Before a single fact of the case is introduced, the host sets the stage with a haunting observation: in the tight-knit world of professional cycling, everyone shares hotel rooms, dinner tables, and sponsors — and nothing stays private for long. One name was climbing the rankings faster than any other, and someone was watching too closely. The observation is deceptively simple, but it functions as a thesis for everything that follows. Two pre-roll ads — for L.L.Bean and Plan B — play before the Crime, Conspiracy, Cults and Murder intro launches. The host then addresses the audience directly, apologizing for sounding nasally due to illness, and signals the episode will cover the case of Moriah Wilson and Kaitlyn Armstrong.

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Mo Wilson was born on May 18, 1996, in the Northeast Kingdom of Vermont, into a family of elite athletes: her father Eric and aunt Laura competed on the U.S. ski team, with Laura reaching two Olympics. Mo captained the soccer team at Burke Mountain Academy, earned letters in three sports, played piano, and was inducted into academic honor societies. She looked set for Olympic skiing until back-to-back ACL tears redirected everything. Rather than mourn the loss of one dream, Mo found another — gravel cycling. She finished 2nd overall in her very first gravel race in San Francisco in 2019 and never slowed down ^{[1] — Host "Moriah Wilson went from never considering cycling as a career to winning 10 events in a single year and leading the Lifetime Grand Prix sta…" 09:40 Play} . By early 2022 she was winning major events by 25-minute margins, beating Olympians, and leading the inaugural Lifetime Grand Prix standings. Off the bike, everyone remembered her warmth first — she was cooking dinner for fellow athletes the night before races she'd go on to win.

Colin Strickland didn't grow up dreaming about professional cycling. He used a bike to get to work in Austin, then won an Alley Cat street race on a whim and never looked back ^{[1] — Host "Colin Strickland built one of cycling's most remarkable careers without a coach, a team, or a conventional path — he just kept winning. He …" 23:50 Play} . He swept four consecutive Red Hook Crit victories across four countries before ever quitting his day job, and in 2019 he redefined what was possible at Unbound Gravel by finishing the 200-mile race in under 10 hours — more than 9 minutes ahead of the field. When EF Pro Cycling's Jonathan Vaughters came calling with a WorldTour contract, Strickland declined, preferring the freedom to build his own calendar, renovate diesel engines, and stay in control of his own life. His cycling career was an extension of his personality: unconventional, self-directed, and impossible to categorize.

Born in Livonia, Michigan, in 1987, Kaitlyn Armstrong built a life that looked deliberately assembled: mortgage lending at 19, a career spanning three continents, extended stays in Bali for breathwork and meditation, and a Sotheby's International Realty profile that projected confidence and achievement. She was remembered for her red hair voted 'Best' by her high school class. But beneath the polish was a loose thread — a misdemeanor warrant for getting $1,650 worth of Botox injected at an Austin med spa and simply walking out before paying, claiming she was going to her car for a different card. That warrant, seemingly trivial at the time, would later become the tool police used to bring her into an interrogation room. And in 2019, she matched with Colin Strickland on a dating app, and their relationship set everything else in motion.

Colin and Kaitlyn had been together for two and a half years — sharing a home, an LLC, and a house in Lockhart — when their relationship ended in October 2021 after a trip to Bentonville, Arkansas, where Colin excluded Kaitlyn from a mountain bike ride on the grounds she wasn't skilled enough to keep up ^{[1] — Host "Colin Strickland met Moriah Wilson at a gravel race in Idaho in 2021, and a brief romantic relationship followed just days after his split …" 28:40 Play} . Days later, Mo Wilson arrived in Austin to visit friends, and a brief romantic relationship between Mo and Colin followed — one Mo apparently didn't know was happening while Kaitlyn's belongings still filled the house. Kaitlyn found out and called Mo directly, telling her to back off. Mo left. Colin and Kaitlyn briefly reconciled. But Kaitlyn was not finished: she messaged Mo repeatedly on Instagram, gained access to Colin's phone, blocked Mo's number from his device, and began tracking Mo's riding routes through Strava. Colin responded by renaming Mo in his phone as 'Christine Wall' and deleting their conversations — behavior he justified as protecting a friendship but which only deepened the tension.

In November 2021, Armstrong told a friend at the Meteor Cafe in Austin that if Colin started seriously dating someone else, she would kill her. Mo walked in during that same conversation, and her friend watched Armstrong's demeanor change visibly. In January 2022, at a cycling dinner in Bentonville, Armstrong told an acquaintance named Jacqueline Chasteen in so many words that she had thought about killing Mo and wanted to do it — and the following day she brought up buying a gun over text ^{[1] — Host "Long before the murder, Kaitlyn Armstrong was openly threatening Mo Wilson's life — twice telling different people she wanted to kill her. …" 36:40 Play} . Both people who heard these statements would later testify at trial. Strava records showed Armstrong had viewed Mo's profile six times, tracking exactly where she trained and where her rides began and ended. By early May 2022, Armstrong was actively accessing Colin's Gmail and Instagram from her own phone, watching his every communication. She knew Mo was coming to Austin. She knew where Mo would be staying.

