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- [00:01]
A
Hi listeners, it's Carter Roy. Before we get into today's episode of Murder True Crime Stories, I want to tell you about another show I think you'll love, Hidden History with Dr. Harini Bhatt. Every Monday, Dr. Bhatt goes where history gets mysterious. Vanished civilizations, doomsday prophecies, paranormal phenomena and events that science still can't fully explain. Dr. Bot treats these moments like open case files. Not myths, not superstition, just incomplete explanations waiting for a closer look. Hidden History drops every Monday. Follow now on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you listen, so you never miss a mystery. This is crime house house.
- [01:03]
B
There's a difference between suspecting someone of a crime and proving it. And there's an even bigger gap between getting that evidence and actually getting them into a courtroom. In May of 2022, investigators in Austin, Texas were building a case against a suspect in the murder of 25 year old cyclist Anna Mariah or Mo Wilson. They had a vehicle placed at the scene, they had bullets that matched the type of gun the suspect owned. And the suspect made a key mistake. The evidence was coming together. It felt like only a matter of time. But the suspect wasn't going to wait around for the handcuffs. Within days of Mo's death, she had sold a key piece of evidence, flown across the country under a stolen identity and disappeared into Central America. Moving by the time the murder warrant was issued, she was already gone. What followed was a 43 day manhunt across three countries, a fugitive who literally changed her face to avoid being caught, and a trial that finally revealed the full scope of what had been building behind closed doors for months.
- [02:19]
A
I'm Carter Roy and this is True Crime Stories, a Crime House original powered by Pave Studios. Today I'm back with Katie Ring, host of America's Most Infamous Crimes. Just in case you didn't subscribe on YouTube or follow the audio podcast, make sure to do it now. You'll be glad you did. Like last time, Katie will introduce today's episode. We'll also have an extended conversation about the case at the end, so be sure to stick around.
- [02:47]
B
Happy to be back and can't wait for a discussion later. This is the second of two episodes on the murder of 25 year old Anna Mariah or Mo Wilson. Last time Carter introduced us to Mo, a rising star in the gravel racing world that traveled to Austin, Texas for a race in May of 2022. After hanging out with a fellow cyclist named Colin Strickland, Mo was found dead in her friend's apartment. She'd been shot three times. Colin was quickly cleared, but. But soon a new suspect emerged. His girlfriend, Kaitlyn Armstrong. Today, Carter will take you inside Caitlin's world and the relationship that fueled her obsession. He'll walk you through the forensic evidence that locked the case down, the procedural mistake that let her walk free, and the international manhunt that followed. And he'll take you through the trial that ended it all. All of that and more coming up.
- [03:50]
C
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- [04:22]
A
To understand how this case unfolded, you have to understand who Caitlin Armstrong was, not just as a suspect, but as a person. Because what happened to Mo Wilson didn't start on the night of May 11. It started months earlier in a house where two people were living together, but barely holding it together. Caitlyn was born on November 21, 1987, and grew up in Livonia, Michigan, a suburb outside Detroit. She went to Eastern Michigan University, worked in finance for a while, and eventually got her Realtor's license in Texas. She was also a certified yoga instructor who'd done her training in Indonesia. On the surface, she had it together, and she was looking for a partner to share her life with. She and Colin Strickland met on a dating app in October of 2019. Things moved quickly when Kaitlin's Austin apartment flooded in 2021, she moved into Collins House. What started as a temporary arrangement turned into something much more intertwined. She managed his finances. She ran his llc. She helped operate a trailer restoration business he'd started called Wheelhouse Mobile. She had access to his bank accounts, his phone, his social media logins, his email. Their lives were tangled up in every possible way. It would have been hard for either of them to walk away cleanly, even if they'd wanted to. And the people around them noticed something strange about their dynamic early on. Colin went to races and almost never mentioned he had a girlfriend. He was well known in the cycling community for having a lot of female friends. Well, that wasn't necessarily unusual. The gravel racing community is small and everybody knows everybody. But Caitlin didn't see it that way. She monitored all of his female friends. She kept tabs on who Colin was talking to, who he was texting, who he was speaking, spending time with, and she confronted him about it over and over. Colin's own behavior made the situation worse. He told friends more than once that he didn't see a long term future with Caitlyn. But he never pulled the trigger on leaving for good. He'd end things and then they'd drift back together. He'd pull away, and then he'd let her stay. It was this cycle that just kept going, and neither of them seemed capable of breaking it. There's one detail that captures the dynamic perfectly. In early 2022, Colin posted a video from a race and Mo appeared briefly in the background of the frame. Kaitlin texted him afterward and said to send her love to Mo. Colin later said it felt extremely passive aggressive. But that was the tone of their relationship. By that point. Everything was loaded. Everything carried a threat underneath the surface. And that was the life Colin was living at the time of Mo's death, under constant, close surveillance from a woman who had access to every corner of his digital world. When investigators dug into Caitlyn's digital footprint Sprint after the murder, what they found went way beyond a jealous girlfriend keeping tabs on her boyfriend's phone. Caitlin had access to Colin's iPad, which was synced to