A new report calls for making state standardized tests more useful for teachers and students and for the state to help school districts pay to repair and renovate school buildings, among other sweeping recommendations.
Officials from several state education associations, including the Illinois Association of School Boards and the Illinois Association of Principals, came together to develop Vision 2030. It tackles four areas: keeping students safe, getting high-quality educators into the classroom, enhancing postsecondary success and improving how the state evaluates schools.
The report offers up specific suggestions the authors hope will help shape policy for years to come.
It builds on its predecessor, Vision 2020, which was the first report of its kind. That laid the groundwork for the state to reform the way it distributes money to schools — from an outdated formula to one of the most equitable in the country, said Kristopher Monn, executive director of the Illinois Association of Business Officials.
Vision 2030 says the state should continue pumping an additional $350 million into the “evidence-based” funding formula, as it has since 2018. The report asserts school districts need that kind of predicability when it comes to funding for building repairs.
“We have not made significant investments, year over year, in establishing equitable statewide funding for capital and safety needs,” Monn said. “Some of the suggestions are increasing access to state maintenance grants and perhaps exploring a statewide sales tax, similar to some county sales taxes.”
The officials also recommend a host of changes to the state’s assessment and school rating system. Currently, students only take one set of tests at the end of the year; ratings, such as exemplary or commendable, are based heavily on the results of those exams. While students take the tests in the spring, schools don’t get the results until the fall.
The delay in getting the scores “really impacts the utility of those results and makes it difficult for us to make any real, quality decisions about improving our schools and the potential outcomes for our kids,” said Jason Leahy, executive director of the Illinois Principals Association.
The report calls for teachers to get the results more quickly, perhaps in real time, even if they are preliminary.
Leahy said the officials would like some flexibility in school ratings, so they are not weighted so heavily on test results and can factor in other features that communities believe are important.
The officials also want to make sure the state standards used to determine if students are proficient in reading and math are in line with national norms. A study found that Illinois’ proficiency standards are some of the highest in the nation. Leahy said that is important to him as a parent.
The education leaders also said state mandates need to be streamlined. The school code has doubled in size since 2000, and many new rules come with associated costs. Leahy said every new mandate takes away from something else the school district is focused on or paying for, so lawmakers need to be careful.
NEW YORK — Jeremiyah Love scored three touchdowns, tying a school record with his 11th consecutive game with a rushing touchdown, and No. 6 Notre Dame ended No. 19 Army’s 13-game winning streak with a 49-14 victory on Saturday night at Yankee Stadium.
In a game scheduled as a 100th anniversary tribute to Notre Dame’s “Four Horsemen,” Love put on a pretty good one-man show. The sophomore had touchdown runs of 68 and 14 yards, finishing with 130 yards on seven carries, and leaped over a defender at the goal line to finish a six-yard scoring pass from Riley Leonard.
Leonard threw for two touchdowns and Jadarian Price ran for two scores for the Irish (10-1), who won their ninth straight to improve their College Football Playoff chances. Notre Dame was No. 6 in those rankings this week and looks every bit like a national title contender, allowing 14 or fewer points in six consecutive games.
With the team right above them falling earlier Saturday when No. 5 Indiana lost 38-15 to second-ranked Ohio State, the Irish likely will be a top-five team in the next poll.
Army quarterback Bryson Daily ran for 139 yards and both touchdowns, giving him 23 on the ground this season. The loss by the Black Knights (9-1) left No. 1 Oregon as the only unbeaten team in FBS. Army came in leading the nation with 334.9 yards rushing per game but managed only 207 against Notre Dame.
Notre Dame beat Army for the 16th consecutive time in the first matchup where both teams were ranked since 1958, the Black Knights’ last victory. This meeting was scheduled to honor the 100th anniversary of Notre Dame’s 1924 victory in New York at the Polo Grounds, when Grantland Rice began his story about the exploits of Harry Stuhldreher, Jim Crowley, Don Miller and Elmer Layden with one of the most famous openings in history, writing: “Outlined against a blue-gray October sky, the Four Horsemen rode again.”
That quote lined the wall above Monument Park in the stadium’s outfield, behind the end zone where Notre Dame took a 14-0 lead on touchdown passes by Leonard on its first two possessions. Army kept the ball for more than 7½ minutes on its next drive while making it 14-7 on Daily’s four-yard run early in the second quarter, but the Irish went up by two touchdowns again on Love’s 14-yard run that tied Wayne Bullock’s record of 11 consecutive games with a rushing touchdown in 1973-74.
Notre Dame scored touchdowns on four of its six drives in the first half, then added another 10 seconds into the second half when Love went 68 yards on the first play to make it 35-7.
Cuando Danny Solís finalmente entró en el estrado de la corte federal el jueves, hizo un giro brusco hacia el estrado del jurado y luego otro hacia el estrado de los testigos que lo habían estado esperando durante más de ocho años.
El camino que eligió lo mantuvo lo más alejado posible de un hombre que se encontraba al otro lado de la sala de la corte, el ex presidente de la Cámara de Representantes de Illinois Michael J. Madigan. Aunque Solís nunca volteó a ver a Madigan, los ojos de Madigan estaban puestos en el testigo más esperado en su juicio.
Solís vestía un traje azul, corbata azul y anteojos. Ocupó su asiento y se presentó al jurado.
“Mi nombre es Daniel Solís, S-O-L-I-S”, dijo. Un momento después agregó: “Fui concejal del distrito 25”.
Los fiscales federales también lo consideran uno de los “colaboradores más importantes de Chicago en las últimas décadas”. Grabó en secreto a algunos de los políticos más poderosos de la ciudad para el FBI después de que lo acusaran de vender su influencia a cambio de dinero para su campaña y para comprar viagra.
Y ahora, con la llegada de Solís a la sala del piso 12 de la corte del juez de distrito de EE.UU. John Blakey, el juicio por conspiración de extorsión de Madigan y su aliado de muchos años Michael McClain ha abierto un nuevo capítulo que promete nuevas intrigas y revelaciones sobre los prominentes habitantes de Chicago.
Antes de que Solís, de 75 años de edad, subiera al estrado, el proceso se volvió electrizante el jueves con el testimonio del agente especial del FBI Ryan McDonald. Bajo el contrainterrogatorio del abogado defensor de Madigan, Dan Collins, McDonald confirmó que el FBI intervino telefónicamente a la hermana de Solís, la ex directora de campaña de Hillary Clinton, Patti Solís Doyle.
Collins también presionó al agente sobre las reuniones de Solís, grabadas y no grabadas, con el político Brian Hynes después de que Solís aceptara usar un micrófono.
Hynes fue la primera persona a la que se acercó Solís después de que el FBI lo confrontara el 1 de junio de 2016, reconoció McDonald. No se pudo contactar a Hynes para que hiciera comentarios el jueves.
‘La tapadera del señor Solís… al descubierto’
El agente también testificó sobre el papel del Chicago Sun-Times en la exposición de Solís. El periódico fue el primero en obtener una declaración jurada del FBI que detallaba la investigación de los federales sobre el veterano miembro del Concejo Municipal.
El fiscal federal adjunto Amarjeet Bhachu mostró a los jurados un correo electrónico del 24 de enero de 2019 en el que el asistente de Madigan le dijo a McClain que le pidiera a Madigan que revisara un reportaje del Sun-Times.
“¿Los artículos del periódico habían revelado efectivamente la tapadera del señor Solís?”, preguntó Bhachu.
Solís testificó por poco menos de una hora antes de que el juez enviara a los jurados a casa para el fin de semana. Se espera que Solís regrese al estrado de testigos cuando el juicio se reanude el lunes, y se espera que testifique sobre tres esquemas en los que Madigan supuestamente intentó utilizar a Solís para asegurar negocios para su firma privada de abogados especializados en derecho tributario.