Mo Wilson arrived in Austin on May 10th for the Gravel Locos race and was staying at friend Kaitlyn Cash's apartment on Maple Avenue. On May 11th, Colin picked her up by motorcycle and the two went to Deep Eddy Pool, then walked to Pool Burger for dinner. The entire evening, Armstrong was tracking Colin's location through his phone, called him multiple times, and was parked outside the restaurant while they ate ^{[1] — Host "Investigators pieced together the night of Mo's murder to the minute using Ring doorbell timestamps, Jeep GPS data, cell phone records, and…" 40:50 Play} . Colin dropped Mo back at Cash's apartment at 8:35 PM and immediately texted Armstrong an alibi lie — saying his phone had been dead and he'd been running errands. At 8:36 PM, Mo unlocked Cash's front door. At 8:37 PM, Armstrong's Jeep stopped outside. Then it began circling the same block again and again. Armstrong's phone was switched off, but the Jeep's GPS was not. It recorded the vehicle parked in the alley behind Cash's apartment for 37 uninterrupted minutes. At 9:13 PM, the Ring doorbell triggered. At 9:15, three gunshots were captured by the security system. At 9:17, the Jeep pulled away. When Kaitlyn Cash came home at 9:54 PM, she found Mo on the bathroom floor. Mo's S-Works bike was gone — recovered 68 feet away in bushes. Mo was 25 years old and 7 days from her birthday.

The investigation moved fast. Detective Richard Spittler, just 60 days on the homicide unit, pulled surveillance footage showing Armstrong's black Jeep near Maple Avenue. Tips from the cycling community confirmed Armstrong had been threatening Mo for months. A search warrant on the house she shared with Strickland turned up two handguns — one registered to him, one bought for her. Police test-fired both. The results were significant ^{[1] — Host "Police used an outstanding Botox theft warrant to bring Armstrong in for questioning — but three different dates of birth on the warrant do…" 50:35 Play} . On May 12th, police used the outstanding Botox theft warrant to bring Armstrong in for questioning, where she displayed almost no emotion upon being told her car was captured near a murder scene. But a date-of-birth discrepancy across three documents invalidated the warrant mid-interview, and Armstrong walked out the door. Five days later, ballistics came back as a likely match. By then, she was already preparing to vanish.

Colin Strickland released a statement on May 20th acknowledging his proximity to the tragedy and expressing profound regret — while insisting his relationship with Mo had been purely a friendship. The cycling industry moved swiftly. Specialized terminated his contract on May 21st, and Rapha, Enve, Meteor, and Allied Cycle Works followed, one by one cutting ties and removing him from public-facing roles. Mo's family released a statement describing their devastation, and a GoFundMe started in her name eventually became the Mariah Wilson Foundation. The Austin cycling community held a memorial ride for Mo on May 29th, and between law enforcement rewards and an anonymous donor, a $21,000 bounty was raised for information leading to Armstrong's arrest. Armstrong's father told reporters he could not believe his daughter was capable of this.

On May 13th, the day after police let her walk, Armstrong drove her Jeep to a South Austin CarMax and sold it for $12,200 cash — well below its $30,000+ market value. She flew to New York, connected with her sister Christine at a campground upstate, and then stole Christine's passport before boarding United Airlines flight 1222 from Newark to San José, Costa Rica on May 18th — what would have been Moriah Wilson's 26th birthday ^{[1] — Host "Armstrong flew to Costa Rica on her sister's stolen passport, dyed her hair, cycled through three aliases, then paid $6,360 for a rhinoplas…" 57:30 Play} . In Costa Rica, she moved from San José to Jacó to Santa Teresa, a Pacific Coast surf village where drifters blended easily into the scenery. She checked into Don John's Lodge, ran reception, taught yoga classes, and cycled through three aliases — Beth Martin, Liz Martin, and Ari Martin. Then she disappeared for days and returned with a bandaged nose and swollen lips: she had paid $6,360 for a rhinoplasty, lip fillers, and a brow lift in San José under the name Allison Page. She even grew uncomfortable when her surgeon tried to take a pre-surgery photo.

Deputy Marshals Amir Perez and Damian Fernandez landed in Costa Rica with photos of Armstrong and a theory: she would gravitate toward yoga communities. They hit every yoga studio in Santa Teresa, found her name in a sign-in book under one of her aliases, placed a female operative in multiple classes to scan the room, and built relationships with locals who sent photos from bars and restaurants. But Armstrong kept moving. Then the team tried something creative: they posted a fake yoga instructor job ad on a Santa Teresa Facebook community group and waited ^{[1] — Host "After weeks of failed searches, US Marshals posted a bogus yoga instructor job ad on a Santa Teresa community Facebook group. Armstrong too…" 1:02:55 Play} . Nearly a week passed. Then Ari Martin replied. She suggested meeting at Don John's Lodge — the very hostel where she'd been staying. Perez went in alone, made small talk in Spanish, and leaned close to verify: her nose was bandaged and her lips were swollen, but her eyes hadn't changed. He walked back to the car and told Fernandez: 'That's her.'

