US Marshals in Texas have once again urged Kaitlin Armstrong to turn herself in following the shooting of leading American gravel racer Moriah "Mo" Wilson last month.
Armstrong is wanted on a warrant in connection with the death of Wilson, who was shot dead at an apartment in Austin on May 11. However, the 34-year-old suspect has not been seen since marshals released CCTV pictures of her catching a flight to New York City two days after the attack.
Now, speaking to Fox News, Deputy U.S. Marshal Brandon Filla has again urged Armstrong to turn herself in, saying: "We've got to at least get this woman".
"With someone that's really a first time offender…then she does this and goes to the extent to where we can't locate her, she goes to the extreme," Filla told Fox News.
"So someone like that who's willing on the first time to go above and beyond, you don’t know what they're capable of. We've got to at least get this woman. That's the goal."
Armstrong was last seen in CCTV pictures released two weeks ago which showed her at the airport, believed to be taking a flight from Austin to Houston before transferring onto a second flight to LaGuardia airport in New York City.
She had been picked up by investigators on an unrelated warrant the day after Wilson's death, but despite her alleged inability to explain why an SUV similar to her own was seen in surveillance footage outside the apartment the victim was staying at, she was released due to a clerical mistake and has been on the run ever since.
On May 17, a magistrate authorised a warrant on murder charges in relation to the shooting.
Exciting gravel racing prospect Wilson had been staying with a friend in Austin ahead of the Gravel Locos race when she was found dead with multiple gunshot wounds at 10.30pm on Wednesday 11 May.
Earlier that day she had gone swimming with fellow gravel racer, and former partner, Colin Strickland who drove her home on his motorbike. Shortly after he left, the SUV registered to the address where he and Armstrong lived was seen arriving at the property.
> Pro gravel rider expresses "regret and torture" after police issue arrest warrant for partner
Strickland has since fled the state too and is said to have gone into hiding, fearing for his own safety until Armstrong is caught.
Strickland, 35, briefly dated Wilson last year after he broke up with long-term partner Armstrong. However, the pair subsequently reconciled, and while he remained in contact with Wilson, he has insisted that their relationship was "platonic and professional."
It is thought that she believed that Strickland – who in the past few weeks has been dropped by most of his sponsors, including Rapha and Specialized – and Wilson had rekindled their romantic relationship.
"There is no way to adequately express the regret and torture I feel about my proximity to this horrible crime. I am sorry, and I simply cannot make sense of this unfathomable tragedy," he wrote on social media at the time.
Wilson's family have made it clear that they do not believe she was in a relationship at the time of her death. The popular 25-year-old gravel and mountain bike rider had recently left her job at Specialized to focus on her racing career, and had finished second at the Leadville 100 MTB race and won the Big Sugar Gravel in 2021.
A win at the Belgian Waffle Ride came just a week before her death.
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200 people out of a close by population of how many? Just build it and stop being a wuss
To paraphrase Field of Dreams, "Build it right and they will come: and use it!"
And a Happy Christmas to you, road.cc staff!
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They don't make them like they used to
Thanks for using my picture of chocolate in your opening picture. The original can be found here, chocolate! | LongitudeLatitude | Flickr.
Fair comments. I'll put my hands up and say I got the wrong end of the stick with this one. ¡Feliz navidad! Here's a pic for the season of goodwill.