Detailing the 43-day-long manhunt of Kaitlin Armstrong

AUSTIN, Texas - FOX 7 has obtained evidence that has never been seen outside the courtroom. U.S. Marshals tracked Kaitlin Armstrong after she fled the country and tried to change her appearance to avoid capture. 

Armstrong is currently in prison for the death of Anna Moriah Wilson in East Austin in 2022.

"She could be anywhere at this point," U.S. Marshal Susan Pamerleau said.

Surveillance shows Armstrong at Austin-Bergstrom International Airport boarding a flight to Houston and on to New York.

PREVIOUS COVERAGE:

• VIDEO: Kaitlin Armstrong's interrogation interview at APD headquarters
• VIDEO: Moment Colin Strickland found out about Anna Moriah Wilson's murder
• Kaitlin Armstrong: Never before seen evidence from murder trial

From there, "Did she leave from that airport and get picked up by someone else to be deceptive by the individual that provided transportation, or did she board a flight? If she boarded a flight, how did she board a flight? Because we've conducted, we feel that we've conducted a strong investigation, and there are no outbound flights registered under the name of Kaitlin Armstrong," Deputy U.S. Marshal Brandon Filla said.

That is because Armstrong used her brunette, New York-based sister’s passport and flew to Costa Rica. The hunt was on. The U.S. Marshals worked with local authorities and focused on the bus Armstrong took from the airport and how she moved around the country.

"They had a small paper trail that was leading down the road," Filla said.

Leading them to Santa Teresa Beach.

"They were able to kind of narrow in that vicinity and just conduct surveillance," Filla said.

But they didn’t know they were looking for someone who looked different now, more like her sister.

"We knew she was going to be associated with some type of yoga studio," Filla said.

They tracked her to Don Jon’s Surf and Yoga Lodge.

"When those foreign officials arrived at that yoga studio, they did find a handwritten login that was the same alias that she was going by when she traveled to Costa Rica, so once they developed that pattern, it really opened up things and really quickly closed in," Filla said.

The 43-day manhunt came to an end.

"She cut her hair about shoulder-length, it was a little uneven on sides, and she also dyed her hair to a darker brown color. We were also told that she had some type of bandage over her nose area where she claimed that she had gotten into a surfboard incident," Filla said.

Found in her belongings was a receipt for cosmetic surgery under the name Alisson Page, her sister’s passport stamped, and her own passport with no stamp.

Costa Rican Law Enforcement arrested Armstrong. She denied her identity until she was back at the airport being sent back to Texas.

Officials kept a close eye on her until she tried to escape.