay. So,
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that belongs to her. Okay. Do you ever
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drive that one? No. I know for a fact
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that her vehicle was at that apartment.
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I told Colin that Caitlyn's Jeep is on
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camera, that it's in the neighborhood at
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the time that Mariah had gotten home
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after he had already dropped her
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off. Colin was shocked. He was very
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surprised.
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Whenever
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she got home, was there anything? I
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didn't say anything.
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Has Caitlyn ever gotten so mad in the
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past that not necessarily thinking that
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she would do anything, you know, but I
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mean, has she ever threatened anything
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or she's always such a like mild like
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gentle person?
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When he says that she's a mild gentle
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person, that to me feels like he in his
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mind has well a version of her that even
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though she's jealous, she would never do
00:14:53
anything. He's probably running through
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all these moments, maybe even the
00:14:57
jealous moments, maybe the moments where
00:14:59
she's potentially gone through his
00:15:00
phone. And yet thinking, "No, but she's
00:15:02
gentle and she's she's like me. We're
00:15:04
the same. We're we're calm and quiet."
00:15:07
And so it feels like he's trying to say
00:15:09
to this police officer, "It couldn't
00:15:12
have been her." Like, "This is not in
00:15:13
her demeanor at
00:15:16
all." When they asked if Caitlyn owned a
00:15:19
gun, Colin told the police that he had
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recently bought two handguns.
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one for himself and one for Caitlyn.
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She's had a couple of incidents where
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she's been like costed or had people in
00:15:34
parking lots.
00:15:39
Colin had been in an onoff relationship
00:15:42
with Caitlyn Armstrong since
00:15:45
2019. She was a yoga teacher, realtor,
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and also had a background in finance.
00:15:53
It was found that Caitlyn had an active
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warrant for her arrest, a class B
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misdemeanor warrant for theft of
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service. She had received a Botox
00:16:01
treatment, but she didn't pay for it.
00:16:06
Just do a quick pat down real quick. It
00:16:09
gave the police a reason to bring
00:16:11
Caitlyn in. All right, just hang tight
00:16:13
and sit right here in this chair. It was
00:16:15
a chance to volunteer anything she might
00:16:18
know about Mo's death.
00:16:21
She was placed in the interview room and
00:16:24
we let them sit for a little bit because
00:16:26
we do want to kind of watch their body
00:16:27
language, see what they they do, how
00:16:29
they respond, if they're fidgety, if
00:16:32
they're not. Um, she was interesting
00:16:34
because she was extremely still, which
00:16:36
kind of stood out to me. So, there's a
00:16:39
situation that's going on. Did you hear
00:16:41
about what's happened over the past 24
00:16:43
hours? Colin walked in the house and
00:16:45
said one of the women in the cycling
00:16:47
community passed away. Yes. Yeah. It
00:16:49
sounds like maybe he went out with this
00:16:51
girl the other day and from what he's
00:16:53
saying that you were a little upset
00:16:55
about it. I that is not accurate. Yeah.
00:16:59
And that's why I wanted to chat with you
00:17:00
because it's a guy. He's going to say
00:17:03
stuff and so we want to make sure that
00:17:05
we get both sides of the story and
00:17:06
everything and clear it up. So what what
00:17:09
were you doing yesterday? I would like
00:17:11
to leave. I think you would like to
00:17:13
leave. Yeah. Okay. That's that's totally
00:17:15
your choice. Um and and the doors open.
00:17:18
and you're welcome to leave. Um, but
00:17:20
again, that limits us to where we only
00:17:22
have one side of the story. And your
00:17:24
vehicle was seen next to her house. I
00:17:27
would like to leave if I'm free to
00:17:29
leave. Okay. Is there any explanation as
00:17:32
far as why the vehicle would be over
00:17:34
there? I would like to leave if I'm free
00:17:36
to leave.