Sin embargo, Solís también podría finalmente responder por las acusaciones en la declaración jurada del FBI obtenida por el Sun-Times. En ella se alega que Solís tomó o se ofreció a tomar medidas oficiales para personas que le proporcionaban contribuciones de campaña, servicios de prostitución, el uso de una granja multimillonaria que alguna vez fue propiedad de Oprah Winfrey y que le daban viagra.
Él llamó al viagra la “medicina azul”.
Hasta ahora, los jurados en el juicio de Madigan han escuchado cinco semanas de testimonio sobre un supuesto plan de soborno en ComEd destinado a congraciarse con
Madigan. Pero esas acusaciones ya se habían ventilado en un juicio separado el año pasado, que terminó con la condena de McClain.
Ahora el juicio explorará evidencia que nunca antes se había hecho pública. Madigan, de 82 años de edad, está acusado de liderar una empresa criminal diseñada para aumentar su poder y bienestar financiero, con McClain actuando como su agente.
‘Un universo de individuos no relacionados con las personas involucradas en este caso’
Los federales comenzaron a sentar las bases para la nueva fase con el testimonio de McDonald, llevando a los jurados al pasado, al año 2014. Fue entonces cuando un desarrollador de Chinatown, See Wong, grabó en secreto a Solís y Madigan durante una reunión en el bufete de abogados de Madigan, Madigan & Getzendanner.
Ese evento desencadenó una intervención telefónica en el teléfono de Solís que duró varios meses en 2014 y 2015. Los federales escucharon las llamadas telefónicas de Solís y lo vigilaron hasta que finalmente lo confrontaron con sus grabaciones en su casa en Delano Court en junio de 2016.
McDonald dijo que Solís tardó unos 10 minutos en pedir hablar con un abogado. El agente dijo que Solís se puso en contacto con Hynes porque Solís no sabía el nombre de un abogado defensor. Después de consultar con uno durante la noche, McDonald dijo que Solís aceptó trabajar con los federales.
Si no lo hubiera hecho, McDonald dijo que el FBI tenía agentes listos para descender a sus oficinas en el Ayuntamiento.
Cabe destacar que Bhachu le preguntó a McDonald sobre el primer año de cooperación de Solís, y le preguntó: “¿La cooperación del señor Solís se centró en un universo de individuos no relacionados con las personas en este caso?”.
McDonald confirmó que eso era correcto. Solís también grabó al entonces concejal Edward M. Burke durante ese tiempo. Sin embargo, McDonald también testificó durante el juicio de Burke el año pasado que la cooperación de Solís inicialmente tampoco tuvo nada que ver con Burke.
Reuniéndose con Michael Madigan
El jueves el agente testificó que Madigan llamó la atención de los federales cuando se acercó a Solís para hablar sobre un proyecto de desarrollo de apartamentos en junio de 2017.
La mayor parte del testimonio de Solís se centró en sus antecedentes y las maquinaciones del Ayuntamiento. Solís dijo que conoció a Madigan a fines de la década de 1980, cuando llevó una delegación de padres de Chicago a Springfield para impulsar una legislación importante para la comunidad latina de la ciudad.
El ex presidente de la Cámara de Representantes de Illinois, Michael Madigan, sale de la Corte de Justicia Federal de Dirksen el jueves 21 de noviembre de 2024.
Anthony Vazquez/Sun-Times
Solis was involved in numerous neighborhood organizations, including the United Neighborhood Organization, before then-Mayor Richard M. Daley picked him to fill a vacated 25th Ward seat in 1996. Solis held the seat until 2019.
Solis testified that development in the 25th Ward was particularly active between 2011 and 2019, especially in the South Loop and West Loop. Meanwhile, prosecutors used Thursday’s testimony to introduce jurors to a crucial unwritten rule at City Hall: aldermanic privilege.
Solís participó en numerosas organizaciones vecinales, incluida la United Neighborhood Organization (UNO, por sus siglas en inglés), antes de que el entonces alcalde Richard M. Daley lo nombrara para ocupar un puesto vacante en el distrito 25 en 1996. Solís ocupó el puesto hasta 2019.
Solís testificó que el desarrollo en el distrito 25 fue particularmente activo entre 2011 y 2019, especialmente en los vecindarios de South Loop y West Loop. Mientras tanto, los fiscales utilizaron el testimonio del jueves para presentarles a los jurados una regla crucial no escrita en el Ayuntamiento: el privilegio de los concejales.
“No se aprobaba un cambio de zonificación para un proyecto de desarrollo a menos que el concejal de ese vecindario en particular lo apoyara”, les dijo Solís.
No sólo eso, sino que también dijo que los desarrolladores a menudo requerían la aprobación del Comité de Zonificación del Concejo Municipal.
Durante muchos años, ese fue Solís.
Traducido por Gisela Orozco para La Voz Chicago
The request was not related to the presidential campaign, instead focusing on Patti Solis Doyle’s brother Danny Solis’s dealings in the Chicago City Council, according to testimony in the trial of former state House Speaker Mike Madigan.
Though Solis never looked Michael J. Madigan’s way in the courtoom, the former Illinois House speaker seemed transfixed on the most highly anticipated witness in his trial.
El martes, los jurados en el juicio federal por conspiración de crimen organizado contra Michael Madigan escucharon la saga de Juan Ochoa, a quien Madigan presionó para que ocupara un puesto en la junta directiva de ComEd, a pesar de las objeciones de algunos demócratas latinos.
Bears rookie quarterback Caleb Williams was neither spectacular nor victorious last Sunday against the Packers, but his steady performance was reassuring after watching him in freefall for three games in a row.
Williams’ ability to pull out of that was crucial as he tries to get his career off the ground and eventually lead the Bears to something better than what they’ve been stuck in for the last several seasons. Completing 74.2% of his passes, totaling 301 yards passing and rushing and posting a 95.0 passer rating in a loss was hardly parade-worthy, but it reestablished his footing.
That’s how virtually everyone around him saw it, anyway. Williams, however, downplayed it in terms of being a confidence boost.
‘‘I wouldn’t say it did anything for me mentally,’’ he said. ‘‘After the third game, I realized that I can play and I feel good playing. Regardless of the interceptions at the beginning of the season, I was seeing the field well, and that still stands today.
‘‘There’s going to be rough times, rough patches over the long, healthy career that I hopefully have, and that’s not going to change my mindset.’’
For everyone else, it was a relief.
To make games such as the one against the Packers unremarkable, Williams must stack up more like it — and better ones. He gets that. Every time he has made progress, he has been measured in his perspective about it being merely a starting point.
His whole season is that, really, especially after the Bears plunged out of the playoff race with four consecutive losses. The most important thing, by far, about the last seven games is Williams setting his trajectory for 2025 and beyond.
The first half of the season, which was loaded with most of the Bears’ weaker opponents, was NFL 101. The advanced classes are in the second half, and none will be tougher to pass than what he’ll encounter Sunday against the Vikings. Defensive coordinator Brian Flores is known for dialing up the most confusing blitzes in the league.
Williams will get two shots at the Vikings, first Sunday at Soldier Field and then Dec. 16 in Minneapolis. The Bears’ chances of winning either game hinge on how quickly he catches on to Flores.
It’s also a huge part of his big-picture development, and coach Matt Eberflus said this is ‘‘a great game’’ for Williams — with the help of new offensive coordinator Thomas Brown — to demonstrate his ability to adapt from play-to-play ‘‘just because of the variation that you get’’ from Flores in terms of defensive fronts and personnel.
The Bears’ remaining seven games are against decent-to-great defenses and teams in the top half of the NFL in pressuring quarterbacks, so any steps forward Williams takes will be hard-earned and legitimate.
The Vikings are fourth in the league in points allowed, first in pressure and second in takeaways. Then Williams will turn around on Thanksgiving to face the Lions, who are fifth in points allowed, 10th in pressure and fifth in takeaways. Both teams rank among the top eight in opponent passer rating and third-down defense, too.
Good progress for Williams also would mean maximizing his connection with wide receiver Rome Odunze, a fellow rookie and an essential partner going forward. Odunze got a team-high 10 targets against the Packers — ‘‘my guy,’’ Williams called him — and caught six passes for 65 yards. That included back-to-back catches on third and fourth down with the game on the line.
