Crime Scene Investigators (2025) Season 1 Episode 3
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00:00The following program is rated 18 plus and is not intended for younger audiences.
00:10It contains coarse language, violence, nudity, and mature subject matter.
00:14Viewer discretion is strongly advised.
00:28Whatever happened, this was a cold-blooded killing.
00:32Whoever did this, they went there for one reason.
00:35This was personal.
00:37But we needed evidence to figure out her killer.
00:40He didn't have one firearm.
00:42He has two firearms.
00:43The female patrol officer located a bicycle.
00:47This mysterious car is now seen slowing down.
00:50Who was inside of this car?
00:52These big pieces of evidence work together to get a killer.
01:00When homicide investigators collect evidence from a crime scene, they hold the pieces of
01:05a puzzle.
01:06Only by connecting those pieces back together can they catch the killer.
01:19Austin's a rapidly growing town, kind of right in the center of Texas.
01:23It's been known for its live music scene.
01:26But also, Austin is very well known for competitive cyclers.
01:30It's very suitable for different gravel races or road cycling, just because of the complex
01:35terrain that's out there.
01:37We have cyclists come from all over the world to compete and to practice in this area.
01:46Around 9.50 p.m. on May 11, 2022, Kaitlyn Cash arrives back at her apartment, finds
01:54the door is unlocked.
01:56You can basically see most everything inside right from the front door.
02:01She sees her friend, Mariah Wilson, lying in the bathroom.
02:05She asked Mariah how she was doing, what's going on.
02:09But there was no response.
02:12She sees Mariah was covered in blood and was no longer breathing.
02:17She immediately calls 9-1-1.
02:18Austin, 9-1-1.
02:19I need EMS.
02:20Tell me exactly what happened.
02:21My friend is staying with me and I just walked in and she's laying on the floor and I don't
02:30know what happened.
02:31She's not awake.
02:32There's blood all over her face and all on the back of her head.
02:36Is she breathing?
02:38No.
02:39The 9-1-1 operator begins to give her instructions to perform CPR and to start life-saving measures.
02:47Austin, please.
02:48Do I stop?
02:49I don't know what happened.
02:50I just walked in on her.
02:51None of those worked.
02:55Mariah is pronounced dead.
02:59At 10.47 p.m., I received a phone call from the on-call sergeant who told me that there
03:05was a single victim with a gunshot wound.
03:08No perpetrator had been identified at this time.
03:12We responded to the scene to begin this investigation.
03:17This apartment is an elevated upstairs apartment over a garage.
03:22There's a set of wooden steps that lead up to the apartment and a wooden deck outside.
03:28There's one alleyway that runs directly behind this apartment, but another alleyway that
03:33runs right beside it as well.
03:36I walk into the apartment, and I see the apartment is extremely small.
03:42The kitchen, it just has a island which leads directly into the bathroom.
03:46I see the female decedent.
03:48She's lying supine on her back.
03:52And I see her legs sticking out into the kitchen area.
04:01The victim, Mariah Wilson, known to her friends as Mo, was a young, upbeat 25-year-old.
04:08She had started to gain prominence in that world of gravel racing and was traveling all
04:12over the nation competing in races.
04:16Upon first inspection of Mariah, I observed a wound on one of her hands that appeared
04:22to be a small, maybe some type of grazing wound or cut.
04:28It appeared as though whenever the perpetrator fired a gunshot that Mariah was holding her
04:32hand trying to stop this bullet from striking her in the head.
04:36I observed a lot of blood on her face and in her hair.
04:40We couldn't tell exactly what those wounds were.
04:45The decedent was wearing what appeared to be a swimsuit and a cover-up.
04:51There didn't appear to be any indication that a sexual assault occurred.
04:56Whatever happened, this was a cold-blooded killing.
04:59This is a homicide.
05:03Forensics experts arrived and began processing the crime scene.
05:07During the exam of the decedent on scene, we discovered that she possibly had two gunshot
05:13wounds to her face and head area.
05:16While examining her hair, we felt something hard, and it ended up being a fired projectile
05:22that had passed through her head.
