On May 17, police issued a homicide warrant for Armstrong. The affidavit details details such as a video showing a vehicle similar to hers near her home in Austin, Texas, where Wilson was staying shortly before her body was found. On May 18, Armstrong used a fake passport to board a flight from Newark Liberty International Airport to San Jose, Costa Rica, the U.S. military said.

The killed victim was a star skier and a champion cyclist

Wilson, 25, was a talented multi-sport athlete. She was a distinguished ski athlete in her younger years before cycling. “In alpine skiing, Moria rose to the level of a national skier with a national ranking, taking 3rd place in the downhill race of the US Junior National Championship in 2013,” says her obituary. Wilson was also the captain of her high school football team, according to her Dartmouth sports profile. After college, he moved away from skiing to competitive cycling. Wilson excelled in “gravel racing,” a relatively new class of cycling that some consider a hybrid of road and mountain biking. A profile on VeloNews published the day she died listed her as “the most winning woman on the American off-road scene”. Wilson has had several wins this year, including Shasta Gravel Hugger and Rock Cobbler in California, according to the article. He also won the Belgian Waffle Ride 137 miles 25 minutes behind second place. At the time of her death, Wilson was just a few days away from participating in the Gravel Locos cycling race. The day after the race, an event organizer remembered her on Facebook as “a role model, a shy compassionate person, the inspiration of a regular runner and an athlete who really cared about those who competed against you”.

What happened in the last hours of Wilson

On May 11, the day of her death, Wilson told her friend she was going for an afternoon swim with Strickland, according to an arrest warrant filed in Travis County District Court. Wilson was staying with a friend as she prepared for the upcoming Gravel Locos race in Hico. Strickland told investigators that after they swam, he and Wilson had dinner. Strickland then said he left her at her friend’s house but did not enter, according to the affidavit. Austin police responded to the house later that night, just before 10 p.m. CT, and found Wilson with multiple gunshot wounds. Her death was confirmed at the scene.
On May 19, authorities filed an affidavit saying Strickland admitted to trying to hide his communication with Wilson from Armstrong by changing Wilson’s name on his phone and deleting messages. The affidavit cites an informant who claimed that Armstrong believed that the romantic relationship between Strickland and Wilson had been going on since January 2022.
Armstrong had contacted Wilson several times and on one occasion told her to “stay away” from Strickland, one of Wilson’s friends told investigators, according to the affidavit. Strickland is quoted by the Austin American-Statesman as saying he had a “brief romantic relationship” with Wilson from late October to early November 2021, while he was separated from Armstrong.
Wilson’s family said they had no romantic relationship at the time of her death. “Although we will not give further details about the ongoing investigation, we believe it is important to clarify that at the time of her death, those closest to her clearly understood, directly from Moria, that she had not had a romantic relationship with anyone,” she said. the family said in a statement last month. Strickland and Armstrong reconciled and resumed their relationship about a month later, he told the newspaper. Strickland said his relationship with Wilson became “platonic and professional” and he considered her a “close friend”, he said. “There is no way I can adequately express the regret and torture I feel for being close to this horrific crime,” Strickland told the Austin American-Statesman. “I’m sorry and I just can not understand this unexplored situation.” CNN’s Hannah Sarisohn, Dakin Andone, Emma Tucker and Eric Levenson contributed to this report.