his phone. That meant every text he sent or received showed up on a device she could check at any time she wanted. She'd been reading his messages for months. She knew about moving. She knew about their texts. She knew about the fake contact name. And in the weeks before Mo came to Austin, Kaitlin had been logging into Collins Instagram and email accounts. Investigators would later describe her behavior as active systemic surveillance of his digital life. She'd also been tracking Mo directly through Strava, a fitness app that cyclists and runners used to log their workouts and share routes publicly. Mo posted her rides to help build her brand as a professional athlete. It was standard practice, but through those public posts, Kaitlin could see that Mo had recently completed a ride in Austin. That's how she knew Mo was in town before Colin told her anything about it. When investigators examined Colin's phone, they found 71 blocked contacts. Collins said he didn't remember blocking most of them. At least four were women he could identify by name, including Mo. It was pretty clear what had happened. Kaitlin, who had full access to his devices, had been going through his contacts and removing women from his Life, one by one. She wasn't just watching him. She was controlling who he could talk to. And Colin, who had to have known on some level, didn't stop it. He just kept hiding things, kept lying to both women, kept building workarounds instead of dealing with it. There was another incident that came up at the trial in early 2022. Caitlin saw that Mo's Strava activity placed her in Austin. She confronted Colin about it. Colin denied any contact with Mo, but because of the iPad, Kaitlin could already see that he was lying. She had the texts. She had the proof. And still Colin kept denying it. That cycle of deception and discovery of lies layered on top of more lies had been escalating for months. And then there were the threats. At least two of Kaitlin's friends came forward and told investigators that in the months leading up to mo's death in May 2022, Kaitlin had literally said that she was so jealous of Mo, she could kill her. One friend, Nicole Mertz, said Caitlin told her directly that she'd kill anyone who started a relationship with Colin. The people who heard those words assumed she was blowing off steam, just venting. Nobody took it literally. But prosecutors would later argue that Kaitlin meant exactly what she said. And on the evening of May 11, everything Kaitlin had been tracking converged. Through the synced iPad, she could see Mo's text to Colin. She saw the Cherrywood address Mo sent him. She knew he was lying when he told her he was going on a solo motorcycle ride. She even called him while he was sitting at Pool Burger with Mo. And he let it ring. There is surveillance footage from the restaurant showing the moment that the call came through. So Kaitlin grabbed her yoga mat, which would later serve as both a cover story and an alibi prop, and left the house. She drove the Jeep straight toward the address she'd pulled from Collins texts. On May 12, 2022, the day after the murder, police brought 34 year old Caitlin in for questioning. But they didn't have a murder warrant yet. The forensics hadn't come back. And while the circumstantial evidence was strong, it wasn't enough on its own. They needed something to hold her on while the lab work caught up. So they dug into her background and found an old warrant. In 2018, Kaitlin had gotten a Botox treatment at an Austin medical spa. Told the staff she'd left her card in the car and walked out the front door. She never came back to pay for the $650 worth of Botox she'd gotten. She'd been charged with theft of service at the time, but was never arrested. The warrant had been sitting there dormant for four years. The detectives used it. They arrested Kaitlin on the old charge and brought her into an interrogation room. The footage from that interview is striking. The detective tried everything. Empathy, logic, anything he could think of. He told Kaitlin he understood this was a difficult situation. He explained that if she walked out without talking, investigators would only have one side of the story. He laid out what they already knew and gave her every opening to respond, to explain herself, to offer an alibi. Kaitlin's response was the same every time. I'd like to leave. She said it four times. Same flat tone, same blank expression. Each time she asked for a lawyer. At one point, the detective brought up Mo's connection to Colin. Kaitlin turned her head and rolled her eyes. She gave them absolutely nothing. No emotion, no explanation, no reaction. She just sat there like a wall. And then there was a knock on the door. A detective stepped in and passed a note to the lead interviewer. The date of birth on the theft of service warrant didn't match the date of birth. In their system, the discrepancy meant the warrant was technically invalid. Just like that, the one thing keeping Caitlin Armstrong in that room evaporated. They had nothing to hold her on. The murder case was building, but it wasn't ready yet. And the old Botox charge, the only card they had to play, had just been pulled out of their hand by a clerical error. Kaitlin Armstrong walked out of the police station a free woman. She gathered her things, walked through the front door and disappeared into the Austin afternoon. And that procedural mistake set off everything that came next. 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You just pay for your membership and your medication. It's personalized care that actually treats you like a human being. Stop leaving your health up to an algorithm. Go to joinmochi.com On a quiet Saturday
- [16:22]
B
morning, five women walked into Elaine Bryant store and never came home. The man responsible for their deaths was heard and even described by the lone survivor. But despite nearly being caught, he vanished into thin air. In the years since, new technology, new investigators and new questions have changed what's possible. But the families are still waiting for answers. The evidence is still there, and this case isn't cold. It's unfinished. Listen to Counterclock Season 8 wherever you get your podcasts.
