Netflix has a knack for delivering gripping documentaries, whether it’s exposing false prophets or diving into the life of Lamar Odom. This time, it’s turning its attention to The Truth and Tragedy of Moriah Wilson, a story that revisits one of the most shocking true crime cases in recent years. And yes, it really is as jaw-dropping as it sounds.
The documentary follows the 2022 murder of rising American cycling star Moriah Wilson. It explores Wilson’s life, her meteoric rise in the world of gravel racing, and the devastating circumstances surrounding her death. At just 25, Wilson was shot and killed while staying at a friend’s home in Austin.
The case quickly captured global attention, not just for its tragedy, but for its almost unbelievable twists, including allegations of a love triangle, plastic surgery, and an international manhunt.
Here’s everything you need to know about Moriah Wilson, and the woman convicted of her murder.
Who was Moriah Wilson?
Hailing from Vermont, Anna Moriah Wilson was a former elite skier and a graduate of Dartmouth College. She later transitioned into endurance cycling, quickly making a name for herself in off-road disciplines such as gravel and mountain biking. Known to friends as Mo, she was widely described as driven, warm, and deeply loved within the cycling community.
By 2022, she had already secured major victories — including the Big Sugar Gravel race — and was widely tipped for even greater success.
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What happened to Moriah Wilson?
On 11 May 2022, Wilson was staying with her friend Caitlin Cash in Austin ahead of a race. The two were incredibly close, bonded by a shared love of cycling. When Cash returned home, she found Mo unresponsive and bleeding on the bathroom floor. She immediately began CPR and called 911; a recording of the call, featured in the Netflix documentary, is genuinely chilling.
Paramedics arrived shortly after and attempted to save her, but Wilson was pronounced dead soon after.
As news of her death spread, unease rippled through the cycling community. Female cyclists, in particular, began warning one another, fearing Wilson may have been tracked through her workouts on Strava and questioning what was truly safe to share on Instagram.
It wasn’t long before investigators focused their attention on Kaitlin Marie Armstrong, a yoga instructor and estate agent.
Why did Kaitlin Armstrong kill Mo Wilson?
On 11 May, Wilson went for a swim with Colin Strickland, a leading men’s gravel racer with whom she had previously had a brief romantic relationship. He later dropped her back at Cash’s home and left. Within minutes of her arrival, security cameras captured a dark-coloured SUV driving past the property with a large bike rack on the back. Police later reported that the vehicle was registered to Strickland’s long-term girlfriend, Kaitlin Armstrong.
Investigators also discovered that Armstrong owned a gun, reportedly a gift from Strickland, and ballistics matched it to the three bullets that killed Mo.
It later emerged that Strickland had lied to Armstrong about his whereabouts that day, deleted text messages from Wilson, and saved her number under a different name in his phone.
Prosecutors ultimately argued that Armstrong had tracked Wilson’s movements and, driven by jealousy, confronted and shot her.
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What happened to Kaitlin Armstrong?
Armstrong was initially arrested on a misdemeanour warrant for failing to pay for a Botox treatment in 2018, but was released due to a discrepancy in her date of birth. Just days later, she sold a black Jeep Grand Cherokee at a CarMax in South Austin.
She then fled the United States, triggering a 43-day international manhunt.
As authorities intensified their search, Armstrong reportedly spent weeks moving between hostels and yoga studios in Santa Teresa, Costa Rica, using multiple aliases, according to the United States Marshals Service.
She was eventually located on 29 June, when Costa Rican authorities conducting door-to-door enquiries found her at a hostel with her red hair dyed dark brown and a bandage on her nose, which she claimed was the result of a surfing accident.
What truly gripped public attention, however, was the revelation that Armstrong had allegedly altered her appearance through plastic surgery and used false identification in an attempt to evade capture.
Where is Kaitlin Armstrong now?
Armstrong was arrested in June 2022 and later stood trial in Texas in late 2023. A friend of the former couple reportedly testified in court, “I asked Kaitlin if Colin ever started dating anyone else seriously, what would she do? And she said, ‘I would kill her.’"
According to WalesOnline, while detained awaiting her murder trial in October 2023, Armstrong attempted to abscond from custody following a supervised medical appointment outside the facility. She was swiftly apprehended fleeing on foot.
In November 2023, a jury found her guilty of first-degree murder, and she was sentenced to 90 years in prison.
Her legal team appealed the conviction, citing alleged errors during the trial, but in January 2026, the Texas Third Court of Appeals upheld both the conviction and the sentence.
At the time of the documentary’s release, Kaitlin Armstrong is serving her sentence at the Dr. Lane Murray Unit, a prison in Gatesville, Texas. She is expected to spend decades behind bars and will be eligible for parole only after serving 30 years, which would put her earliest possible release in the early 2050s.
In 2024, Wilson’s parents were awarded $15 million in a wrongful death lawsuit against Armstrong, in part to prevent her from profiting from the crime.
The Truth and Tragedy of Moriah Wilson is on Netflix now.
