Kaitlin Marie Armstrong, 34, was found Wednesday at a motel on Santa Teresa Beach in Provincia de Puntarenas, the Marshals Office said in a press release. The agency said she would be deported and returned to the US.
On May 17, the police issued an order to kill Armstrong. The affidavit mentioned details such as video showing a vehicle similar to hers near Austin, Texas, the home Wilson had briefly stayed in before her body was found.
US Marshals earlier said Armstrong used a fraudulent passport to board a flight from Newark Liberty International Airport to San Jose, Costa Rica, on May 18. However, Costa Rica’s Immigration Directorate Rica said on Thursday night that Armstrong entered Costa Rica on a “passport that does not correspond to her identity, but the document was not forged.”
A spokesman for the Department of Migration told CNN that Armstrong was transferred to the Centro de Aprehensión Regional Center, a prison in Los Lagos, on Thursday morning.
Armstrong “is currently in eviction proceedings, but has no specific date for this to be completed.” Authorities have 30 days to complete the deportation order, according to the spokesperson.
The murder victim was a star skier and champion cyclist
Wilson, 25, is a gifted athlete. She was a prominent skier in her younger years before turning to cycling.
After college, she switched from skiing to cycling.
Wilson is particularly good at “gravel racing,” a relatively new genre of cycling that some see as a cross between road and mountain bikes.
At the time of her death, Wilson was just days away from participating in the Gravel Locos bike race. The day after the race, an event organizer remembered her on Facebook as “a role model, a compassionate shy person, a spirited tactical racer and a competitor who truly cared about the races.” who competes with you.”
What happened in Wilson’s final hours?
On May 11, the day she died, Wilson told her friend she was going for an afternoon swim with Strickland, according to an affidavit filed in Travis County Court. Wilson is with a friend as she prepares for the upcoming Gravel Locos race in Hico.
Strickland told investigators that after the swim, he and Wilson had dinner. He then took her to a friend’s house, Strickland said, but did not go inside, according to the affidavit.
Austin police responded to the home late that evening, shortly before 10 p.m. CT, and found Wilson with multiple gunshot wounds. She died at the scene.
On May 19, authorities filed an affidavit saying Strickland admitted to trying to conceal communication with Wilson from Armstrong by changing Wilson’s name on his phone and deleting messages.
The affidavit cited a tipper alleging that Armstrong believed Strickland and Wilson’s romantic relationship had been ongoing as of January 2022.
Armstrong contacted Wilson several times and on one occasion asked her to “stay away” from Strickland, one of Wilson’s friends told investigators, according to the affidavit.
Wilson’s family said she did not have any romantic relationships at the time of her death.
“While we will not elaborate on the ongoing investigation, we felt it was important to make it clear that at the time of her death the people closest to her, directly continuing from Moriah, it has become clear that she is not romantically involved with anyone,” the family said in a statement last month.
Strickland and Armstrong reconciled and resumed their relationship about a month later, he told the newspaper. Strickland said his relationship with Wilson became “pure and professional” after that and he considers her a “best friend,” he said.
Strickland told the Austin American-Statesman: “There is no way to adequately express the remorse and torture I feel at being about to commit this terrible crime. “I’m sorry, and I simply cannot understand this confusing situation.”
CNN’s Hannah Sarisohn, Dakin Andone, Emma Tucker, Eric Levenson, Djenane Villanueva, Marlon Sorto, Amanda Watts and Jonny Hallam contributed to this report.