00:17:38
Okay. Typically, with a truthful person
00:17:41
that has not done anything, they're
00:17:44
going to respond in a manner of, "How
00:17:46
can I help you?" they're going to offer
00:17:47
up information. So, it was it was a very
00:17:50
different reaction than what I expected
00:17:53
from
00:17:54
her. Caitlyn Armstrong was allowed to
00:17:57
walk free, but the police had a search
00:18:00
warrant for the home she shared with
00:18:02
Colin.
00:18:03
We were able to locate two
00:18:07
handguns. Those handguns were tested
00:18:10
against the fired cartridge cases that I
00:18:12
found on scene near the victim.
00:18:17
One of the handguns came back as a
00:18:19
positive match.
00:18:21
Police also found footage of Caitlyn at
00:18:24
the shooting
00:18:25
range. She was clearly capable of
00:18:28
handling a
00:18:29
[Music]
00:18:33
gun. Both Colin and Caitlyn's cell
00:18:36
phones were seized during the search of
00:18:38
their
00:18:39
property. When the police traced both of
00:18:42
their movements on the night that Mo had
00:18:44
been killed, they revealed a major
00:18:47
discrepancy.
00:18:50
Colin's whereabouts are known for that
00:18:51
night, but Caitlyn's or not. It appeared
00:18:53
as though her device had circled around
00:18:55
downtown Austin and then began traveling
00:18:58
to East Austin. Caitlyn's device, it
00:19:00
turns off. This is something that is
00:19:02
normally seen when someone is trying to
00:19:04
conceal their movements because they are
00:19:06
about to commit a crime.
00:19:10
Colin Strickland was now in the
00:19:13
clear. Armed with this new evidence,
00:19:15
police issued a warrant for Caitlyn's
00:19:19
arrest. The only problem was that when
00:19:21
they went to pick Caitlyn up, no one
00:19:23
could find her. We noticed that her
00:19:26
social media shut down. Nobody had heard
00:19:28
from her. So, we knew, okay, something's
00:19:31
up. She She might have taken off at that
00:19:33
point.
00:19:35
Police discovered that 2 days after Mo
00:19:38
had been killed, Caitlyn Armstrong was
00:19:40
at a car dealership in South Austin
00:19:43
where she sold her black Jeep for
00:19:47
$12,000. This video shows Caitlyn
00:19:50
Armstrong in the waiting area dealing
00:19:53
with her cell phone. There appears to be
00:19:55
some plastic hanging off this phone. Is
00:19:58
this a new cell phone? Is she making
00:20:02
plans to leave the area? She doesn't
00:20:04
seem agitated. When the police seized
00:20:07
the jeep, the GPS system revealed
00:20:10
Caitlyn's exact movements on the night
00:20:13
Mo Wilson was killed.
00:20:17
There was a lot of data and GPS hits
00:20:20
showing the Jeep circling the
00:20:22
neighborhood. We were able to put that
00:20:24
black Jeep on the scene at the time of
00:20:26
the murder. It showed that Caitlyn
00:20:28
Armstrong had planned this. It showed
00:20:31
that she knew where Mo was staying and
00:20:34
she was going to wait for them to come
00:20:36
back to possibly confront
00:20:38
Mo. Mo Wilson was caught in the middle
00:20:42
of a complicated situation, unaware of
00:20:45
the intensity of emotions and their
00:20:49
consequences. Police knew Mo had been
00:20:52
shot three times, twice in the head and
00:20:55
once in the chest while lying on the
00:20:57
floor.
00:20:59
Then police found footage from a
00:21:02
neighbor security camera which revealed
00:21:04
the distressing sound of Mo Wilson's
00:21:07
last
00:21:09
moments. The pattern of the shots is
00:21:12
callous.
00:21:25
The space of time between that second
00:21:27
and third shot would have allowed the
00:21:29
shooter to turn and leave, but this
00:21:31
perpetrator didn't do that. They
00:21:33
followed uh the victim into another room
00:21:36
and fired that third and fatal
00:21:40
shot. I stayed away from the
00:21:42
investigation.
