The Fugitive (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)

0:00In September of 2021, a young woman named Anna Mariah Wilson, who everyone knew as just Mo, stood in front of a cheering crowd at the end of a long outdoor bike path in Idaho. Mo had just finished a grueling gravel race, which is a cycling race on very difficult terrain. And it was clear to everyone in the crowd who was cheering that not only was Mo one of the best women cyclists in the country, she was actually quickly becoming the face of the sport. Like all the other competitors, Mo was a highly trained athlete and in peak physical condition. But her brute athleticism was offset by a bright smile, her long auburn hair, and a true love for talking to anybody and everybody.

0:39And it was this combination of her athletic skill, outgoing personality, and her natural comfort in front of cameras and on social media that made her the perfect ambassador for the growing sport of gravel racing. And on this particular day, at this race in Idaho, there was one person in particular who just couldn't take his eyes off of her. He was already one of the most famous male gravel racers in the world, and when he made his way through the crowd over to Mo, and Mo turned and saw him, she knew who he was, and her face lit up, and she could feel her heart racing a little. Before long, the two top riders were introducing themselves officially to each other and having some nice small talk, not realizing the horrible chain of events this encounter would spark.

1:21But before we get into that story, if you're a fan of the Strange, Dark, and Mysterious delivered in story format, then you've come to the right podcast because that's all we do and we upload twice a week, once on Monday and once on Thursday. So if that's of interest to you, please offer the follow button a nice brand new candy apple. But don't tell them you've replaced the apple with an onion. Okay, let's get into today's story.

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3:16On October 28, 2021, 25-year-old Moe Wilson climbed up onto her bike, pulled her dark goggles down over her eyes, put her feet on the pedals, and sped off down a dirt path in the West Texas town of Marfa. Moe leaned down a bit over her handlebars and adjusted her bike perfectly to the changing rocky terrain on the path. Pretty soon, she heard the tires of another bike grinding through the dirt and rocks right behind her. And when she turned and saw who it was, she broke out in a huge smile. It was a 34-year-old man named Colin Strickland, who was another rider, who pulled his bike right up alongside her, and the two of them started winding their way down the path together.

3:55So Mo and Colin were not just two bike riders out here enjoying a bike ride. They were actually both world-class professional gravel racers. This meant they competed against other cyclists from all over in races that took place on all kinds of different tracks. They would race through deserts, in the mountains, and over long distances down steep wooded paths. And the two of them had come here to Marfa, Texas, because it was home to great desert trails with difficult terrain that made it a perfect training ground for top riders like Moe and Colin. But after riding for a while, Moe looked out at the bright orange and red sunset stretching out across the huge West Texas sky, and she felt happy she'd come to Marfa, but for a reason that had nothing to do with her training.

4:38Because Marfa had gained a reputation as this perfect place for a romantic getaway. The small town had become home to upscale restaurants, high-end art galleries, and places to stay where visitors could feel like they were secluded from the rest of the world. And Mo was looking forward to being alone there with Colin. The two of them had met about a month earlier at a major gravel cycling race in Idaho. Colin was already considered one of the top male racers in the world, and he was actually a celebrity in the sport. And Mo was well on her way to becoming his counterpart, but in women's racing.

5:11Their shared love and commitment to the sport made it easy for them to get along right away. And so shortly after that race in Idaho, when Mo went home to Vermont and Colin went home to Austin, Texas, they started texting and speaking all the time on the phone. And just a few weeks later, Mo had headed to Austin to visit Colin, and at that point, they became romantically involved. Now, their relationship was still new, and Mo wasn't exactly sure where they stood, but she figured a few days alone together and Marfa would go a long way to bringing the two of them closer together. Out on the path, Mo and Colin kept on riding.

5:45And during this ride, each of them made sure to take the time and made the effort to hone specific skills that they needed to work on. As fun as this was, they were still very serious competitors, and they both had dreams of being the best in the sport, so they always had to train seriously. And they also both really wanted to serve as ambassadors for gravel racing, so it would continue to grow all over the world. Mo and Colin eventually finished up their training ride and then hopped off their bikes and began to stretch. They were both sweaty and a bit worn out, but now they could get all cleaned up and just spend some time together.

6:18And later that night, that's exactly what they did. They relaxed and talked in their room, and everything seemed easy between them. But as they were doing that, Colin got a text message, and Mo could see his whole attitude changed. He tensed up and got this annoyed look on his face and quickly responded to the text. Moe didn't want to press him, but she was pretty sure she knew who had just messaged Colin. Because Moe was aware that he had been seeing another woman, Caitlin Armstrong, before the two of them had started talking and texting. Colin said that he and Caitlin had split up, but it was clear to Moe that Caitlin had not gotten over him.

