Ep. 121-The Tragedy and Legacy of Moriah Wilson

A champion athlete with a clear sense of purpose shouldn’t become a headline, but Moriah “Mo” Wilson did and the details are as heartbreaking as they are infuriating. We start where Mo wanted the story to start: with the legacy. Her journal captures a young woman asking rare, grown-up questions about values, meaning, and the mark she wants to leave, and we talk about how her parents turn that mission into a foundation designed to get more young people biking, moving, and feeling supported by their community. 

From there, we trace Mo’s path from Vermont to the elite world of gravel cycling. She’s chasing Olympic skiing until two ACL tears force a reset, and that detour becomes the doorway to off-road racing, resilience, and a rise that makes her one of the most successful gravel cyclists in America. Her ambition isn’t just about winning, either. It’s about being someone other people can look up to, which makes what happens next feel even more senseless. 

On May 11, 2022, Mo is in Austin, Texas, meets up with pro cyclist Colin Strickland, and returns to a friend’s apartment. Kaitlyn Armstrong’s jealousy and escalating behavior collide with opportunity and access, leading to Mo’s murder. We walk through the investigation that follows: surveillance footage, car GPS loops near the crime scene, the flight out of the country, the Costa Rica arrest, and the courtroom proof that ends with a 90-year sentence. We also get honest about accountability, manipulation, and why a messy love triangle can turn dangerous fast. 

If you care about true crime stories with real-world lessons, the cycling community, and the warning signs people ignore until it’s too late, listen now, then subscribe, share the episode, and leave a review so more people can find it.

Transcript

A Dream Turns Into A Nightmare

SPEAKER_00 0:00

A young woman living her dream. Then tragedy strikes, and her family has to live a nightmare. This is Hold My Sweet. Whatever

Chewy Protein Bar And Catch-Up

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time it may be in the day that you're listening, I'm Pearl.

SPEAKER_02 0:53

And I'm still chewing a protein bar. I'm Holly. I thought it would be finished by now. It's extra chewy, huh? It is. It's one of those super chewy ones. You're like, is it ever gonna end? I think that's why they keep you full because it takes so long to chew. Oh my goodness. Good. But yeah. That's how my morning's going.

SPEAKER_00 1:21

It's like camel meat, huh? Right. The more you chew, the bigger it gets.

SPEAKER_02 1:25

I was like, well, I haven't eaten breakfast this morning. I'm like, I'm hungry and I don't want to sit here like and record with my stomach going.

SPEAKER_00 1:33

Y'all know I learned that in American history AP, and it's one thing that's stuck with me since high school. All things camel meat. The more you chew, the bigger it gets. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:42

I've heard that. That's disturbing. Yes, it is.

SPEAKER_00 1:49

I don't want to eat a camel ever. That's probably why it's lived in my brain for as long as it has.

SPEAKER_02 1:55

It's like rent-free in there. It's kind of the same with like, have you ever had alligator? Yes. Alligator's kind of the same thing. It takes takes a minute to to chew it. I've only eaten it a couple of times and not like a huge amount. So I was like, you know what? This is not for me. But we live in the swamp. Alligators are abundant and restaurants. It's always on the menu. Have it on the menu if you go to any seafood, southern. Usually it's like appetizer stuff.

SPEAKER_00 2:27

But yeah.

SPEAKER_02 2:28

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 2:29

But it is there.

SPEAKER_02 2:30

My favorite appetizer? Boudin egg rolls. With the stinger sauce? Oh, with the stinger sauce or a good like little, you know, aioli. Oh my gosh. So good. If you haven't had boudin, you're missing out. Get you some. Boudin egg rolls are elite.

SPEAKER_00 2:56

So speaking of elite. Yes. We're actually going to go to, well, it'll be Vermont and California. Okay.