- [16:53]
C
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- [17:23]
A
The night 34 year old Caitlin Armstrong walked out of the police station, she went home and asked Colin whether he thought the house was bugged. The next morning they went to a coffee shop. When Colin pressed her for her alibi for the night of May 11, she didn't say it out loud. She wrote it down on a piece of paper. Yoga and a visit to a healer. No mention of Cherrywood, no mention of Mo, no mention of any of it. Meanwhile, the forensics were coming back and they confirmed what investigators already suspected. The shell casings recovered from the bathroom floor were a match for the casings fired from Caitlin Sig's Sauer P365, the gun Colin had bought her in December 2021. Her gun was the weapon that killed Mo Wilson. Then there was the bicycle. Moe's bike, the one that had been found tossed in the bushes outside the apartments, was processed for DNA. The comparison to Kaitlin's sample came back positive. Her DNA was on Mo's bike. When that bicycle was later wheeled into the courtroom at trial, Mo's helmet was still hanging off the side, like she'd just parked after a training ride and stepped away for a moment, it quieted the entire room. The defense could try to poke holes in the rest of the evidence, but they couldn't explain how Caitlin's DNA ended up on Mo Wilson's bicycle. And the prosecution didn't even need to spell out exactly how it got there. The facts were enough. On May 17, 2022, six days after the murder, a warrant was issued for Caitlin Armstrong's arrest for the murder of. Of Mariah Wilson. The forensics were in. The case was solid, but Caitlin was nowhere to be found. Police scrambled. They pulled her recent activity and pieced together what she'd been doing since she walked out of the interrogation room five days earlier. And it turned out she'd been moving fast. Two days after the murder, on May 13, Caitlin had sold her Jeep to Carmax. She drove it in and got $12,200 for it. Security cameras at the dealership caught the whole thing. She was even setting up a new iPhone while she signed the paperwork. It took investigators until late June to track the vehicle down at the Carmax lot. It hadn't been sold yet, which was lucky, because what was inside it turned out to be one of the most important pieces of evidence in the entire case. Detective Richard Spitler had remembered something from the original search warrant. The Jeep had a factory infotainment system, the kind that silently collects GPS data in the background. He went to Carmax, researched how to pull the unit, extracted it himself, and sent it to the Austin PD Digital forensics team. What they recovered was extraordinary. They were able to reconstruct Kaitlin's exact movements on the afternoon and evening of May 11th. Turn by turn. At 4:49pm Mo had texted Colin the address where she was staying in Cherrywood. Kaitlin, monitoring his messages through the synced iPad at home, now had the address, too. The GPS showed Kaitlin leaving the house and heading west toward Deep Eddy Pool, where Colin and Mo were still swimming. Then she stopped, turned around. She headed east instead, pulled into a parking lot and sat there for about a minute. Investigators believe this is the moment she powered off her phone to avoid being placed near the scene by cell tower records. But she didn't know her Jeep was keeping its own record of everywhere she went. The GPS showed the Jeep driving directly to the Cherrywood address, then circling the block again and again, stopping at three different positions around the building. She was watching. She probably sat in that Jeep and watched as Colin dropped Mo off at the back base of the stairs and rode away on his motorcycle. She watched him leave. And then, at some Point after he was gone, she went inside. Kaitlin had done everything to avoid detection in the moment. She turned off her phone, she circled the block to make sure no one was watching. She waited for Colin to leave. She planned this. But she didn't think about the car. The car was keeping its own record the entire time, silently tracking every turn, every. Every stop, every minute she spent sitting outside that apartment building. The prosecution would later call the GPS data another witness when they walked the jury through the root reconstruction at trial. Took