6:56After spending a few perfect days in Marfa, Moe tried hard not to worry too much about Caitlin. However, Mo wasn't naive. She didn't just have Caitlin to contend with. She also had the reality that, you know, trying to maintain any kind of serious relationship with Colin was always going to be difficult. She lived in Vermont, and he lived 2 ,000 miles away in Texas. And in addition to that, they both traveled a ton for gravel racing competitions, and they didn't always compete at the same locations. So this was a big uphill battle from the start. But when it was time to leave Marfa and go their separate ways, Mo hoped that she and and Colin had at least started something special enough that maybe could grow into something bigger in the future, even if they couldn't always be together in the same place.

7:38And by the time Mo finally got home to Vermont, she was already looking forward to the next time she could see Colin.

7:47At about 4.45 p.m. on May 11, 2022, so a little more than six months after Mo's trip to Marfa, Mo wrapped her arms around Colin's waist on the back of his motorcycle as they sped down a road in Austin, Texas. The last six months had not gone exactly as Mo had hoped. After leaving Marfa, she and Colin had both been very busy traveling and competing, like she knew they would be. But through the end of 2021 and the beginning of 2022, she felt like she and Colin had barely spoken. They texted occasionally, but their conversations really just seemed to be focused on gravel racing and competing. And so Mo began to think that maybe their romantic getaway together and Marfa had just been a one-time affair.

8:29But then, about a month ago in April, Moe had begun to hear from Colin a lot more, and he didn't just want to talk about racing. And when Moe had told Colin that she was headed to Austin in May to compete in a race and to spend some time with one of her best friends who lived there, Colin got excited and made it clear he was looking forward to seeing her. So now, on the back of Colin's motorcycle, Moe held on to him a bit tighter as he turned off a main road onto a side street. They whipped through a heavily wooded area, past an artificial lake, and into the parking lot of Deep Eddy Pool, a popular public swimming pool in Austin.

9:03Mo and Colin hopped off the motorcycle and went inside. Mo took off her shoes and her cover-up that was over her bathing suit, and she dove right in. And while Mo didn't want to force anything, she was already starting to feel like she and Colin had reconnected here since she'd arrived. So they would spend hours just swimming and talking in the pool, having a great time, And then afterwards, they climbed out, got dressed, and then went and got dinner together nearby. A little after 8.30 p.m. that same night, Colin dropped Mo off at her friend's place where she was staying. They said they would see each other at the upcoming race, and then Mo climbed off Colin's motorcycle.

9:39She smiled and waved as she walked around the building into the alley. Then she headed up the old wooden staircase that led from the alley to her friend's small second-floor garage apartment. Once inside, Mo checked on her gravel bike that she'd brought with her just to make sure it was ready to go. Once she was satisfied that it was in good shape, she headed to the bathroom to take a shower. But before she could ever turn the water on, she heard the sound of the apartment door opening.

10:09About an hour and a half later, so a few minutes before 10 p.m., Mo's friend walked into the apartment and called out for Mo. The friend didn't get a response, and so initially, she thought maybe Mo was still out with Colin. But as she walked further into the apartment, she saw Mo's legs sticking out from the bathroom. And the friend actually smiled, because she knew that sometimes, after a long day of bike riding, Mo liked to stretch out on the cool bathroom floor to recuperate, especially if it was really hot outside, and it had been over 90 degrees Fahrenheit most of that day. So she called Mo's name again, But Moe's still didn't say anything.

10:45So her friend walked down the hall, and when she got to the bathroom and actually saw Moe, she began to scream. Because the bathroom wall and floor were spattered with blood. Moe's friend grabbed her phone and dialed 911. And as soon as she heard the operator, she shouted that her friend was covered in blood and unconscious. The operator said he would send first responders right away, but he also began telling Moe's friend how to perform CPR. And so the friend dropped down and started doing chest compressions on Mo, fighting through tears and begging Mo to wake up, but nothing was working. Within minutes, Mo's friend heard the door open, and a first responder quickly rushed to the bathroom.

11:24The friend at this point backed away, and the first responder took over CPR. But it was too late. Mo was pronounced dead at the scene.

