Armed with an arsenal of relaxing stretches and deep breathing techniques, a yoga instructor may seem the least likely person to commit premeditated murder. But that’s exactly what happens in Lifetime’s new movie “Yoga Teacher Killer: The Kaitlin Armstrong Story,” and the true story that inspired it.
In November 2023, Texas-based yoga instructor Kaitlin Armstrong was convicted of the 2022 murder of Anna Moriah “Mo” Wilson, an elite cyclist.
Armstrong had been romantically involved with another professional cyclist, Colin Strickland, for three years before they went on hiatus, Strickland told police, according to an arrest affidavit. Strickland said it was during this break that he met Wilson, the murdered cyclist, and had a brief relationship while he was still living with Armstrong. On May 11, 2022, the day of the murder, Strickland spent time with Wilson and lied to Armstrong about his whereabouts, the affidavit said.
“You have a seemingly very normal woman who has just completely lost it,” actor Caity Lotz, who plays a fictionalized version of Armstrong in the film, tells TODAY.com. “How do you get there? And it scares me to see how slippery that slope can be.”
Where is Kaitlin Armstrong now?
Armstrong led authorities on an international manhunt in the weeks after Wilson’s murder, using her sister’s passport to escape to Costa Rica and undergo plastic surgery. The US Marshals Lone Star Task Force took her into custody in June 2022 and she was returned to the US to face charges.
A month before her sentencing, Armstrong tried to escape police custody while she was being escorted from a doctor’s appointment, a Travis County sheriff’s spokesman said at the time. Armstrong faced another charge of “escape causing bodily harm,” but the Travis County district attorney’s office ultimately dropped the charge after consulting with police and Wilson’s family, Austin’s KVUE reported.
After a two-week trial, the jury convicted Armstrong of first-degree murder on November 16, 2023, and she was later sentenced to 90 years in prison.
In December, Armstrong’s attorney filed a motion for a new trial, arguing that a witness on the prosecution’s side was not qualified to describe how Armstrong’s DNA appeared on Wilson’s bicycle, according to court documents obtained by the local Austin newspaper American Statesman. The motion also states that Armstrong had been pregnant twice, one of which occurred around the time of her arrest, although it provided no further details about the outcome of the pregnancy, the newspaper reported. The appeal procedure is still ongoing.
According to KVUE, Armstrong was transferred to a Central Texas prison – the Dr. Lane Murray Unit, a women’s prison in Gatesville. Her release date is scheduled for 2112, but she will be eligible for parole in 2052.
In May, Wilson’s parents, Karen and Eric Wilson, sued Armstrong for more than $1 million in a wrongful death lawsuit, saying damages would cover funeral costs and emotional pain caused by Wilson’s murder.
“Many of the elements of harm, including the loss society and companionship that represent the positive benefits that come from love, comfort, companionship and society, cannot be determined with mathematical precision,” the lawsuit said, according to CBS News .
“The moment you’re living in is a snapshot, just like the grand plan of your life,” actor Larissa Dias, who plays a fictionalized version of Wilson in the film, tells TODAY.com. “In this situation (Strickland and Wilson’s relationship) was certainly not the end of the world and therefore no one had to get hurt.”
Meanwhile, community members at Kingdom Trails in northern Vermont, where Wilson grew up, have named a trail in her honor: “Moriah’s Ascent.”
This article was originally published on TODAY.com
