Updated at 7:43 p.m.
A Texas woman on the run for more than 40 days, and wanted on a charge of murder in the slaying of a world-class cyclist from Vermont, has been captured.
Kaitlin Marie Armstrong, 34, was arrested Wednesday at a hostel on Santa Teresa Beach in Provincia de Puntarenas on the western coast of Costa Rica, the U.S. Marshals Service said late Thursday morning.
Police in Austin, Texas, obtained a warrant last month for Armstrong’s arrest on a first-degree murder charge in the death of 25-year-old Anna Moriah Wilson.
Wilson, of East Burke, had been in Texas preparing for an upcoming cycling competition. On May 11, she was found dead from multiple gunshot wounds inside an apartment in East Austin, where she had been staying with a friend.
“The Marshals Service elevated the Kaitlin Armstrong investigation to major case status early in this investigation, which likely played a key role in her capture after a 43-day run,” U.S. Marshal for the Western District of Texas Susan Pamerleau said in a statement Thursday.
Armstrong, according to the Marshals Service, is expected to be deported from Costa Rica and returned to the United States to face the murder charge.
In a Thursday news release, the Marshals Service said investigators had recently learned that Armstrong used a fraudulent passport to board a flight from Newark International Airport in New Jersey at 5:09 p.m. on May 18, arriving in San Jose, Costa Rica at 8:27 p.m. that same day.
No additional details of Armstrong’s capture were immediately available Thursday afternoon.
Wilson’s family, in a statement Thursday afternoon, thanked the law enforcement agencies and “all other parties and individuals” involved in helping to locate and apprehend Armstrong.
“We’re relieved to know this phase of uncertainty is now behind us, and we trust that justice will prevail,” the statement added.
Wilson, known as “Mo,” was a rising star in mountain and gravel cycling. She turned to the sport after attending Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire, and joining the school’s ski team.
Before attending Dartmouth, Wilson graduated from Burke Mountain Academy, an internationally known training ground for ski racers.
Authorities said Armstrong fled Texas after she was interviewed by Austin Police a day after the slaying. During that questioning by police, according to court records, Armstrong was presented with evidence that her vehicle was seen driving near the apartment where Wilson was killed around the time authorities believe the shooting occurred.
Austin Police, in an affidavit in support of the first-degree murder charge, alleged that Armstrong was motivated by jealous rage.
Wilson, according to that affidavit, had a short relationship with another professional cyclist, Colin Strickland, last fall. Strickland told police he and Armstrong were broken up at that time.
Strickland also reported that he and Armstrong had since gotten back together and had been living in the same residence in Austin.
Wilson had been out swimming and dining with Strickland in the hours before her death, according to the affidavit. Police said they believed Armstrong’s vehicle arrived at the scene of the murder within minutes of Strickland dropping Wilson off.
Shells from test firing a handgun that police seized from Armstrong’s home were compared
to those found near Wilson’s body in the apartment. “The potential that the same firearm was involved is significant,” police wrote in the court filing.