‘‘We’re just in the beginning phase of this thing,’’ said Odunze, who leads the Bears with 479 yards receiving. ‘‘I have big aspirations, and [being] one of the best quarterback/wide receiver duos is at the top of my goal sheet. . . . We’ve got to go do big things.’’
Realistically, those ‘‘big things’’ probably won’t result in a shocking playoff run. But every gain Williams makes the rest of the season is massive for his future.
A 19-year-old woman was wounded in a shooting Saturday night in the Loop.
She was walking with several other people just before 9 p.m. in the first block of West Washington Street when someone fired shots, Chicago police said.
The woman suffered a gunshot wound to the leg and was taken in fair condition to Northwestern Memorial Hospital, police said.
In the afterglow of a 38-31 win at Rutgers that lifted Illinois to 8-3 — and was so exciting in the late stages that it stole some thunder from higher-profile college football matchups of the day — Illini coach Bret Bielema was feeling the import of the moment.
And then some.
“We got ranked [25th] in the CFP last week,” he said. “I expect us to climb. Crazy things can happen.”
Sorry, not as crazy as the notion of these Illini sneaking into the 12-team College Football Playoff. With all due respect to Bielema and his better-than-expected team, that’s about as likely to happen as Central Illinois hosting a Summer Olympics.
But there will be a lot of movement reflected in the next CFP rankings, and it was a dizzying Saturday on that front.
Ohio State put Indiana in its place in a top-five game won by the Buckeyes 38-15. But what is that place, exactly? When the Hoosiers gifted OSU a second touchdown via special-teams disaster in the first half, it felt a lot like they were seeing themselves out the playoff door. But that was before No. 7 Alabama was upset at Oklahoma, before No. 9 Ole Miss went down at Florida, before No. 14 BYU was dumped at Kansas — and those were just a few of the teams behind the Hoosiers that had miserable days. Turns out it’s far too soon to discount the very real possibility four Big Ten teams will be in the playoff field.
Speaking of the Big Ten, how very close Penn State came to losing, too. The No. 4 Nittany Lions squeaked out a 26-25 win at Minnesota despite trailing for much of the game. Would a two-loss PSU have gotten in? We’ll never know unless the unthinkable happens next week against Maryland.
What will the rankings look like on Tuesday? Oregon, Ohio State, Texas and Penn State will remain the top four. Notre Dame, which blew out unbeaten Army 49-14 at Yankee Stadium, should slide up to No. 5, followed by Miami, Georgia and Tennessee. Indiana should remain in the top 10. Remember, though: The highest-ranked foursome of conference champions will claim the top four spots in the bracket, which will push some playoff teams down a couple of notches — and leave one or two unhappy contenders on the outside looking in.
THREE-DOT DASH
• ENDINGS DON’T GET CRAZIER than Illinois’ last-ditch drive at Rutgers. Trailing 31-30 with 14 seconds left, the Illini missed a 58-yard field goal try by the width of a large barn but got a reprieve because Scarlet Knights coach Greg Schiano had called timeout. The Illini went for it on fourth-and-13 instead and Luke Altmyer found Pat Bryant for a catch-and-run that went the distance.
“We never flinched for a second,” Altmyer said.
But they did flinch. Bryant himself had a false start on fourth-and-8, setting up the fourth-and-13. The Illini flinched, held, roughed — you name it — on a terrible day in the penalty department. They played awful run defense. They missed a PAT that could have been the difference in the game. They didn’t play well at all — yet they won. That’s progress, isn’t it? …
• OHIO STATE ALSO LOCKED UP college football’s troll of the year award for a postgame scoreboard display poking fun at Indiana coach Curt Cignetti. Earlier this season, the ultra-confident Cignetti boasted about his career, “I win. Google me.” After he lost, an Ohio Stadium videoboard flashed a newspaper-style display with the all-caps headline, “BUCKEYES WIN??? GOOGLE IT!” …
• MINNESOTA’S P.J. FLECK committed coaching malpractice with 5:51 to go against Penn State. With his team four points behind and facing a fourth-and-8 in the red zone, Fleck ordered up a field goal that made it 26-25. The Nittany Lions got the ball back and proceeded to run out the clock. This isn’t the NFL, dude. …
• NORTHWESTERN’S BOWL HOPES died with a non-competitive 50-6 loss at Michigan. Wasn’t the Wildcats’ David Braun Big Ten coach of the year last season? If he got an A-plus for his work then, he gets at best a C for being 4-7 in a weird season without a true home field. Back to reality for the Cats. …
• NOTRE DAME’S MITCH JETER wasn’t perfect against Army, but we’re giving him game MVP for the Irish. Sure, he’s just a kicker who missed multiple field-goal tries, but there are rules about Jeters, MVPs and games at Yankee Stadium. …
• MYHEISMAN TOP FIVE entering Week 14: (1) Colorado WR/CB Travis Hunter, (2) Miami QB Cam Ward, (3) Boise State RB Ashton Jeanty, (4) Oregon QB Dillon Gabriel and (5) Indiana QB Kurtis Rourke.
Visitors filled Daley Plaza to shop, drink and, of course, eat Friday to mark the opening of the annual Christkindlmarket.
After the gates opened at 11 a.m., a steady stream of people explored all the market had to offer — from raclette, bratwurst and hot chocolate to ornaments, pottery and body care supplies — as the holiday season gets underway with Thanksgiving next week.
This year, Christkindlmarket has locations at Daley Plaza in the Loop and also in Aurora. Both are open through Dec. 24, with the Daley Plaza market open daily and the Aurora market open Thursdays through Sundays.
A steady stream of visitors went through the main entrance to the annualChristkindlmarket at Daley Plaza on Friday.
Anthony Vazquez/Sun-Times
At Daley Plaza, the market features more than 55 vendors, including Freider Frotscher, who sells traditional German steins, or ornamental beer mugs, at his booth.
The 62-year-old from Saxony, Germany, has been a vendor since the Chicago market started in 1996. But this is his final season; he plans to retire after this year.
“It’s kind of bittersweet,” Frotscher said as visitors poured in on his last first day. “It’s emotional.”
Frieder Frotscher in front of his stand of steins at the Christkindlmarket at Daley Plaza on Friday. After decades at the market, this is the last year for Frotscher at the Chicago market.
Anthony Vazquez/Sun-Times
One first-day visitors was Lauren Buscato, a lifelong Chicagoan who treks to the annual market every year.
After she saw on Instagram it opened today, she used her lunch break to take a quick trip to enjoy some pierogies and a hot chocolate in a souvenir boot mug. The boot mug is back this season after a five-year absence.
It won’t be Buscato’s only visit this year. She and her boyfriend like to go together, she said.
Lauren Buscato snagged a souvenir boot mug at the Christkindlmarket at Daley Plaza on Friday.
Anthony Vazquez/Sun-Times
“We usually make it a date night,” she said. “I love Christkindl at night, I think it’s so much fun to see everything lit up.”
While Buscato enjoyed the pierogies, Jill Gerloff of Fort Worth, Texas and Lucia Rodriguez of Phoenix were eating bratwurst shortly after arriving. The two friends met up in Chicago, and Gerloff suggested they go to the market, something she remembered from her time living in Oak Park.
“We don’t have a lot of [Christmas markets] in Phoenix,” Rodriguez said. “It’s really cool, I’m really excited. Everything looks so good, smells so good.”
Lucia Rodriguez (left) and Jill Gerloff at the Christkindlmarket at Daley Plaza on Friday.
Anthony Vazquez/Sun-Times
For Ramona Burress, the market was an annual family tradition for years, but trips haven’t been as frequent as no one in her family works near Daley Plaza anymore.
Burress was downtown with her mom attending a taping of Windy City Live, where they learned the market had opened. Since they already were nearby, they decided to make a day out of it.
Once there, they landed souvenir mugs and potato pancakes.