SPEAKER_02 3:07

We're just bouncing from one side of the United States to the other. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 3:11

So it's a little little mashup. Okay. A little bit of it happen happens in Texas even. So, you know, we're just we're just kind of state hopping. There we go. In this case. I like the good state hop. Yeah. And we're going to talk about Mariah Wilson. She goes by Mo. Or at least affectionately by Mo. Known as Mo. Yes.

Leading With Mo’s Foundation Mission

SPEAKER_00 3:43

But I want to start in a weird spot. So we're not going to start with what happened to her or anything else. We're going to start with the foundation that her family created. I feel like it's important to put it at the front so everybody hears about it.

SPEAKER_02 3:56

Right.

SPEAKER_00 3:57

I don't want to put it at the end. Yeah. Make you stay. Make you listen. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 4:01

Some people don't like to listen to our rambles at the end.

unknown 4:04

Right.

SPEAKER_02 4:04

So it's entertaining.

SPEAKER_00 4:05

It is. You miss out if you skip it. But Mariah was in the process of moving back to her home in Vermont. But she had spent like two and a half years training, racing, working in California, becoming that professional athlete. But deep down, her beliefs were that returning to your roots was the way to move forward with meaning. There's like a power within your community. And like that's where her community was. So it makes sense to want to return there. Unfortunately, she does not make it back, which is part of the reason her parents create this foundation. So in her own journal, she wrote that her mission was to inspire to ride bikes and be active, whatever that may look like. So her parents took on that mission. They wanted to be able to do what Mariah didn't get to do. Cycling was about sustaining her legacy and the impact on community. So, you know, her family was like, we can't not do this for her.

SPEAKER_02 5:43

Right, right. And I mean, that's that's awesome that they did.

SPEAKER_00 5:48

There's a quote on the foundation page from Mariah's journal in December 23rd, 2021. It says, For the first time in a while, I feel like I'm truly seeing all the possibilities of what my life could look like. So, what do I want it to look like? What do I value? What do I stand for? What gets me out of bed in the morning? What sort of mark do I want to leave on this world? I don't think enough young people ask themselves those questions. Exactly. Like ever.

SPEAKER_02 6:22

Mm-mm. So you know what gets me out of the bed in the morning? Not being homeless.

SPEAKER_00 6:28

Right. Right. That's me. I'm like, I have bills that are gonna yell at me if I'm bills today.

SPEAKER_02 6:34

I need I need my dwelling.

SPEAKER_00 6:38

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 6:39

But yeah, I I agree that a lot of young people don't, and generations have changed and it's different now, but that's you know, kudos to her for being a responsible adult.

SPEAKER_00 6:54

Right. So we'll talk about Mo a little bit more.

Vermont Roots And Big Questions

SPEAKER_00 7:03

She grew up in Kirby and Eastberg, Vermont. And initially she thought she was gonna become an Olympic skier. That was her her thing. This obviously was inspired by her father, big skier, and even her her community at that point.

SPEAKER_01 7:25

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 7:27

She really was one of those people who would who believe that if it's meant to be, it's gonna be. Well, she joined she goes to Burke Mountain Academy, which allows her to do school part-time and focus on skiing the other part. In her sophomore year, she tears her ACL. At that time, she was like third nationally ranked, and that was just like for her age. And while she healed and continued to ski three winters later, she would tear her ACL again. So it kind of became a a big issue, and she realizes maybe this isn't gonna happen.

SPEAKER_01 8:21

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 8:23

She was in rehab for months after the second ACL injury, and she learns about off-road cycling, like gravel cycling.

SPEAKER_01 8:38

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 8:38

And then she's like, hmm, this could be nice, you know. So then that's that's kind of what led to her becoming a gravel cyclist.

SPEAKER_02 8:49

She bought a gravel bike and went went off, went graveling.

SPEAKER_00 8:52

Went graveling, yes. And she became the winningest off-road cyclist in America.

SPEAKER_02 9:01

That's cool. Is that like the the people who go up like cycle up the side of a mountain and stuff? Oh no. It is. That's it. Yeah, that's hard. It is hard. You're not on some flat, smooth surface. Like you've got to dig in and like really control that bike.

