Kaitlin Armstrong is serving 90 years in prison for murdering professional up-and-coming gravel cyclist Anna Moriah “Mo” Wilson. It’s a story that drew international headlines because after being suspected of killing Wilson in Texas, Armstrong vanished – seemingly into thin air. The search for the suspected killer sparked what would become an international manhunt – first leading authorities across the United States, and then eventually to the beaches of Costa Rica.
In June 2022, one month after Armstrong disappeared, Deputy U.S. Marshals Damien Fernandez and Emir Perez traveled to Costa Rica. A source told them Armstrong could be hiding out in Santa Teresa. They knew finding Armstrong in the small, tourist-filled village was going to be a challenge – along the way, Armstrong used multiple identities and changed her appearance – even getting plastic surgery.
They hit dead end after dead end. After many intense days of searching for Armstrong with no luck, the U.S. Marshals decided to try one last tactic, hoping that her love of yoga would pay off for them.
“We decided we were gonna put an ad out … or multiple ads for a yoga instructor and see – what would happen,” Perez told “48 Hours” contributor Jonathan Vigliotti.
But after almost a week of hunting, even that didn’t seem to be working. Perez and Fernandez were about to head back to the States, when suddenly they got a break.
Det. Jonathan Riley: … on the night of the murder, Kaitlin Armstrong’s phone was not connected to a cell network.
Jonathan Vigliotti: Not connected?
Det. Jonathan Riley: Correct. So, whether she powered it off, whether she put in an airplane mode, uh, there’s some something happened that her phone was not communicating with any cellphone towers.
Jonathan Vigliotti: Do you think this was on purpose?
Det. Jonathan Riley: Absolutely … in this day and age, if your phone is off and not connected to a network, you’re either the victim of a crime or you’re probably committing one.
That’s kind of …disturbing?
Lawyer would tear that argument down in a second.
They won’t say that in court
Well yeah, they have plenty of other evidence in this case. But it does show the mindset of the police in the US.
That’s why it’s not evidence and not used in court. This is the rationale a detective uses to identify a suspect and begin looking for evidence. And he’s outlining that to a reporter that a phone disconnected from a network at the time of a known crime is suspicious.
I would hope if they try to use that as probable cause, they will have a bad time.
… Yeah. I agree it’s disturbing that they can draw suggestions from that.
E: changed conclusions to suggestions, wasn’t fully awake.
battery: 0%
Believe it or not, jail.
More like battery 100% 😏
i got it
Yea there are many reasons you could be disconnected, wanting to be left alone, on a plane so on airplane mode…, battery died, etc. They just look for any reason to add more slaves in the prison system.
I’ve seen them add people as suspects to crimes because it was determined they left the house with their phone at home, obviously no one has ever forgotten their phone so they must have left it their on purpose
Suspect… Not convict.
So An investigator can check it out. Nothing more
Well I mostly agree, one issue is putting your phone in airplane mode does absolutely not mean it’s disconnected (neither is turning it off, or the battery running out in many cases e.g. iPhones still communicate with the „Find My“ network when your battery runs out or you turn it off). Also, most phones still have reception even when you don’t have a connection because for stuff like emergency services your connection is routed over ALL cell towers, not just the ones of your provider. So if you see no bars it doesn’t mean you’re not communicating with a cell tower.
So to be off the grid the way they’re talking about is removing sim + turning it off, or removing the battery. Both of which are rather drastic for „wanting to be left alone“.
I’m not trying to defend their assumptions, I’m just saying their „that person is offline“ is more meaningful than just „he’s not receiving my iMessage“ or whatever.
When my phone gets too low I turn it off in case I need it for an emergency
Actually you can buy a privacy bag from Amazon which is used by law enforcement and blocks all EMP and Radio signals, I got one for the holidays and it works really well.
Nobody would ever be convicted of murder solely because their phone was off. But anything can be used by investigators as a prompt to suspect someone and conduct further investigations. And that’s fine by me. If you read the article there’s a ton of other clues that were adding to make Armstrong interesting, it wasn’t just the phone.
Yeah, it can’t be the whole puzzle, but if a chronically-online person disconnects the one night they are also linked to a murder in a bunch of other ways, it can be a piece of that puzzle.
