The After Show: Three Shots in the Dark
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Hi everybody, it's Debra Roberts with 2020 The After Show. And today we, like always, are going to bring you a behind-the-scenes look at a story that just captivated us. Because this one deals with love and murder, and it's all wrapped up in the world of athletics. Anna Maria Wilson was a rising star in the world of gravel cycling. She was last seen by a fellow cyclist, Colin Strickland, before she was shot dead in Austin, Texas. And she was a

And this was just days before she was about to participate in a major race. It was a shocking turn of events for so many people who heard about this. The killer turned out to be another woman, Caitlin Armstrong, who was in an on-again, off-again relationship with Colin.

Our 2020 team jumped into this story with all the twists and turns with our chief national correspondent, Matt Gutman, who followed the disturbing details of this murder as a 43-day manhunt for Caitlyn spanned multiple states and even other countries, ultimately leading to her capture in Costa Rica and later on a conviction.

producers Keturah Gray and Glenn Ruppel are here with us. We all work together on so many different stories. Glenn, Keturah, great to see you guys. Good to see you. Hi, great to see you. Glenn, you have the nerve to tell me that you're nervous. We've worked together for many years now. Many years. But this is my first time being in a podcast. Well, you and I talk in the hallway all the time, so we'll pretend we're in the hallway. Okay. And Keturah, you and I, of course, have been working together for years and years, too, so it's so great to have you guys here to sort of talk about

behind the scenes and how, you know, how we get involved in these stories, which so many people are often fascinated by. And Keturah, you were on this early on. Give me your early impressions on this story, because I remember when I heard about it, and I just thought it was so weird. I mean, the world of athletics, one of them, Armstrong, was into yoga. I mean, what was your impression in the very beginning? Well, just like you, I mean, I was, I think we all

were sort of fascinated, curious about this case because there was, you know, like the U.S. Marshals were putting Caitlin Armstrong's picture out. She had gone on the run and Marshals were trying to find her. So in the end of May...

2022, we were all kind of seeing in the headlines, where is this woman? Where is this woman? And she's eventually captured after 43 days in Costa Rica. So that got my interest at first, but then kind of learning in the course of committing to do this story, I learned about Mariah Wilson. She was a young woman in her 20s, just getting started in life and talking to her friends and her family. She was like most of us, like you, me in our young 20s,

Figuring out who we are, figuring out what our talents are. And I just, on that level, identified with her and felt so...

You know, just wanted to learn more about her, felt so sorry about what had happened. But she was a phenomenal athlete. So she was just like us and yet not like us at all. Yeah, just because she was so competitive in this world of cycling, which I didn't know much about. So, Glenn, you came on board in the story. And I had never heard of gravel cycling before. Had you?

I had not. But, you know, I'm a cyclist myself. I'm not a racer. But because I ride long distances, I have some understanding and appreciation for just how grueling the races are that Mariah Wilson participated in. I mean, she came out of nowhere and started winning these races in a relatively new field of what you mentioned. It's called gravel racing. Yeah.

It's sort of halfway between mountain biking and road biking. While something like the Tour de France is ridden by a very exclusive group of the top people on paved roads, gravel rides, in contrast, are there on unpaved back roads and gravel trails. And they're open to all. You don't have to be a top champion to ride. So while it has that super competitive aspect, it also has a fun, loose community feel to it. Sort of ride hard and then grab cold beers together after.

So they have a lot of big, close community when they're doing this kind of thing. Glenn, one of the things I love about working with you is you get so steeped in these stories and you are like, you're into all the research and the details. And you and I, as I said, are often talking in the hallway about the little details behind the scenes that you discovered that I didn't know. What were your early impressions when you heard about this story? You know, as you said, it's such a, it's odd that in this field of, you know, I've

ride hard, grab a beer. It's very casual, big community that you would have such a terrible crime within it. And so that was shocking. As, you know, as Keturah mentioned, there's a young group of people out for a good time and it's just...

For this to happen, such a big tragedy is just, it's not, it's out of the ordinary and kind of shocking. Yeah, yeah, out of the ordinary, which makes it an interesting 2020 for us, for sure. Keturah, you talked about Mariah finding her life and she was a rising cyclist. And, you know, one of the things that we're always trying to do when we do these stories, and Janice Johnston, our executive producer, sort of

makes it clear to us all the time. You can't forget that these are people, there's family involved here, and painting a picture is very important. And in the very beginning of this story, you and Glenn and, you know, everybody on the team worked very hard to try to make sure we had a sense of who she was. And talk to our listeners a little bit about, you know, getting those pictures and making sure we knew who she was. Mo, they called her.