“We have a lot to celebrate this holiday season,” said Burress, who lives in the Woodlawn neighborhood. “It’s a low-cost place for families to come and out and enjoy.”
Customers like Burress are why Fortscher, the German vendor, has been making the trip to Chicago for nearly three decades.
“We really appreciate the Chicago people,” he said. “We love the city, so we come back every year. Once you start it, it’s like a fire burning and you have to keep up.”
Besides Fortscher, families can visit vendors from many other countries, including France, Canada and Nepal.
Those international vendors are one reason Phil Naumann, who owns the DonerMen food truck and operates a booth at the market comes back. “I get to see all my friends from overseas,” said Naumann, who lives in the Avondale neighborhood.
One of his employees calls it their “happy place,” he added.
“Everybody’s here to enjoy themselves,” Naumann said. “So it’s hard to not have a good time when everybody’s trying to have a good time.”
Phil Naumann by his DönerMen food stand at the Christkindlmarket at Daley Plaza on Friday.
It wasn’t exactly a ringing endorsement from Billy Donovan.
Then again, his Bulls team didn’t deserve one.
For the third time in the last six games, Donovan watched his defense allow 140 points or more. This time it was the undermanned Grizzlies, who strolled into the United Center and beat the home team 142-131.
“At some point we’ve got to hold our ground,” Donovan said, when discussing the defense and the idea of if it is fixable. “I said this before the season even started that defense was going to be a challenge, and it is. I think there are times that we have to look at the controllables.
“Is it fixable? Defense is a talent. It’s no different than offense in my opinion. There are guys that are talented defensively. We’re going to have to figure out a way to do it collectively. There are moments in time, moments of truth where you are going to be on an island, you are going to be by yourself. You’re going to have to make the guy make a couple different moves.”
That wasn’t the case for far too many Memphis baskets, especially for Scotty Pippen Jr., who scored a career-high 30 points and handed out 10 assists. He did all that on 13-of-17 shooting.
“Just take a stand, be more physical,” guard Coby White said of the defense trying to improve. “Take more pride. The whole nine. We just have to put more into it on that end of the floor.”
It wasn’t like the Bulls (7-11) didn’t catch somewhat of a break, either.
One of the concerning weaknesses on the defensive end has been guards that can simply blow-by defenders and get to the rim. There are few better at that than Memphis guard Ja Morant, but for the second time this season he did not play against the Bulls.
This time it was a pelvic muscle strain that kept him in street clothes.
They also avoided facing 7-foot-4 rookie Zach Edey, who was dealing with a left ankle sprain.
What the Bulls couldn’t avoid? More defensive breakdowns that allowed opposing teams to get way too comfortable both in the paint and from three-point range.
That’s exactly what happened in the third quarter as the visiting team seemingly scored whenever and however they wanted on the way to a 45-point quarter for the Grizzlies. Pippen Jr. did most of the damage with 14 points in the stanza, but as a team Memphis shot 18-of-28 (64%) from the field, scoring 20 points in the paint, while also shooting 6-of-11 from three-point range.
It wasn’t like the Bulls offense was that bad in the third, putting up 38 points on 13-of-25, but the defense? The nightmare continued.
“It’s just a process, man,” White said. “You can’t give up 140, but we do play at a frantic, high pace, so sometimes that can bleed over defensively because you’re trying to play so fast.
“We’re staying positive. I don’t have frustrations about it. We still got a long way to go. This season is all about continuing to get better and work on habits.”
If there was any good news it was the Bulls did have some offense highlights to build on, including rookie Matas Buzelis scoring a career-high 14 points, finishing a plus-10 in plus/minus, and having one of the better dunks of the season on a first-half breakaway.
Baby steps.
“I have not really seen much of a change in him in his attitude or his disposition,” Donovan said of his rookie continuing to develop. “The biggest thing I respect about him more than anything is I think he understands the importance of the little things. That’s an area of focus he has really been focusing on.”
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.
CYCLIST MO WILSON WAS FORGING HER OWN PATH
In March 2022, up-and-coming pro gravel bike racer –25-year-old Anna Moriah Wilson, known as “Mo” to some, appeared on the “Pre Ride Show,” an online program about cycling.
MORIAH WILSON (“Pre Ride Show interview): So excited to be here. It feels like the first big race of the year so yeah … I’m ready to kick it off.”
Just two months later, Wilson was found murdered — the news shocking the cycling community.
Lisa Gosselin Lynn: I don’t think anybody could really believe it at first. You know, why would anybody wanna hurt or harm or kill this lovely, talented young woman?
Lisa Gosselin Lynn is the editor of Vermont Sports Magazine and Vermont Ski and Ride Magazine. She is also a CBS News consultant.
Anna Moriah “Mo” Wilson, a rising star in the pro cycling world, was described as funny and friendly and smart and driven.
Ansel Dickey
Lynn had been following Wilson’s career for many months before her tragic death.
Lisa Gosselin Lynn: Moriah was pretty much winning every race that she entered, winning or finishing in the top two. And the races that she entered were top tier.
Lisa Gosselin Lynn: Moriah had the potential to be one of the top bike racers, definitely in the country, and probably in the world.
Remarkably, Lynn says that Wilson was new to the pro cycling world. Her first passion had been downhill ski racing, a love shared by her close-knit family.
Lisa Gosselin Lynn: She was born into a family of really great athletes. Her father Eric had been on the U.S. Ski Team. … and Moriah’s aunt … actually was a two-time Olympic Nordic ski racer.
And it’s no surprise that Wilson was drawn to outdoor endurance sports. She was raised in northern Vermont next to Kingdom Trails, a mecca for skiers and mountain bikers.
Lisa Gosselin Lynn: And that was her playground.
Wilson attended Burke Mountain Academy, an elite ski school that produced Olympic greats like two-time Gold medalist Mikaela Shiffrin. Wilson had hoped to make the U.S. Ski Team, but knee injuries eventually ended her skiing career. That’s when she switched sports.
Lisa Gosselin Lynn: She had used cycling as a way for rehabbing and kind of building back her strength. What was fascinating to me was she then went on to Dartmouth. She got an engineering degree. And after doing that, she went to her mother and said, “Hey Mom, I think I want to be a professional cyclist.”
And Wilson told the “We Got to Hangout” podcast that she wanted to do much more than just win races.
MORIAH WILSON (“We Got to Hangout”interview): How can I inspire people? How can I give back to the cycling community? How can I bring more people into the sport? How can I make it more inclusive? … I wanna find meaning and purpose in cycling that goes like far beyond the result.
Wilson eventually moved to San Francisco where she focused on cycling, and quickly rose to the top of the sport.
Lisa Gosselin Lynn: Moriah was forging her own path. … She knew what she wanted to do. And she was working hard to pursue it.
On May 10, 2022, just one week before her 26th birthday, Wilson arrived in Austin, Texas, to prepare for the Gravel Locos bike race — a race she was favored to win. Wilson stayed with a close friend in her Austin apartment. But the next evening, just before 10 p.m., the friend returned home and discovered Wilson, who had been shot multiple times. She called 911.
CAITLIN CASH | 911 call: … she’s laying on the bathroom floor and there’s blood everywhere.
Wilson’s friend tried CPR, but it was too late.
Det. Marc McLeod:It sounded like it started off near the door … and went backwards. Like she was trying to get away or there was some sort of struggle.
Austin Police Officers Marc McLeodandJonathan Riley worked the case from the beginning.
Det. Marc McLeod: Whoever shot her at that point stood over top of her and shot her at least once.
Investigators wondered who could have murdered this promising young athlete. As they canvassed the immediate area, police discovered a possible clue. Wilson’s expensive racing bicycle had been discarded in the bushes.
Det. Jonathan Riley: So, at that point … OK. Is this a burglary, a robbery gone wrong?
But that theory was quickly dismissed because there was no sign of a break-in. Then, police learned that just hours before Wilson was found murdered, at around 8:30 p.m., she had been dropped off by another professional bike racer named Colin Strickland.