05:24We did locate a gunshot wound that appeared to go through her chest and pass through the
05:30front, through her back, and into the floor below her.
05:34That coincided with a fired cartridge case that we observed on the ground next to her.
05:41There were three spent cartridge cases that were on scene.
05:44Two of them were in the kitchen, and the third one was inside of the bathroom next to where
05:50we found Mariah.
05:52The headstamp on the spent cartridge cases read JAG 9mm, all three of them.
05:58It's a very common round that can show us that maybe the person shooting the weapon
06:04was an amateur gun user.
06:07A lot of people, when they first buy a handgun, it will be a 9mm or something similar.
06:12Also, 9mm ammo is a lot cheaper, it's on store shelves, and readily available.
06:21Police believe that the murder weapon in this case is most likely a 9mm semi-automatic
06:25pistol.
06:26Common name brands associated with that type of firearm include Glock, Six Hour, Springfield,
06:32and Smith & Wesson.
06:33What the Glock 9mm investigators know is among the most popular 9mm semi-automatic handguns
06:40in the United States today.
06:42Statistically speaking, this makes it more likely than not that Glock is the firearm
06:47involved.
06:49We discovered a partially eaten energy bar on the floor near the decedent.
06:55It appeared that the decedent had been eating the energy bar when she was confronted by
06:59somebody else.
07:01The apartment itself is very clean.
07:03There's no signs of a disturbance, furniture is not knocked over, the door is not damaged,
07:08nobody actually kicked the door open.
07:10The windows, they're all locked and secured.
07:13Doesn't appear as though anyone had tried to open a window or broke a window to gain
07:18access into this apartment.
07:20Right near the door is a sofa.
07:22On the sofa, I observed a laptop and two cell phones.
07:27It could have been a robbery or a burglary, gone bad.
07:31But I felt that that might not be the case.
07:33If it were, somebody would have grabbed those items on their way out the door.
07:39As we searched the residence, we found that there was no gun that was anywhere else inside.
07:44Based on everything that we are seeing on scene, it appears as though Mariah may have
07:49been standing next to the kitchen counter.
07:53She was possibly eating a snack and somebody came through the unlocked door and confronted
07:58her.
08:00It appears as though Mariah puts her hand in front of her face trying to shield her
08:04from what's about to happen.
08:07The first two shots were fired from a distance away based on the fired cartridge case that
08:13was right near the decedent.
08:15It appeared that someone had stood over the decedent and shot her directly through the
08:20chest.
08:22Somebody standing over her and shooting her after she had already been shot in the head
08:26makes it sound like it was personal, that there was some type of issue between the killer
08:32and the decedent.
08:34Whoever did this, they went there for one reason and that was to kill Mariah Wilson.
08:40Who would hate Mariah so much that they would want her dead?
08:48At this point, we didn't have enough evidence to figure out her killer.
08:52It was late at night and a female patrol officer who was securing part of the alleyway located
09:02a bicycle in an abandoned lot partially concealed by some trees.
09:08It appeared to be a very expensive bike.
09:11It's not normally one that you would see discarded in an abandoned lot.
09:17So I began to Google the brand of the bike which was S-Works.
09:21This bike was very expensive, I mean anywhere from $13,000 to $20,000 and usually this bike
09:27was only owned by people that were racing professionals.
09:32One of the patrol officers on scene Googled Mariah Wilson and there were social media
09:38pictures with her being on that bike.
09:42So I began to think, why would it be 50 yards down the alleyway?
09:46There is a possibility that somebody who had no knowledge of this bike started riding it
09:50away and figured out that they couldn't ride it.
09:53A lot of these expensive racing bikes have certain pedals, you have to be wearing special
09:58shoes to be able to click into the pedals so they just ditch it.
10:03We ended up taking swabs from the handlebar, from the crossbar and from the seat of the
10:08bike and those swabs were preserved for later DNA testing.
10:14We basically processed the crime scene throughout the night to preserve that initial evidence.
10:20With the evidence gathered at the crime scene, the slugs and cartridges, clothing, an energy
10:25bar, electronics and the ditched bicycle, detectives have the building blocks of the
10:30case.
