Love-triangle murder suspect Kaitlin Armstrong allegedly told suitor she had a ‘traumatizing breakup’
The Texas yoga teacher accused of gunning down a romantic rival allegedly shut down any chance of a relationship with an admirer while hiding out in Costa Rica, telling him she’d just gotten out of a “traumatizing breakup.”
Kaitlin Armstrong, 34, went out with the suitor a couple of times while she was on the lam in the days following the May 11 murder of pro cyclist Anna Moriah Wilson, who had a fling with Armstrong’s live-in boyfriend.
Armstrong used the alias Ari Martin when she met Teal Akerson outside a tattoo shop, eventually exchanging numbers, he told the Austin American-Statesman.
After he took her to dinner one night, he leaned in for a kiss but “Ari” just wanted to be friends, he told the newspaper.
“We went on a couple of dates, but she said that she had just been through a real traumatizing breakup and she hadn’t healed from it yet and wasn’t ready to get close at all,” he said. The pair smoked marijuana and the fugitive talked about getting hallucinogenic mushrooms as well, he claimed.
“We went out to a bunch of different spots, but most of the time she wanted to kind of be in a secluded spot,” Akerson added. “I didn’t put any of it together. You wouldn’t imagine it.”
Police believe Armstrong fatally shot Wilson after the cyclist had spent the day in Austin with Armstrong’s boyfriend and fellow cyclist, Colin Strickland. Wilson, who was in from San Francisco and staying at a friend’s house ahead of a race, had dated Strickland last year, he later told cops.
Cops later questioned Armstrong and showed her surveillance footage of a Jeep SUV matching hers at the scene of the crime.
Police released Armstrong, and she later sold her Jeep for $12,200 and fled the country. First, she flew from Austin to Houston, then connected to New York City. Days later, she used someone else’s passport to fly from Newark, New Jersey, to San Jose, Costa Rica.
She eventually ended up in Santa Teresa, a remote Pacific Coast town that’s 130 miles from the nearest airport, the Statesman reported. It was there she was arrested after a six-week manhunt, found living under aliases and with an altered appearance that may have included cosmetic surgery.
She wore a bandage on her nose that she claimed was from a surfing injury and had a $6,350 receipt for cosmetic surgery in another person’s name among her possessions at the yoga retreat where she had stayed.
The Statesman reported Costa Rican authorities centered on yoga resorts because of Armstrong’s history — and because she was spotted on US airport security with a yoga mat. She was arrested at Don Jon’s Surf and Yoga Lodge, where she had taught a few classes when the regular instructor was out, the Statesman reported.
After she was taken away, an Argentinian man she had met on a bus came into Don Jon’s looking for work, according to the paper.
“I told them I know Ari,” he said. “They said, ‘No, you don’t know Ari.’”
Armstrong is now in custody in Austin, where she’ll face a first-degree murder charge.