SPEAKER_00 9:24

But it even while she's doing that, she still feels like it's important for her to inspire other people, you know. Like, she's she wants to be somebody that people are looking up to. Which I thought, I mean, who honestly thinks about that as a young person? Like this, she's very different. Yeah, she's not, she's not made the same as everyone else. And I'm sure her parents, like, from what I've seen and read, like super, super proud of her. Even, I mean, her brother, super proud of his sister. So

Ski Setbacks To Gravel Cycling Greatness

SPEAKER_00 10:00

on May 11th, 2022, Mo was spending time with what would have been her ex-boyfriend. We're guessing they're just friends at this point, Colin Strickland. His girlfriend, Caitlin Armstrong, was becoming extra jealous. Like, but no one, it wasn't like obvious to anyone that she was. Like, this was undercover jealousy. Right. And what's sad is like her and and Colin would break up a lot. They would have lots of breaks, and they just keep coming back to each other.

SPEAKER_02 10:45

Yeah. So a very unhealthy relationship.

SPEAKER_00 10:48

So Caitlin and and Colin obviously needed to learn how to break it off and stay that way. Right. But that's not what was happening. After spending that time with Colin, Mo returned to her friend's apartment in Austin, Texas, where Armstrong would eventually gain access to the home and fatally shoot Mo three times. Oh wow.

SPEAKER_02 11:19

Like super jealous.

SPEAKER_00 11:21

Now Caitlin wasn't initially a suspect. Obviously, I mean, the friend knew that Mo was out with Colin. So he's the last one to see her alive. Right. He becomes their very first suspect. But that all quickly changes after authorities find footage of her car near the crime scene. And then when they pull the GPS info from her car, they get to see all the times she circled this area. The whole time that Colin was out with Mo.

SPEAKER_02 12:09

Like a shark circling waiting to attack. Yep.

SPEAKER_00 12:13

Yes. It's terrible. And by the time they issue a warrant, Armstrong had fled the country.

SPEAKER_02 12:24

Well, yeah, she knew she was about to get got.

SPEAKER_00 12:28

Mm-hmm. It ended up taking 43 days for the authorities to locate her in and then arrest her in Costa Rica.

SPEAKER_02 12:40

Why do they always go to Costa Rica?

SPEAKER_00 12:42

I don't know.

SPEAKER_02 12:44

There's so many criminals that have committed crimes and then all of a sudden they just go to Costa Rica.

SPEAKER_00 12:49

Right. And when they found her, she didn't look like herself anymore. She had had several plastic surgery procedures.

SPEAKER_02 12:58

Holy crap, within 45 days?

SPEAKER_00 13:00

Yeah, she got busy.

SPEAKER_02 13:02

Dang.

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Ultimately, Caitlin would stand trial for Mo's murder, and she would end up being sentenced to 90 years in prison. Now, there's a Netflix documentary that you can all go watch.

SPEAKER_02 13:19

I've seen it on Netflix. I have not watched it yet, but I will go watch that.

SPEAKER_00 13:23

It is called The Truth and Tragedy of Mariah Wilson. It came out on April 3rd. Got a whole bunch of people in there talking about her. So we're gonna back up a little bit so you guys can understand who Colin Strickland is and how he ended up being involved with Mo.

SPEAKER_02 13:49

Okay.

Jealousy Builds Toward A Breaking Point

SPEAKER_00 13:51

So he's also a professional cyclist. And when he wasn't competing, he also had a trailer restoration business that he worked with this on again, off again girlfriend, Caitlin Armstrong. Now, Girlfriend didn't really go to his races, and everybody kind of described their relationship as tumultuous. In September of 2021, he was in Idaho competing in a gravel race, and that is where he would encounter Mo Wilson.