10:31Now they'll try to put the pieces back together to deduce who killed Mariah Wilson.
10:37The first clue detectives look into is the digital lock on the front door of Caitlin
10:41Cash's apartment.
10:43They consider more closely when and how the killer appears to have bypassed that lock
10:48shortly before Mo Wilson was killed.
10:52Caitlin Cash did provide some initial statements at the scene.
10:56Cash told us that Mariah Wilson was in town for a gravel race that was going to occur
11:01the following weekend in Hico, Texas and she was staying at Cash's apartment.
11:08Cash has an electronic door lock on her door.
11:12It's connected to an app that's on her phone.
11:14Anytime that someone uses a code to lock or unlock the door, a notification is sent to
11:22her phone.
11:23Cash told us that around 5 p.m. she left the apartment to go out to dinner and she left
11:30Mariah in the apartment.
11:34Cash said that at 5.55 p.m. she received a notification saying that her door was locked,
11:40indicating that Mariah was leaving to go out to dinner.
11:44At 8.36 p.m. Cash received another notification indicating the door was unlocked.
11:50This showed that Mariah had just arrived home.
11:53We didn't receive the 911 phone call from Cash until about 9.55 p.m. that night, so
12:00that tells us obviously that the time of death would have been somewhere in that time frame.
12:05Cash had stated to detectives that nobody else knew the code to get into her apartment.
12:11This told me that Mariah either she knew the perpetrator and allowed them to come inside
12:18or she left the door unlocked, which allowed the perpetrator to freely enter into the apartment.
12:25Cash is also able to tell me exactly where she was throughout the evening, the friends
12:31that she was with.
12:33Cash was nowhere near the scene of the shooting when it occurred.
12:37I didn't believe that she was the perpetrator in this shooting.
12:44That night back at Austin Police Headquarters, I called Mariah's family and wanted to express
12:49my condolences and I want to get as much background information as I can on Mariah.
12:56Who does she know?
12:57Who is she friends with?
12:59Because this crime was someone that knew her, someone that she's very familiar with.
13:03Someone had so much hate against Mariah, but what was that hate from?
13:09The family just was unaware about it.
13:11They had no idea who would want to kill Mariah.
13:14We didn't have any possible suspects for the case at the time, but while working the crime
13:20scene and then doing a canvas of the neighborhood, we observed that the garage apartment appeared
13:27to be on the same property as a larger residence.
13:30Who lives here?
13:32Could they potentially have been involved in this murder?
13:37We knocked on the door and we made contact with Derek Peele.
13:41He advised that he lived in that residence and that he rented the garage apartment to Cash.
13:47I asked Derek if he had heard anything that night.
13:51Was there any disturbance?
13:53Anybody yelling?
13:54Did he hear any gunshots?
13:56He answered no.
13:58I found that to be kind of shocking because Derek lives just a few feet away from where
14:04this happened.
14:05The sound of a gunshot is so loud.
14:07He would have had to have heard it.
14:10Derek possibly could have done this.
14:12Was he responsible for the murder of Mariah Wilson?
14:21Derek Peele appeared very shifty.
14:24He indicated to me that the night of the murder, he had done a 3D printing project.
14:31He knew it was going to take some time for this project to complete, and so he went outside
14:35into the garage.
14:38As he opened the garage, he recalled hearing something that sounded like loud footsteps.
14:44It sounded as though someone was coming down the stairs with a bike.
14:48He thought maybe it was Cash going out for a night ride.
14:53If Derek is telling me the truth, then this means that the sound of the garage opening
14:58may have startled the perpetrator, and they ran down the stairs with the bicycle in an
15:02attempt to flee the scene.
15:04Derek indicated that he went back inside, and he was later awakened due to police responding
15:10to the apartment above his detached garage.
15:14At that time, there was no indication to show that he had any ill will against Mariah, that
15:21he wanted to hurt Mariah or even knew who Mariah was.
15:25We had no reason to believe that Derek committed this murder.
15:29The evidence was not matching up.
15:31The motive wasn't there.
15:36During the night of the incident, while I was processing the crime scene, I was approached
15:40by one of the patrol officers who stated that a kid had walked up into the crime scene near
15:46the garage area while they were putting up crime scene tape.
