The Austin Police Department (APD) have issued an arrest warrant in connection to the homicide of gravel cyclist Moriah Wilson. The warrant names Kaitlin Marie Armstrong, 34, as wanted in first-degree felony murder charges.
The arrest warrant was signed by Judge Patrick McNelis on Tuesday, May 17, 2022 through the City of Austin Municipal Court - District Court of Travis County, and filed on Thursday, May 19, 2022. It describes Armstrong as a white, female, born November 21, 1987, with no additional aliases. APD confirmed to Cyclingnews that Armstrong has not yet been apprehended.
Wilson was killed in a shooting at a home in East Austin, Texas, on Wednesday, May 11, 2022, in a case currently under investigation by the APD. Wilson had travelled to Texas to compete at the Gravel Locos held on Saturday in Hico, located between Austin and Dallas.
On Saturday, May 14, APD published an official report to its Facebook channel confirming that on Wednesday, May 11 at approximately 9:56 p.m. it responded to a 9-1-1 dispatch call from a woman who had returned to her East Austin home to find her friend, Wilson, unresponsive. The APD said that case was being treated as a homicide and that it had identified a person of interest.
The APD obtained a search warrant for a South Austin, Texas, home in connection to the deadly shooting, according to a report in the investigative news outlet KXAN on Tuesday, May 17.
According to the search warrant, Wilson went swimming with a friend that evening and returned to the home after 8:30 p.m. Camera footage from a nearby home showed a vehicle pull up near the house around 8:36 p.m.
The vehicle seen in the footage matched the description of a vehicle found at the South Austin home, the warrant said.
Armstrong is the live-in partner of gravel racer Colin Strickland, and is named as the ‘partner and financial guru’ of his business Wheelhouse. Strickland issued a statement, posted to social media by KVUE Austin investigative journalist Tony Plohetski on Friday.
Cyclingnews has obtained a copy of the arrest warrant and has spoken with APD on Thursday and the City of Austin Municipal Court on Friday, that confirmed the investigation was ongoing.
U.S. Marshals Lone Star Fugitive Task Force requested, on Friday, the public's help in locating homicide suspect, Armstrong. The task force is actively conducting a fugitive investigation and pursuing leads on her whereabouts. Anyone with information is urged to contact the US Marchals Service Communications Center at 1-800-336-0102 or submit a tip using the USMS Tips app.
More to come as this story develops.