Det. Marc McCloud: So, obviously the focus would be … who’s this Colin Strickland?
Lisa Gosselin Lynn: Colin Strickland was a very good gravel racer. … He was at the top echelon.
Colin Strickland, who was 35, was considered a pioneer in the sport. He had won some of the most prestigious races and was sponsored by the industry’s top brands, like Red Bull.
In 2020, he appeared in an online video called Wahoo Frontiers about his long and successful career.
COLIN STRICKLAND (Wahoo Frontiers video): My name is Colin Strickland and I’m a bicycle racer and a general entertainer.
Chris Tolley: Pretty early on I looked up to Colin when I was coming up on the scene.
Chris Tolley is friends with Strickland. They met on the racetrack.
Chris Tolley: He was the one to beat. … He loved to kind of create a show around bike racing — kind of selling bike racing. He was really passionate about it.
Colin Strickland
Nicole Fara Silver
And Tolley said although his friend had been popular with women, he eventually became serious with a woman named Kaitlin Armstrong.However, in a social media post after thecrime, Strickland wrote that about six months before Wilson’s murder, during a short breakup with Armstrong, he did have a “brief romantic relationship” with Wilson that “spanned a week or so.” He said that it ended, and their relationship had turned into a “platonic and professional one.”
Chris Tolley: He just wanted to be friends with, like, someone who was going to do great things in cycling.
The day after Wilson’s murder, police visited and spoke to Strickland at his home.
Det. Marc McLeod: My … my personal take was he was being very cooperative, being very forthcoming. Um, obviously he was in shock.
Jonathan Vigliotti: Being very transparent.
Det. Marc McLeod: Very transparent. Yeah.
And investigators say, when he agreed to go down to the police station to be interviewed, he didn’t seem to hold back when telling them about the day he spent with Wilson — a day that would end up being her last.
That day in May was hot, in the 80s. And this story started with a swim at a local outdoor pool. Strickland told detectives he took Wilson there on the back of his motorcycle to cool off.
Det. Marc McLeod: They went swimming, then they got food.
Wilson and Strickland are seen on the restaurant’s security camera.
Colin Strickland and Mo Wilson seen on a restaurant’s security camera.
Travis County District Attorney’s Office
Jonathan Vigliotti: I know he’s being transparent at this point during this questioning, but what he’s saying is starting to sound a lot like a date.
Det. Jonathan Riley: Yes.
Det. Marc McLeod: Oh yeah. A hundred percent.
Investigators had a lot of questions and their prior visit to Strickland’s home had raised even more. On the night of Wilson’s murder, police discovered an important clue on video from a neighbor’s security camera. The video was taken just one minute after Wilson was dropped off.
Det. Marc McLeod:There’s a video from a Ring doorbell camera that clearly shows like a black SUV with a bike rack. … You can’t see the license plate because of the bike rack on it.
Det. Jonathan Riley: So, it was obviously … we need to focus on this.
And a vehicle that fit that description was outside Strickland’s house. Who was driving the black Jeep SUV with the bike rack? The answer would lead directly to another woman.
WHO IS KAITLYN ARMSTRONG?
The day after Wilson’s murder, investigators quickly had an answer to who could have been driving that black Jeep that was seen on security cameras shortly before her death.
Investigators had spotted a similar looking Jeep in Strickland’s driveway when they spoke to him.
Det. Jonathan Riley: They see a black Jeep with the bike rack on the back of it. … so at that point we run the license plate, and it comes back that it’s registered to Kaitlin Armstrong.
Kaitlin Armstrong, Colin Strickland’s girlfriend. Tolley says he knew her very well.
Chris Tolley: We connected pretty early on. … Kaitlin and I became friends.
They were both from the Midwest.
Chris Tolley: We kinda had a similar — like, upbringing, and so I think that kind of — you know, help us become, like, even better friends. … She’d come over to parties I would have.
Armstrong had a background in finance and loved yoga.
Chris Tolley: She had a really strong, you know, kind of — you know, love for travel, love — you know, she had spent time pretty much, you know, globe-hopping around the world … really, you know, a kind of interesting person.
Armstrong got certified as a yoga instructor in Bali. After she met Strickland in 2019, she also started getting into cycling.
Chris Tolley: He was very willing to kind of show her, you know, what his passions were and how passionate he was for cycling and, you know, get her involved with it … and she also became … kind of addicted to cycling, along with Colin.
Armstrong even started racing on an amateur level.
Chris Tolley: At the end of the day, like, I feel like they had a pretty, like, normal relationship. They both ride bikes together. They would, you know, do fun stuff. And, you know, then 2020 happened and the pandemic started. So everyone was kind of, you know, forced with – you know, close quarters with their significant others.
The couple eventually moved in together.
Chris Tolley: The moment I — I saw the relationship become more serious is you know, they talked about — that they’d purchased a house recently — together, which I thought, you know, was a pretty big indication that it’s — you know, a serious relationship.
They also started a business together, restoring classic trailers.
Chris Tolley: I think she was helping with the finance side of things. Colin was doing a lot of the operations. … their relationship went from, you know, just a — normal couple to also owning a business together.
Kaitlin Armstrong and Colin Strickland
Chris Tolley
But things got bumpy in late 2021.
Chris Tolley: The breakup, I personally didn’t know, like, they were split up at the time. … neither of them mentioned anything to me.
It was during this time that Strickland and Wilson had briefly dated. Although Strickland had said that they had broken it off, Wilson seemed confused in the aftermath. Pilar Melendez covered the case for the Daily Beast.
Pilar Melendez | Daily Beast senior reporter:Around this time, I think Mo was pretty confused about the status of her relationship with Colin. … and she literally wrote:
…This weekend was strange for me…
…If you just want to be friends…that’s cool,
…Honestly…my mind has been going in circles…
Pilar Melendez: it sounds like someone who’s in their early 20s who just wants to know the status of her relationship with someone that’s confusing her. And it seems totally reasonable that she might be confused.
Strickland had a lot to say about his relationship with Armstrong.
Det. Marc McLeod: He starts to portray her as being the jealous type, even saying things like,” I can’t keep people in my phone.” Like “Mo’s not in my phone as Mo.”
Strickland told investigators he kept Wilson’s phone number under an alias in his contacts, and on that evening after he’d been out with Wilson at the pool, he texted Armstrong that he’d been out running an errand and that his phone had died. That was not true.
Investigators say, there were other clues pointing toward Armstrong.
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.
Jonathan Vigliotti: A silent phone speaks louder in some cases than actions.
Det. Jonathan Riley: Oh, absolutely.
Strickland also shared that he had bought handguns for Armstrong and himself for personal security
Det. Marc McLeod: He talks about how they purchase guns.
Det. Marc McLeod: And that there are these two guns and that she has a gun, um, they’ve taken lessons and that those — these guns are back at the house.And so few things like that start to paint a picture of like, this could — it could definitely be her
Police worked quickly. That same day, investigators picked Armstrong up on an old warrant for failing to pay for a Botox treatment.
Kaitlin Armstrong, left, during questioning.
Travis County District Attorney’s Office
DETECTIVE CONNER: … what were you doing yesterday?
KAITLIN ARMSTRONG: I would like to leave.
Det. Marc McLeod: And she’s just kind of sitting there and she’s not showing very much emotion at all. … typically when we see some interviews going on and if you didn’t do it, this is your, like, you’re going to be like, you know, not me, not it. I want out of this room. What do you want to know? … So that you don’t come back looking for me. And there was none of that.
DETECTIVE CONNER: Is there any explanation as far as why the vehicle would be over there?
KAITLIN ARMSTRONG: I would like to leave …
Det. Jonathan Riley: She was almost completely disinterested in — in hearing what the detectives had to say.
Jonathan Vigliotti: So, it sounds like this is a big red flag immediately?
Marc McLeod: Oh —
Jonathan Riley: Oh, absolutely.
But investigators had to let Armstrong go. There was a problem — Armstrong’s birthdate didn’t match the date on the warrant, so the warrant wasn’t valid, and police didn’t have enough to charge her with anything else.