about three minutes to lay it all out, and it removed just about every reasonable doubt in the room. But before this case would ever get to a point, prosecutor's desk detectives still had to find Caitlyn. They learned that after she sold her car, she flew from Austin to Houston, then from Houston to New York. Airport cameras at Austin Bergstrom caught her heading through the terminal. Long red hair, backpack, yoga mat slung over one shoulder, she looked like any other young woman catching a flight. Nothing about her screamed fugitive. Her sister Christy picked her up at LaGuardia Airport and drove her to a remote cabin about 100 miles north of Manhattan. Kaitlin told her she just needed to get away for a bit. She said nothing about Austin, nothing about Mo, nothing about the police. As far as Kristi knew, her sister was just visiting from that cabin. Kaitlin watched the news obsessively. Reports were starting to mention Colin's name. He'd been publicly cleared, but Austin PD still hadn't named a suspect. Kaitlin had no way of knowing how close investigators were or how much they'd already found. So she watched, waited, and planned her next move. On May 17, the arrest warrant went public. Her name and photography were everywhere. That evening when Kristi came home, Kaitlin told her she was heading back to Austin. It was a lie, of course. She had no intention of going back to Texas. But Christie drove her to Newark Airport the next morning. They hugged at the curb, and Caitlyn told her she'd be in touch. Then she walked into the terminal and vanished. Investigators searched for flights booked under Kaitlin's name and found nothing. But working with Interpol, they confirmed that Christie's passport had been scanned at Newark on May 18 with a destination of San Jose, Costa Rica. Caitlin had gone through the cabin while her sister was out, found the passport, and booked the flight under Christie's identity. When police showed up at Kristi's door, she cooperated immediately. She had no idea what any of it meant. She told them Kaitlin had taken the passport without her knowledge. A review of Caitlin's Internet search history from the cabin showed she'd been researching yoga retreats, surf towns, and hostels in Costa Rica. One place kept coming up. Santa Teresa, A small beach community on the Nicoya Peninsula, popular among American expats for its laid back culture and warm water. It was the kind of place where a person could disappear into the surf and yoga scene without raising too many eyebrows. After that, Caitlyn's online trail went cold. She'd installed a VPN and gone completely dark. Investigators would later piece together what she did once she landed. She checked into a hostel in Santa Teresa under the name Ari Martin. She started working shifts at the front desk to help pay for her room. She went to a bar in town a few nights a week, Social enough to not seem suspicious, but careful not to invite too much attention. She cut her long red hair short and dyed it dark brown. She went to a surgical center in San Jose DE and paid $6,350 in cash for a brow lift, a nose job, and lip fillers, all under yet another fake name, Alison Page. When the surgeon reached for a camera to take pre op photos, she refused. They compromised by letting her take the photos herself on her phone. And then she deleted them and started dating a local. She was building a new life, a new identity. She was trying to become someone else entirely. And for a while, it was working. But the U.S. marshals were already on their way.
- [27:21]
C
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- [27:48]
A
sold my car in Carvana last night.
- [27:50]
B
Well, that's cool.
- [27:51]
A
No, you don't understand. It went perfectly. Real offer, down to the penny. They're picking it up tomorrow. Nothing went wrong.
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C
So what's the problem?
- [27:58]
A
That is the problem. Nothing in my life goes to smoothing. I'm waiting for the catch. Maybe there's no catch. That's exactly what a catch would want me to think.
- [28:06]
C
Wow. You need to relax.
- [28:07]
A
I need to knock on wood. Do we have wood? Is this table wood? I think it's laminate. Okay. Yeah, that's good. That's close enough.
- [28:12]
C
Car selling without a catch Sell your car today on Carvana. Pick up. Fees may apply.
