Details of Caitlin Armstrong’s fugitive life in Costa Rica are beginning to emerge in the days since her arrest on suspicion of murdering pro cyclist Mo Wilson.
Police say Armstrong, 34, fatally shot Wilson on May 11 in Austin, Texas. After being questioned by authorities, Armstrong was released and went on the run, sparking a nationwide manhunt for the fugitive that finally ended with her apprehension Wednesday at a hostel on Santa Teresa Beach in Puntarenas province.
“The Marshals Service elevated the Kaitlyn Armstrong investigation to major case status early in this investigation, which likely played a key role in her capture after a 43-day investigation,” U.S. Marshal for the Western District of Texas Susan Pamerlow said in a statement. “This is an example of combining the resources of local, state, federal and international authorities to apprehend a fugitive who is on the run from violence, to end that escape and hopefully provide a sense of closure to the victim’s family.”
Police say they tracked Armstrong to Newark Liberty International Airport in New Jersey on May 18, four days after she was seen carrying a yoga mat through Austin-Bergstrom International Airport. According to investigators with the Marshals Service and Homeland Security, they recently discovered that Armstrong used someone else’s passport to board United Airlines Flight 1222 from Newark on May 18. At a news conference, Deputy Sheriff Brandon Fila said Armstrong “looked like” the person in the passport, but did not explain how she ended up in it.
“She looked a lot like that face,” Phila said. “So it was a fraudulent use, but it wasn’t fraudulent per se because it was issued to a particular person.”
A woman believed to be Caitlin Armstrong at the Austin airport on May 14, 2022.
US Marshals
After Armstrong landed in San Jose, Costa Rica, she began to change her appearance. She cut off her distinctive reddish hair and dyed it brown. After that, according to Fila, Armstrong went back to his old habit: going to yoga classes.
The Marshalls say one of the main ways they tracked down Armstrong was to look for local yoga studios and see if Armstrong had signed up for classes. “Once she got to Costa Rica, she didn’t really move much,” Fila said. “We knew it would be connected to some kind of yoga studio. When foreign officials arrived at this yoga studio, they did find a handwritten entry that was the same alias she worked under when she traveled to Costa Rica.
“Once they developed that model, it really opened things up and they quickly approached Caitlin Armstrong.”
When she was arrested, Armstrong had bandages and bruises on her face, which Fila said she attributed to a surfing accident. According to the Daily Mail, Armstrong was living in a $50-a-night hostel and possibly teaching yoga.
“She was really getting ready to establish the next part of her career,” Fila said.
According to the Marshals Service, the yoga teacher and real estate agent killed Wilson, 25, a champion mountain biker who lived and worked in San Francisco from 2019 until recently. On May 11, Wilson was staying with a friend in Austin to prepare for the upcoming race. That night, she allegedly went swimming with Armstrong’s friend Colin Strickland, another competitor and Wilson’s alleged former romantic partner. Wilson was later found by a flatmate, bleeding and unconscious in the bathroom with multiple gunshot wounds to the torso, before being pronounced dead by emergency services.
Authorities described the killing as motivated by jealousy. The intricate details of the alleged love triangle-turned-murder — involving recently purchased guns, text messages, lies and an anonymous informant — were revealed in an arrest warrant on May 19. In the warrant, an anonymous caller told police that when Strickland and Wilson were discovered to be romantically involved, Armstrong became “frantic and shaking with anger” and said she wanted to kill Wilson.
After being arrested in Costa Rica on Wednesday, Armstrong was returned to Texas on Saturday. Her bail will be set at $3.5 million, court records show.
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