The Texas yoga teacher accused of murdering an elite cyclist in a jealous rage last May allegedly made several alarming internet searches while on the lam in Costa Rica—including whether pineapples can “burn your fingerprints.”
“Workers who cut up pineapples eventually lose their fingerprints,” Kaitlin Armstrong also searched on July 23, according to data revealed in court Wednesday, NewsNation reported.
Austin Police detective Richard Spitler testified that the search was among several Armstrong made days after she fled Texas—allegedly after murdering Anna Moriah “Mo” Wilson in a fit of jealousy on May 11, 2022.
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Armstrong’s photo data suggests she kept tabs on the manhunt for her and searched her name and a local news article, Spitler said. She also searched for rhinoplasty plastic surgery and whether her digital fingerprint would be tracked if she was not making phone calls, he said.
After 43 days on the run, Armstrong was captured on June 30 in Costa Rica, where she had been teaching yoga under aliases. She has pleaded not guilty to murder and faces up to 99 years in prison if convicted. Her defense team has told jurors that the government has no data that proves Armstrong murdered Wilson.
Over the last week, however, witnesses for the prosecution have testified about Amrstrong’s jealousy toward Wilson, who had a brief fling with her ex-boyfriend, Colin Strickland, in October 2021.
Strickland testified that Armstrong sent him passive-aggressive messages about Wilson during their on-and-off relationship and even confronted Wilson on the phone.
Jacqueline Chasteen, a friend of the couple’s in Austin, testified that Armstrong once confessed her anger about Strickland's relationship with Wilson while at a bar in January 2022. During the conversation, Chasteen said, Armstrong “described how Colin had cheated but while she was describing that, she had said in so many words that she wanted to kill her. That she had thought about it.”
“But how she said it at the time, I didn't take it seriously... she said something to the effect that she had bought a gun ... I do know the words kill and gun were used,” Chasteen added about Armstrong's rant.
Prosecutors revealed that Armstrong had access to all of Strickland’s devices and monitored Wilson on a running app the day of the murder. The same day, Strickland testified, he and Wilson met up in Austin, went swimming, and had dinner. He said he did not tell Armstrong about his plans and lied to her about his whereabouts on his way home.
Prosecutors allege that shortly after Strickland dropped off Wilson, Armstrong ambushed Wilson at a friend’s apartment and fatally shot her three times—including once in the heart. Spitler also testified that information pulled from Armstrong’s iCloud shows that she deleted a note on her phone that contained the address of where Wilson was staying.
“Everything about this scene… seemed like it was very personal,” Spitler said on Wednesday. “So I wanted to try to track down anybody who had something personal with [Wilson], some sort of personal relationship.”
Days after the murder, prosecutors say, Armstrong sold her car, used her sister’s passport to fly to Costa Rica, and spent thousands on plastic surgery.
Nicole Mertz, a former professional cyclist who was close with Armstrong in Austin, testified on Wednesday that when she heard the news of Wilson's murder, her first thought was that her friend “might have had something to do with it.” She said she texted Armstrong about Wilson’s murder, but the message did not go through. Then she saw that Armstrong’s Instagram had been deleted.
“It just made me think that she had something to do with it even more,” Mertz said, adding that Armstrong's sister later told her the yoga teacher was safe.