Two days after that interview, police got an unexpected call. It was from a friend of Armstrong. Police say the caller told them that Armstrong was so angry about Strickland’s relationship with Wilson, that she wanted to kill her. It was yet another indication that they were on the right track. A few days later, an arrest warrant was issued, but when police went looking for Armstrong, she was gone.
ON THE HUNT FOR KAITLIN ARMSTRONG
After Kaitlin Armstrong vanished, U.S. Marshals got the job of tracking her down.
Chris Godsick: Plain and simply the Marshals are man hunters.
Chris Godsick hosts and produces a podcast with the U.S. Marshals Service.His “Chasing Evil” podcast tells stories of some of the Marshals Service’s biggest cases, including the hunt for Armstrong.
Chris Godsick: Nobody thought Kaitlin Armstrong was going to run and she surprised them all. She disappeared.
“CHASING EVIL” PODCAST: Kaitlin Armstrong ran from a murder charge. … But the U.S. Marshals Lone Star Fugitive task force had a different plan …
Jonathan Vigliotti: So take me through this. … Where do you begin when you’re looking for somebody that does not want to be found?
Deputy U.S. Marshal Emir Perez: You know, it depends on the case, honestly. … we look for friends, sometimes we look for … family.
Deputy U.S. Marshal Damien Fernandez: One of the things that I did was collect as many photos as I could.
“48 Hours” contributor Jonathan Vigliotti, center, with members of the Lone Star Fugitive Task Force. From left, Deputy U.S. Marshal Emir Perez, Deputy U.S.Marshal Damien Fernandez, Vigliotti, Austin Police Officer Jonathan Riley and Austin Police Officer Marc McLeod.
CBS News
Damien Fernandez and Emir Perez are Deputy U.S. Marshals. They joined Austin Police Officers Jonathan Riley and Marc McLeod on the case. The team, based in Texas, is known as the Lone Star Fugitive Task Force.
With no sign of Armstrong, the task force suspected she may have left town headed for her sister Christie’s place in upstate New York.
Det. Marc McLeod: We were thinking maybe she’s driving cross country. We didn’t know.
Their instincts were right. In upstate New York, another Deputy U.S. Marshal managed to track down Armstrong’s sister.
Jonathan Vigliotti: What did the sister say?
Deputy U.S. Marshal Emir Perez: The sister ultimately said … that her sister had come to visit her … and stayed with her a couple of days, but that she had dropped her off at the airport in Newark. And last she heard, she was gonna board a flight back to Austin, but then called her back later and said that she decided that she was gonna drive back.
Det. Marc McLeod: … which made absolute — no sense to any of us that you would just drive back.
When the task force checked outbound flights at Newark Airport, no reservations had been made in Kaitlin Armstrong’s name.
Det. Marc McLeod: We never got a hit on Kaitlin Armstrong’s passport.
But the team had a hunch because Christie Armstrong told the Deputy U.S. Marshal in New York that she didn’t know where her passport was. So they checked with their contact at Homeland Security.
Det. Jonathan Riley: And within minutes of reaching out to him, he got back to me and he’s like, yeah, we’re showing Christie Armstrong traveled out of Newark, New Jersey, International Airport on a one-way flight to Costa Rica
Jonathan Vigliotti: You knew it.
Emir Perez: I said, there’s no way that the sister left. And we’re looking for her and we can’t find Kaitlin. No, that’s Kaitlin.
The U.S. Marshals suspected that Kaitlin Armstrong has used her sister’s passport to flee. Christie Armstrong later emphasized to authorities that she did not give her sister the passport. She has never been charged with any crime related to the case.
Kaitlin Armstrong landed in Costa Rica, the gem of central America and home to mountains, tropical rain forests and white sand beaches as far as the eye can see.
But she didn’t spend much time in San José. Shortly after arriving, Armstrong disappeared again — and she had a huge lead on the U.S. Marshals. Perez and Fernandez arrived in Costa Rica a month after Armstrong.
Jonathan Vigliotti: This is you guys now on the hunt. How intense is it once you touch down in Costa Rica? What happens?
Deputy U.S. Marshal Damien Fernandez: You’re on a timeline.
Jonathan Vigliotti: I hear timeline and I hear the pressure is on —
Deputy U.S. Marshal Damien Fernandez: Pressure’s on. I know we were sitting in the plane and we’re talking, what’s the game plan?
Although they would have help from the Costa Rican authorities and U.S. State Department officers on the ground, they knew finding Armstrong was going to be a big challenge.
Deputy U.S. Marshal Emir Perez: We had other intelligence indicating that … she was staying in hostels in Costa Rica. And I don’t know if you know anything about Costa Rica, but Costa Rica has a lot of hostels, a lot, an unbelievable amount of hostels.
The U.S. Marshals wouldn’t tell “48 Hours” exactly how their intelligence gathering worked, but their team back in the States had managed to track down the phone number for an American businessman they believed had connected with Armstrong at some point.
Det. Marc McLeod: We didn’t know what city he was in. So we decided, hey, let’s just cold call him. … So we call him. And we’re on the conference room and he answers. And we’re like, “Hey, it’s the U.S. Marshals. My name is Marc.” And he goes, “I don’t want any,” click just hangs up. Like it’s a — like a —
Jonathan Vigliotti: A telemarketer.
Det. Marc McLeod: Yeah. A telemarketer.
Det. Jonathan Riley: Right. Or a scam call.
After three or four call attempts, the businessman finally stayed on the line to answer the U.S. Marshals’ questions.
Det. Marc McLeod: And we actually ended up sending a picture of Kaitlin … while we’re on the phone with him. He looks at it and he goes, yes, but she doesn’t look like that and she’s not using that name.
Jonathan Vigliotti: And did he tell you her new name?
Det. Marc McLeod: He did.
Det. Jonathan Riley: It was Beth.
Det. Marc McLeod: Beth.
Det. Jonathan Riley: She was going by Beth.
Jonathan Vigliotti: Going by Beth.
Kaitlin Armstrong
U.S. Marshals
And the businessman said Armstrong no longer looked like her photo. She had cut her hair and changed its color.
Det. Jonathan Riley: It was brown hair instead of red.
Emir Perez: Yeah, she dyed her hair.
The businessman told the U.S. Marshals he had no idea that the woman who called herself Beth was actually Kaitlin Armstrong, but he did tell them where they might find her.
Det. Marc McLeod: He’s like, “Well, I met her at a yoga studio in Jacó.”
Jacó is a popular tourist destination known for its nightlife and its beaches and the perfect place to hide. It was the U.S. Marshals’ first real tip, so they rushed there.
They canvassed the area, combed through hours of surveillance video, but could not find a single sign of Kaitlin Armstrong anywhere. It was a bust.
Chris Godsick: … but the Marshals have one more solid lead and that takes them to a beautiful touristy beach town— a one-street town called Santa Teresa.
WAS KAITLIN ARMSTRONG HIDING IN PLAIN SIGHT?
One month after Kaitlin Armstrong disappeared, the U.S. Marshals were in hot pursuit of her in another area of Costa Rica. A source had suggested she might have gone to a small village on the Pacific coast.
The U.S. Marshals took a ferry to reach a remote peninsula. Once there, they drove by car through mountains to the tiny town of Santa Teresa. But when they finally arrived, they ran into an unexpected problem.
Jonathan Vigliotti: … you get to Santa Teresa. … Was it easy to identify her there from the other people that were there?
Deputy U.S. Marshal Damien Fernandez: I think from the get-go we were told … you’re gonna be in for a surprise ’cause a lot of the women in Santa Teresa look just like Kaitlin — a lot of them.
And it turns out, that advice was right. The town was full of foreign tourists. Deputy U.S. Marshals Fernandez and Perez arrived in Santa Teresa after dark.
Deputy U.S. Marshal Emir Perez: So, we get there, and he starts walking down a main strip that’s there, uh, like down the street.
Deputy U.S. Marshal Damien Fernandez: There’s only one road on — on that town.
