TX - Moriah Wilson, 25, Cyclist Fatally Shot Before Race, Austin, 2022 *arrest* #5

[Gypsy Road]

The Real Story Behind the Murder of One of Cycling’s Most Promising Athletes

For a few short, electric years Mo Wilson took gravel racing by storm. Then she was gone forever.

www.bicycling.com

 

[Seattle1]

The Real Story Behind the Murder of One of Cycling’s Most Promising Athletes

For a few short, electric years Mo Wilson took gravel racing by storm. Then she was gone forever.

www.bicycling.com

I've not finished this read but paused to say it's a must! Meet Cash and the rest of the Wilsons.

 

[steeltowngirl]

June

Texas v. Kaitlin Armstrong: A Texas woman allegedly murdered a perceived romantic rival and fled the country for Costa Rica, only to get caught and dragged back stateside for trial. Victim Anna Moriah “Mo” Wilson was professional cyclist who started a brief relationship with fellow cyclist Colin Strickland. Strickland has said, however, that this happened when he was in the middle of a break with longtime girlfriend Kaitlin Marie Armstrong. Strickland got back to together with Armstrong, who prosecutors say carried out a plot to shoot and kill Wilson. Trial is set to start June 26, 2023.

Law&Crime Looks Ahead to 10 Remarkable Criminal Trials Scheduled for the First Half of 2023

The new year brings a slew of long-awaited, controversial criminal cases. Here are 10 trials currently scheduled for the first-half of 2023.

lawandcrime.com

 

[Kemug]

I'm not getting the obsession with dissecting and speculating on CS's various faults and implying that he set in motion the events that led to Mo Wilson's murder so IT'S ALL HIS FAULT.

No, it's not all his fault, but IMO he shares some of the blame.

 

[jash]

I've been keeping an eye on the properties KA owns, curious to see if she would have to sell while in jail. It appears she has transferred one property to her mother and the other to her sister via a quit claim deed in November.

Scroll down to the bottom to see the deed history:

https://stage.travis.prodigycad.com/property-detail/328245/2022

https://stage.travis.prodigycad.com/property-detail/320658/2022

I don't see any deed changes with the property she and CS purchased together in Lockhart. Wonder how that is all working - is CS covering all expenses?

Property Search

 

[Sundog]

I've been keeping an eye on the properties KA owns, curious to see if she would have to sell while in jail. It appears she has transferred one property to her mother and the other to her sister via a quit claim deed in November.

Scroll down to the bottom to see the deed history:

https://stage.travis.prodigycad.com/property-detail/328245/2022

https://stage.travis.prodigycad.com/property-detail/320658/2022

I don't see any deed changes with the property she and CS purchased together in Lockhart. Wonder how that is all working - is CS covering all expenses?

Property Search

Interesting.

I wonder if CS plans to buy her out, or maybe just let the property go into bankruptcy, if he can't afford the payments. Not sure how property taxes work in Texas and in their county, but where I live in Ohio, the property taxes are pretty high, and then there's still the mortgage payments . . .

I don't see KA helping him out to sell the property, but you never know. She may want to rid herself of that particular problem.

 

[jash]

Interesting.

I wonder if CS plans to buy her out, or maybe just let the property go into bankruptcy, if he can't afford the payments. Not sure how property taxes work in Texas and in their county, but where I live in Ohio, the property taxes are pretty high, and then there's still the mortgage payments . . .

I don't see KA helping him out to sell the property, but you never know. She may want to rid herself of that particular problem.

The taxes for their joint property was just over $3500 for 2022. Assuming they have tenants, rent should be able to cover expenses. He may even have to share profits with her.

He probably should get her name off the property in the event there is a civil suit filed againt KA by Mo's family. Perhaps that was KA's motivation for transfering her houses to her family.

I wonder if anything is happening regarding the ~$100k CS said he gave KA to invest for him.

 

[WingsOverTX]

I've been keeping an eye on the properties KA owns, curious to see if she would have to sell while in jail. It appears she has transferred one property to her mother and the other to her sister via a quit claim deed in November.

Scroll down to the bottom to see the deed history:

https://stage.travis.prodigycad.com/property-detail/328245/2022

https://stage.travis.prodigycad.com/property-detail/320658/2022

I don't see any deed changes with the property she and CS purchased together in Lockhart. Wonder how that is all working - is CS covering all expenses?

Property Search

What's the advantage if she still has mortgages to pay? Changing the owner does not effect the mortgage still being KA's responsibility.