00:21:44
I found that it just it kind of
00:21:47
unraveled me. The more I learned, the
00:21:50
more it just deeply upset
00:21:54
me. But Caitlyn Armstrong was on the
00:21:56
run. She was missing, wanted as part of
00:22:00
a murder
00:22:01
investigation. Weeks passed by and the
00:22:04
investigation hit a dead
00:22:07
end. Then a breakthrough. Police
00:22:10
discovered that Caitlyn had fled the
00:22:13
country using her sister's
00:22:16
passport. We have Caitlyn just making
00:22:19
her way calmly through the
00:22:21
airport. She's wearing a face covering,
00:22:24
which while not mandated at this time,
00:22:26
it's very easy for her to obstruct her
00:22:29
face from view of the cameras and from
00:22:32
other people without causing any alarm
00:22:34
or raising any red flags for those
00:22:36
around her. But we can see Caitlyn's
00:22:39
distinctive yoga mat here.
00:22:42
Her yoga mat was the only clue the
00:22:45
police
00:22:46
had. US marshals flew to Costa
00:22:50
Rica. Weeks of investigation drew a
00:22:54
blank. Investigators decided to try
00:22:57
their luck and put out a flyer for a
00:22:59
yoga teacher.
00:23:01
Caitlyn just happened to reach out to
00:23:04
one of those flyers.
00:23:06
After 43 days on the run, Caitlyn
00:23:09
Armstrong was finally located and
00:23:11
arrested at a hostel, but she looked
00:23:15
different.
00:23:18
Caitlyn had changed her hair color, her
00:23:21
style, uh the length of hair, but she
00:23:24
also had gotten a nose job, and she was
00:23:26
currently in the healing process from
00:23:28
this surgery.
00:23:30
She ran. She fled the country. Changed
00:23:32
her appearance. Spent thousands of
00:23:35
dollars altering her face with cosmetic
00:23:39
surgery. Because she traveled into the
00:23:41
country illegally on her sister's
00:23:43
passport, Caitlyn was deported from
00:23:46
Costa Rica and arrested by US
00:23:49
officials. Caitlyn was charged with
00:23:51
firstdegree murder. She pled not
00:23:55
guilty. But two weeks before the trial
00:23:58
was due to start, her determination to
00:24:00
flee justice surfaced
00:24:04
again. She claimed that she had a leg
00:24:06
injury and which required her to not use
00:24:10
leg restraints and that she needed to go
00:24:12
to a doctor's office that was outside of
00:24:14
the
00:24:15
jail. As they go to this doctor's
00:24:18
office, she bolts for
00:24:20
it. It was a thoughtout escape. It was
00:24:23
it was not something that was a spur of
00:24:25
the
00:24:27
moment. She gets almost a mile away
00:24:31
before she's actually
00:24:33
caught. It was very telling. She does
00:24:36
not come across as a person that has any
00:24:40
remorse. After a 17-day trial, Caitlyn
00:24:43
Armstrong was found guilty of the
00:24:44
firstdegree murder of Mo
00:24:47
Wilson. She was sentenced to 90 years.
00:24:51
But the question remained, why did she
00:24:54
commit such a horrific murder?
00:24:57
By all accounts, Caitlyn Armstrong
00:24:59
appeared to be a fairly intelligent
00:25:01
person. I believe that there there was a
00:25:03
jealousy issue and I believe that she
00:25:06
killed Mariah Wilson in cold blood. She
00:25:08
plotted and planned this murder. She
00:25:10
tracked Mariah Wilson to that apartment
00:25:13
and she stood over her and shot her one
00:25:15
final time. And for somebody to be able
00:25:18
to do that, to have the the capacity to
00:25:21
do that, it's just it's just
00:25:22
cold-hearted.
00:25:24
It's extremely rare to have a woman kill
00:25:28
another woman over a
00:25:30
partner. Mo ends up being the target of
00:25:36
Caitlyn's jealousy, of her more morbid
00:25:39
jealousy. And I feel like it could have
00:25:41
almost as easily been somebody else. But
00:25:42
maybe because Mo kind of had it all. She
00:25:46
was a really successful cyclist, which
00:25:48
was exactly what her partner was into.