- [28:19]
B
Do you want to sneak past the crime scene tape to explore the key evidence behind some of the most gripping true crime cases? I'm Morgan Absher. And I'm Kaylin Moore, and we'd love for you to check out our new show, Clues. Each Wednesday, I piece together the timelines and break down the hard facts, digging into forensic details, investigative techniques, and everything that led to justice or didn't. And while Kin dives into the facts, I'm pulling out the threads, digging through the Internet theories, and looking at the details that may or may not add up. From serial killers to shocking cold cases, we shine a light on the stories that have been waiting, sometimes for decades, to finally be heard. So join us as we uncover the breakthroughs, the heartbreak, and the relentless pursuit of answers behind the world's most unforgettable investigations. Come open a case file with us every Wednesday and listen to clues wherever you get your podcasts.
- [29:20]
A
In late June of 2022, Deputy U.S. marshals Damian Fernandez and Amir Perez flew to Costa Rica. If Caitlin's search history was telling the truth, that's where she'd gone. They arrived in Santa Teresa on June 22nd carrying pre surgery photos of Caitlin and a stack of wanted posters that read Armed and dangerous with a $5,000 reward. Santa Teresa is small, one main road, a handful of surf shops and yoga studios, hostels and restaurants that cater to backpackers and expats. The kind of town where a new face gets noticed eventually, but not right away. If you kept a low profile and paid in cash, you could blend in for a while. The marshals started canvassing. They sent a female operative into three local yoga studios to ask around. No sign of Kaitlin. Wanted posters went up around town. Nothing came back. Then one of the deputies had an idea. They knew Kaitlin was running low on money and would need work. So they coordinated with a local studio and posted a job listing online for a yoga instructor. For days, nobody bit. The marshals were running out of leads and getting ready to fly home empty handed. When they finally got a response, someone applied. The name on the application was Ari Martin. Through the submission, they traced the applicant to Don John's Lodge, a hostel in Santa Teresa. On the afternoon of June 29, agents walked into the lobby. A woman was sitting in the corner on her laptop. She had dark hair, a different nose, and fuller lips than Kaitlin. They spoke to her in Spanish. She fumbled for her phone and held up a translation app. When one of the agents leaned in closer, he noticed bloody nostrils, a bandage still in on her nose, and the swelling of someone who'd recently had work done. Then he looked at her eyes. He knew those eyes. It was Kaitlin Armstrong. They stepped outside and called the local police. And once Kaitlin was in custody, they searched her room. Inside a lockbox, they found two things. Her sister Christie's passport and a surgery receipt from a clinic in San Jose. The receipt was made out to Allison Paige. $6,350 for a brow lift, a nose job, and lip fillers. Down at the station, she gave yet another fake name and stopped talking. It didn't matter. The 43 day manhunt for Kaitlin Armstrong was over. Within days, she was on a plane back to Texas in handcuffs, with reporters and cameras waiting on the tarmac. Caitlyn was booked into Travis County Jail on July 5, 2022. Bond was set at $3.5 million. At her arraignment, she entered a plea of not guilty. Over the next 14 months, while prosecutors built their case, Kaitlin worked out obsessively in jail, running in place, doing squats, practicing yoga in her cell. Jail personnel documented it. It seemed relentless, almost like she was training for something. Three weeks before trial, on October 11, 2023, she told officials her leg was injured and needed medical attention. The jail arranged to transport her to a doctor's office off site. Because of the reported injury, her lower body was left unshackled. During the trip, her wrists were cuffed in front. When she walked out of the medical building, she took off running. She sprinted across the parking lot. One correction officer tripped trying to chase her down. Kaitlin scaled the perimeter fence, dropped to the other side, and kept going. She made it about a mile before backup caught up and brought her to the ground. She fought with officers and came away with minor injuries, along with a new felony charge, escape causing bodily injury. All that training in her cell suddenly made a lot more sense. The trial began on November 1, 2023. The prosecution laid out the full picture piece by piece. They showed the jury the doorbell camera footage from the night of the murder. They walked through the GPS reconstruction from the Jeep's infotainment system, minute by minute, tracing Caitlin's route to the Cherrywood address and how she'd circled the block waiting. They presented the ballistics match on the Sig Sauer and the DNA found on Mo's bicycle. They played the Strava tracking data and walked through the Evidence from Colin's synced accounts, and they put Kaitlin's own friends on the stand. They testified about the threats Kaitlin had made, the comments about wanting to kill Mo, the jealousy that had been building for months before it finally boiled over. Colin Strickland testified for eight hours over two days. He was slumped over the microphone for much of it, eyes closed and physically angled away from the defense table. Prosecutors later described him as reluctant on the stand. He wore a mask and sunglasses when entering and exiting the courthouse each day and shoved a photographer's camera away during a break. At one point, when asked if he knew the defendant, he said no. People in the courtroom took that to mean something like, I thought I knew her, but I didn't. He clearly didn't want to be there. The defense argued that Kaitlin wasn't a jealous killer, but a frustrated partner who'd been lied to repeatedly. They pointed out