Yoga teacher Kaitlin Armstrong searched ‘can pineapples burn your fingerprints’ and looked into plastic surgery after allegedly murdering her boyfriend’s ex, a court has heard.
Detective Richard Spitler testified at Armstrong’s murder trial that she had been looking into whether the fruit can be used to remove your fingerprint following the death of love rival Moriah ‘Mo’ Wilson in May 2022.
The detective from the Austin Police Department also said Armstrong had been looking into plastic surgery, but did not go into further detail about her searches.
Armstrong stands accused of shooting Wilson three times after discovering her ongoing contact with her boyfriend Colin Strickland.
Armstrong denies the charges but is yet to provide an alibi. Her jeep was filmed by neighborhood ring cameras arriving and leaving the scene at the time of the murder.
Kaitlin Armstrong enters the courtroom during the first day of her trial at the Blackwell-Thurman Criminal Justice Center, Wednesday, Nov. 1, 2023
Moriah ‘Mo’ Wilson was shot dead in Austin on May 11th. She had just returned home from an evening swim with Strickland, who she had at one time been romantic with
Spitler also told the trial that they found the note on Armstrong’s cellphone with the home address of Wilson.
He said he found this particularly interesting as it doesn’t exist on official property records.
Detective Spitler said he had gone to the Travis County Central Appraisal District to search the address, but no records showed.
It wasn’t until it was Googled they found it, as the property was actually a garage that had been turned into an apartment – which is where Wilson was murdered.
Spitler also said he thinks the shooter may have suffered an injury from the kick-back from the gun and injured their hand.
The Detective also told the court that Armstrong had sold her black Jeep Grand Cherokee less than 48 hours after Wilson was murdered.
Police said they used GPS tracking to trace Armstrong’s black Jeep and where it may have gone to after the shooting.
The detective said the Jeep went to a dumpster behind an apartment building about a mile from Strickland and Armstrong’s home.
He told the trial: ‘I don’t have a witness who actually says that Ms. Armstrong was driving that vehicle because the only witness who knows that is deceased.’
Less than 48 hours after the murder, Kaitlin Armstrong sold her black Jeep Grand Cherokee at Carmax in Austin, police testified.
She created a brand new email account where she received an offer $12,200 from Carmax for the vehicle
Three days after murder, Armstrong took an Uber to Austin’s airport where she took a Southwest Airlines from Austin to New York’s LaGuardia Airport.
Wilson was killed after a secret date with Armstrong’s boyfriend, Colin Strickland (shown). He went into hiding after her death while Armstrong was on the run
Armstrong’s 2012 Jeep Grand Cherokee was spotted driving outside the Austin home of Wilson’s friend, where the cyclist was murdered
Under her Google search history, police also said they found that Armstrong had searched for news story about Wilson’s murder.
The local news article was titled ‘Moriah Wilson murder: Colin Strickland in hiding until suspect Kaitlin Armstrong found’.
Last week, Strickland told the court that he was apprehensive about entering a long-term relationship with Armstrong.
Armstrong, he said, routinely blocked the phone numbers of other women in his phone behind his back. Wilson was one of them, he said.
On the day of the murder, when he was swimming with Wilson, Strickland told Armstrong he had been to drop off flowers at a friend’s house.
On May 13th, two days after the murder, Strickland sent a text to Armstrong’s iCloud email asking her if she had a phone.
Last week, jurors were played Ring surveillance camera footage from a neighbor in which Wilson could be heard screaming. Three gunshots were heard.
Prosecutors say Armstrong, using a gun Strickland purchased for her, shot Wilson twice in the head and once through the heart.
She is then believed to have fled the apartment on Wilson’s bicycle, which was found dumped in bushes behind her apartment.
Armstrong fled Texas after an initial police interview. She then flew to Costa Rica, where she says she was just teaching yoga.
Eventually, she was arrested in July and brought back to Austin. A few weeks before her trial commenced, she tried to run away again during a visit to a doctor’s office.