15:52The patrol officer advised that he seemed a little weird.
15:56He had headphones on, and he was just kind of oblivious to a lot of police activity and
16:02to yellow crime scene tape that you're not supposed to cross.
16:06Pretty late at night, we did make contact with him about his whereabouts that night
16:11and why he came up the alleyway.
16:14The kid's name is Samuel Peel, and he's 17 years old.
16:19Samuel Peel lives at the residence with his father, Derek Peel.
16:25He basically stated that he had been on a run in the neighborhood.
16:29He had his headphones on, and every time he goes on a run, he walks down that alleyway
16:34and comes back in the garage and walks through the garage to get to his house.
16:39That kind of explained maybe why he was disregarding the crime scene tape and the officers in the
16:43area because he does this every day.
16:46He puts his headphones on.
16:47He just kind of blindly walks up through his garage to go home.
16:52So at this point in the investigation, we have no physical evidence linking the landlord
16:57or his son to the murder.
16:59Caitlin Cash's landlord, Derek Peel, told investigators he may have heard the assailant
17:04leaving the crime scene while actually carrying a bicycle down the back stairs before exiting
17:09out into an alley.
17:11While Mr. Peel didn't see who exactly was carrying the bicycle, investigators began
17:15to wonder whether or not this individual might have been captured on neighboring CCTV cameras.
17:21After the initial crime scene is broken down, we start going door to door in the apartments
17:26and houses around the scene of the crime.
17:30We're looking for video footage, cameras, doorbell cameras that might have caught somebody
17:36in the area.
17:38And we do locate a resident who has a camera that faces the back alleyway toward Cash's
17:44apartment.
17:46This camera, it was motion activated, and it was activated at 8.37 p.m., showing a black
17:53SUV, had chrome around the windows.
17:56And at 8.37, this mysterious car is now seen slowing down at the bottom of these stairs.
18:04It appeared as though it started coming to a stop near where the stairs lead up to this
18:09front door.
18:11I would consider this video evidence the first break in the case.
18:17This car could potentially be my perpetrator responsible for the murder.
18:22But the windows on this SUV, they were dark.
18:27I didn't even know how many occupants were inside.
18:30Now I need to know who was inside of this car.
18:37The good thing about the original video is it showed a black SUV with a distinct wheel
18:43pattern.
18:44So that was obviously a pretty good piece of evidence to continue the investigation
18:49forward.
18:50But at this point, we can't identify who the driver was or the owner of this vehicle.
18:57Investigators' strongest lead is the video footage of a black SUV driving in the alley
19:01behind the crime scene around the time Mariah Wilson was killed.
19:05To figure out who was driving that vehicle, they need to know who Mariah interacted with
19:10in the days and hours before she was killed.
19:13So they look for answers from Mariah's friend, Caitlin Cash.
19:18Later on the night of the murder, Caitlin Cash arrives to the headquarters.
19:22She's very upset.
19:25She's very emotional about everything that she has gone through.
19:29Cash tells me she wants to do anything and everything that she can to find out who was
19:34responsible for killing Mariah.
19:38Cash confirms that Mariah was only going to be in town for a couple of days.
19:44Whoever did this had to have known that she would have been in town for just this very
19:49small window of time.
19:51She advised that Mariah had gone out on a date with a friend of hers named Colin Strickland
19:58that evening that Mo was killed.
20:01And Cash returned to the apartment later.
20:04I want to know about Mariah's friend Colin.
20:07Who possibly was the last person to actually see her?
20:11Cash was able to tell me that Colin Strickland is a friend that Mariah knew from the cycling
20:15community who's also fellow professional cyclist.
20:19I asked Cash to describe what type of relationship Mariah has with Colin or what their past relationship
20:26was.
20:27How do they know each other?
20:28Cash indicated that Mariah had briefly dated Colin in October of 2021, just for a few weeks.
20:36After that, she believed that their relationship had ended.
20:39They're just friends at this point, just racing companions.
20:45The morning after the murder, I wanted to actually have a face-to-face meeting with
20:49Colin Strickland.