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13:03Late that night, Detective Richard Spitler and Detective Katie Connor of the Austin Police Department walked through the alleyway and up the steps to the second floor apartment. On their way, they passed by a uniformed police officer who was standing with a young woman who couldn't stop crying. Spitler and Connor passed them and then put on their gloves, stepped inside the apartment, and walked past a few more officers who'd also arrived before them. Spitler and Connor knew that Anna Mariah Wilson, a woman in her 20s nicknamed Moe, who'd been visiting from out of state, had been pronounced dead at her friend's apartment.

13:36But they really didn't know much more than that. But as soon as they stepped into the doorway of the bathroom, they had a pretty good idea about what had happened. Moe had three gunshot wounds in her chest. And amidst the blood surrounding her body, they saw 9mm bullet casings. With all the blood on the walls, the floor, and the body, the detectives knew that the forensics team would have plenty of samples to take, and they thought they already had a pretty clear picture of what had happened to Mo. So, they stepped away from the bathroom and just did a sweep of the apartment. It didn't look like the place had been ransacked in any way, and as far as they could tell, it didn't look like this had been a robbery gone wrong, because expensive electronic equipment had been left untouched.

14:16But they still didn't want to jump to any conclusions until they talked to the person who actually lived there. So as the forensics team arrived and got to work, Spitler also sent other officers to canvas the apartment complex and the surrounding area. And then once they were dispatched, he and Detective Connor headed downstairs towards the alley. There they found the woman who was still crying, and it would turn out she was the owner of the apartment and was Mo's friend. Both detectives felt bad for her, and they knew she'd actually performed CPR on her friend to try to revive her. But right now, despite how much trauma this woman had been through, she was still the only direct link they had to the crime scene.

14:52She'd found the victim, and she'd made the 911 call. So, as gently as he could, Spitler told Moe's friend that she would have to come with them to the station for questioning. As the night of May 11th turned into the morning of May 12th, Detectives Spitler and Connor sat across from Moe's friend inside of an interview room at the station. The woman was still visibly upset, so the detectives did their best to keep her calm and let her know they were just trying to get a clear picture of what had happened that night. And eventually, Moe's friend began to talk. And she told the detectives that she had found Moe in the bathroom after coming home.

15:27And she said that when she had come to her apartment that night, she hadn't heard or seen anything strange outside when she parked her car or when she was walking up the steps. Everything seemed normal. Spitler asked her if she had noticed if anything inside of her apartment appeared to have been stolen. Moe's friend thought about it and then said nothing of hers had been taken. However, Moe's very expensive specialty gravel racing bicycle was gone, and she said there was no way that Moe would have taken it somewhere and just left it. Because Moe not only loved that bike, but literally needed it for an upcoming race.

16:00The detectives shared a look. They both realized this could mean that Moe's murder had been the result of a robbery gone wrong. But since the expensive bike was the only thing taken, Spitler thought that Moe's likely pointed to someone who would have known Moe was in town and that she'd brought her bike with her. So, Spitler asked if anybody else knew that Moe was staying at the apartment and that she might have brought her bike. And Moe's friend said that actually a bunch of people knew, because Moe was a big-time gravel racer. And a large number of cyclists who knew her were in town to compete at an upcoming race.

16:33But Moe's friend did quickly add that the only person she knew Moe had seen that day was a cyclist that Moe had an on-again, off-again relationship with, a guy who was famous in gravel racing circles named Colin Strickland.

16:53Several hours later, still on the morning of May 12th, Detective Spitler and several other officers drove towards Colin Strickland's house in Austin. After working through the night, Spitler and Connor had begun to believe that the man Moe had been out with the day before was their only legitimate lead. They'd taken DNA samples from Mo's friend who'd found Mo, and while they weren't willing to write anyone off yet as a suspect, neither detective really believed she was the killer. On top of that, the detective's early theory that Mo's murder could have been a robbery gone wrong had already taken a significant hit.

17:27Because as officers had canvassed the surrounding area, they'd found Mo's missing bike, abandoned in a thick growth of bamboo less than 70 feet away from the apartment where Mo had been killed. The one other piece of possible evidence they'd found had come from video doorbell footage from an apartment near the crime scene that showed a black Jeep Cherokee with a large bike rack driving towards Moe's friend's place not long before Moe had most likely been killed. But the police couldn't get a clear read on the license plate number or a clear look at the driver. So while Detective Connor stayed behind at the station and tried to track down the Jeep, Spitler and his team pulled up their cars to Colin Strickland's house.

18:04And when Spitler glanced out of his window, he almost wanted to laugh because he couldn't believe his luck. Parked right out in front of the house was a black Jeep Cherokee with a large bike rack, just like the one in the video footage. The sight of the Jeep gave Spitler a rush, and he thought this was almost too good to be true. But he didn't want Colin to panic and do something stupid. And as much as this car made it seem like there was a good chance Spitler had just found his killer, he did not want to rush to judgment. So when Colin opened the door calmly and said he was willing to speak to the police, Spitler played everything very close to the vest, and so he started his interview with the most basic questions he could think of.