Yeah, some of her friends called her Mo, her family called her Mariah. We went back to Eastbrook, Vermont and spoke to her family, spoke to her ski coach who said, you know, I knew when she was in high school that she was unlike any other athlete I've coached. And that was skiing. But, you know, in college and just after that, she discovered cycling. She loved sports, but her friends who lived with her, who

went to college with her. I said she loved cooking. She loved to try new recipes. I'll also say, like Glenn said, the cycling community is small. They protect people.

I'm Mariah Wilson. I also go by Moe.

She just had this like amazing smile that would just pull you in. She's a beautiful woman, super smart, really athletic. Athletes, I mean sometimes they're boring and she wasn't, you know. I think coffee in any vessel is pretty good. A wonderful mix of like serious and driven but also like up for having a fun time.

And Keturah, you were so good at building those relationships. I know it took time, but what's a good thing about our show is that we do have those resources, the time to develop important relationships. We wouldn't have done this story as well as we did if Keturah didn't have that time and the talent to do that. And that is one of the things that you excel at, Keturah, because you're out there in not only just – we call it in the field. You're out there in the world with these folks.

You're getting to know them. You're getting them to trust us. And that is so critical in telling these stories because, you know, folks have endured pain and trauma and tragedy, and you're getting them to talk to you about this woman that they've lost. That's so nice. This is a terrible time in their lives, but I just sincerely feel for them. And in this case, you know, like with every story, but...

you know, their family member, their friend deserves to be honored. And they clearly feel that from you too, because I can see that when we're out in the field, you really relate to people, which is so important. Glenn, trying to decide how we start our pieces is a big decision. And in this particular case, there's audio of Mariah's screams and it's powerful. It's chilling. Tell our listeners about making those kinds of decisions about how to open up our story.

Well, this was a very important piece of audio that you refer to that the police were, you know, they canvassed the neighborhood and they found audio from a camera at a nearby house from near where the murder happened. You can hear her scream and then you hear two shots, a pause and a third shot. I still get tears to my eyes when I hear it, even though I've heard it many times. But it's actually very important to the case because it's,

First of all, it gave police the exact time of the murder because of the timestamp on the camera that recorded it. And this is like a ring cam? Yes, like a ring cam. So the video is literally just someone's porch with nothing happening, but you hear in the background the screams and the shots.

So police at first thought this was maybe just a robbery and where her bike was stolen because the bike was missing from the place. But one detective told us that once they knew three shots had been fired, but once they heard the audio, there's the two shots, then there's a six second pause before the final shot. Now that was important because it showed them there was a likely intent to kill Mariah and not just hurt her enough to steal the bike and get out of there fast. The

The shooter wanted to make sure they were dead, was their opinion. Yeah, it's interesting how that informs investigators, and it's something we wouldn't have thought about. Well, Couture, Cullen Strickland had had a romantic relationship with Mariah, and obviously police would want to look at him, as they often do in these stories. He became a suspect early on before they cleared him and began their focus someplace else. But

Tell us a little bit about Colin. Oh, gosh. Well, Colin was a superstar in the sport long before Mariah. You know, gravel racing is relatively new, but he established himself in the sport. And younger athletes like Mariah looked to him as a mentor. And so that was initially sort of how their friendship developed.

So Colin was a hero in the sport. He was a trailblazer in gravel racing. And so he had had, you know, a relationship with these couple of women on again, off again with Caitlin Armstrong and then Mariah. Tell us a little bit about the connection with the romance.

So one thing I do want to say, and this was incredibly important to both, well, to Colin Strickland and to Mariah's friends and family, is that although the media first characterized this as a love triangle, it was not a love triangle. Or, you know, it was a love triangle in Caitlin Armstrong's mind, essentially, because while

Colin was involved with both women. It was not at the same time. Authorities did look at Colin Strickland. He was obviously the last person to be seen with her, but they were able to pretty quickly dismiss him as a suspect because they had video footage around Austin. He clearly dropped off Mariah and then he went home.

