268
How was fugitive Kaitlin Armstrong caught? She answered U.S. Marshals' ad for a yoga instructor (www.cbsnews.com)
submitted 10 months ago by MicroWave@lemmy.world to c/news@lemmy.world
37 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Kaitlin Armstrong is serving 90 years in prison for murdering professional up-and-coming gravel cyclist Anna Moriah "Mo" Wilson. It's a story that drew international headlines because after being suspected of killing Wilson in Texas, Armstrong vanished -- seemingly into thin air. The search for the suspected killer sparked what would become an international manhunt -- first leading authorities across the United States, and then eventually to the beaches of Costa Rica.

In June 2022, one month after Armstrong disappeared, Deputy U.S. Marshals Damien Fernandez and Emir Perez traveled to Costa Rica. A source told them Armstrong could be hiding out in Santa Teresa. They knew finding Armstrong in the small, tourist-filled village was going to be a challenge -- along the way, Armstrong used multiple identities and changed her appearance -- even getting plastic surgery.

They hit dead end after dead end. After many intense days of searching for Armstrong with no luck, the U.S. Marshals decided to try one last tactic, hoping that her love of yoga would pay off for them.

"We decided we were gonna put an ad out … or multiple ads for a yoga instructor and see -- what would happen," Perez told "48 Hours" contributor Jonathan Vigliotti.

But after almost a week of hunting, even that didn't seem to be working. Perez and Fernandez were about to head back to the States, when suddenly they got a break.

all 40 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[-] Hubi@feddit.de 166 points 10 months ago

Det. Jonathan Riley: … on the night of the murder, Kaitlin Armstrong's phone was not connected to a cell network.

Jonathan Vigliotti: Not connected?

Det. Jonathan Riley: Correct. So, whether she powered it off, whether she put in an airplane mode, uh, there's some something happened that her phone was not communicating with any cellphone towers.

Jonathan Vigliotti: Do you think this was on purpose?

Det. Jonathan Riley: Absolutely … in this day and age, if your phone is off and not connected to a network, you're either the victim of a crime or you're probably committing one.

That's kind of ...disturbing?

[-] DoucheBagMcSwag@lemmy.dbzer0.com 74 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

Lawyer would tear that argument down in a second.

They won't say that in court

[-] Hubi@feddit.de 50 points 10 months ago

Well yeah, they have plenty of other evidence in this case. But it does show the mindset of the police in the US.

[-] Copernican@lemmy.world 38 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

That's why it's not evidence and not used in court. This is the rationale a detective uses to identify a suspect and begin looking for evidence. And he's outlining that to a reporter that a phone disconnected from a network at the time of a known crime is suspicious.

[-] agent_flounder@lemmy.world 8 points 10 months ago

I would hope if they try to use that as probable cause, they will have a bad time.

[-] RubberElectrons@lemmy.world 35 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

... Yeah. I agree it's disturbing that they can draw suggestions from that.

E: changed conclusions to suggestions, wasn't fully awake.

[-] Num10ck@lemmy.world 26 points 10 months ago

battery: 0%

[-] agent_flounder@lemmy.world 27 points 10 months ago

Believe it or not, jail.

[-] RamblingPanda@lemmynsfw.com 4 points 10 months ago

Obviously a serial killer.

[-] Digital_man@lemmy.one 2 points 10 months ago

More like battery 100% 😏

[-] PrettyFlyForAFatGuy@lemmy.ml 0 points 10 months ago

i got it

[-] JJROKCZ@lemmy.world 18 points 10 months ago

Yea there are many reasons you could be disconnected, wanting to be left alone, on a plane so on airplane mode.., battery died, etc. They just look for any reason to add more slaves in the prison system.

I’ve seen them add people as suspects to crimes because it was determined they left the house with their phone at home, obviously no one has ever forgotten their phone so they must have left it their on purpose

[-] JustMy2c@lemm.ee 9 points 10 months ago

Suspect.... Not convict.

