Officials give details of how Kaitlin Armstrong, convicted over murder of Anna Wilson in 2022, was arrested in Costa Rica

Officials give details of how Kaitlin Armstrong, convicted over murder of Anna Wilson in 2022, was arrested in Costa Rica

US authorities have revealed that they captured the convicted killer of the professional cyclist Anna Moriah Wilson with a clever ruse: by placing an advertisement on social media purportedly seeking a yoga instructor, which in turn lured the fugitive out of hiding.

Investigators with the US Marshals Service came up with the ad idea while on an international manhunt for Kaitlin Armstrong, a former yoga instructor who had fled to Costa Rica after killing the 25-year-old Wilson in May 2022 in Austin, Texas, according to newly released information on the case reported on Sunday by the CBS News show 48 Hours.

Armstrong shot and killed Wilson on 11 May 2022 in what prosecutors described as an extreme act of jealousy. Wilson had briefly dated Armstrong’s boyfriend at the time, the cyclist Colin Strickland, after he and Armstrong had broken up.

  • gramie
    19·
    9 months ago

    I think that a key point in this story is easily overlooked. The town in Costa Rica where she was staying is full of people who look like yoga instructors, so they were having difficulty identifying her among all the other toned, flexible bodies.

    • danl@lemmy.world
      8·
      9 months ago

      That is amazing!

      Authorities initially had difficulty spotting Armstrong in Santa Teresa, a popular travel destination, as many of those in the town physically resembled Armstrong.

      “I think from the get-go we were told … you’re gonna be in for a surprise, ‘cause a lot of the women in Santa Teresa look just like Kaitlin – a lot of them,” the deputy US marshal Damien Fernandez said to CBS.

      Investigators even enlisted a female operative to take local yoga classes with the hopes of spotting Armstrong, a yoga enthusiast. But police were unable to locate her.

      In a last ditch effort, US investigators posted an advertisement looking for a yoga teacher on Facebook.