Pro cyclist shot dead at 25, suspect at large
Elite cyclist Anna Moriah “Mo” Wilson was preparing to compete in a marathon race in Texas, before she was shot and killed at a friend's home in Austin.
The 25-year-old athlete was hot off the trail of a series of successes in her spring season before she was killed.
US Marshals are investigating her death, as they search for a 34-year-old woman suspected of her murder, while police investigators are digging into Wilson’s past relationship with the suspect’s boyfriend.
Wilson’s family is mourning the loss of their “beautiful daughter and sister,” who excelled as a biker and skier.
“Moriah was a talented, kind, and caring young woman. Her life was taken from her before she had the opportunity to achieve everything she dreamed of,” the family said.
Moriah was at the top of her game in the relatively new sport of gravel racing, and was just days from participating in the Gravel Locos bike race at the time of her death.
The day after the race, an event organiser remembered her on Facebook as a “role model, a shy compassionate person, a spirited tactical racer and a competitor that genuinely cared about those competing against you.”
Kaitlin Marie Armstrong, a 34-year-old Austin resident, is wanted for homicide in the killing and is now a fugitive, the US Marshals said.
Both women had recently been in romantic relationships with the same man - professional cyclist Colin Strickland - and messages and interviews with tipsters suggest jealousy could be a potential motive, according to the affidavit filed in Travis County District Court.
Image credits: Instagram