AUSTIN – A woman awaiting trial for allegedly killing a professional cyclist in Austin last year briefly escaped custody, according to media reports.
Kaitlin Armstrong briefly ran from Travis County Sheriff’s Office deputies after a doctor’s appointment on Wednesday morning, according to the Austin-American Statesman and KXAN.
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The incident happened as deputies were escorting Armstrong back to a patrol unit. She ran about a block to a neighborhood in South Austin but was found and detained by deputies, the reports state.
KVUE reported she remained in the eyesight of deputies through the ordeal. The Statesman reported she was taken to a hospital, but details about injuries are unknown.
She was expected to start trial on Oct. 30 for the death of cyclist Anna Moriah Wilson, who had been in Austin for a cycling event when she was killed.
According to an affidavit, Wilson had met with her ex-boyfriend and cyclist Colin Strickland, the then-current boyfriend to Armstrong, during the trip.
On May 11, 2022, Wilson was found bleeding and unconscious from multiple gunshot wounds inside a home in East Austin. Surveillance footage captured Armstrong’s black Jeep Grand Cherokee outside the home at the time of Wilson’s death, according to the affidavit.
Armstrong sold that vehicle for $12,200 two days later and departed the Austin airport on May 14, 2022, the U.S. Marshals Service said.
She flew from Austin to Houston, then to New York as Austin police issued a warrant for her arrest.
Authorities said she used a fraudulent passport to fly from Newark, New Jersey, to San Jose, Costa Rica, on May 18, 2022.
She was found in a Costa Rica hostel following a 43-day manhunt.
Authorities said she had tried to change her appearance and used several aliases as she moved around Costa Rica while trying to set herself up as a yoga instructor there.
Armstrong was charged with murder and was supposed to go on trial in June. However, the trial date was pushed back to Oct. 30, KVUE reported.
She has pleaded not guilty.