Latest / 10 Minute Murder | Bingeable True Crime Stories / The Murder of Mo
Transcript
- 0:13Discretion advice. This is ten minute murder. Anna Mariah Wilson, known as
- 0:43Moe, grew up surrounded by people with a deep love for sports. Her
- 0:48entire family was athletic in some way, and as a young child, Moe
- 0:52quickly fell in love with competitive cycling. She was also a talented skier,
- 0:57but cycling was the sports that she wanted to spend the rest of her life
- 1:00doing. Even after graduating from high school and then receiving her Bachelor's of Engineering
- 1:04degree, cycling was at the center of Moe's life, and eventually she was
- 1:10able to launch into a career as a professional gravel cyclist. In late twenty
- 1:15twenty one, Moe had a fling with another professional gravel cyclist, world champion,
- 1:21Colin Strickland. Even though the two shared a deep passion for the sport,
- 1:26the romantic part of the relationship quickly ended. But while Moe and Colin
- 1:30were quick to move on, Colin's ex girlfriend, Caitlyn Armstrong was not.
- 1:37Colin and Caitlin, who was a relator and yogurt teacher from Michigan, had
- 1:40an on again, off again kind of relationship. During one of their separations,
- 1:46Colin started dating Mo but afterwards he decided to get back together with Caitlin.
- 1:51On the eleventh of May twenty twenty two, Moe was staying at a
- 1:55friend's house in Austin, Texas, while preparing to compete in a cycling race.
- 2:00While she was in town, she decided to meet up with Colin.
- 2:02The pair traveled to the Deep Eddy pulled together for a swim, and then
- 2:07had dinner together before Colin dropped her back off at her friend's house. Before
- 2:10leaving to see Mo, Colin lied to Caitlin about where he was going,
- 2:15hoping that she would not find out that he was meeting up with Moe.
- 2:19However, after using her laptop to look at his messages, Caitlyn managed to
- 2:23use the exercise app Strava to track his location. Only a couple of hours
- 2:30later, Moe's friend Caitlin Cash got home and found Moe lying in a pool
- 2:34of blood on the tiled bathroom floor. This, by the way, is
- 2:38a different Caitlyn spelled with the sea instead of a K. She dialed nine
- 2:43one one, telling the operator quote, I can't tell what happened. She's
- 2:46not awake and there's blood all over her face. When first responders arrived at
- 2:52the house, they pronounced Mo dead at the scene. Mo's autopsy revealed that
- 2:55her cause of death was blood loss due to multiple gunshot wounds, one to
- 3:00the chest and two to the head. The angle and positioning of the bullet
- 3:05holes revealed that she had been shot while lying face up on the floor,
- 3:08in the same position where her body was later found. Several nine millimeter casings
- 3:14were found at the scene, but the gun that was used to shoot Mo
- 3:17was nowhere to be found. Now that investigators knew that Moe had been murdered,
- 3:23it became crucial to find out who had been in and out of the
- 3:25house before Caitlin Cash arrived home at nine forty five. Police were able to
- 3:31recover footage from several neighborhood surveillance cameras which showed Colin Strickland pulling up outside the
- 3:37address and dropping Moe off. It was clear from the footage that Colin remained
- 3:42in the vehicle, he had not followed Moe inside, and he had not
- 3:46returned to the property after leaving. However, less than two minutes after Moe
- 3:51had gone inside the house, a second vehicle had been captured near the address,
- 3:57a black twenty twelve jeep Grand cherry Key, identical to the car that
- 4:01Caitlyn Armstrong drove. Initially, Colin told the police that he didn't know Mo,
- 4:08but after a while he admitted that the two of them were still romantically
- 4:12linked, and that he often deleted text messages from his phone to prevent Caitlin
- 4:15from finding out. And to pause the story really quick, if you've ever
- 4:19find yourself in Colin's situation here, which I hope and pray that you never
- 4:24do. But Colin is asked by the police if he knows Mo. He
- 4:29says he does not, when they know he definitely knows Mo. Doing that
- 4:32only makes him look like he's hiding something He's guilty in some way. So
- 4:36if you ever find yourself in that situation, do not lie tot the police,
- 4:41especially about something that they already know. They're just asking to see what
- 4:44you say to gauge whether or not you could be a suspect. It makes
- 4:47the investigation go by smoother, and the police were able to focus on the
- 4:51possibility of who actually committed the crime. Okay, back to the story.
- 4:57Despite Colin's best attempts at hiding his infidel, Caitlyn found out and she was
- 5:01willing to do anything to make sure that Colin and Moe could no longer see
- 5:05each other. The police received an anonymous tip from somebody close to Caitlin,
- 5:11claiming that shortly after finding out about Colin and Moe's continued relationship, Caitlyn expressed
- 5:16interest in buying a gun. The jeep's plates were traced and investigators confirmed that
- 5:24the car was registered to Caitlin and Colin's address. On the twelfth of May,
- 5:28police searched the property and recovered Caitlyn's firearm, a nine millimeter handgun,
- 5:33which matched the casings that had been found with Moe's body. On that same
- 5:38day, coincidentally, Caitlyn was arrested due to an unrelated misdemeanor theft warrant.
- 5:44Four years prior. She had gotten botox done and left the SPA without paying
- 5:48for her treatment. The police questioned her, but then released her immediately afterwards
- 5:53because of an error that caused her recorded date of birth in the police database
- 5:58not to match the one printed on the outstanding warrant. It was only a
- 6:00technicality, but it meant that Caitlin was free to leave. The following day,
- 6:04she went to a dealership and sold the jeep Cherokee. After that,
- 6:09she began the process of fleeing the country altogether. On the fourteenth of May,
- 6:15Caitlyn got on a flight to New York and visited her sister Christine.