So Colin Strickland, within a few weeks, not long after Mariah's death, he released a statement expressing his sympathy to the Wilson family, his regret over the proximity to the crime, and added that he never had an intention of pursuing a romantic relationship that would mislead anyone. And Mariah's friends and family all universally said that she did not believe she was in a romantic relationship with Wilson.

There was jealousy involved here, which obviously would wind up being a motive. Glenn, you got the footage of Caitlin Armstrong's police interview right after the murder happened. And the detective in the case, Katie Connor, said she was almost emotionless. Yeah, I was so impressed by Detective Katie Connor.

When she walked in, what was your impression of her? She didn't move much at all. What does that tell you if someone is very still? Sometimes it can mean absolutely nothing at all. It can also mean that they're extremely nervous because naturally somebody's going to move a little bit. When they're completely still, that's usually a little bit of a red flag. You're here for a warrant right now, I guess. Are you familiar with what you have going on with that? No idea. So in the middle of the interview, I got a knock on the door. Um...

And they pulled me out and they said, hey, the warrant's not good. They realized that the warrant has some issue, that it does not match the birth date with Kaitlyn Armstrong's birth date. So that's not, you're not under arrest, okay? Okay. I know, it's a little crazy.

Yeah, so you're... So they just came to my house and put me in handcuffs for no reason? So there was some miscommunication on that. But I would really like to talk to you and clear some stuff up because Colin did bring your name up and I think there's a lot more information that you have that can kind of clear some stuff up.

Does that make sense? It makes sense. I feel like I should have an attorney present. So you tell her that she's not under arrest and yet she stays. Yes. The door is unlocked. You can leave at any time. So... I would love to leave. You would love to leave. He just arrested me in front of my house, in front of all of my neighbors and carried me in here in handcuffs in front of downtown Austin. It was incredibly humiliating. I can only imagine.

You tell her she can leave, but then you sort of just keep talking and asking questions. Yes, so that is the tactic that we use. Even if the person stands up and starts to walk towards the door, you kind of stay seated and just keep talking and see if they re-engage. She kept throwing questions at her anyway.

and did get her to engage a bit more despite her obvious intent to get the heck out of there. So it was interesting to watch this detective in action. Yeah. And when you think about Caitlin Armstrong, we talked about Mariah, who was this talented athlete, and Caitlin Armstrong was interested in yoga. So we're talking about two women who are in this world of either athletics or a zen part of our lives, right, in terms of something that

represents calm. And that was also kind of at odds with what we're looking at here. Yes. Now you're seeing this icy look on her face and her not wanting to talk and just, you know, that flat affect. It's really odd for someone who's obviously personable. She rode, she wasn't a professional rider, but she also rode. And so to see that contrast with who she was before and her friends described her as a good, fun person who they liked.

So she became this different person and maybe her jealousy that she believed to be this affair which didn't exist...

I think maybe that affected her. Yeah, yeah. And it became a key part of the investigation. Well, there is so much more to unpack in this story after a quick break. And then we're going to talk about the digital tools that police say Caitlin very cleverly used to track Mariah. And also what you all learned about the international hunt to find this killer. ♪

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We're back now. I'm talking with 2020 producers Keturah Gray and Glenn Ruppel about an episode that we just aired called Three Shots in the Dark. And it is a chilling story when you think about those three gunshots that we heard. After Mariah Wilson's killing, Caitlin Armstrong flees to Costa Rica. And this is a big moment in our piece, Glenn, when police track her down there. Absolutely, because they see her at the airport. They find that she flew to New York.

to visit her sister and then disappeared off the map. And Keturah picked up the story after that. I have to say, this was really, she did some great reporting here. And when you say saw her at the airport on camera footage and all of that. Yes, there's a shot from the security cameras that shows her with very little. She has her yoga mat, of course, and

and a few belongings, but not much. And she just leaves town. Yeah. And Keturah, this is a turning point in our story. And of course, we weren't there during this manhunt. So we have to sort of take viewers there and we have to find a way to creatively tell that story. Talk to us a little bit about helping bring that to life on camera for us. So we had a couple of sources here in the States who said,

kind of gave us a little bit of information about how they went about finding Caitlin Armstrong. And I sort of used that information to go back to Costa Rica. We hired a local stringer reporter in Costa Rica, and we started kind of doing our own investigation on the ground and following Caitlin's footsteps.