Deputy U.S. Marshal Emir Perez: And he sees —
Deputy U.S. Marshal Damien Fernandez: Main road.
Deputy U.S. Marshal Emir Perez: He sees a girl and he says, you know, that looks just like her. Well, a couple minutes later, we see another one. And it’s late at night and we’re like, whoa, oh, man, that’s two. … And then there’s another one.
As the U.S. Marshals tried to find Armstrong, they even had one of their female operatives start going to yoga classes to see if they could spot her.
Deputy U.S. Marshal Damien Fernandez: She actually did three different classes for us.
And they tapped into local contacts.
Deputy U.S. Marshal Damien Fernandez: Oh, yeah. We made friends with people there that would send us pictures. Oh look, I — I think I saw her at this restaurant yesterday and she’s in the back in the background of a photo that I took, stuff like that.
The search for Kaitlin Armstrong sparked what would become an international manhunt — first leading authorities across the U.S. and then eventually to the beaches of Costa Rica. While on the run, she used different names and changed her appearance.
U.S. Marshals
In fact, people had seen Armstrong at local spots in Santa Teresa, but they didn’t realize who she was. Armstrong was hiding in plain sight using different names.
Jonathan Vigliotti: She had like multiple names.
Greg Haber: Yeah. Um, she came in —
Man in restaurant: Beth?
Greg Haber: Um —
Jonathan Vigliotti Beth?
Greg Haber: It wasn’t Beth.
Woman in restaurant: Ari?
Greg Haber: Ari.
Jonathan Vigliotti: Ari.
Greg Haber: Ari, right. So she came in as Ari.
Greg Haber is an American from the New York area who owns a restaurant called Kooks Smokehouse and Bar in Santa Teresa.
Jonathan Vigliotti: Ari. What did Ari look like? Did she stand out to you?
Greg Haber: Pretty, came in, um, you know, introduced herself as a yoga teacher, which is basically anybody else down here … “hey, I moved here, teaching yoga down the street” … and that was it.
Jonathan Vigliotti: What was her general vibe like?
Greg Haber: She definitely seemed like she was trying to establish roots here. Like this was gonna be her new home.
And Haber says one day he noticed something different about her.
Greg Haber: I saw her on the beach. … I walk my dog on the beach every night for sunset. … And you’re walking through, and you see the bandage on her face. It’s like, “Oh, what happened?” She’s like, “Oh, surfboard hit me in the face.”
Greg Haber: It’s like, well, happens to everybody, right, at least once. So, you wouldn’t even question that story here. Like, you see people all the time.
Turns out that bandage would later prove to be an important part of this story — and one of the reasons the U.S. Marshals say Armstrong was so hard to find.
Jonathan Vigliotti: So, you’re this close to giving up.
Deputy U.S. Marshal Damien Fernandez: Yes.
Finally, they decided on one last tactic: they turned to a local Facebook page.
Deputy U.S. Marshal Emir Perez: We decided we were gonna put an ad out, for a yoga instructor and see what would happen.
Jonathan Vigliotti: So this is the equivalent of Craigslist.
Deputy U.S. Marshal Emir Perez Yes, correct. Right. Pretty much.
Deputy U.S. Marshal Damien Fernandez: A little bit more lively, but yes. … And just saying, hey, we’re at this hostel, we’re looking for a yoga instructor as soon as possible. Please contact us at this number.
But after almost a week of hunting, even that didn’t seem to be working.
Deputy U.S. Marshal Damien Fernandez: Sunday, we decided we haven’t gotten any response back from anything.
Deputy U.S. Marshal Emir Perez: Nothing. We’re burned.
Deputy U.S. Marshal Damien Fernandez: So, Sunday we’re like, OK, we’re done. … None of ’em have panned out. So —
Deputy U.S. Marshal Emir Perez: We’re going back to San José
Now back in San José, the U.S. Marshals were getting ready to head home when suddenly —
Deputy U.S. Marshal Emir Perez: We got a bite, somebody that, um, identified herself … as a yoga instructor and said they wanted to meet with us at a particular hostel … and we said … “this is, this is our chance!”
Perez and Fernandez rushed back to Santa Teresa just ahead of a tropical storm.
Tourism Police Lieutenant Juan Carlos Solanos’ team helped the U.S. Marshals in their search for Armstrong. They did surveillance on a hostel called “Don Jon’s” where the yoga instructor — the one who answered that online ad — was believed to be.
Jonathan Vigliotti (to Solano in Costa Rica): So, there is this massive international manhunt, and of all places in the world, it ends in this very discreet hostel.
Lt. Juan Carlos Solano: Sí, aquí se ubicó, ella estaba hospedada acá. (Translation: Yes, this is where she was staying, she was staying here.)
It was now time for the U.S. Marshals to make their move.
They decided that Deputy U.S. Marshal Perez would approach the woman alone. They didn’t want to scare her off. He would pretend to be a tourist and try to get a really good look at her face.
Deputy U.S. Marshal Emir Perez: So I walked up … and I got in.And I saw two individuals sitting there at a table, off to the left, as soon as I walked in.
He says one was a woman.
Deputy U.S. Marshal Emir Perez: She looked like Kaitlin, but not 100 percent. … So I thought, well, how can I approach her or get close enough where I start asking questions where she doesn’t suspect something, So, I decided that I was gonna speak to her in Spanish. So I spoke to her in nothing but Spanish.
Jonathan Vigliotti: So, you’re communicating, she goes to use her phone for Google Translate and then –
Deputy U.S. Marshal Emir Perez: So, I got a little closer ’cause I saw that she was trying to get to Google Translate on her phone and she’d raised it up to me and I got even closer. … And I noticed that she had a bandage on her nose and possibly her lips were swollen. and I saw her eyes … The eyes are the exact same ones that I saw in the picture. And this is her 100 percent.
Deputy U.S. Marshal Damien Fernandez: He gets in the car, and he is like, “That’s her. She’s in there.”
Kaitlin Armstrong was caught and arrested at a hostel on Santa Teresa, Costa Rica, on June 29, 2022.
U.S. Marshals
Local police moved in to make the actual arrest. And soon the U.S. Marshals discovered why Armstrong had been so hard to find: she had been getting plastic surgery when they first arrived in Santa Teresa.
At the hostel, they found a receipt.
Damien Fernandez: The receipt for, surgery.
Jonathan Vigliotti: Plastic surgery?
Damien Fernandez: Plastic surgery.
Kaitlin Armstrong before,left, and after her plastic surgery.
U.S. Marshals/Harris County Sheriff’s Office
In side-by-side photos, you can see that Armstrong changed the shape of her nose. The Deputy Marshals said their female operative — the woman they sent to yoga classes to try and find Armstrong — told them Armstrong’s new look would have tricked her.
Deputy U.S. Marshal Damien Fernandez: She told me, I think if I would’ve run into her at the yoga studio doing yoga classes, I don’t think I would’ve recognized her.
Jonathan Vigliotti: Wow. It almost worked.
Deputy U.S. Marshal Damien Fernandez: It almost worked.
THE CASE AGAINST KAITLIN ARMSTRONG
The U.S. Marshals took Armstrong back to Texas, where she was charged and held in jail. But just weeks before she was due to stand trial for the murder of Moriah Wilson, Armstrong escaped from custody again.
Pilar Melendez: She was at a doctor’s appointment and tried to escape as they were walking out.
Pilar Melendez from the Daily Beast says Armstrong didn’t get far before deputies caught her.
Pilar Melendez: It was pretty astonishing that she did that given the fact that she had tried to escape prosecution prior.
D.A. José Garza: This was just more evidence of her guilt.
José Garza is Travis County’s district attorney. He says his team of prosecutors — Rickey Jones and Guillermo Gonzalez — were more than ready to try the case.
D.A. José Garza: When we learned that she had tried to escape, it just added to our confidence level in the facts of this case … that we would be able to secure justice for Moriah and her family.
On Nov. 1, 2023, Armstrong’s trial began.