- 6:18She spent four days there before boarding a flight to San Jose, Costa Rica,
- 6:24but the ticket was under Christine's name instead of her own. From then
- 6:28on, Caitlyn stopped using her own name, instead introduced herself as Ari and
- 6:33using the full name Alison Page. She arrived in Santa Teresa, a small
- 6:39beach town located west of San Jose, and booked accommodation at a surf and
- 6:44yoga lodge called Don John's. Caitlyn tried to blend in with the other travelers,
- 6:48working on her laptop on the lodge's patio and going out for drinks with
- 6:53the other guests in the evening. Despite going by a different name, Caitlin
- 6:58was still concerned that she would be recognized. There was a warrant out for
- 7:01her arrest, and the Austin Police Force had asked the US Marshals for their
- 7:06assistance in locating her, and on the twentieth of May, the Marshals released
- 7:11a wanted poster with Caitlyn's picture on it. So after spending a few weeks
- 7:15in Santa Teresa, Caitlyn made a trip back to San Jose, where she
- 7:20dropped thousands of dollars on plastic surgery to change the appearance of her face.
- 7:26By late June, the US Marshals were closing in and they had started to
- 7:30interview locals and travelers staying in Santa Teresa. According to CBS News, who
- 7:35interviewed one of the US marshals signed to tracking her down, he said,
- 7:40quote, we decided we were going to put out an ad or multiple ads
- 7:44for a yoga instructor and see what would happen. Those Craigslist ads appeared to
- 7:48pay off. Less than a week later, they were able to locate Caitlyn
- 7:53sitting outside Don Johns on the patio. One of the marshals who apprehended Caitlin
- 7:58initially didn't recognize her due to to the plastic surgery, saying quote, Initially
- 8:03it didn't appear to be her, but as I got closer, I realized
- 8:05it was her. It appeared she had a bandage on her nose and her
- 8:09lips were a bit swollen. Her hair was a little bit lighter. The
- 8:13marshals escorted Caitlyn to the closest jail before she was extradited back to the United
- 8:18States. On the eleventh of October twenty twenty three, only a few weeks
- 8:24before the trial, Caitlyn attempted to escape from law enforcement a second time.
- 8:28She was escorted out of jail by several corrections officers to go to a medical
- 8:33appointment, but after her appointment was finished, she was able to break free,
- 8:37removing the restraints from one of her hands and sprinting away from the officers.
- 8:41While she was running, Caitlyn ripped down her jailed pants, revealing that
- 8:46she was wearing thermals underneath in a hope to be less recognizable. After her
- 8:50path was blocked by a six foot tall fence, Caitlyn attempted to climate and
- 8:54was grabbed by one of the corrections officers in pursuit. It was pretty clear
- 8:58that the escape attempt was not spontaneous. In fact, prison staff had noticed
- 9:05Caitlyn exercising vigorously for months before her escape attempt, doing squats in her cell,
- 9:11practicing hours of yoga, and running as much as she was able to.
- 9:15Caitlyn also made sure to complain about an injury that would guarantee her leaving
- 9:20to go see a doctor without any restraints on her legs. A search of
- 9:24her jail cell revealed a thin, sharp piece of metal, which investigators believe
- 9:28that she used to remove one of her handcuffs. With Caitlyn's attempted escape failing,
- 9:33the trial's opening statements began on the first of November. More than twenty
- 9:37witnesses testified, including one of Caitlyn's close friends, Nicole Mertz. Nicole told
- 9:43the court that during a conversation with Caitlyn, she asked her what she would
- 9:48do if Colin ever started dating someone else. Seriously, Caitlyn had been quick
- 9:52to reply, I would kill her. The trial concluded on the sixteenth of
- 9:56November, when after only a couple of hours of deliberation, the jury reached
- 10:01their verdict. Caitlin Armstrong was guilty of Moe Wilson's murder and received a ninety
- 10:07year prison sentence. During the trial's punishment phase, Moe's mother told the jury
- 10:11quote from the day she was born, Moe had a force in her.
- 10:16She lived as if every day was her last day, and she lived it
- 10:20so fully. She never wasted any time. It's as if she knew her
- 10:24life would be short. That's ten minute Murder for today, brief and bingeable
- 10:48true crime. My name is Joe, I'm the host, and thank you
- 10:52so much for taking the time out of your day to listen to ten Minute
- 10:56Murder. If you're on to the next episode, you're on a binge,
- 10:58don't let me stop you. But if you're new to listening to ten Minute
- 11:01Murder, take the time now to subscribe to the podcast. That will more
- 11:05easily help you catch up on all of the back episodes and all the new
- 11:09ones will be right there in your face when you open the app to listen.
- 11:13If you like this episode, leave a rating and review on Apple,
- 11:16Spotify, Audible, any place that that's possible. Your positive feedback helps the
- 11:20show grow. You can go to ten minute Murder dot com for all things
- 11:24related to the podcast and coming up on the next episode of ten Minute Murder,
- 11:28let me tell you what that story is going to be about. As
- 11:31a matter of fact, let me just read you what's written here, and
- 11:33this is what's going to be in the episode description, so that you know
- 11:37exactly which one you're listening for. A killer stalked the streets of nineteen nineties
- 11:41apartheid South Africa, targeting vulnerable women and leaving a trail of brutality behind him,
- 11:48using a front and the promise of a potential job to lure his victims.
- 11:50In this twisted, sadistic murderer perpetrated the life of pain that seemed to
- 11:56follow him like a dark cloud. Right, it sounds pretty interesting, so
- 12:01do not miss that one coming up on the next episode of Ten Minute Murder.
- 12:05And that's going to do it for today. Thank you so much for
- 12:09listening to Ten Minute Murder.