SPEAKER_02 14:41

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 14:42

They ended up grabbing drinks after a race, but he says, like, nothing really happened that night. They were just friendly. Obviously, he had a girlfriend, so he wasn't trying to make any romantic it advances. Right. It was just talk about cycling and what her plans for the future were. But about a month after they met, they quote, started dating.

SPEAKER_02 15:13

Ah. Okay.

SPEAKER_00 15:15

It says they only dated for like a week.

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While the while he was on a break.

SPEAKER_00 15:20

While he's on a break from Caitlin.

SPEAKER_02 15:23

And see, and then there there you go with her her jealousy and why she was jealous, because now there's a reason.

SPEAKER_00 15:33

So during this week, obviously, you know, as as we women do, Mo is is journaling still.

SPEAKER_02 15:41

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 15:42

And they show it in her documentary series on Netflix. And I I'm gonna read a quote. It's being with Colin, I noticed myself gravitating towards his words of affection. They made me feel safe, like I mattered and had value. I think I like him more than I've wanted to admit, out of major fear that he doesn't feel the same way. Now obviously, we don't know what Strickland feels because he's still messing with Caitlyn. I mean, I she's still living in their hat like they live together. Right. She's just in another room at this point while they're on their week break. Yeah, you know.

SPEAKER_02 16:28

And he's off, like, you know, we're on a break. I'm gonna go get with somebody else. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 16:36

And by February of 2022, um, it's obvious by entries in her journal that um what she thought was going on with Strickland had had fizzled out. There wasn't nothing there. Um, they weren't on the same page. Yeah. You know, stuff like that. But they stayed friends.

SPEAKER_02 17:03

Dun dun dun.

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Obviously, Strickland goes back to Caitlin.

SPEAKER_02 17:09

Because, of course, you know, well, she rejected me. I'm gonna go back over here to familiar.

SPEAKER_00 17:15

If you just, you know, I don't understand why people can't be alone sometimes. Like just be by yourself, get your shit together. Yep.

SPEAKER_02 17:23

That's where I'm at in life, and it's wonderful. I love it so much.

SPEAKER_00 17:30

And I guess one of Mo's friends had said that Caitlin would actually randomly call Mo just to let her know that her and Strickland were back together.

SPEAKER_02 17:43

Like, how weird. Well, I mean, and I guess she was trying to assert her like her relationship and be like, so we're back together, so don't mess with him type thing. But also he's manipulating Caitlin with her feelings, right? So she feels that she needs to defend him, I think, and then or at least defend her relationship, defend her relationship with him, and then that's where it goes back and forth. Okay, well, now I see why, you know, sis was a little bit on the jealous side because she's in competition with her man.

SPEAKER_00 18:23

Well, to make make situations worse, right? He changes Moe's contact info in his phone because he wants to still talk to her without Kaylin knowing. You are effectively causing a bigger issue here, sir. Right. He is the issue.

SPEAKER_02 18:38

Yes, yeah, yeah, he has become the issue.

SPEAKER_00 18:41

So, I mean, obviously, she's going through his phone and she's seeing pictures that are sent, and she realizes, oh, this is not whoever this says is it is it's Mo.

SPEAKER_02 18:51

This is not Benjamin Franklin, it's Mo.

SPEAKER_00 18:53

No, correct. And so she just keeps getting more and more jealous. And obviously it makes sense.

SPEAKER_02 19:07

Right. But like, don't ever let somebody manipulate you into male or female, into a jealous rage where you're gonna go ruin your your life for them.

SPEAKER_00 19:20

Right.

SPEAKER_02 19:20

Because you are ruining your life so now hands somebody else's life for a man who does not deserve either one of you.

SPEAKER_00 19:27

Right. And he's out here living his best life, right and one of you is dead and the other one is in jail for a life.

SPEAKER_02 19:33

Right.

SPEAKER_00 19:33

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 19:34

So like let's let's turn that around. Let's stop and think about it a little bit and go, who's really the problem? If you were gonna take anybody out, you could have taken him, like, taken him out.