20:50I wanted to know his whereabouts during the time of this murder.
20:55What happened on whenever him and Mariah were actually out together?
20:59I don't know if he's the perpetrator responsible for this.
21:02I don't know if he's involved or if maybe he's just a witness.
21:07As I approached Colin's house, I see this black SUV with chrome around the windows in
21:12the driveway.
21:15It's parked next to a white motorcycle and an older model brown Cadillac.
21:21This SUV appeared to be the same vehicle that was seen in the surveillance footage
21:26stopping or slowing down next to the apartment at 8.37 p.m.
21:31Colin, do you know Anna?
21:36No.
21:37Anna?
21:38Yeah.
21:39Everybody calls her Moe?
21:43He said no.
21:44I don't know who that is.
21:45He was lying to me.
21:46My son's Wilson.
21:47She's a gravel rider.
21:48I knew that Colin had just been out with her the night prior.
21:58This is something suspicious.
22:08His behavior was really strange.
22:14Right now, it's an open investigation, but it is being investigated as a homicide.
22:25He seemed as though he was taken back.
22:28I began asking him more questions about his whereabouts the night of the murder.
22:33Colin had indicated that he had taken Mariah out on his motorcycle that evening, and that
22:53they went to the pool on his motorcycle, and then they went to eat on his motorcycle, and
22:58then he drove back to Mariah's apartment and dropped her off on his motorcycle.
23:04He drove back home on his motorcycle.
23:06He mentioned this motorcycle to me so many times, it just seemed as though he was trying
23:11to distance himself from the black SUV that we were standing next to that's parked in
23:16his driveway.
23:19I asked Colin to come to the headquarters, give me a good statement.
23:23He agreed, and he drove his own vehicle.
23:26Instead of driving this black SUV, he decided to drive this older Cadillac that was in the
23:31driveway.
23:32Again, it appeared to me as though he's distancing himself from being an owner of this black
23:38SUV.
23:41I began asking him about the night out with Mariah.
23:44He explains that they did go swimming, and then they went to a nearby restaurant.
23:48They left from the restaurant and drove back to Cash's apartment.
23:54He drops off Mariah and then drives home.
23:56He was able to tell me his exact route that he took to get from Cash's apartment back
24:01to his residence.
24:03We asked Colin if he had observed anything suspicious around the apartment where she
24:07was staying, and he advised that he didn't see anything suspicious.
24:12So he was very forthcoming with a lot of detailed information, but we didn't have a way to confirm
24:19what he was saying.
24:23I asked Colin more about the black SUV that was parked in the driveway.
24:29Who is it that drives this black SUV?
24:31Who owns this car?
24:32He said, well, that's my girlfriend's car.
24:34She lives with me.
24:35That's Caitlin Armstrong.
24:37Caitlin Armstrong is also part of the gravel racing community that Colin and Mariah Wilson
24:42rode in.
24:43Colin indicated this was more of a matter of convenience for their relationship.
24:48They are business partners together, and they both live together in the same house.
24:53I asked Colin if he knew where Caitlin Armstrong was the night of the murder.
24:59He stated that she's a realtor, and she had had a meeting about buying some land, and
25:04then she taught a yoga class.
25:08If Colin was telling me the truth, then Caitlin Armstrong possibly has an alibi.
25:14Colin has said that that night, he was in his garage working on bicycles, and that he
25:20saw Caitlin arrive to the house in the black SUV, and that she was alone.
25:26We felt he could be lying.
25:28He was trying very hard to distance himself from that black SUV, and trying very hard
25:34to put himself on a motorcycle that night.
25:38He could have been driving that black SUV, or he could have been a passenger in that
25:42black SUV at the time of the murder.
25:44And we believe that Colin Strickland could be ultimately responsible for the murder of
25:47Mariah Wilson.
25:52We don't know what's going on with Colin Strickland.
25:55So I decided to take this in a different direction.
25:59After we searched Cash's apartment, we found three 9mm spent casings and bullets at the
26:05crime scene.
26:07We know that we are looking for someone who would have had access to a 9mm handgun.
26:15I had asked Colin if he had owned any firearms.