00:25:50
She was beautiful. She was intelligent.
00:25:52
She was a friend who often saw her
00:25:55
partner and had a sexual history with
00:25:58
them. So maybe she was the ultimate
00:26:00
threat in her mind. And so that's why
00:26:02
she killed Mo.
00:26:04
[Music]
00:26:06
The reaction among the cycling community
00:26:08
was just utter disbelief that something
00:26:10
like this could befall our world, let
00:26:14
alone Mariah Wilson, someone who had
00:26:17
just so much future, so much
00:26:19
potential. It was devastating and
00:26:21
shocking on every level.
00:26:25
I think I'll best remember her as this
00:26:29
hard, charging, gritty, sweet girl. She
00:26:32
was fierce, intense, but so sweet and
00:26:36
had the kindest heart. She was really
00:26:41
[Music]
00:26:52
special. Caitlyn Armstrong brutally
00:26:55
murdered Mo Wilson as a result of her
00:26:57
morbid
00:27:00
jealousy. What jealousy does is it moves
00:27:03
you from suspicions to beliefs and those
00:27:08
beliefs become your reality. And at some
00:27:11
point you might feel the need to act on
00:27:14
that reality even if it's not based in
00:27:16
fact. And sometimes you might be jealous
00:27:19
or morbidly jealous because you perceive
00:27:21
a relationship between your partner and
00:27:23
somebody else and you seek at some point
00:27:25
to eliminate the romantic rival. In
00:27:28
other circumstances though, you can have
00:27:30
a single instance that is just sticking
00:27:34
in your mind. And in those cases, it can
00:27:38
become an all-consuming experience where
00:27:40
again, even without sufficient evidence
00:27:42
that anything particularly untoward
00:27:44
happened, you constantly are thinking
00:27:46
about this moment in time. And that kind
00:27:49
of fixation, that version of morbid
00:27:51
jealousy can also lead to you taking
00:27:54
matters into your own
00:27:56
hands. In the winter of 2022, British
00:28:00
police found themselves confronted with
00:28:02
a complete mystery. A case which
00:28:05
ultimately also came down to
00:28:15
jealousy. In the northwest of England is
00:28:20
Wigan. Wigan is a former industrial
00:28:23
town. It was known back in the day for
00:28:25
its textiles. Like many of the towns and
00:28:27
cities around here in the north, that
00:28:29
declined throughout the 20th century,
00:28:31
and nowadays it's a lot more known for
00:28:33
its green spaces, its parks and canal
00:28:36
[Music]
00:28:38
side. At 6:38 p.m. on November 24th,
00:28:43
Greater Manchester Police received a
00:28:46
call. A body had been found in the
00:28:48
Shvington district of
00:28:50
Wigan. Emergency services were quickly
00:28:53
on the scene. What they found was highly
00:28:57
disturbing.
00:28:59
When the first responders arrived at the
00:29:01
scene, it was apparent quite quickly
00:29:03
that the victim had been attacked with
00:29:05
some sort of corrosive substance. Oh,
00:29:08
he's got a lot of white powder around
00:29:10
him as well that seems to be sort of
00:29:12
giving off gas of some description. It's
00:29:15
It smells a bit ley.
00:29:18
His body was covered in sulfuric acid
00:29:20
and sodium carbonate. his body was
00:29:23
smoking. Really concerning for everybody
00:29:26
who approached there and also prevented
00:29:28
people actually rendering first aid. The
00:29:32
paramedics were uncertain about what
00:29:34
this corrosive substance might be, but
00:29:36
it was apparent that the victim had
00:29:38
succumbed to his injuries.
00:29:47
It was only when police accessed footage
00:29:49
from security cameras that they began to
00:29:52
understand what they were dealing with.