SPEAKER_00 19:44

Correct, yeah. Like he's the one who's who's making a conscious effort to hide this situation because he knows it's not okay. Right.

SPEAKER_02 19:54

He's playing both.

SPEAKER_00 19:55

Yes. So on

The Austin Timeline And The Evidence Trail

SPEAKER_00 19:57

May 11th in 2022, Mo is in Austin compete to compete in a race. She's staying at her friend's apartment. Um she meets with Strickland to catch up. He suggests they go for a swim and grab a bite to eat. It shows like there's restaurant surveillance that shows them talking, like everything's fine, everything's cash. And obviously, Caitlin finds out they're hanging out. So what further makes this worse is that Strickland had initially told Caitlin, Oh, I have some errands I'm gonna go run.

SPEAKER_02 20:42

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 20:43

So he made it appear that he was just out doing stuff alone when he was not.

SPEAKER_02 20:49

Right, not hanging out with the economy that he created for her, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 20:55

Yes, tracks his phone to the restaurant. She obviously drives by there because it's on her GPS record. Strickland then drives Mo to her friend's apartment and drops her off at 8:36 p.m. Literally a minute after he drops her off is when you can see on camera Caitlin's car driving by and continuing to circle in that same neighborhood.

SPEAKER_02 21:28

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 21:29

Like the shark, as you said.

SPEAKER_02 21:31

Because she's psyching herself up. Like, what am I doing? Girl, you should have taken him out.

SPEAKER_00 21:39

And then around 9 15 is when the security footage at her friend's apartment captures three gunshot noises. Then Mo's friend comes home and finds her an hour, well, a half an hour later. And it's too late.

SPEAKER_01 22:01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 22:03

There are pictures that like I can show you, but like there are pictures that show how different Caitlin Armstrong looked post Oh wow before and after her plastic surgery.

SPEAKER_02 22:22

Oh yeah, she looks completely different.

SPEAKER_00 22:25

Yeah, not does not look like the same person at all. Like she literally had her whole jaw changed, her nose is changed, like everything looks different. Police had initially brought her in for questioning, but they didn't have enough at that point to press charges. And she really was just like refusing to answer anything.

SPEAKER_01 22:50

Right.

SPEAKER_00 22:51

And of course that's when she takes off. But then they find all this GPS data and learn that Strickland had bought a gun that matched the one that was used to kill Mo. Right. She actually had taken Armstrong had actually taken her sister's passport to get on a plane to go to Costa Rica. And it says that she had lip fillers, rhinoplasty, a brow lift, like there was a bunch of stuff. They said that they had honed in on the village they thought Caitlin was staying in, but had to figure out a way to get her in public to identify her. And she actually they created like a fake yoga instructor job posting in Costa Rica that she applied to is how they ended up getting her.

SPEAKER_02 24:12

Getting her to come out, drawing her out.

SPEAKER_00 24:16

And of course, she before her trial begins, a couple days, she tries to escape. You can see the video from that. Also, if you go watch the Netflix

Costa Rica Arrest, Trial, And Verdict

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documentary.

SPEAKER_02 24:26

Yeah, I'm gonna have to go check it out.

SPEAKER_00 24:30

She did initially plead not guilty, of course. So it became the whole trial in November 1st of 2023, where you know they use the GPS data, DNA, all that. And Strickland actually testifies about Caitlin's jealousy. And that's what ultimate leads to her being found guilty. Thankfully. I just feel like where where does he get to carry some of this burden? Right. I'm like, I I mean I can't imagine he it sits well with him, but I feel like the sheer fact that he participated the way he did in his relationship between the two girls. Right. Like which makes him the You should have felt bad up front.

SPEAKER_02 25:27

It makes him the manipulator.

SPEAKER_00 25:29

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 25:31

You have the jealous on and off again girlfriend, but then you also have the enabler over here that knows that he's in a relationship on and off and has bounced back and forth and is still letting him manipulate her into just going out and being friends. So, you know, it's a whole slippery slope with all three of you.