18:41He asked Colin if he knew a woman who was a professional cyclist named Anna, and Colin said no. He didn't know anybody by that name. And this actually blew Spitler away, because it was such a blatant lie that Spitler easily could have refuted, even if he hadn't already heard from a friend that Colin and Mo had a close relationship. In fact, in less than a day, Spitler and his team had found online references to Colin and Mo being at multiple races across the country at the same time. And it was also clear to Spitler that the world of professional gravel racing was a pretty small one. So there was no logical way that one of the top racers on the men's side never would have come across one of the top racers on the women's side.

19:23But Spitler didn't show any of that on his face. Instead, he told Colin the woman in question, Anna, had the last name of Wilson and was a gravel rider. And at this, Colin's face suddenly changed, like he was only just now remembering Moe's given name, Hannah. And he said, actually, yeah, I do know her. Then the detective told Colin that, well, Moe had died the night before, and now Colin's expression changed again. He leaned over and just started rubbing his face and neck. Spitler didn't know what to make of this. Colin did look upset, but at the same time, he had just acted like he didn't know who Anna was, you know, as if he literally didn't know that the woman he had been intimate with, Mo, that her actual first name was Anna.

20:06I mean, I guess it was possible, but realistically, if you're being intimate with this person, you probably know their real first name. But you know, maybe he forgot, but it was just all very suspicious. So after a moment, Spitler told Colin they would need to take him to the station for further questioning. Spitler knew he didn't have anything to hold Colin on yet, but he didn't want to risk Colin fleeing, and he needed more time because he wanted to get a search warrant for Colin's house. As they walked outside together, Spitler asked Colin if the black cheap Cherokee belonged to him, and Colin said no.

20:38It belonged to his girlfriend who lived with him, Caitlin Armstrong. So Spitler asked if Colin ever drove it, and Colin laughed and said no. Wasn't really his style. He said he liked to drive motorcycles and big diesel trucks. Spitler smiled and nodded like it was no big deal, but deep down he knew that Colin could easily be lying here. I mean, it was just as likely that, you know, he was at Moe's friend's house the night before, driving that Jeep Cherokee. But right now, it was Colin's word against his.

21:12After a short drive, Detective Spitler arrived at the station. While the suspect, Colin Strickland, was taken to an interview room, Spitler told his partner, Detective Connor, about how he'd found the black Jeep with the bike rack on it. It was Colin's live-in girlfriend's car, Caitlin Armstrong. And Detective Connor seemed shocked. Not because she was surprised about the Jeep, but because she'd also discovered something huge about Caitlin. While she and the rest of the team were searching for the Jeep and, you know, naturally digging into Colin Strickland's background because he was someone who was seeing Moe, they had discovered his and Caitlin's relationship.

21:46And a quick search of a police database showed that police had an outstanding arrest warrant for Caitlin. Because years earlier, Caitlin had gone in to get Botox done at a place in town, and she had agreed to pay for it, she got the services done, but then at the end, when she was actually told to cough up the money,$650, she had run out without paying. Spitler could barely contain his excitement, because this meant they could bring Caitlin in and hold her on that warrant, even if they didn't have enough evidence to hold her in Moe's murder case yet. And that just meant they would have more time to look into her possible connection to the murder.

22:21Or, at the very least, they would have leverage on her. And if she maybe knew something about her boyfriend, Colin Strickland's, potential involvement in Moe's murder, she might be more willing to give up that information. As the detectives talked, they found it hard to believe how quickly things were coming together. In the course of just a single day, they'd already moved in on two primary suspects. And it really looked like the doorbell camera footage of the Jeep, along with all the ample circumstantial evidence, pointed to one or both of these people. Shortly after that, officers were able to track down Caitlin at work.

22:55They brought her into the station, and at that point, the detectives split up. Spitler continued his conversation with Colin that they had started back at the house, while Caitlin was brought to a separate interview room to sit down with Detective Connor. By this point, Caitlin knew about Moe's death, so Detective Connor didn't waste any time. She went right after Caitlin about her Jeep. Connor said they had footage that showed Caitlin's car driving right near Moe's friend's apartment soon before the murder took place. But Caitlin proved to be very calm and cooperative. She didn't deny that she'd been driving in the area where Moe had been murdered, but she said she had nothing to do with Moe's death.