RICKEY JONES | Prosecutor (opening statement): The last thing Mo did on this earth was scream in terror.
In opening statements, Jones told the jury about chilling audio from a security camera that
captured the last moments of Moriah Wilson’s life.
RICKEY JONES (opening statement): Those screams are followed by “pow! pow!” Two gunshots. … Kaitlin Armstrong stood over Mo Wilson and put a third shot. Right into Mo’s heart.
Prosecutors said Armstrong had been tracking Wilson by using a sports app.
Pilar Melendez: Kaitlin, prior to the murder, had been following Mo on the Strava app, which is basically an app that athletes use to track their miles, running, biking … And she knew exactly where she was.
And they said that Armstrong, on the night of the murder, was most likely tracking Colin Strickland, as well.
Guillermo Gonzalez | Prosecutor: She did have the ability to monitor his communications. She had access to all of his passwords. She had access to his Instagram account.
Rickey Jones: I believe that when Mo sent Colin a text letting him know the address where she was. I believe that Kaitlin Armstrong was at home on Colin Strickland’s laptop. … She saw that message.
After murdering Wilson and before leaving the scene, Jones told the jury that Armstrong took Wilson’s bike and discarded it in the bushes just yards away from where her Jeep was parked.
As investigators canvassed the immediate area after Moriah Wilson’s shooting, police discovered her expensive racing bicycle had been discarded in the bushes. Kaitlin Armstrong’s DNA would later be found on the handlebars and seat of Wilson’s bike.
Travis County District Attorney’s Office
Rickey Jones: Our belief is that she maybe staged it to look like a robbery or something. Or, another theory is, Mo Wilson’s bike is a tool of her trade. It might have been like the bullet shot in the heart. I’m going to shoot you in the heart. I’m going to throw away your bike.
But they said Armstrong made one big mistake: she left her DNA behind on the handlebars and seat of Wilson’s bike. And that’s not all the evidence prosecutors had against Armstrong. There was that receipt that showed Armstrong had received plastic surgery while hiding out in Costa Rica.
Rickey Jones: Everything she does … it’s all consistent with trying to evade the authorities.
But when it was the defense’s turn, attorney Geoffrey Puryear told the jury there was no direct evidence — including security footage — that actually showed Armstrong was at the scene of the crime.
GEOFFREY PURYEAR (in court): Not one witness saw Kaitlin Armstrong allegedly commit this murder.
Then why would Armstrong flee and hide from authorities? Defense attorney Rick Cofer pointed the finger at Colin Strickland.
RICK COFER (in court): Was she scared? What do you think? Do you think that she may have been concerned a little bit that her boyfriend had killed someone? … Fear results in fight or flight and it was flight.
But Jones said, there was a big problem with this theory because Strickland had nothing to do with the murder of Wilson.
Rickey Jones: In fact, at the time of the murder, he was actually on the phone speaking with someone. … it wasn’t Colin Strickland.
Armstrong’s defense team did not respond to “48 Hours”‘ request for an interview.
After a two-week trial, it took the jury around two hours to decide Armstrong’s fate.
JUDGE (reading verdict):We the jury find the defendant Kaitlin Armstrong guilty of the offense of murder …
“As a prosecutor, the first row right behind you is the family … you began to feel their pain and their desire for a just outcome for their loved ones,” said Rickey Jones.
AP
Rickey Jones: As a prosecutor, the first row right behind you is the family … you began to feel their pain and their desire for a just outcome for their loved ones.
One day after her conviction, Armstrong was sentenced to 90 years behind bars.
But before the case came to an end, Judge Brenda Kennedy allowed Caitlin Cash — Wilson’s close friend whose apartment she had been staying at and who had found Moriah’s body – to take the stand and speak directly to Armstrong.
CAITLIN CASH (in court): So many people in this room have lost so much. … I’m angry at you, at the utter tragic nature, at the senselessness at not being able to hear Mo’s voice again. … I feel deep sadness for the road ahead.
Then it was Moriah Wilson’s mother’s turn.
KAREN WILSON (in court): I hate what you did to my beautiful daughter. It was very selfish and cowardly that violent act on May 11th. It was cowardly because you never chose to face her woman-to-woman in a civil conversation. She would’ve listened. She was an amazing listener. She would have cared about your feelings.
Anna Moriah “Mo” Wilson
Elliot Wilkinson Ray
But despite the pain, Karen Wilson closed with words of love and optimism, because she said that’s how Moriah would have wanted it.
KAREN WILSON (in court): You killed her earthly body, but her spirit is so very much alive, and you can never change that.
Today in Kingdom Trails in northern Vermont, a place that was sacred to Wilson, a trail was built in her honor. It’s called “Moriah’s Ascent.”
Lisa Gosselin Lynn: Moriah was a Vermonter. She was giving. She was hardworking. She was honest. She was caring. And she came from a wonderful family. And that family really wants that legacy and all of her good qualities to inspire others …
To honor Moriah, the Wilson family created the Moriah Wilson Foundation that promotes healthy living and community building.
“48 Hours” Post Mortem podcast
Host Anne-Marie Green, correspondent Jonathan Vigliotti and “48 Hours” field producer Hannah Vair take you inside the case.
Produced by Chuck Stevenson and Chris Ritzen. Hannah Vair is the field producer. Alicia Tejada is the coordinating producer. Ryan Smith, Jenna Jackson and Cindy Cesare are the development producers. Matthew Mosk is the senior investigative editorial director. Wini Dini, Mike Baluzy, Grayce Arlotta-Berner and Joan Adelman are the editors. Lourdes Aguiar is the senior producer. Nancy Kramer is the executive editor. Judy Tygard is the executive producer.
Jonathan Vigliotti
Jonathan Vigliotti is a CBS News correspondent based in Los Angeles. He previously served as a foreign correspondent for the network’s London bureau.
The major-league deadline for teams to tender contracts to their arbitration-eligible players passed Friday, with the White Sox taking a pass on veteran first baseman/outfielder Gavin Sheets and right-handed reliever Enyel De Los Santos. Both will become free agents.
All remaining unsigned players on the 40-man roster have been tendered contracts for the 2025 season. That includes first baseman Andrew Vaughn, whose status was in some doubt until an announcement from the Sox came an hour before the 7 p.m. deadline.
The #WhiteSox have declined to tender 2025 contracts to right-handed pitcher Enyel De Los Santos and infielder/outfielder Gavin Sheets.
All remaining unsigned players on the White Sox 40-man roster have been tendered contracts for the 2025 season.
Sheets, a powerful left-handed hitter who was a second-round draft pick by the Sox in 2017, played the last four seasons with the big-league club. As a rookie in 2021, Sheets hit a solo home run against the Astros’ Lance McCullers to put the Sox ahead 1-0 in Game 4 of the American League Division Series at Guaranteed Rate Field. It was downhill for the Sox from there; they lost that game 10-1 and were eliminated. For Sheets, there really wasn’t any uphill from there, either.
The Sox gave Sheets, 28, a shot to find more at-bats as an outfielder, but that defensive task proved too much for him. In 501 plate appearances in the team’s disastrous 2024 season, Sheets hit .233 with 10 homers, 45 RBI and 106 strikeouts. Overall with the Sox, he hit 46 homers and drove in 175 runs, with a slash line of .230/.295/.385.
One little thing for which Sheets should be remembered well: his willingness to assume a thankless role as one of the spokesmen of a 121-loss team. As awful as last season got, Sheets was a stand-up presence in the clubhouse, consistently available to reporters seeking comments about a subject without a bright side.
De Los Santos, 28, appeared in 15 games for the Sox after being claimed off waivers from the Yankees in August. The Sox were his sixth major-league team.
NOTE: The Sox announced the return of their fan fest but in a different form. “SoxFest Live” will be held from 5 to 9 p.m. Jan. 24 and 25 at Ramova Theatre. Tickets go on sale at noon Tuesday on the theatre’s website. General admission is $56. The last SoxFest was held in January 2020.