that roughly 30 people had the door code to Caitlin Cash's building and that no camera ever captured Kaitlin arriving at or leaving the apartment. They raised chain of custody questions about the DNA evidence. They said Caitlin fled to Costa Rica not to escape justice, but out of fear. That was their case. And then they rested. The jury deliberated for two and a half hours. In a case with this much evidence, that's not a long time. But for the people in the gallery waiting for the answer, every minute felt like an hour. On November 16, 2023, the jury came back with a verdict. Guilty of murder. Mo's family and friends cried openly in the courtroom. Caitlyn sat completely still, staring straight ahead, expressionless. She was sentenced to 90 years under Texas law. She's eligible for parole after serving 30, which would set her first review for 2052. If she serves her full sentence, she won't be released until 2112. Mo's mother, Karen Wilson, gave her victim impact statement directly to Kaitlin. She said Mo was a caring, empathetic person, that if Kaitlin had let herself actually get to know Mo as a human being, she never would have wanted to hurt her. Karen said, quote, when you shot Mariah in the heart, you shot me in my heart, you shot Eric and Matt in their hearts. Mo's father, Eric, was measured and deliberate. He called the case a perfect example of why integrity and honesty matter in relationships and how dishonesty can lead to consequences nobody anticipates. He said there were no winners in that room. And then he asked for prayer for their family, for their friends, and for the Armstrong family. Too. After sentencing, the questions didn't stop. Kaitlin filed for appeal 10 days later, claiming inadequate representation presentation and alleging she'd been pregnant at the time of her arrest. Her father submitted an affidavit supporting the pregnancy claim, but no medical documentation was ever provided. The appeal was denied. She filed again in September of 2024, and in January of 2026, the Texas Third Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed her conviction. Mo's family filed a wrongful death suit in May of 2024. When Caitlin failed to appear, a judge issued a $15 million default judgment. The family's attorney was direct about the purpose. If Kaitlin Armstrong ever has the opportunity to profit from this crime, whether through a book deal, a paid interview or any media appearances, that judgment will intercept it. As for Colin Strickland, his life after the trial looked nothing like the one before it. He lost nearly all his sponsors. He stopped racing entirely. In an interview with Cycling News In June of 2025, he described what the aftermath had done to his relationship with the sport. He said, quote, every aspect of it was just horrific and wasteful. I immediately had no interest in cycling. Everything was burning like my whole world was on fire. He restores vintage cars and Spartan trailers. Now he still rides around Austin, but he hasn't competed since 2021. And then there's the question about Colin's role in all of this. He didn't pull the trigger. Nobody disputes that, but the prosecutors said it plainly at trial. Colin's dishonesty created the conditions that led to Mo's death. He kept Caitlyn in a relationship that wasn't working. He kept his feelings about Mo deliberately ambiguous. He lied to Caitlyn about where he was on the night of May 11 and and years of deception gave a possessive, controlling person just enough fuel to convince herself that the only solution was violence. Mo's friend Kimmy Bolsinger said in the Netflix documentary that she held Colin responsible for manipulating both women. Another friend noted that Colin had a documented pattern of dishonesty in his relationships. None of that excuses what Kaitlin did, but it is part of the story and the people closest to Mo believe it deserves to be, said Mo's friend. Caitlin Cash moved back into the Cherrywood apartment after the trial. No one expected that, but Cash said she felt a strong pull to stay. She wanted the space to feel intentional and full of life, not abandoned. She found a print at a thrift store. Small bike riding out of the frame, a bloom in one corner, and the words with you all the way she hung it on the wall. I feel her there, cash said. I feel her joy there. Moe's brother Matt now coaches young skiers at Burke Mountain Academy, the same school where Mo trained on the same trails where she first learned what she could do on a pair of skis. He named a trail there, Mariah's Ascent. When things get hard, he thinks about what Mo would say. She would say, get on your bike. One step at a time. Since her death, the Wilson family has established the Mariah Wilson Foundation. Their mission is to promote healthy living and community building by supporting organizations that expand access to recreation, sports and educational programs. They host an annual Ride for Mo event every May. Mo Wilson was 25 years old. She was a week away from her birthday. She had a race that Saturday, a season ahead of her and a whole life she hadn't gotten to live yet. She deserved the chance to race in Africa that that summer. She deserved to see how far her talent could take her. She deserved to grow old. She didn't get any of that. But the people who loved her are making sure the world remembers who she was, not as a headline, not as a case number, as Mo, the girl from Vermont who rode her bike into the hills every morning and didn't come home till morning dark. The woman who made everyone around her feel like they mattered. The athlete who turned a broken knee into a second dream and chased it with everything she had. Thanks so much for listening. I'm Carter Roy and this is True Crime Stories. Come back next time for the story of a new murder and all the people it affected. Thanks again to Katie Ring for joining me. And remember, we're not done yet. I've been waiting for this moment. We're going to get Katie's take on this case.