So An investigator can check it out. Nothing more

[-] RayJW@sh.itjust.works 5 points 10 months ago

Well I mostly agree, one issue is putting your phone in airplane mode does absolutely not mean it's disconnected (neither is turning it off, or the battery running out in many cases e.g. iPhones still communicate with the „Find My“ network when your battery runs out or you turn it off). Also, most phones still have reception even when you don't have a connection because for stuff like emergency services your connection is routed over ALL cell towers, not just the ones of your provider. So if you see no bars it doesn't mean you're not communicating with a cell tower.

So to be off the grid the way they're talking about is removing sim + turning it off, or removing the battery. Both of which are rather drastic for „wanting to be left alone“.

I'm not trying to defend their assumptions, I'm just saying their „that person is offline“ is more meaningful than just „he's not receiving my iMessage“ or whatever.

[-] tsonfeir@lemm.ee 2 points 10 months ago

When my phone gets too low I turn it off in case I need it for an emergency

[-] mx_smith@lemmy.world 1 points 10 months ago

Actually you can buy a privacy bag from Amazon which is used by law enforcement and blocks all EMP and Radio signals, I got one for the holidays and it works really well.

[-] FaceDeer@kbin.social 9 points 10 months ago

Nobody would ever be convicted of murder solely because their phone was off. But anything can be used by investigators as a prompt to suspect someone and conduct further investigations. And that's fine by me. If you read the article there's a ton of other clues that were adding to make Armstrong interesting, it wasn't just the phone.

[-] Wolf_359@lemmy.world 1 points 9 months ago

Yeah, it can't be the whole puzzle, but if a chronically-online person disconnects the one night they are also linked to a murder in a bunch of other ways, it can be a piece of that puzzle.

[-] lightnsfw@reddthat.com 20 points 10 months ago

Me who's been playing a video game all weekend and hasn't bothered to look at my dead phone for 16 hours: ... what....?

[-] theachievers@lemmy.world 12 points 10 months ago

well clearly you're guilty. Hang on a second while we check the cold case files to pin something on you.

[-] partial_accumen@lemmy.world 18 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

Det. Jonathan Riley: Absolutely … in this day and age, if your phone is off and not connected to a network, you’re either the victim of a crime or you’re probably committing one.

That’s kind of …disturbing?

Theoretical reporter asks: "Detective, is it possible the battery died because of heavy phone use that day or an old phone with a worn out battery that doesn't hold a long charge?"

Theoretical Det. Jonathan Riley: "Absolutely not; victim of a crime or you’re committing one. Those are the only two possible outcomes."

[-] aniki@lemm.ee 1 points 10 months ago

This is why I ordered a clockwork pi. I want to be portable, connected, but on my terms.

[-] ripcord@lemmy.world 2 points 10 months ago

Hmm, sounds interesting. What is it exactly?

Their website seems to be trying to pitch something called a uConsole that I also don't really get the point of, but I'm guessing that's not what you're talking about about.

[-] aniki@lemm.ee 0 points 10 months ago

That's exactly what I'm talking about. The uconsole I ordered has an open cellular modem and I'm planning on getting all my messaging working through matrix bridges. Good luck trying to monitor me.

[-] ripcord@lemmy.world 1 points 9 months ago

Huh. Guess I'll have to read up on it more, but the pages I saw on the site seemed really vague about what I'd actually want to use it for.

[-] birthday_attack@lemm.ee 65 points 10 months ago

It's funny, the US Marshalls interviewed for this are extremely forthright in explaining their methods, but clam up and say they "can't explain these methods" as soon as they have any leads relating to cell phones. Probably because they're using the US's vast warrantless surveillance system to pull any possible info they can on her.

For example, they "track[ed] down the phone number for an American businessman they believed had connected with Armstrong at some point," and are cagey about how they got that number. I'd bet that they pulled her phone records and started cold calling everyone she's ever contacted through her cell phone until they got someone who could give them a lead.