They didn’t. It’s just evidence. If you were the type of person whose phone is never connected or often disconnected, it probably wouldn’t be compelling evidence.
Me who’s been playing a video game all weekend and hasn’t bothered to look at my dead phone for 16 hours: … what…?
well clearly you’re guilty. Hang on a second while we check the cold case files to pin something on you.
Det. Jonathan Riley: Absolutely … in this day and age, if your phone is off and not connected to a network, you’re either the victim of a crime or you’re probably committing one.
That’s kind of …disturbing?
Theoretical reporter asks: “Detective, is it possible the battery died because of heavy phone use that day or an old phone with a worn out battery that doesn’t hold a long charge?”
Theoretical Det. Jonathan Riley: “Absolutely not; victim of a crime or you’re committing one. Those are the only two possible outcomes.”
This is why I ordered a clockwork pi. I want to be portable, connected, but on my terms.
Hmm, sounds interesting. What is it exactly?
Their website seems to be trying to pitch something called a uConsole that I also don’t really get the point of, but I’m guessing that’s not what you’re talking about about.
That’s exactly what I’m talking about. The uconsole I ordered has an open cellular modem and I’m planning on getting all my messaging working through matrix bridges. Good luck trying to monitor me.
Huh. Guess I’ll have to read up on it more, but the pages I saw on the site seemed really vague about what I’d actually want to use it for.
It’s funny, the US Marshalls interviewed for this are extremely forthright in explaining their methods, but clam up and say they “can’t explain these methods” as soon as they have any leads relating to cell phones. Probably because they’re using the US’s vast warrantless surveillance system to pull any possible info they can on her.
For example, they “track[ed] down the phone number for an American businessman they believed had connected with Armstrong at some point,” and are cagey about how they got that number. I’d bet that they pulled her phone records and started cold calling everyone she’s ever contacted through her cell phone until they got someone who could give them a lead.
Later, they set up the fake yoga instructor ad, and mention that they’re tracking the phone location of the person who answered the ad to make sure they’re at the sting location.
It’s crazy that even with all those “methods the Marshalls won’t go into,” they almost gave up on finding her.
They’re using Pegasus. Everyone is using a version of it, even private enterprise now.
The digital spying capabilities of some of America’s allies and enemies dictates more policy than we’ll ever know.
Yeah I reread that section two times because i thought I missed something considering how big of a gap that is on the story
On the plus side, none of those mystery methods can be used to provide evidence in actual court. The defense would be able to dig into them if they did.
Still, parallel reconstruction is a very dangerous thing for society.
A few things here:
It’s a story that drew international headlines because after being suspected of killing Wilson in Texas, Armstrong vanished – seemingly into thin air.
That’s not true, and even elaborated on later in the story
Police worked quickly. That same day, investigators picked Armstrong up on an old warrant for failing to pay for a Botox treatment.
But investigators had to let Armstrong go. There was a problem — Armstrong’s birthdate didn’t match the date on the warrant, so the warrant wasn’t valid
So they actually caught her immediately but had to let her go because a police fuck-up.
Also:
Det. Marc McLeod: And she’s just kind of sitting there and she’s not showing very much emotion at all. … typically when we see some interviews going on and if you didn’t do it, this is your, like, you’re going to be like, you know, not me, not it. I want out of this room. What do you want to know? … So that you don’t come back looking for me. And there was none of that.
DETECTIVE CONNER: Is there any explanation as far as why the vehicle would be over there?
KAITLIN ARMSTRONG: I would like to leave …
Det. Jonathan Riley: She was almost completely disinterested in — in hearing what the detectives had to say.
Jonathan Vigliotti: So, it sounds like this is a big red flag immediately?
Marc McLeod: Oh —
Jonathan Riley: Oh, absolutely.
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Don’t talk to the police.
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When you exercise your right to not talk to police, they will assume you’re guilty, so be prepared for that.
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The only thing she didn’t do to escape justice was declare presidential immunity.
The one thing she did wrong was not frame the boyfriend. Prosecutors would have eaten him alive.
I’m guessing she doesn’t like pina coladas and wonder whether it was raining when she got caught…
Invisible Choir podcast did an episode about this case, for anyone interested!
Movie based on a similar true story
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