TX - Moriah Wilson, 25, prized cyclist, fatally shot before race, Austin, May 2022 #2

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It's not out of the realm of possibility she was able to obtain a legitimate passport via the black market. She was in NYC after all, which I imagine is one of the predominant spots for those types of activities within the US. I was scrolling twitter earlier and people were mentioning a specific street that was notorious for obtaining these types of things. JMO.
 
American Airlines has two nonstop flights daily from San Jose, Costa Rica to Dallas, TX.

11:12 am and 3:18 pm departure.

The first flight has already landed in DFW

United Airlines has two nonstop flights daily from San Jose, Costa Rica to Houston, TX

There should be no problem for the US Marshals to serve the warrant and extradite her from Costa Rica today.

However, with the staffing problems in US airlines over this holiday weekend, actually finding seats on the places back may be a bigger problem. I wouldn't be surprised if she wasn't returned until next week, being hosted in a San Jose jail cell by the Costa Rican government.
I'm all for letting her marinate in a foreign jail for a while.

Yeah, I don't think the Costa Rican jail's gonna let her bring her yoga mat into her cell.

May reality hit her stone cold hard.

JMO
 
US MARSHALS PRESS RELEASE

How sweet it is to see the words CAPTURED across her face!

kaitlin-armstrong.png


(Of course all this action would happen when I was not able to get onto WS all day.)
 
That was my first thought. But right after searching for flights in Kaitlin's name, wouldn't the Marshals have immediately checked for flights in the sister's name?
I was thinking exactly this... The flight was booked using the name on the passport (sorry for stating the obvious here...). I think one of the reasons it took some time to locate her is that she didn't use her sister's passport and law enforcement had to search for friends and acquaintances - I have a feeling that when they located the person whose passport was used, law enforcement leaned on that person hard - once they had the name, it would be easy to find the location.

I just hope Mo's family can find some relief - they have been absolutely stellar during this time - a total class act!
 
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I just saw the news and ran to this thread. IMO it's possible that KA didn't use her sister as her alias, but instead, maybe she used the passport of a friend that has a similar hairstyle to the one she changed into.

I'm glad to see that she was apprehended, is headed back to the States, and that justice will be done for Moriah. RIP Mo.
 
The US Marshal also says that KA signed a log-in book at a yoga studio in Costa Rica under the same alias she was traveling under.
That's a new twist on criminal detection: checking yoga studio voluntary sign-in logs - in my experience, they never check for proof of identity, you can call yourself anything, as long as you pay cash.
 
It was actually Costa Rican LE who caught KA:
Armstrong was stopped by agents assigned to the Santa Teresa de Cóbano Tourist Police division and provide the cops a different name. However, no record of her entry into the country came up when the name she gave was cross referenced with the country’s immigration registry.

She then told the agents her real last name, which was checked with a data base that revealed she was wanted on an international arrest warrant.

 
In this video, the US Marshal says the passport was not fraudulent and was a legitimate passport issued to someone else "that she used because she looked very similar to that specific individual." Well, I think we can read between the lines here and guess whose passport she used.

She also dyed her hair dark brown and cut it shoulder length. When she was apprehended, she had a bandage over her nose which she said was from a recent surfing accident.

ETA: The US Marshal also says that KA signed a log-in book at a yoga studio in Costa Rica under the same alias she was traveling under.
Given what we know about her New York connection, and the statement from the guy who claimed he had seen KA at the Haven right before everything blew up, and given the short period of time that she was actually in NY, the most obvious conclusion, and the one that I am sticking to until I see facts to dispute it, I feel comfortable that the passport she used of someone who looked very similar to her, belongs to her sister. I would not rule out more charges in this case, though I think probably the threat of more charges will serve LE better than actually pursuing them.

I admit I am surprised that KA cut and colored her hair. I think her hair was her crown, and it surely must have hurt her to cut it. I would have thought she would probably cover it with hats or a wig. And if she undeed had plastic surgery, it seems likely it was no more than a nose job, hence the band-aid that she got from the "surfing accident".

Finally, of all the smooth moves she made that allowed her to escape to Costa Rica and stay on the lam for some 50ish days, did she really get so complacent as to think she actually HAD gotten away with it, and felt comfortable enough to start living life using the alias she traveled under? Wow! That log-in at the yoga studio may have been the slip-up that nailed her. JMO
 
It was actually Costa Rican LE who caught KA:
Armstrong was stopped by agents assigned to the Santa Teresa de Cóbano Tourist Police division and provide the cops a different name. However, no record of her entry into the country came up when the name she gave was cross referenced with the country’s immigration registry.

She then told the agents her real last name, which was checked with a data base that revealed she was wanted on an international arrest warrant.

BBM
Why would she do this? This statement is a bit confusing, too, with all the names mentioned. Maybe she figured that if the agents were questioning her she was already caught and so she just gave up. But after all the trouble of going on the run and changing her appearance why give up so easily? Or the alias was that of her sister so the last names matched.
That article also has a new (to me at least) picture of KA from behind. I'm surprised by how different her hair is tbh.
 