00:30:01
Although it was dark at the time, the
00:30:02
police heard this really distinctive
00:30:04
noise of a
00:30:07
gunshot. Alongside the acid attack, the
00:30:11
victim had suffered a single gunshot to
00:30:13
the
00:30:14
face. This changed the police
00:30:16
investigation
00:30:19
completely. The crime presented a total
00:30:22
mystery for investigators.
00:30:25
Even though this shooting bore all the
00:30:27
hallmarks of a gangland shooting, this
00:30:30
is 90% elderly people living there. So,
00:30:32
who and why would an orchestrated hit
00:30:35
like this happen in such a quiet
00:30:37
residential
00:30:39
area? It wasn't until the day after the
00:30:42
murder that a possible name for the
00:30:44
victim
00:30:46
emerged. In their initial search of the
00:30:48
area, police found a property which had
00:30:51
been left unsecured, as though somebody
00:30:52
had just popped out. A short while
00:30:55
afterwards, that person's family then
00:30:58
reported him missing.
00:31:01
The victim was confirmed as 38-year-old
00:31:04
Liam
00:31:08
Smith. Liam Smith was an electrician. He
00:31:11
had his own business. He was the father
00:31:13
to two young sons. And although he was
00:31:16
separated from his partner, he was still
00:31:18
very much a part of his children's life.
00:31:21
In many ways, this only deepens the
00:31:23
mystery for the police. They're then
00:31:26
wondering about the motive for such a
00:31:28
vicious crime. Could it even be the case
00:31:31
that this was an incident of mistaken
00:31:34
identity where Liam was just in the
00:31:36
wrong place at the wrong
00:31:39
time? The extreme use of violence may
00:31:42
communicate a number of things. It might
00:31:45
be about destroying evidence. It may be
00:31:48
about obliterating the identity of the
00:31:50
individual, but it could also be about
00:31:53
sending a clear message to the families
00:31:55
of the victim that this person has done
00:31:57
something wrong and retaliation has
00:31:59
taken
00:32:02
place. An autopsy on Liam's body
00:32:05
revealed further alarming details of the
00:32:07
manner of his killing.
00:32:10
He was shot in the face uh with an
00:32:13
adapted Glock with shot pellets and a
00:32:17
much larger sphere that had been added I
00:32:20
believe for maximum
00:32:22
damage. They were really interesting
00:32:24
aspects and as a team made us ask lots
00:32:28
of questions around why somebody would
00:32:31
use those particular types of chemicals.
00:32:34
Why would somebody use that particular
00:32:36
combination of ammunition?
00:32:39
With so little information to go on,
00:32:41
police began to search for more video
00:32:44
evidence. Liam's own security cameras
00:32:47
provided the first
00:32:52
breakthrough. A little after 6:30 p.m.,
00:32:55
a man in a high viz jacket and a head
00:32:58
torch gets out of a car, which is parked
00:33:00
a little further away on the street, and
00:33:02
heads towards the house.
00:33:07
It disappears for probably about 40
00:33:09
seconds out of camera, potentially to
00:33:12
lure Liam out of his address. He has a
00:33:16
phone in his hand and then he turns left
00:33:18
from Liam's drive and he walks back in
00:33:20
the vehicle wearing a florescent jacket,
00:33:22
a headlamp, all efforts to disguise his
00:33:26
identity.
00:33:30
Liam comes out of his house presumably
00:33:32
alerted by the CCTV cameras. He checks
00:33:35
around the side of the house. He then
00:33:37
comes to the front and pauses before
00:33:40
heading towards this parked car a little
00:33:42
further up the
00:33:44
road. That's a heartbreaking moment to
00:33:47
watch. It's the last few seconds of
00:33:49
Liam's
00:33:50
life. Less than half a minute later,
00:33:53
there's the sound, the audio sound of
00:33:55
one gunshot.
00:34:00
The vehicle drives away, but then
00:34:03
strangely a few minutes later returns to
00:34:06
the crime scene. The man gets out of his
00:34:08
car with the chemicals and pours them
00:34:11
onto Liam's
00:34:13
body. It does seem strange after
00:34:16
shooting Liam in the face fatally that
00:34:19
this asalent would return to the crime
00:34:21
scene to then throw these chemicals on
00:34:23
the body. It does beg the question, was
00:34:25
this to cause further damage and pain to
00:34:28
him or maybe even to send some kind of
00:34:30
message?