- [43:36]
B
Man, this case is so tragic. And I mean, every murder case is really tragic, but this one hit hard for me and I don't know, you know, if she's a young athlete, but she had so much promise ahead of her. And did you watch the Netflix, the new Netflix documentary?
- [43:53]
A
I haven't seen it yet, no.
- [43:54]
B
It was actually great. I think, you know, I covered this case before and I didn't have access to, you know, her diary and interviews with her parents. And I think in that it was really powerful. I really like the way they did it because it was very victim forward. They did interviews with her parents, her brother, her ex. But like you can really tell the hole that she left in her parents and family's life and like how big of an impact she had. And that she was just such an amazing young woman with so much promise. And, you know, you hear in these diary entries how even her internal struggles of, you know, having such success in gravel racing so fast. And in these diaries, she would talk about how she almost felt like an imposter because she had gotten so good so fast. But then she also felt this very big sense of confidence from what she
- [44:48]
A
was doing to be on the pinnacle of that size of success, to be, you know, potential Olympian. Just the amount of dedication it takes to do that to begin with and then to face the kind of setback that two ACL tears can do.
- [45:01]
B
Yeah, it's interesting how she was saying, I'm going to be an Olympian, and, you know, that's a lot of people's dreams, but to be an Olympian, you have to have raw talent and athleticism.
- [45:12]
A
I found myself wondering, with Caitlin Armstrong, like, in a different situation, would this have ever happened? I don't know that she was fated to be a killer no matter what. If she was in a relationship that was mutual, would it have been healthy? Like, clearly she had obsessive tendencies, clearly controlling. And all those things could be the foundation for violent acts. And also if they're in a different, healthy relationship situation, are they fine, in which case she never gets to that point, which is in no way to excuse her action.
- [45:41]
B
I know it's so hard in these cases, reflecting. There's a lot of discourse online, especially around her and Colin's relationship. And I would never blame Colin directly for the actions of Caitlyn. If you watch the trial footage when she's on the stand, even when she's sitting there, she has zero remorse. On the other end of that, I don't think Colin Strickland's a good guy. From the documentary, and from what I've read, he was kind of just using her. She was very smart. She was running his company or the company they shared together. And I'm sure she was doing stuff for him at home, cooking, cleaning, you know, whatever. And this guy didn't care about her.
- [46:20]
A
So there is a cavalierness to his duplicity that I did find shocking. At 34, to be like, oh, you literally are like, not treating either one with a lot of respect is pretty clear. Well, thank you so much for coming on the show.
- [46:34]
B
Yeah, thank you.
- [46:35]
A
Good to have you. And hopefully come back again anytime.
- [46:39]
B
I would love to.
- [46:40]
A
All right, a reminder to everyone listening, Go follow America's most infamous crimes wherever you get your podcasts. Murder True Crime Stories is a crime house original powered by PAVE Studios here at Crime House. We want to thank each and every one of you for your support. If you like what you heard today, reach out on social media, rime house on TikTok and Instagram. Don't forget to rate, review and follow Murder True Crime Stories wherever you get your podcasts. Your feedback truly makes a difference. And to enhance your Murder True Crime Stories listening experience, subscribe to Crime House plus on Apple Podcasts. You'll get every episode ad free. We'll be back on Friday. True Crime Stories is hosted by me, Carter Roy and is a Crime House original. Powered by Pave Studios, this episode was brought to life by the Murder True Crime Stories team. Max Cutler, Ron Shapiro, Alex Benidon, Natalie Pertofsky, Alyssa Fox, Cassidy Dillon and Russell Nash. Thank you for listening.