It was actually Costa Rican LE who caught KA:
Armstrong was stopped by agents assigned to the Santa Teresa de Cóbano Tourist Police division and provide the cops a different name. However, no record of her entry into the country came up when the name she gave was cross referenced with the country’s immigration registry.

She then told the agents her real last name, which was checked with a data base that revealed she was wanted on an international arrest warrant.

Why would she give a different name than the one she had used to immigrate into CR? I’m very confused by this.
 
To your other question...

United and Southwest both have daily flights from San Jose to Houston, which is about 160 miles from Austin, with connections to Austin. American has daily flight from San Jose to Dallas, which is about 195 miles from Austin, with connection to Austin.
She'd prolly get picked up in Houston in a paddy wagon and driven to wherever.
 
Why would she give a different name than the one she had used to immigrate into CR? I’m very confused by this.
Maybe she didn't pass through immigration when entering Costa Rica? Then, her alias wouldn't be on file.
Or maybe she used her real name to get into the country, and forgot that she didn't get her alias until after she'd arrived.
 
just saw the news and ran to this thread. IMO it's possible that KA didn't use her sister as her alias, but instead, maybe she used the passport of a friend that has a similar hairstyle to the one she changed into.
Is it possible her sister also has a married name that she used sometimes and perhaps had been issued a passport under that name? Anyone know if she was previously married?
 
The Marshals say they only learned of this passport usage earlier this week. I'm starting to think maybe it wasn't the sister's passport.
I agree. The press conference made me think that KA used a different passport than CA. Three reasons:
+ I can’t imagine that LE didn’t look at all of the tickets out of EWR in the name of Armstrong immediately. For LE to state that they just became aware of the name KA flew under this week would be extremely surprising if it were her sister, IMO
+ LE stated they considered the possibility that KA tried to deceive the person who dropped her off at the airport by leaving the airport via train / bus / etc. This doesn’t feel like the sister
+ KA was apparently using the alias of the passport holder while in Costa Rica. Given that LE knew that KA had last been in the company of her sister (and they have strong physical resemblance) I don’t know why they wouldn’t have added an “aka CA” to KA’s BOLO

That said, I’ve been quite wrong about this case before
 
That was my first thought. But right after searching for flights in Kaitlin's name, wouldn't the Marshals have immediately checked for flights in the sister's name?
I don't believe they would've been allowed to do that without evidence that KA had CA's passport in her possession. In the press conference, the US Marshal said that they figured out whose passport she was traveling under after conducting a physical search of that person and discovering their passport was missing. My guess is that they weren't able to search flight records for that individuals name until after the search.

Access to third party records (such as airline tickets) almost always have to be obtained via court order or subpoena, so my best guess is that the USMS weren't able to actually see if the passport had been used until they conducted the physical search and discovered it was missing, at which point they likely obtained a court order from a judge to search for that person's name in flight manifests.

 
I'm all for letting her marinate in a foreign jail for a while.

Yeah, I don't think the Costa Rican jail's gonna let her bring her yoga mat into her cell.

May reality hit her stone cold hard.

JMO
I'm thinking Costa Rican jail might not be that bad. Maybe that's the reason KA didn't flee to Nicaragua.
 
I don't believe they would've been allowed to do that without evidence that KA had CA's passport in her possession. In the press conference, the US Marshal said that they figured out whose passport she was traveling under after conducting a physical search of that person and discovering their passport was missing. My guess is that they weren't able to search flight records for that individuals name until after the search.

Access to third party records (such as airline tickets) almost always have to be obtained via court order or subpoena, so my best guess is that the USMS weren't able to actually see if the passport had been used until they conducted the physical search and discovered it was missing, at which point they likely obtained a court order from a judge to search for that person's name in flight manifests.


Is evidence that she was with her sister not enough? I feel like that's a pretty high barrier of proof, could they not just ask to look for anyone traveling under the last name "Armstrong"?
 
Is evidence that she was with her sister not enough? I feel like that's a pretty high barrier of proof, could they not just ask to look for anyone traveling under the last name "Armstrong"?
Close proximity to a crime doesn't give police the right to search you. For example, the US Supreme Court held in Ybarra v. Illinois, 444 U.S. 85 (1979) that police couldn't search all the patrons at a bar where a crime was committed and held that a warrant can not be used to search an unnamed individual unless the warrant mentions that unnamed parties are involved or exigent circumstances are shown to exist.
 
I don't believe they would've been allowed to do that without evidence that KA had CA's passport in her possession. In the press conference, the US Marshal said that they figured out whose passport she was traveling under after conducting a physical search of that person and discovering their passport was missing. My guess is that they weren't able to search flight records for that individuals name until after the search.

Access to third party records (such as airline tickets) almost always have to be obtained via court order or subpoena, so my best guess is that the USMS weren't able to actually see if the passport had been used until they conducted the physical search and discovered it was missing, at which point they likely obtained a court order from a judge to search for that person's name in flight manifests.

Very good point. Sort of like cellophone data, they can't go on fishing expeditions.The cell companies requires a warrant for a specific number.

I assumed homeland security had all this info but perhaps they only keep records on non-US citizens entering and leaving the country.
 
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