Later, they set up the fake yoga instructor ad, and mention that they're tracking the phone location of the person who answered the ad to make sure they're at the sting location.

It's crazy that even with all those "methods the Marshalls won't go into," they almost gave up on finding her.

[-] S_204@lemm.ee 27 points 10 months ago

They're using Pegasus. Everyone is using a version of it, even private enterprise now.

The digital spying capabilities of some of America's allies and enemies dictates more policy than we'll ever know.

[-] MataVatnik@lemmy.world 8 points 10 months ago

Yeah I reread that section two times because i thought I missed something considering how big of a gap that is on the story

[-] FaceDeer@kbin.social 3 points 10 months ago

On the plus side, none of those mystery methods can be used to provide evidence in actual court. The defense would be able to dig into them if they did.

[-] breakingcups@lemmy.world 16 points 10 months ago

Still, parallel reconstruction is a very dangerous thing for society.

[-] theachievers@lemmy.world 22 points 10 months ago

The only thing she didn't do to escape justice was declare presidential immunity.

[-] WidowsFavoriteSon@lemmy.world 19 points 10 months ago

The one thing she did wrong was not frame the boyfriend. Prosecutors would have eaten him alive.

[-] Viking_Hippie@lemmy.world 17 points 10 months ago

I'm guessing she doesn't like pina coladas and wonder whether it was raining when she got caught..

[-] bongo@lemmynsfw.com 6 points 10 months ago

under appreciated response

[-] Viking_Hippie@lemmy.world 3 points 10 months ago

Thanks 😁

[-] LittleTarsier@lemmy.ca 7 points 10 months ago

Invisible Choir podcast did an episode about this case, for anyone interested!

[-] Dagwood222@lemm.ee 6 points 10 months ago

https://youtu.be/a7J7djFkiX8

Movie based on a similar true story

this post was submitted on 28 Jan 2024
268 points (97.9% liked)

News

23376 readers
1808 users here now

Welcome to the News community!

Rules:

1. Be civil

Attack the argument, not the person. No racism/sexism/bigotry. Good faith argumentation only. This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban. Do not respond to rule-breaking content; report it and move on.

2. All posts should contain a source (url) that is as reliable and unbiased as possible and must only contain one link.

Obvious right or left wing sources will be removed at the mods discretion. We have an actively updated blocklist, which you can see here: https://lemmy.world/post/2246130 if you feel like any website is missing, contact the mods. Supporting links can be added in comments or posted seperately but not to the post body.

3. No bots, spam or self-promotion.

Only approved bots, which follow the guidelines for bots set by the instance, are allowed.

4. Post titles should be the same as the article used as source.

Posts which titles don’t match the source won’t be removed, but the autoMod will notify you, and if your title misrepresents the original article, the post will be deleted. If the site changed their headline, the bot might still contact you, just ignore it, we won’t delete your post.

5. Only recent news is allowed.

Posts must be news from the most recent 30 days.

6. All posts must be news articles.

No opinion pieces, Listicles, editorials or celebrity gossip is allowed. All posts will be judged on a case-by-case basis.

7. No duplicate posts.

If a source you used was already posted by someone else, the autoMod will leave a message. Please remove your post if the autoMod is correct. If the post that matches your post is very old, we refer you to rule 5.

8. Misinformation is prohibited.

Misinformation / propaganda is strictly prohibited. Any comment or post containing or linking to misinformation will be removed. If you feel that your post has been removed in error, credible sources must be provided.

9. No link shorteners.

The auto mod will contact you if a link shortener is detected, please delete your post if they are right.

10. Don't copy entire article in your post body

For copyright reasons, you are not allowed to copy an entire article into your post body. This is an instance wide rule, that is strictly enforced in this community.

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
rjc@lemmy.world
Thekingoflorda@lemmy.world
Tenthrow@lemmy.world
JonsJava@lemmy.world
gedaliyah@lemmy.world
little_cow@lemmy.world
jeffw@lemmy.world
enu@lemmy.world