Was this done so the properties could be sold?

Obviously I don't know much about real estate!

 

[Seattle1]

What's the advantage if she still has mortgages to pay? Changing the owner does not effect the mortgage still being KA's responsibility.

Was this done so the properties could be sold?

Obviously I don't know much about real estate!

While it's true that quit claim deeds transfer title but do not affect the mortgage (i.e., grantor remains liable), I believe there are several advantages for KA here:

First, given these are rentals, and assuming the rent is covering her mortgage, taxes, and insurance, KA's still be able to hold on to the properties to benefit from any appreciation in value, use the properties as collateral, and also have a place to live in the event she's acquitted.

And with mortgage interest rates more than double what they were when she purchased the properties -- i.e., highest rates today in 20 years, it would probably be a decade or more before she'd ever qualify for homeownership again!

And if her mortgages are assumable loans, they are a ripe bargain for any qualified buyer since I think she's built little equity in the properties (purchased with very little downpayment). In other words, they are very marketable investments for both the location and golden interest rate.

Personally, I've long believed she used these properties as collateral with a private lender to pay her lawyer. MOO

 

[Howl]

Is there information on WHEN KA and CS bought the Lockhart property? Is there a very large lot or even acreage where CS remodeled old trailers?
Lockhart is a small town outside of Austin that is now easily accessible via SH 130, a toll road on the east side of Austin. If they bought somewhat before real estate prices skyrocketed, it could be quite valuable with a lot of equity.

 

[Seattle1]

Is there information on WHEN KA and CS bought the Lockhart property? Is there a very large lot or even acreage where CS remodeled old trailers?
Lockhart is a small town outside of Austin that is now easily accessible via SH 130, a toll road on the east side of Austin. If they bought somewhat before real estate prices skyrocketed, it could be quite valuable with a lot of equity.

Here's the link to the April 2021 listing and CS/KA deed date is 5/18/21. The mortgage is probably not more than $500/mo and no reason CS should lose the property currently appraised/assessed at $154K.

758 South Blanco Street, Lockhart, TX 78644 | Compass

758 South Blanco Street, Lockhart, TX 78644 is a single family home not currently listed. This is a 3-bed, 1-bath, 1,094 sqft property.

www.compass.com

Caldwell CAD - Property Search

 

[Seattle1]

New Yorker article

A Murder Roils the Cycling World

In gravel racing—the sport’s hottest category—the killing has exposed a lot of dirt.

www.newyorker.com

From the quoted link:

See "nineteen-minute portrait" -- interesting comments.

Racers had to continue their storytelling hustle, in what was now an often airless loop of sponsor name-dropping. In December, 2020, Strickland appeared on a podcast hosted by Ian Boswell, a former road professional who’d switched to gravel. The occasion: an ad launch. Wahoo, a bike-equipment company that funded them both, had filmed a nineteen-minute portrait of Strickland, in which he described himself as a “bicycle racer and general entertainer.” It showed him hanging out at home, playing a Fender guitar and making pour-over coffee, and sitting alone at a make-out spot with a view over Austin. “If you’re gonna get it done, you come here,” Strickland advised. There was no sign of Kaitlin Armstrong. Boswell proposed that the film captured “who you are as a person, beyond the bike.” Strickland agreed.

 

[Charlot123]

No, it's not all his fault, but IMO he shares some of the blame.

There is a chain of his behaviors that came back to bite him. In one phrase, he is not a faithful man. Not born monogamous, perhaps. One wonders, if you are like this, if it could be better to admit it, openly, and date just for short-term affairs? There are women who are not monogamous, either. However, i doubt it was KA's expectation, because they invested into mutual property.

But then, we see a chain of KA's own decisions, and some of them have nothing to do with CS. Stealing services might be the one. Something like, assuming that breaking the law has no consequences. And what about using the people who love you? Think of potential peril she put her sister in. I think one might imagine jealousy being a motive in the murder. Not that it condones anything. But it what she did before, and after, this cold-headed chain of decisions, that makes her so unsympathetic. JMO.

 

[Seattle1]

Lastly, Mo's friend said something that I hadn't considered before:

... unnerved by the thought that Wilson, while launching herself as a professional racer, had perhaps felt obliged to keep in touch with Strickland because of his “access to brands and sponsorships and connections.”

^^rsbm

I'm not so sure I agree with this assessment by Mo's friend. If I recall correctly, this was why the friend hooked up with CS and lived to regret it -- but she's still alive to tell the story!