00:34:34
Police continued to search through hours
00:34:36
of footage from the surrounding
00:34:39
area. Police now discovered two vital
00:34:42
pieces of evidence. The first was some
00:34:44
footage from the dash cam of a
00:34:47
supermarket delivery van.
00:34:50
[Music]
00:34:53
On that footage, we see the asalent's
00:34:56
vehicle arriving on the street at 7:30
00:34:59
a.m. that morning. This vehicle was also
00:35:02
spotted on the cameras of a bin lorry in
00:35:04
the area that
00:35:08
morning. It was a car with the license
00:35:10
plate beginning R22.
00:35:14
[Music]
00:35:15
He parked up on Liam's road and there he
00:35:18
stayed without breaking cover without
00:35:20
leaving that vehicle for almost 10 hours
00:35:23
before he murdered
00:35:27
Liam. The fact that someone sat outside
00:35:30
Liam Smith's house for 10 hours gives us
00:35:33
a real insight into their psyche. This
00:35:35
is someone who's committed to the course
00:35:38
of action that they want to take.
00:35:39
They're subscribing to a code that makes
00:35:42
sense to them, but really makes them
00:35:44
judge, jury, and executioner.
00:35:48
Police quickly discovered the license
00:35:50
plates on the vehicle had been
00:35:52
cloned. From the asalent's movements,
00:35:55
the police thought that he must have had
00:35:57
some prior knowledge of the area, maybe
00:35:59
had even visited the address
00:36:01
previously. The hunch proved to be
00:36:04
correct. After days meticulously
00:36:07
searching
00:36:09
CCTV, they found further sightings of
00:36:12
the car in Liam's
00:36:14
street. 3 weeks before the
00:36:18
[Music]
00:36:24
murder, the driver of this car matched
00:36:27
the description of the asalent from the
00:36:29
night of Liam's
00:36:30
killing. Police believed it was a
00:36:33
hostile reconnaissance.
00:36:37
At that time, the license plate on the
00:36:39
Jeep was
00:36:41
different. Again, they checked and
00:36:43
worked out that the plate was also
00:36:47
fake. These false plates had been caught
00:36:50
on an AMPR camera over in Sheffield. So,
00:36:52
this now gave the police their first
00:36:54
clue and a new area to search.
00:37:01
Couple of weeks into the investigation,
00:37:03
we received intelligence from South
00:37:05
Yorkshire Police that a vehicle had been
00:37:07
stopped three weeks before Liam was
00:37:10
murdered. And in that vehicle was the
00:37:12
R22
00:37:14
plate. It was that that really unraveled
00:37:17
this
00:37:19
case. This is a false number plate, so
00:37:22
they confiscate it. But it then seems
00:37:24
that the driver created an identical
00:37:27
set. Police were now able to link the
00:37:30
driver of that vehicle back to a
00:37:33
business in Sheffield. They visited the
00:37:35
premises and searched CCTV cameras in
00:37:38
the vicinity.
00:37:41
They found footage of an individual who
00:37:44
matched the description of the asalent
00:37:46
parking a Shogun car with the false
00:37:50
number plates and then going into the
00:37:52
business
00:37:53
premises. They then found footage of the
00:37:56
same individual parking an Audi car
00:37:58
outside the
00:38:02
premises. A check of the license details
00:38:05
on the Audi gave them a name, Michael
00:38:08
Hillier.
