Vermont

Probe intensifies in search for Texas suspect in killing of top cyclist from Vermont

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Kaitlin Armstrong. Courtesy picture

The seek for the suspect wished in Texas on a first-degree homicide cost within the deadly taking pictures of a world-class skilled bicycle owner from Vermont final month has led investigators to an airport in New Jersey.

However investigators are nonetheless making an attempt to trace down the place Kaitlin Armstrong, 34, went from there because the search intensifies. The U.S. Marshals Service this week upgraded the investigation to “main case standing” and is now providing a reward of as much as $5,000 resulting in Armstrong’s arrest.

The U.S. Marshals Service additionally divulged for the primary time that Armstrong, who has been on the run for greater than three weeks, had been dropped off on the Newark Liberty Worldwide Airport on Might 18. That was a day after police in Austin, Texas, obtained a warrant for her arrest within the loss of life of 25-year-old Anna Moriah Wilson.

Wilson, who’s from East Burke, had been in Texas on Might 11 getting ready for an upcoming biking competitors when she was discovered lifeless from a number of gunshot wounds inside an house in East Austin the place she had been staying with a buddy. 

Deputy U.S. Marshal Brandon Filla stated Wednesday {that a} search of outbound flights on the Newark airport on the day Armstrong was dropped off there revealed no reservations had been made underneath her title. 

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“We’re simply making an attempt to get some data from that airport to see if she went by screening, to see if she received to a particular gate, or to see if she exited that airport and received transportation to go someplace else,” Filla stated.

“The principle factor that may actually give us is that path of journey in order that we are able to focus our subsequent steps of this investigation in the direction of that path,” he stated.

Filla stated investigators are additionally working to find out if Armstrong might have used a pretend title and identification to get on a flight. 

“Something’s attainable,” he stated. 

Filla stated he couldn’t reveal how investigators knew Armstrong was dropped off on the airport, who dropped her off, or what mode of transportation was concerned. 

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He stated that the key case standing designation for the investigation permits for extra assets to be delivered to the case, together with investigators with particular expertise monitoring something from monetary transactions to social media exercise. 

“Wherever she is at, she goes to want to have cash, she’s going to have meals, and he or she’s going to need to have shelter,” Filla stated, including that it will possibly turn into tougher daily to satisfy these wants with out leaving a hint. 

“She has needed to reduce off a whole lot of assets, to incorporate household and associates, in order that she will proceed to evade regulation enforcement,” the deputy U.S. marshal stated of Armstrong.

Anna Moriah Wilson. Picture through Dartmouth Faculty Athletics

Wilson, referred to as “Mo,” had turn into a rising star in mountain and gravel biking, turning to the game after attending Dartmouth Faculty and becoming a member of the college’s ski crew.

Previous to attending Dartmouth, Wilson graduated from Burke Mountain Academy, an internationally identified coaching floor for ski racers.  

Armstrong, in response to courtroom filings, fled after she was interviewed by Austin Police a day after the slaying. Throughout that questioning, courtroom paperwork confirmed, Armstrong was introduced with proof that her car was noticed driving close to the house the place Wilson was killed across the time authorities imagine the taking pictures befell. 

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Austin Police, in an affidavit in assist of the first-degree homicide cost towards Armstrong, alleged that Armstrong was motivated by jealous rage.

Wilson, the submitting said, had a brief relationship with one other skilled bicycle owner, Colin Strickland, final fall throughout a time that Strickland informed police he had damaged up with Armstrong. Strickland additionally reported that he and Armstrong had since gotten again collectively and had been dwelling in the identical residence in Austin.

Wilson had been out swimming and eating with Strickland within the hours earlier than her loss of life, police stated. Police imagine Armstrong’s car arrived on the scene of the homicide inside minutes of Strickland dropping Wilson off.

Shells from testing firing a handgun that police had seized from Armstrong’s dwelling had been in comparison with these discovered close to Wilson’s physique within the house. 

“The potential that the identical firearm was concerned is important,” police wrote in a courtroom submitting.

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A “particular person near Armstrong” reported not seeing or listening to from Armstrong after Might 13, in response to investigators. Her social media accounts have been inactive or shut down since Might 11, the day of the killing. 

Investigators reported earlier this month that Armstrong was on the Austin-Bergstrom Worldwide Airport on Might 14 at roughly 12:30 p.m., boarding a flight to Houston’s William P. Passion Airport. Armstrong then boarded a connecting Southwest Airways flight to New York’s LaGuardia Airport, in response to investigators.

Requested Wednesday if he believed Armstrong was nonetheless within the nation, Filla, the deputy U.S. marshal, replied, “Proper now, you continue to need to concentrate on the USA as a result of that’s the place we final know for her to be.” 

Almost 800 folks have donated to a GoFundMe web page that Wilson’s household launched in her reminiscence, with the cash raised going to neighborhood organizations that “assist youth discover self-confidence, energy, and pleasure by biking, snowboarding, and different actions that Moriah was keen about.”

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