Naman Shrestha
’20/20: Three Shots in the Dark’ chronicles the tragic and untimely death of an up-and-coming cyclist, Anna Moriah Wilson, just a few days before a major race. Navigating us through the murder case, the episode delves deep into the events that led to the crime and the investigation that followed. It also includes insightful interviews with various individuals involved in the uncovering of the case, including the prosecutors, family members of the perpetrator, and neighbors who witnessed the arrest.
How Did Anna Moriah Wilson Die?
In the civil parish of Littleton, New Hampshire, Karen and Eric Wilson gave birth to their daughter Anna Moriah “Mo” Wilson on May 18, 1996. Growing up, Mo was loved by her family, especially her brother Matthew Wilson, her grandmother Marilyn Wilson, and various cousins, aunts, and uncles. She spent most of her childhood in the town of Kirby, Vermont, and went to Burke Town School in the nearby town of Burke. To complete her middle school, she attended the Riverside School in Lyndonville. Then, she joined the Burke Mountain Academy and graduated from there in 2014. Meanwhile, being a sport-oriented individual, she tried her feet in alpine skiing and landed the 3rd place in the 2013 US Junior National Championship Downhill event.
For college, Mo attended Dartmouth College where she earned her Bachelor’s degree in Engineering in 2019. There, she was a member of the Alpine Ski Team, which was one of her childhood dreams. Apart from skiing, she was interested in biking from a very young age and started taking it seriously when she realized her talent. As she spent several hours on the Kingdom Trails, she developed exceptional skills and strength as a biker. Once she completed her graduation, the ambitious young woman decided to pursue her dreams of becoming a professional bike racer.
Thanks to her determination and perseverance, Mo managed to reach the top of both mountain as well as gravel bike racing in the nation, in a matter of just a couple of seasons. During these two seasons, she even won many accolades and podiums. When she was not biking, she worked as a demand planner for Specialized. Her other hobbies and interests included cooking, traveling, writing, and playing Catan with her friends. Being a selfless person, Mo also dreamed of making the most of her success, giving back to the community, and also inspiring others across the globe. She was working on building a small community space in East Burke, Vermont for bikers to gather throughout the day for some coffee and locally sourced food.
Just a few weeks after she made the life-changing decision to leave her job at Specialized to fully focus on her career as a professional bike racer, the 25-year-old was found dead with multiple gunshot wounds — two in the head and one in the chest — in a friend’s house in Austin, Texas, on May 11, 2022, where she had been staying to prepare for the upcoming Gravel Locos bike race. As soon as word got around, the authorities rushed to the scene of the crime and began looking for evidence.
Who Killed Anna Moriah Wilson?
In order to gain more information about the life of Anna Moriah Wilson and the circumstances that led to her demise, the investigators talked to her friends and family. Upon interrogation, they learned that the victim had gone swimming at Deep Eddy Pool with a fellow cyclist and ex-boyfriend, Colin Strickland, on the afternoon of May 11, 2022. Following their swimming session, the two went for dinner as well. When the police questioned him, Strickland told them that he was in a long-term relationship with another girl named Kaitlin Armstrong and that the relationship he shared with Mo was entirely platonic, at the time of her demise. Upon digging deeper into Mo and Strickland’s relationship, they found out that they were still romantically involved.
When the investigators learned that Kaitlin got to know about Strickland and Mo, they turned their attention toward her. They strongly suspected her to be connected to the murder of Mo after her black Jeep Grand Cherokee was seen arriving at the victim’s property in video surveillance footage, just a few minutes before the murder. The authorities received tips from anonymous sources claiming that Kaitlin had strictly asked Mo to stay away from her boyfriend and even said that she wanted to get rid of Mo once and for all. Another tipster even claimed that she had bought a firearm or was planning to buy one, which was confirmed by Strickland as he admitted purchasing two handguns for Kaitlin and himself.
Kaitlin was arrested for an unrelated misdemeanor warrant for theft. During the interview, when she was confronted about the video footage of her car near Mo’s property, she made no statement at all. However, the investigators noticed an angry reaction at the mention of Mo’s name. Eventually, they had to let her go due to some discrepancies in her date of birth information on the warrant. After managing to get a search warrant for Kaitlin and Strickland’s residence, they searched around the property and discovered two handguns, one of which matched the murder weapon. It was found that Kaitlin went to a shooting range with her sister, allegedly to learn how to use a firearm. On all these grounds, the police issued an arrest warrant for her on May 17, 2022.
However, Kaitlin had anticipated the situation and fled the country using a fake passport and landed in San Jose, Costa Rica. After spending 43 days on the run, she was finally captured by the police in a hostel in Santa Teresa, Costa Rica, on June 29, 2022. Less than a month later, on July 21, 2022, Kaitlin was arraigned before the court where she pleaded not guilty to the murder charge. A few days before her scheduled trial, she tried to escape from the officers while she was escorted to a medical appointment outside of the prison but was soon captured. Her trial finally commenced in late October 2023 and went on for a couple of weeks.
After getting convicted of first-degree murder of Anna Moriah Wilson in 2022, she was sentenced to a total of 90 years of jail time, with the possibility of parole after 30 years. Soon after the sentencing, she appealed the conviction as the defense claimed that the convict was pregnant at the time of her arrest. Meanwhile, the prosecutors dropped the escape charges that she faced after her alleged October 2023 escape attempt. Currently, the 36-year-old killer is serving her sentence in Lucile Plane State Jail at 904 FM686 in Dayton.
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