And so what we learned there is that, and many people may not know this, but the State Department get involved with international investigations. So we learned that they had partnered with the U.S. Marshals and had discovered surveillance footage at the San Jose-Costa Rica airport that showed Caitlin Armstrong arriving in San Jose. And that is how kind of the U.S. Marshals were like, oh, we know she's in Costa Rica. And so we kind of traveled there.

the path that Caitlin Armstrong took by bus. We went to Hako Beach, learned that she had taken some yoga classes there. We spoke to a yoga instructor who had taught her, said that she remembered her. She signed in under the name Liz and she remembered her because this woman calling herself Liz took a class with a man who said he was from Austin and

The two talked extensively about Austin. They went and had breakfast down the street that day. And then Caitlin continued making her way to Santa Teresa, Costa Rica, which is where after 43 days, the U.S. Marshals found her. Ultimately found her and arrested her. It was really, really just a crazy story and trying to get hot on her trail. And they did zero in on her.

The deputy marshal, he pretended to be a Spanish-speaking tourist and told our team member and Costa Rica law enforcement that he had found Caitlin on site. At that point, they summoned local officials. Ten minutes later, three uniformed cops came in and they just went right for her.

"Documents, give me your documents." And she says, "I don't have any. I just put my hands up." And they're like, "Where are you staying?" And she said, "Puntarenas." And then they're like, "Where are your documents? Puntarenas?" And she's like, "Yes, no." And she just couldn't answer the questions. And then they said, "Where is your room?" And she didn't want to tell them. They just grabbed her and said, "We're taking you in because you have no documents."

And I'm just sitting here just like, whoa, this is hardcore. I've never seen that happen in Santa. The police don't do stuff like that. So I knew she did something bad, the way these cops are talking to her.

What I find interesting in our stories is oftentimes high-tech devices are actually used and able to help police in their investigation. And in this particular case, one of the things that was so fascinating to me is that investigators were able to use technology, social media. They were able to figure out that Caitlin Armstrong tracked Mariah Wilson through a special cycling app, Glenn, called Strava.

Well, that was the thing about Strava is, so I use Strava all the time. It's a great way to track your rides. I had never heard of it before this. Yeah, it's like how you, you know, how many miles you've ridden, how hard you worked along the way. But it also has a social media aspect to it where you friend other people and you can see what, you know, their rides as well.

What's important here is that it shows a map of each ride you do. And of course, that includes the start and finish points of the ride. So, you know, you can pinpoint where that rider probably lives. Now, Caitlin knew that Mariah was visiting Austin. She didn't know exactly where she was staying, though. So police found that Caitlin was basically stalking Mariah's rides on Strava so she could see exactly where in town she was. It was actually the home of a friend of hers.

So once Caitlin had that information, she was unfortunately able to stalk her there and find her to kill her. Although it is important to note that Strava now has a privacy feature that does allow you to hide the start and finish points because of privacy. Anything else that sort of caught you off guard during the story? Well, you know, there was something that was very interesting, the technology used in tracking stuff.

So the police had video of an SUV lurking near the scene at the time of the murder, but they couldn't prove it looked like Caitlin's car, but they couldn't prove that she was in it. So they checked her phone records to see if that would place her there. But she had turned off her phone right before the murder. So they couldn't. But then they caught a break, though. So Caitlin had sold her SUV to a CarMax dealership before she escaped off to Costa Rica.

So CarMax, the police went to CarMax and, you know, to check out the vehicle, but they were told the company policy was to immediately delete all the data stored on a vehicle's computer system right after they buy it from someone before they resell it.

But the police caught this break. For some reason, the CarMax dealership hadn't deleted it yet. Oh, wow. So they turn on the car computer and the internal GPS in the car shows that, yes, she was right there at the murder site at the time of the murder.

It was just quite impressive. You know, the U.S. Marshals were able to track down Caitlin in Santa Teresa, Costa Rica, sort of through a sting operation. They put up an ad on a local Facebook page for a yoga instructor. Digital forensics had led them to know that she was in Santa Teresa. So I just want to, like, make a point of, you know, again, it was the digital information that is proved key to this case on every level.

Yeah, and that happened every now and again on these stories. Like there's something that happens to be on the cloud that absolutely found that helped in a case. Well, we're going to pause just for a moment here, because after this break, we're going to talk about the shocking twist that happened while we were working on this story. And it even caught you guys by surprise. There's probably one really true thing about restaurants.

