Yoga instructor Kaitlin Marie Armstrong was arrested in Costa Rica on June 29 on suspicion of the May 11 killing of professional cyclist Anna Moriah Wilson, according to an announcement from the U.S. Marshals Service.
The U.S. Marshals Office of International Operations, Homeland Security Investigations, and the Department of State Diplomatic Security Service, working with authorities in Costa Rica, located and arrested Armstrong at a hostel on Santa Teresa Beach in Provincia de Puntarenas.
Armstrong, 34, was deported and returned to the United States on July 2, according to media reports.
Using a passport of another individual who resembled her, Armstrong boarded a flight from Newark International Airport on May 18 and arrived in San Jose, Costa Rica, according to the U.S. Marshals Service.
Armstrong is accused of killing Anna Moriah Wilson, who was found on May 11 at the home of a friend she was visiting. She was bleeding and unconscious from multiple gunshot wounds. Responders performed CPR on her, but she was pronounced dead at the scene. Wilson, a Vermont native, had been in Austin for a race.
Authorities speculate that romantic jealousy may have been the motive since Armstrong’s boyfriend, professional cyclist Colin Strickland, had briefly dated Wilson. Strickland and Wilson had seen each other on the day of the killing prior to Strickland dropping Wilson at the residence where she was found shot.
Armstrong has been described as a yoga instructor, but no details have been offered on where she taught yoga. However, her yoga enthusiasm may have helped marshals track her down, according to Brian Filla with the U.S. Marshals Service, who held a press conference after the arrest of Armstrong. The Marshals Service had determined through flight records and an allegedly fraudulently used passport that Armstrong had gone to Costa Rica. The service searched local yoga studios and found she had logged into a yoga studio under the name on the passport that she had used to fly out of the country.