26:18Colin indicated, yes, he owned a firearm.
26:21He owned a pistol, which happened to be a 9mm Springfield handgun.
26:26I found this very interesting, because his 9mm handgun could have potentially fired the
26:32spent cartridge cases that we found on scene.
26:34It was the same caliber, so it matched.
26:38I know that Colin and Caitlin both have access to this 9mm handgun, because they live together.
26:45They both have access to this black SUV that is seen on surveillance footage.
26:51At this point in the investigation, both Colin Strickland and Caitlin Armstrong are looking
26:55suspicious.
26:58I want to talk with Caitlin and find out what she was doing the night of the murder.
27:05We looked at Caitlin's background details prior to interviewing her.
27:08It was found that Caitlin had an active warrant for her arrest.
27:13It was issued for not paying for Botox.
27:16We used the warrant as a way to be able to force Caitlin to come to the headquarters
27:21to give a statement to us.
27:23So we had officers locate her at the residence that she shared with Colin Strickland and
27:28arrest her for that warrant.
27:30She was then transported to the homicide office.
27:33Just have a quick pat down real quick.
27:36I've never heard of this warrant before.
27:40She arrested me in front of my house, in front of all of my neighbors, and carried me in
27:43her hand for some time.
27:44Yeah.
27:45It was incredibly humiliating.
27:47I can't imagine.
27:48We wanted to ask her questions about where she was around the time of the murder.
27:53Did you hear about what happened over the past 24 hours?
27:57Colin walked in the house and said one of the women in the cycling community passed away.
28:01Yeah.
28:02While Colin was talking to us, your name came up.
28:06She was very apprehensive to talk.
28:19She basically just didn't respond to the questions that were asked of her.
28:32She just kept asking if she could leave.
28:37But I understand if you do, then we only have one side of the story to go on.
28:40It sounds like there are some issues between you and this girl, and I think that there's
28:47probably a lot more to it that you could help explain.
28:55And then we presented her with a photo, which was taken from the video evidence of a black
29:03SUV driving near the crime scene right around the time of the murder.
29:29She nodded, slumped back in her chair, but didn't say a word.
29:33She wouldn't tell us who was driving that vehicle or if she knew who was driving that vehicle.
29:55Caitlin simply just wanted to stop talking with us.
29:58I found this to be very strange.
30:00Her car is seen at the crime scene on video prior to this murder happening.
30:05Yes, that was her car.
30:07She doesn't dispute, but she wouldn't give us an explanation.
30:13At this point, I don't know who is responsible for this crime.
30:18I don't know if Caitlin is the one that did it.
30:21I don't know if Colin was the one that did it.
30:24I don't know if maybe they worked together or potentially if they were both trying to cover for the other person.
30:36While we're talking to Caitlin Armstrong,
30:42we realized that there was a possible clerical error on the warrant.
30:54So that's not, you're not under arrest, okay?
30:57She was free to leave, and she did.
31:00So far, key evidence points to both Colin and Caitlin.
31:04Both had access to the black SUV that drove past Cash's apartment.
31:09Both had access to Colin's Springfield, a weapon that fires 9mm rounds like those found at the crime scene.
31:16So detectives now either have to confirm Colin and Caitlin worked together or find a way to rule one of them out.
31:23Colin said that he did pick Mariah up on his motorcycle to go swimming and out to eat.
31:29We met yesterday afternoon, and then we were there.
31:34I dropped her at her apartment.
31:38At the apartment she's been staying at.
31:44We were actually able to find video footage of the two of them at Pool Burger
31:49around the exact same time that Colin said they were there.
31:54We were able to get a receipt for their food and drink order.
31:58And we actually had video footage of the two of them leaving Pool Burger on Colin's motorcycle.
32:06We also located video footage that showed Colin getting on Interstate 35 to head southbound toward his residence.
32:14Just a few minutes after he said he dropped Mariah Wilson off at approximately 8.36pm.
32:21But one minute later, we observed the black SUV circling through the alleyway at about 8.37pm.
32:30So now we know that Colin Strickland wasn't in the black SUV.
32:35I had asked Colin Strickland to come to the headquarters for a second interview. He agreed.
