Text messages shown in court Monday detailed Anna Moriah “Mo” Wilson’s final outing to an Austin pool with a former flame just hours before she was killed last May. The messages also revealed that the former flame, Colin Strickland, purposely ignored his then-girlfriend’s attempts to reach him during the innocent outing—and then lied about his whereabouts.
“Hey! Are you out? I went to drop some flowers for Alison at her sons house up north and my phone died,” Strickland texted Kaitlin Armstong on May 11, 2022, according to NewsNation. “Heading home unless you have another food suggestion.”
But Armstrong never responded to the message. Prosecutors allege that later that night, the yoga teacher ambushed Wilson and fatally shot her three times in a jealous rage—including once in the heart.
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She then sold her car, fled to Costa Rica, and spent thousands on plastic surgery, prosecutors allege, before she was captured 43 days later. Armstrong has pleaded not guilty to murder and, if convicted, faces up to 99 years in prison. Her defense team have denied the allegations, and insist that the prosecution do not have any scientific data to pin Wilson’s murder on Armstrong.
Strickland, a professional cyclist, revealed to jurors on Monday that Armstrong had been jealous of Wilson, also a pro cyclist, after his brief fling in October 2021. He said that Armstrong would send him passive-aggressive messages about Wilson—and once, even confronted her on the phone.
Strickland said he even changed Wilson’s name in his phone to "Christine Wall” to avoid confrontation with Armstrong and, at one point, Wilson was even blocked from Strickland’s phone, prosecutors said Monday.
The ongoing dispute over Wilson was just one issue in what Stickland called a “tumultuous” on-and-off-again relationship with Armstrong. He testified that Wilson was one of four women blocked from his phone at one point, though he didn’t know how that happened. Prosecutors previously revealed that Armstrong had access to all of Strickland’s devices and social media accounts.
Strickland testified that he and Wilson would talk sporadically about their biking careers. so it was not unusual when she messaged him on May 10, 2022, to let him know she was flying into Austin a few days before a gravel race.
“Want to go swimming? Maybe swimming and a beverage. What do you think?” Strickland texted Wilson the next day, after a failed cycling meetup.
“Sounds great. I'm dying out here,” Wilson responded, alongside a photo of her on a bike ride.
They met up a few hours later and went swimming at Deep Eddy’s pool. During that time, Strickland said, Armstrong called and texted him several times but he ignored it. When he finally responded and returned to their house, she was nowhere to be found.
Strickland said when she finally came home, Armstrong was not frazzled or acting out of the ordinary.
The next morning, Strickland said detectives arrived at the home to reveal that Wilson had been murdered. He said he was “shell shocked,” especially when investigators told him about a black Jeep—the same model of car that Armstrong drove—seen near the murder scene.
Afterward, Strickland said that he revealed to Armstrong that he had seen Wilson the night before. “Kaitlin did not seem upset about that,” he said. He said he asked Armstrong if her car had been near the apartment where Wilson was murdered, but Armstrong replied with a detailed story. “She gave me a list of her whereabouts. She said she went to a waxing appointment, a yoga class, then visited a healer,” he said on Friday, according to Fox 7.
Days later, amid lengthy interviews with police and defense attorneys, Strickland said that his girlfriend suddenly vanished.