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Welcome back to my conversation with Keturah and Glenn, two of our 2020 producers who worked on Friday's episode, a story that I think we will all be talking about for quite a while. There was a dramatic moment in this story that really caught you guys off guard. Caitlin Armstrong's failed appearance.

escape from custody. I mean, she actually tried to escape. This was crazy. Crazy, right? We were literally in the middle of an interview with a local reporter named Tony down there when the news of this broke. And you'll hear on camera, they had this sense of my reaction. Please mark it. Tony Pilecki interview. Take one marker. 60 feet away from Caitlin Cash's home.

Stop it. Okay, hold on. I can call right now. Hold on. Yeah, yeah. Stop for a second. Let's cut. Stopping.

Immediately, we wanted to just try to find out everything going on with the situation. So we called TCSO, the Travis County Sheriff's Office, which operates the county jail. We learned that Kaitlyn Armstrong escaped custody while being taken to a doctor's appointment. At that time, they say that she bolted and began running.

Video of this escape is released and you see her in her black and white prison outfit. She's walking with two officers and somehow sort of breaks away from the two of them and makes a run for it. It looks like maybe they were stunned for a second. It takes them a second or two to start chasing after her. And then you see her attempting to climb a fence.

Authorities say Caitlin ran a mile away, stripping off her prisoner's uniform, even freeing a hand. She had different clothes on underneath the black and white jumpsuit so that at a point she would be able to strip that and not look like she had just escaped from police custody. She made it about a block into a neighborhood behind a complex of doctor's offices.

They were able to detain her a few minutes later. So what happened was, which is kind of fascinating, Caitlin Armstrong evidently planned her escape for quite a long time. For months, she worked out hard to get into the shape to run fast. Then she pretended to have some kind of medical condition so that her jailers had to bring her to an outside doctor for treatment. And that condition had something to do with her legs, so her feet were unshackled for that trip.

So they bring her to the doctor's office. She is being escorted by two deputies and she makes a break for it. And as she runs, she even manages to kick off those black and white prison pants they always have to wear. And she has just like long underwear underneath, but it just looked like she had yoga pants on. So like she was not a prisoner.

It was a great try. She was clever. Yeah, she got a mile away before they caught her, but it was clever. So in that clip where she runs away, you'll see that she actually, she runs up a little hillside and tries to climb a fence and the officer pursuing her runs up the hillside and slips and falls on the way up.

Now, I have to say, we went to that site, and I walked up there to see the spot. I slipped and fell, too. You slipped and fell. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It was legitimate. I mean, a very difficult climb. Yes. Couture at trial, there was another really...

I guess, poignant moment when prosecutors rolled in Mariah's bicycle into the courtroom. Yes. So actually, our colleague, Alyssa from ESPN, was in the courtroom at that moment. And she said she remembered looking at their family and their reaction to seeing the bicycle was, you know, to them, it seemed to represent Mariah. And it was, Alyssa said it was as close to having her in the courtroom that day

as anything that she had seen. Yeah, she was clearly somebody who was loved in the community and they wanted the jury to feel that, right? Yes. What is the latest on this case, Keturah? We know that Caitlin Armstrong is serving her, what, 90-year sentence, as we said. Yes, so she is in prison in Texas, but she is currently appealing that decision.

that verdict. So the case continues for a while longer. And meanwhile, Mariah Wilson's family has established a foundation in her honor. And they recently, they have this ride for Mo every year. And so they just recently in May around her birthday had their third annual ride for Mo, which helps to raise money for community recreation, sports and educational programs.

It's a story that I think that people will not forget for a long time. And fortunately, there is something there that honors this victim in a very positive way. Glenn and Keturah, this was really fun to get a chance to chat with you guys away from the scene of a story for a change. Yes, thank you. You too. Yeah, you guys are great.

That's going to wrap up this episode of 2020 The After Show. You can stream full episodes of 2020 anytime on Hulu and Hulu on Disney+. The 2020 After Show is produced by Amira Williams and Sasha Oslanian with Colleen Halpin, Keturah Gray, Glenn Ruppel, Brian Mazursky, and Alex Berenfeld of 2020. Theme music is by Evan Viola.

Janice Johnston is the executive producer of 2020. Josh Cohen, the director of podcasting at ABC Audio. Laura Mayer is the executive producer. Paradise is back. It's finally here. In a new location, Costa Rica. The future of T.C.O.

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