32:41I told Colin that I believe what he was telling me about his whereabouts during the time of this murder.
32:47And then we basically confront him by telling him that we observed Caitlin's SUV in the area of the crime scene at the time of the murder.
32:56Colin starts holding his head in his hands, just shaking his head back and forth.
33:01And he says, I knew I shouldn't have bought that gun.
33:06Then Colin actually told me he didn't have one firearm, but he has two firearms.
33:12He stated that he had purchased a Springfield 9mm for himself and a Sig Sauer 9mm for Caitlin.
33:23Colin stated that he had bought the handgun for Caitlin just because she was a realtor.
33:29She was going into houses alone and she just felt like she might need it for protection.
33:33While I was processing the crime scene, I observed the three 9mm fired cartridge cases near Moe's body.
33:41And I began to think, was there a possibility that those 9mm cases I found at the scene could match one of these guns?
33:50A search warrant was issued to search Colin and Caitlin's residence.
33:54We did find two guns. One was a Springfield 9mm and one was a Sig Sauer 9mm.
34:00We noticed that the Springfield seemed very clean. There was no carbon buildup in the chamber.
34:06It possibly had never been fired, or if it had been fired, it had been cleaned really well.
34:10Upon inspection of the Sig Sauer, we noticed that the chamber was extremely dirty, a lot of carbon buildup.
34:16It had obviously been fired.
34:18Both of those handguns were taken to our crime scene laboratory.
34:22They were fingerprinted and swabbed for DNA.
34:25We needed to test those weapons against the fired cartridge cases that we observed at the crime scene.
34:32This was done by microscopically measuring the distance between the pin mechanism inside of the handgun
34:40and the indention that was on the spent cartridge cases.
34:45We quickly get a report from our firearms unit.
34:47It was determined that the Sig Sauer handgun had been used to fire the cartridges that were located at the scene of the murder.
34:58If Caitlin is the one that committed this crime, I wanted to know how was it that Caitlin knew where Mariah was staying?
35:08Mariah actually uses Strava.
35:10Strava is just a social media platform that's used to track cycling, running.
35:15Different users can visit your page on Strava and view the different rides, and it's going to show your location.
35:24Strava provided me with some very valuable data.
35:28The data showed that on May 11th, the day of the murder, Caitlin viewed Mariah's profile four times.
35:35But not only did she view Mariah's profile, she viewed a ride that Mariah had taken that morning in Austin.
35:44You can actually see that it started at Cash's apartment and that it ended at Cash's apartment.
35:51Investigators now have strong evidence linking Caitlin Armstrong to the crime.
35:56The only thing they do not have is motive.
35:58It appeared as though Caitlin knew where Mariah was staying based on Mariah's Strava ride.
36:04If Caitlin was the person that did this, why did she hate Mariah so much?
36:09Now I need to know motive in this crime.
36:12The Austin Police Department issued a press release indicating that this murder had occurred and identified Mariah as the victim in this crime.
36:20The Austin Police Department issued a press release indicating that this murder had occurred and identified Mariah as the victim in this crime.
36:29There were many people that called in to give tips.
36:33And we began to get information that there was a lot of jealousy between Caitlin Armstrong and Mariah Wilson.
36:42Caitlin really didn't like the fact that Mariah was friends with Colin or had a brief romantic relationship with Colin while they were on a break.
36:52One of the tipsters had said that in January of 2022, Mariah, Colin and Caitlin were all at a banquet.
37:01At this event, Caitlin saw Mariah.
37:04She became enraged. She was furious.
37:07Caitlin told this caller that she wanted to kill Mariah.
37:11Mariah was younger. She was well-liked and well-respected.
37:16We began to feel that Caitlin could be very jealous of Mariah.
37:20What we're looking at here is a love triangle.
37:24So I went back to the evidence collected from the search warrant.
37:28During the search warrant of Colin and Caitlin's house, Caitlin's laptop and cell phone, they were taken as evidence.
37:36I searched that phone as well as the phone records through her carrier.
37:41And what I found was very interesting.
37:44Caitlin's phone, it had lost connection with the cell phone towers prior to the murder happening.