Costa Rican authorities detained Armstrong on an immigration violation — entering the country on someone else's passport — on June 29, 2022. She refused to give her real name for six hours on the road to San José before finally relenting. Inside her hostel locker: two passports (her own and Christine's), a Newark boarding pass in Christine's name, and the receipt for her cosmetic surgery. She was deported rather than extradited — a deliberate legal distinction to avoid the formal negotiation process — and landed in Houston on July 2nd. By July 5th, she was in Travis County jail facing first-degree murder and theft of service charges, with bond set at $3.5 million. Mo's family released a statement expressing relief that the uncertainty was finally behind them.

Armstrong's trial had already been delayed from June to November 2023 when, on October 11th, she made her move. Jail cameras had recorded her doing months of yoga, squats, and cell sprints. She filed a medical request for an injury requiring off-site treatment, which meant her legs would be unrestrained. Under her black-and-white jail uniform, she was wearing thermal leggings. The moment officers stepped through the rear exit of the medical facility, she bolted — one hand already free from her cuffs, using a thin piece of metal she had fashioned into a key ^{[1] — Host "Three weeks before her murder trial, Armstrong escaped a corrections escort by fashioning a homemade handcuff key from a thin piece of meta…" 1:06:00 Play} . She peeled off the jail uniform mid-sprint and ran through a South Austin neighborhood near Ben White Boulevard, climbed a tree, then a six-foot fence. An officer caught her at the top and they went down together. After roughly 10 minutes and about a mile, she was back in restraints. She was hit with an additional felony charge of escape causing bodily injury.

The trial opened November 1, 2023, with a 50-minute prosecution roadmap delivered by ADA Ricky Jones. Over 40 witnesses testified, including Colin Strickland and Armstrong's own friends who recounted the death threats. The prosecution's most powerful exhibit was an animated visualization of GPS data from Armstrong's Jeep infotainment system ^{[1] — Host "Prosecutors turned GPS data from Armstrong's Jeep infotainment system into an animation for the jury, showing the vehicle loop the same str…" 1:06:40 Play} , showing the vehicle loop Maple Avenue again and again, park behind the apartment for 37 uninterrupted minutes, and pull away two minutes after the recorded gunshots. Ballistics expert Stephen Aston confirmed the casings came from Armstrong's Sig Sauer P365 and eliminated Strickland's gun. Forensic analysts found Armstrong's DNA on Mo's stolen bike, a deleted note on her phone with the approximate address of the apartment, and phone searches including 'Can pineapple burn your fingerprints?' The defense argued everything was circumstantial and pointed suspicion toward Strickland. The jury deliberated for two hours and returned a guilty verdict.

Rather than leave the sentence to the judge, Armstrong chose to let the jury decide. The state asked them to start at 40 years. The defense offered no recommendation. Mo's brother Matthew testified that she was his closest confidant. Kaitlyn Cash — who sent Karen Wilson a photo of Mo that afternoon with the message 'your girl is in safe hands here in Austin' — took the stand and said she felt immense guilt for not protecting her friend ^{[1] — Karen Wilson "When you shot Mariah in the heart, you shot me in my heart." 1:09:46 Play} . Karen Wilson addressed Armstrong directly: 'When you shot Mariah in the heart, you shot me in my heart.' Armstrong's own father offered condolences to the Wilsons. Armstrong's sister Christine looked at her across the courtroom and called her 'not a bad person.' After three and a half hours, the jury returned: 90 years and a $10,000 fine. Kaitlyn Armstrong sat motionless. Her projected release date is July 3, 2112.

Armstrong's legal fight continued well past the verdict. Her lawyers filed for a new trial in December 2023, claiming she had been pregnant at the time of her arrest and miscarried in custody — an evidentiary hearing was denied in August 2024 and the appeal refused. On January 23, 2026, an appeals court upheld her conviction entirely. On the civil side, Mo's family was awarded a $15 million default judgment — $5 million each to Karen, Eric, and in exemplary damages — after Armstrong failed to appear at the hearing ^{[1] — Host "$15 million wrongful death default judgment: A court awarded Mo's family a $15 million default judgment against Kaitlyn Armstrong after Arm…" 1:11:02 Play} . A second civil suit named Armstrong's family and Colin Strickland, alleging asset transfers to shield money. Meanwhile, Mo's family channeled their grief into the Mariah Wilson Foundation, distributing over $140,000 to youth sports organizations and hosting an annual Ride for Mo on the Kingdom Trails in Vermont where Mo grew up.

The episode closes not with the perpetrator, but with the person who was taken. In her own writing, Mo Wilson had articulated a philosophy of total commitment: when you love something enough to fully commit, the risk becomes irrelevant — even failure would have been worth it. She was 25 when she was killed, already having lived that principle more than most manage in a lifetime ^{[1] — Host "Mo Wilson wrote in 2022 that when you love something enough to fully commit, the risk becomes irrelevant — because even if you fail, it wil…" 1:12:00 Play} . Her father took up gravel cycling to stay connected to her. Her brother began writing poetry. Her mother found solace in swimming and gardening. The host encourages listeners to visit and donate to the Mariah Wilson Foundation and closes with her signature sign-off, asking listeners to share cases they'd like covered.