Mo was new to gravel cycling but she wasn't new to competitive sports and sponsorship. She'd recently broken up with the boyfriend she moved to CA to be with when she met and was misled by CS.

While CS would later tell police he and KA were on a "break" when he had a week-long fling with Mo, we know he'd painted KA as this crazy ex that just happened to be on location at his next race because she was attending some "Trailer" business matter, and not that they were indeed a couple. JMO

 

[Howl]

Here's the link to the April 2021 listing and CS/KA deed date is 5/18/21. The mortgage is probably not more than $500/mo and no reason CS should lose the property currently appraised/assessed at $154K.

It's a small (slightly over 1,000 sq ft), cute old cottage probably in need of an incredible amount of work. There's a Texas historical marker just to the left of the white porch trim.
At least on google street view, the house appears to be in a bit worn down, very modest neighborhood. Definitely an investment property.
On the other hand, just a few blocks from my fave breakfast taco stop (Mr. Taco) on the way to visit fam.

 

[jash]

Is there information on WHEN KA and CS bought the Lockhart property? Is there a very large lot or even acreage where CS remodeled old trailers?
Lockhart is a small town outside of Austin that is now easily accessible via SH 130, a toll road on the east side of Austin. If they bought somewhat before real estate prices skyrocketed, it could be quite valuable with a lot of equity.

CS purchased three other properties in Lockhart (at least two of which were for the trailer business) but KA was not a part of those.

Property Search

Property Search

Property Search

 

[Seattle1]

CS purchased three other properties in Lockhart (at least two of which were for the trailer business) but KA was not a part of those.

Property Search

Property Search

Property Search

Thanks for the links.

Definitely more appropriate parcels for the Trailer biz than the jointly owned property purchased May 2021. Guess he had time to search once he got down there.

Wow -- didn't realize Lockhart so close to Austin!



33 min (33.5 mi) via I-35 S and TX-130 S

 

[Howl]

33 min (33.5 mi) via I-35 S and TX-130 S

And a bit less driving time, depending on what part of Austin one is starting from and how fast you're driving. The posted speed limit on SH 130 is between 80 and 85 mph.

 

[steeltowngirl]

There was also a troubling conversation Armstrong allegedly had in January, after she’d gotten back together with Strickland. She was talking with her friend Jacqueline Chasteen at a party at a café called the Meteor in Bentonville, Arkansas. Chasteen was friends with both Armstrong and Strickland, and she felt that Strickland didn’t always treat Armstrong the way she deserved. “Dump him!” she’d told Armstrong more than once. In Bentonville, Armstrong explained to her that she and Strickland were in a better place now. She divulged, however, that the fling with Wilson had really bothered her. Armstrong said she thought Wilson had been aggressive in her pursuit of Strickland, that she wouldn’t leave him alone. Chasteen noticed her friend trembling with emotion.

“I wanted to kill her,” Armstrong allegedly told Chasteen. A little alarmed, Chasteen expressed to Armstrong that surely she didn’t mean it—that people feel and say all kinds of things when they’ve been hurt. “No, I really wanted to kill her,” Armstrong said.

Armstrong confided to Chasteen that she’d recently gotten a gun. This, anyway, is what Chasteen thought she heard. It was loud inside the café. They’d had a couple of drinks. She definitely heard Armstrong say something about a gun, either that she’d bought one or was about to.

The Murder of Moriah Wilson

How did one of the best young bike racers in the country wind up dead in an Austin apartment? Our writer unravels the tangled story of a crime that shocked the world.

www.outsideonline.com

 

[steeltowngirl]

Armstrong got home at around 9:20 p.m., and she found Strickland in his garage, setting up new wheels to use in the race. She was wearing yoga clothes and carried a yoga mat. She didn’t ask him where he’d been, and didn’t mention that she’d been trying to get in touch. They went inside. He poured himself a glass of rye and sat at the kitchen table. She asked him to pour her one, too.

Friends of mine familiar with the events of that night told me that Armstrong then approached Strickland and initiated sex, and she was rough and dominating. They were regularly intimate, but this forcefulness was unusual. Strickland didn’t mind it at the time, but later, in the wake of Wilson’s death and Armstrong’s murder charge, he would feel traumatized by memories of the experience.

The Murder of Moriah Wilson

How did one of the best young bike racers in the country wind up dead in an Austin apartment? Our writer unravels the tangled story of a crime that shocked the world.

www.outsideonline.com