37:51And it doesn't actually reconnect until 9.55 p.m., where it shows to be at her residence.
37:58We received a 911 phone call from Cash about 9.55 p.m. that night.
38:04Caitlin turned off her phone, which would no longer send a signal to the cell phone towers that would track her location.
38:11It seems as though she's trying to hide her whereabouts, hide her location and her movement during the time of the murder.
38:19We need to look at the black SUV that belonged to Caitlin Armstrong.
38:23Most modern vehicles have systems contained inside them that track GPS and track movements.
38:30We quickly learned that the black SUV was no longer parked in front of her residence.
38:36Finding that SUV was extremely important.
38:39We were able to locate the SUV at a local car dealership.
38:43It appears that Caitlin Armstrong had sold the SUV for cash.
38:47Caitlin Armstrong had sold the SUV for cash.
38:51Inside that SUV is what we call an infotainment center.
38:55And one of our digital forensics experts was able to take the information from the infotainment center to get GPS data.
39:03So the GPS data showed on the day of the murder that Caitlin Armstrong left her residence,
39:09drove through downtown Austin and then began circling the area around Cash's apartment.
39:14It shows that she stopped in a grassy area at the end of the alleyway and turned the vehicle off.
39:22We briefly lost the GPS signal.
39:25Once she turns the vehicle back on, the GPS signal pops back up
39:29and we're able to show that she drove from the crime scene back to her residence.
39:37This was the first time that we were actually able to place Caitlin Armstrong at the scene of the murder.
39:45And we were also able to locate video evidence from a residence that was down the street from the scene.
39:53In the video footage around 9.15, we were able to hear a loud scream and then two gunshots.
40:05There was a few second break and then we heard a third gunshot.
40:09That told us that the time of the murder was around 9.15.
40:15Now we have enough evidence to get an arrest warrant for Caitlin Armstrong.
40:20Very quickly we learned that she had taken a flight to Costa Rica and entered Costa Rica using her sister's passport.
40:28Costa Rican authorities deport Caitlin back to the U.S.
40:33So once Caitlin Armstrong was back in the country, we were able to get a DNA sample from her.
40:38That sample we took from Caitlin Armstrong was compared to the swabs that were taken from the crime scene on the bike that we found in the abandoned lot.
40:48It came back as a match to Caitlin Armstrong.
40:53We knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that Caitlin Armstrong had been on scene and that she had handled that bike
41:00and was ultimately responsible for the murder of Mariah Wilson.
41:03Now we know what happened that very tragic night.
41:12Caitlin Armstrong had access to Colin's texts via her laptop and she was able to figure out that Colin and Moe were going to spend some time together.
41:23Caitlin knew where Mariah was staying based on the Strava ride.
41:29Caitlin knew that they would be coming back to that apartment.
41:33She saw Moe get off Colin's motorcycle and walk into the apartment.
41:39Once Caitlin parked the Jeep in the alleyway nearby,
41:46she walked up the steps to the apartment.
41:48She went through the unlocked door and she confronted Moe, who was basically just standing in the kitchen area eating a snack.
41:59She fired two shots, striking Moe in the head.
42:03And then she walked across the apartment and stood over Moe as she laid on the bathroom floor.
42:10At that point, Caitlin fired directly into Mariah's chest.
42:13Killing Mariah.
42:22On November 16th, 2023, Caitlin Armstrong was found guilty of the murder of Mariah Wilson.
42:29The jury sentences her to 90 years in prison and requires her to pay the family $10,000.
42:36There was an overwhelming amount of evidence in this case.
42:40There was an overwhelming amount of evidence in this case that showed that Caitlin Armstrong was the killer.
42:46We had the DNA match on the bike.
42:49We had the GPS information from Caitlin's SUV that put her on scene at the time of the murder.
42:56And we had the ballistics match from the firearm that was in her possession.
43:01All three of these big pieces of evidence worked together to get a conviction for murder.
43:05This was a very senseless and cold-blooded killing.
43:10She was a very young, by all accounts, happy person.
43:14And Mariah Wilson did not deserve to die.
43:35For more information visit www.FEMA.gov