SPEAKER_00 25:57

All of you, yes. It's like quite the problem. So it's just a really bad situation, crummy little love triangle. Don't get yourself in one of those.

SPEAKER_02 26:09

No, don't. And if you find yourself in something like that and you're having to fight for somebody, it don't.

SPEAKER_00 26:16

Yeah. Just don't. It's it's really it's not worth your life.

SPEAKER_02 26:19

They've made up their mind already, so you don't need to put yourself in that situation. Right. Because you they've already strained your relationship.

SPEAKER_00 26:29

For sure.

SPEAKER_02 26:30

For me, that's always in the back of my head. If something happens in that sense, like there's always doubt and there's always Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 26:40

I'm I'm one of those people that you obviously didn't choose me and I'm cool with that. Don't come back over here trying to act like you're gonna now. Because I am no one's second choice. F you.

SPEAKER_02 26:52

F you very muff. But yeah, that was I'm gonna have to go watch the uh documentary. Yeah, go watch the documentary.

SPEAKER_00 27:01

Definitely like it, it's it's sad, it's another one of those bright lights in the world that got snuffed out over something stupid. Because I think it's stupid.

SPEAKER_02 27:11

Oh, absolutely.

SPEAKER_00 27:13

But for sure. But this is also why I wanted to lead with the foundation stuff. I just wanted everybody to be aware that it does exist and they're you know trying to help young people be healthy and be active.

SPEAKER_02 27:26

All that fun stuff, all the fun things, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 27:29

Be motivated and grow up and be someone else's inspiration.

Lessons Learned And How To Reach Us

SPEAKER_02 27:34

Absolutely. You know who my inspiration is?

SPEAKER_00 27:38

I mean, are you imp inspired to write theme music?

SPEAKER_02 27:41

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 27:42

And it's gotta be Patty Salzano. Absolutely, absolutely.

SPEAKER_02 27:47

She is a bright light in everybody's life. Absolutely, she is. And we thank her so much for making our theme music.

SPEAKER_00 27:56

And for being a part of this world. Yeah, absolutely. We're we wouldn't want to be here without you. For sure. Also, if you have sweet tea after dark submission, yes, we need one. Or you want to message us and talk about anything, anything, anything at all. We are potty training tips. Look, I mean, I don't care.

SPEAKER_02 28:23

We such as the ultimate therapist duo. We listen and we don't judge sometimes.

SPEAKER_00 28:32

But I don't judge, Holly does.

SPEAKER_02 28:35

I judge, but I will judge in silence. I promise I won't say it out loud. But if you ever just need to talk, if you need a friend, if you're like, you know what, I have nobody and I need to talk to reach out to us. You have us, you have us. We will we will respond.

SPEAKER_00 28:50

We're not gonna be like you want to talk about a problem in your life and you want an objective opinion from the outside. We are your girls. So you can hit us up at hold my sweet tea podcast at gmail.com or on any social media platform that we're on. Yep.

SPEAKER_02 29:09

Do it and send us a story. Yes, because we need one.

SPEAKER_00 29:13

And also I want to remind everyone that fan mail has become uh respondable. So if you send us a message using that send a text link that's on like Spotify everywhere that our episodes are, the first thing it says is send a text. You can you can reach out there and we can actually reply now.

SPEAKER_02 29:34

Yay! And it doesn't even have to be a long message, just a little short one, like, hey, you guys are awesome. Can you do an episode on blah blah blah? And we'll be like, For sure, sure, we'll look it up.

SPEAKER_01 29:45

Yep.

SPEAKER_02 29:46

And as always, hold my sweet tea is a drunken bee production. And you guys remember to stay safe out there. Don't be jealous. Look at the source.

SPEAKER_00 30:00

Run, girl, run.

SPEAKER_02 30:01

And just because we're dipping doesn't mean you can't keep dipping.

SPEAKER_00 30:05

Bye, sir.