Professional cyclist Anna Moriah “Mo” Wilson was at the height of her career when she was shot and killed by her friend’s jealous girlfriend.
An elite gravel and mountain bike racer, Wilson was a rising star in the cycling world. In early 2022, she had achieved significant victories in a number of races, including the Sea Otter Classic Fuego 80K and Belgian Waffle Ride California.
But that May, her life was cut short by Kaitlin Armstrong, who ignited an international manhunt when she fled the country. A new documentary, The Truth and Tragedy of Moriah Wilson, explores the 25-year-old’s life and tragic murder, as well as the highly publicized search for her killer.
Here’s what you should know about Mo Wilson.
Who Was Mo Wilson?
Born on May 18, 1996, Anna Moriah “Mo” Wilson grew up in Kirby, Vermont, where she spent much of her life skiing. Following in the footsteps of her parents, Eric and Karen Wilson, who were on the U.S. Ski Team, she initially dreamed of becoming an Olympic skier.
Wilson attended Burke Mountain Academy, a private school for alpine ski racing. There, she was an above-average student and the captain of the women’s soccer team. Quickly becoming a nationally ranked skier, Wilson placed third in the 2013 U.S. Junior National Championship Downhill event.
Wilson graduated high school in 2014 and went on to attend Dartmouth College, where she majored in engineering and was a member of the women’s alpine ski team. But after tearing her ACL for the second time, she moved away from the sport to focus on a new dream: cycling.
While Wilson had spent much of her childhood mountain biking, she didn’t consider cycling as a possible career path until 2019. That summer, she went biking in Europe for three weeks to celebrate her college graduation and competed in her first gravel race, San Francisco’s Old Growth Classic, in September. She placed first in her age group (19 to 29) and second overall. By then, she had moved to California to work as a demand planner for the company Specialized Bicycles.
When Did Mo Wilson’s Cycling Career Take Off?
Continuing to race competitively, Wilson made headlines in October 2021 when she won the inaugural Big Sugar Gravel race in Bentonville, Arkansas. The following year, her career really began to take off. In early 2022, the cyclist secured a series of impressive victories, winning the Rock Cobbler race in February, followed by the Shasta Gravel Hugger in March, both in California.
A week later, she placed first in The Mid South gravel race in Stillwater, Oklahoma. “This race was the first time in my career (I can call it a career at this point) that I truly felt like I had a target on my back,” Wilson wrote of her Mid South win on her Substack newsletter Mail from Mo! “Was I nervous? Heck yeah! But more than anything I was excited.”
Altogether, she won 10 events that year, winning her finalraces, the Life Time Grand Prix’s Sea Otter Classic Fuego 80K XC, and the Belgian Waffle Ride California, in April 2022.
How Did Mo Wilson Die?
No stranger to making friends in the racing circuit, Wilson met fellow cyclist Colin Strickland in September 2021, just as she was gaining momentum in her cycling career. She and Strickland briefly dated but soon decided to keep their relationship platonic and developed a close friendship. After their fling was over, Strickland got back together with his on-again, off-again girlfriend, Kaitlin Armstrong.
In May 2022, Wilson was in Austin, Texas, for another major race when she was murdered. At the time, she was staying at her friend Caitlin Cash’s house, in the area. On May 11, Wilson met up with Strickland, who also lived in Texas, to go for a swim and go out to dinner. But that night, Cash found Wilson dead in her bathroom. She had been shot three times in the head and chest and her bike had been tossed in the bushes outside.
Who Killed Mo Wilson?
It didn’t take long for police to discover that Wilson had been killed by Strickland’s then-girlfriend, Kaitlin Armstrong. Upon reviewing security footage, authorities spotted Armstrong’s black SUV outside Cash’s house the night Wilson was fatally shot, and later discovered that she owned the same gun that was used to shoot Wilson.
Since the start of Wilson and Strickland’s friendship, Armstrong, a yoga teacher, expressed blatant signs of jealousy, telling Wilson to stay away from her boyfriend and even frequently monitoring Strickland’s phone.
The day Wilson died, Strickland lied to Armstrong about where he was going, not knowing she had followed him and found him with Wilson. Armstrong also used the fitness app Strava to track Wilson.
What Was Kaitlin Armstrong Convicted Of?
By the time police were ready to arrest Armstrong, however, she was gone. A week after the murder, she fled to Costa Rica, where she underwent plastic surgery to disguise herself. After a 43-day manhunt, Armstrong was finally arrested in late June. U.S. Marshals captured her by posting a job ad for a yoga instructor position in the beach town she was hiding out in.
More than a year later, in November 2023, Armstrong was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to 90 years in prison. The 38-year-old is currently imprisoned in Gatesville, Texas.
How to Watch Truth and Tragedy of Moriah Wilson
Directed by Marina Zenovich, The Truth and Tragedy of Moriah Wilson takes a close look at Wilson’s short-lived but successful competitive cycling career and brutal murder. Featuring interviews with her friends and family, the documentary arrives on Netflix April 3.
Catherine Caruso joined the Biography.com staff in August 2024, having previously worked as a freelance journalist for several years. She is a graduate of Syracuse University, where she studied English literature. When she’s not working on a new story, you can find her reading, hitting the gym, or watching too much TV.
