When police visited her home the day after the murder of Moriah “Mo” Wilson at her murder trial today, Kaitlin Armstrong’s passport was “carefully” laid out on the table at her home, with foreign currency and U.S. dollars next to it.
Armstrong is accused of shooting Mo Wilson three times on May 11, 2022, after discovering her ongoing contact with Colin Strickland.
By then, Armstrong and Strickland had reconciled, but he was still secretly talking to Wilson and invited her to dinner the night she died behind his girlfriend’s back.
When officers visited Strickland on May 12 to tell him Wilson had died, he initially denied knowing her, then said “Oh yeah” when officers repeated her full name. Video from a police officer’s body camera was shown in Armstrong’s trial today but will not be released.
The jury also heard testimony from some police officers who searched Armstrong and Strickland’s home after the murder.
In a closet they found a 9mm handgun that matched the shell casings found at the crime scene. Strickland later told police how he bought the gun for Armstrong.
The passport and cash were laid out, an early indicator of Armstrong’s flight risk. After an initial interview on May 12, she left the city and flew first to New York and then to Costa Rica, where she stayed for 43 days before being extradited to the United States.
Colin Strickland told police that he did not know Mo Wilson when he was first contacted by police the day after her murder. His girlfriend Kaitlin Armstrong is accused of murdering Wilson, driven by jealousy because he was still talking to and seeing her
Moriah “Mo” Wilson was shot and killed in Austin on May 11th. She had just returned home from an evening swim with Strickland, with whom she had once been romantically involved
Kaitlin Armstrong is shown on the first day of her murder trial. She pleaded not guilty but has yet to make a public statement or take a stand
No cameras are permitted in the courtroom during the hearing. The judge instead agreed to televise the opening statements and closing arguments.
Two police officers approached Strickland and asked if he knew Wilson. He initially shook his head and then admitted that he knew her.
When officials told him she had died, he seemed shocked. He told the police how they had been together last night.
‘She died? That’s a lot,” he said, before describing how he took her to her friend Caitlin Cash’s apartment, then returned home and told her, “See you tomorrow.”
Both had planned to take part in a cycling race on May 12th.
It was 8:36 p.m. when Wilson entered her friend’s apartment. The last time she used her phone was at 9:13 p.m., leading police to believe that was around the time she was killed.
“So I’m the last person around her to see her?” he asked the police.
After Wilson and Strickland’s secret meeting, Armstrong’s 2012 Jeep Grand Cherokee was seen driving in front of Wilson’s friend’s house in Austin, where the cyclist was murdered
He denied that they were intimate during their date and insisted that they only hugged, but admitted that he had been with Wilson while he was on a break from his relationship with Armstrong.
“I ended up getting back together with my girlfriend,” he said, before admitting that he had kept his plans with Wilson a secret from Armstrong.
When asked why he stayed in touch with Wilson, he said: “[I’ve] I just kept up with her because she’s great.’
Officers then asked him if he had Wilson’s mother’s address.
After their escape, the US marshals launched a large-scale manhunt for Armstrong
At 8:36 p.m., Strickland sent Armstrong a text message telling her he was on his way home.
A minute later, her Jeep was filmed approaching the apartment where Wilson lived.
At 9:15 p.m., two shots were captured on a neighbor’s surveillance camera. A third was interviewed later.
At 9:21 p.m., Strickland sent Armstrong another text message telling her he was home. Shortly afterwards she came home.
Cash, the friend with whom Wilson was staying, returned home at 9:54 p.m. She found her body in the bathroom and called 911. Police arrived and pronounced Wilson dead at 10:10 p.m.
Kaitlin Armstrong in her booking photo after being brought back to the US from Costa Rica
How Armstrong probably got into the house remains a mystery. Her Jeep was filmed circling the crime scene block several times between 8 and 9 p.m.
Cash’s landlord and neighbor told police that he entered his garage sometime between 8:30 and 9:30 p.m. Once inside, he heard someone running down the stairs from the apartment.
He saw a cyclist speeding away south in an alley behind the building, but the garage door was only partially open, blocking his view of the person on the bike.
Wilson’s bicycle was the only thing missing from the apartment. It was found in vegetation 20 meters from the building. Prosecutors believe the DNA found on the bike may be a strong match to Armstrong’s.
Shortly after 9:21 p.m., Armstrong arrived home.
On May 12, Armstrong was interviewed by police on an outstanding unrelated warrant. Due to an error in these documents, she was released without charge.
Two days later, she boarded a plane using her sister’s passport to New York and then to Costa Rica, where she remained until she was arrested on suspicion of murder in July.
She has pleaded not guilty. Strickland is one of the prosecution witnesses in the trial. He went into hiding while Armstrong was on the run and was never arrested or charged in connection with the murder.
Prosecutors say Armstrong was a woman obsessed with jealousy and anger who discovered her boyfriend’s lies and decided to kill Wilson to get her out of the picture.
The trial in Austin, Texas, is expected to last another two weeks.