00:38:12
Hillia was a known drug dealer around
00:38:14
the area of Sheffield. He had previous
00:38:16
convictions for
00:38:17
violence. Police also discovered
00:38:20
incidences of coercive control and
00:38:22
domestic
00:38:24
violence. Hillier was tracked down to
00:38:27
his home in Sheffield and taken into
00:38:31
custody. This photograph communicates
00:38:34
power, control, and dominance. To me,
00:38:37
it's a communication of aggression,
00:38:39
distance. There's the communication that
00:38:42
this connects to a gangster
00:38:47
lifestyle. When Hillia was first
00:38:49
interviewed by police, he played it very
00:38:51
cool, giving no common answers across
00:38:53
the board. And the police were really
00:38:55
struggling at this stage to establish a
00:38:58
link between Liam and Hillia, other than
00:39:00
the fact that he had been seen on that
00:39:02
CCTV footage outside Liam's home.
00:39:06
But unbeknown to Hillia, his car
00:39:09
insurance details revealed another name
00:39:11
to the police. Rachel
00:39:16
Folto. Rachel had been in a relationship
00:39:19
with Hillier since 2021, and they had
00:39:22
just come back from a holiday to
00:39:23
Jamaica.
00:39:26
When police arrive at Rachel Folsto's
00:39:28
address, she admitted to officers that
00:39:30
she had met Liam Smith in September
00:39:33
2019, that they'd gone on a date after
00:39:35
meeting on Tinder, they'd spent the
00:39:37
night together, and also gone for lunch
00:39:39
the next day. She was initially brought
00:39:42
in and questioned as a potential
00:39:45
witness. When she was interviewed,
00:39:47
Rachel spoke at length, but denied any
00:39:50
involvement.
00:39:52
She said she only knew that Liam had
00:39:54
been killed when Hillia told her the day
00:39:55
after Liam had been murdered.
00:39:58
At first, she was treated as a witness,
00:40:01
but it wasn't long before further
00:40:02
evidence came to
00:40:04
light. Police found she searched for
00:40:07
Wigan murder just hours after Liam had
00:40:10
been killed, before his name had been
00:40:12
released to the public.
00:40:15
That in itself was a really significant
00:40:17
search. How could she have known that
00:40:20
the man that she'd had a one night stand
00:40:22
with two years before was dead on the
00:40:24
street unless she was involved?
00:40:28
Detectives then found a string of
00:40:30
suspicious messages on Folto's
00:40:33
phone. The day before the murder, Hillas
00:40:36
sent a text to Rachel saying he was ill
00:40:39
and in need of some TLC. She said she
00:40:41
was on her way.
00:40:47
Rachel was sending Hilly messages
00:40:49
knowing he wasn't there because Rachel
00:40:52
had been at Hilly's house when he left
00:40:54
to murder Liam and she knew he'd left
00:40:57
his phone
00:40:58
there. Clear alibi messages. Hillia sent
00:41:02
no messages. He had no phone with him.
00:41:04
He deliberately left his phone at home.
00:41:06
Deeper dives into Folto's search history
00:41:09
only added to the weight of the evidence
00:41:11
against her.
00:41:14
In October 2022, a month before Liam's
00:41:17
killing, Fto had been searching for his
00:41:19
company details online, and she'd been
00:41:22
looking up his address on Google Earth.
00:41:24
Her phone also showed searches for a
00:41:26
Mitsubishi Shogun car and how long it
00:41:29
takes to burn a car out completely. This
00:41:32
was just days before Liam's killing.
00:41:36
The vehicle was eventually found burned
00:41:38
out in a forest in the north of
00:41:43
England. Hillier and Folto were charged
00:41:46
with
00:41:47
murder. Rachel and Liam had gone for one
00:41:50
day in Rachel's hometown of York. They'd
00:41:53
stayed the night in a hotel together.
