Fugitive yogi Kaitlin Armstrong instructed suitor about ‘traumatizing breakup’

The Texas yoga teacher accused of gunning down a intimate rival allegedly shut down any possibility of a romance with an admirer while hiding out in Costa Rica, telling him she’d just gotten out of a “traumatizing break up.”

Kaitlin Armstrong, 34, went out with the suitor a pair of times while she was on the lam in the times subsequent the Might 11 murder of pro bike owner Anna Moriah Wilson, who had a fling with Armstrong’s stay-in boyfriend.

Armstrong utilised the alias Ari Martin when she met Teal Akerson outside the house a tattoo store, finally exchanging quantities, he advised the Austin American-Statesman.

Soon after he took her to supper one particular night time, he leaned in for a kiss but “Ari” just preferred to be pals, he told the newspaper.

“We went on a pair of dates, but she said that she had just been through a serious traumatizing breakup and she hadn’t healed from it yet and wasn’t completely ready to get near at all,” he mentioned. The pair smoked cannabis and the fugitive talked about getting hallucinogenic mushrooms as effectively, he claimed.

“We went out to a bunch of distinct places, but most of the time she needed to type of be in a secluded spot,” Akerson additional. “I didn’t place any of it with each other. You would not think about it.”

Law enforcement consider Armstrong fatally shot Wilson following the cyclist experienced used the working day in Austin with Armstrong’s boyfriend and fellow cyclist, Colin Strickland. Wilson, who was in from San Francisco and remaining at a friend’s residence in advance of a race, had dated Strickland final yr, he later instructed cops.

Cops afterwards questioned Armstrong and showed her surveillance footage of a Jeep SUV matching hers at the scene of the criminal offense.

Law enforcement released Armstrong, and she afterwards sold her Jeep for $12,200 and fled the nation. Very first, she flew from Austin to Houston, then related to New York Metropolis. Times later, she utilized anyone else’s passport to fly from Newark, New Jersey, to San Jose, Costa Rica.

She sooner or later ended up in Santa Teresa, a distant Pacific Coast town which is 130 miles from the closest airport, the Statesman reported. It was there she was arrested right after a six-week manhunt, discovered dwelling under aliases and with an altered overall look that may well have involved cosmetic medical procedures.

She wore a bandage on her nose that she claimed was from a surfing personal injury and had a $6,350 receipt for beauty medical procedures in one more person’s name among her possessions at the yoga retreat wherever she experienced stayed.

The Statesman reported Costa Rican authorities centered on yoga resorts because of Armstrong’s historical past — and due to the fact she was noticed on US airport security with a yoga mat. She was arrested at Don Jon’s Surf and Yoga Lodge, where she had taught a handful of lessons when the normal instructor was out, the Statesman noted.

Following she was taken absent, an Argentinian man she had met on a bus came into Don Jon’s seeking for operate, according to the paper.

 “I advised them I know Ari,” he explained. “They stated, ‘No, you never know Ari.’”

Armstrong is now in custody in Austin, exactly where she’ll facial area a 1st-diploma murder cost.