00:41:56
The pair never saw each other again. In
00:41:58
2021, Rachel began a relationship with
00:42:01
Hillia, who she said could be verbally
00:42:04
abusive and quite
00:42:06
volatile. Folto said that Hillia was not
00:42:10
happy when he found out about this one
00:42:12
night stand with Liam. Despite this
00:42:14
happening 2 years earlier and that he
00:42:16
would continuously bring this up
00:42:18
whenever the pair would
00:42:21
argue. Michael Hillier had very strong
00:42:24
views about women. He was disturbed by
00:42:26
the fact that Rachel Falsto did not only
00:42:29
have a dating life before they met, she
00:42:31
also had a sexual life and that was
00:42:33
intolerable for him to
00:42:37
comprehend. This is where things become
00:42:39
a bit complicated. So Rachel Fto denies
00:42:43
that she ever said this, but Hillier
00:42:45
seems to get in his mind that that night
00:42:48
Liam Smith had unconsensual sex with
00:42:51
Rachel and that he then needed to take
00:42:54
revenge against Liam in this act of
00:42:57
vigilante justice.
00:43:03
We can understand how someone may feel
00:43:05
jealous when they hear about a partner's
00:43:07
sexual past because it does challenge
00:43:10
sometimes the experience in the here and
00:43:12
now. However, it's not so much the
00:43:14
feelings that's problematic, it's how a
00:43:16
person responds to that. And it seems
00:43:18
that in some cases the activation of a
00:43:21
criminal code provides a pathway by
00:43:23
which to resolve this issue.
00:43:26
What Michael Hillier would say is that
00:43:28
he is someone of very traditional values
00:43:31
and he didn't like the fact that Rachel
00:43:33
Folste had a one night stand with Liam.
00:43:37
The disturbing thing about this
00:43:39
situation is that these thoughts and
00:43:41
opinions about women initiated and
00:43:44
fueled a very calculated, sadistic, and
00:43:47
violent response that ended up in a
00:43:49
person
00:43:54
dying. Falso claimed she knew nothing of
00:43:57
the killing until Helia came back to her
00:43:59
house the next day and that she was
00:44:01
petrified to go to the police. But
00:44:03
police found evidence that Hillier and
00:44:05
Folto began planning to murder Liam in
00:44:08
May 2022, 6 months before he was
00:44:11
eventually
00:44:14
killed. Just days after the brutal
00:44:17
murder, they marked the occasion by
00:44:19
wallowing in the luxurious bays of the
00:44:24
Caribbean. Their case went to court in
00:44:26
the summer of
00:44:29
2023. As the trial wore on, Hillier and
00:44:32
Folto seemed to turn against one
00:44:35
another. Hillia claims that it was Folto
00:44:37
that planned the routes to and from
00:44:39
Liam's address, that she had sourced the
00:44:42
acid to use in the attack, and that she
00:44:44
had even suggested that he sever Liam's
00:44:49
penis. Hillier and Folto were both
00:44:52
convicted of
00:44:54
murder. Folto was also convicted of
00:44:57
perverting the course of justice.
00:45:00
Michael Hillier was sentenced to 33
00:45:03
years in prison and Rachel Folto was
00:45:06
given a 30-year
00:45:11
sentence. Liam was more than just a
00:45:13
family member to us. He was our rock,
00:45:16
our Liam. He had the biggest and most
00:45:19
kind-hearted soul and would literally do
00:45:22
anything for anyone. Liam's life wasn't
00:45:25
the only one that was destroyed that
00:45:26
night.
00:45:28
Everyone who knew and loved Liam had
00:45:30
been left completely heartbroken,
00:45:32
devastated, and traumatized by the
00:45:35
events that happened on the 24th of
00:45:37
November.
00:45:40
It was unbelievable the motive for Liam
00:45:43
Smith's murder. Liam's family will never
00:45:45
ever get over that, nor should they be
00:45:48
expected to.
00:45:51
This case begins with police arriving to
00:45:53
this crime scene. There's an unknown
00:45:55
body laid in this residential street
00:45:58
covered in a mysterious corrosive
00:46:00
substance. It's confusing and mysterious
00:46:02
from the get-go, but what materializes
00:46:06
is this really senseless, brutal killing
00:46:09
of a father of two grounded in nothing
00:46:12
more than malice. And Liam Smith did not
00:46:15
deserve to die in the way that he did.
00:46:29
[Music]
00:46:51
[Applause]
00:46:52
[Music]
