A New Netflix Film About Cyclist Moriah Wilson Brings Humanity to Tragedy

A forthcoming Netflix documentary, The Truth and Tragedy of Moriah Wilson, chronicles the life of the talented young bike racer, who was murdered in Austin, Texas, in 2022. The film recently premiered at the 2026 SXSW film festival, which I attended along with the Wilson family and the filmmakers.

Academy Award-winning filmmaker Evan Hayes, who shot Free Solo, produced the film. Marina Zenovich, whose prior credits include the ESPN documentary Lance, directed it. The film will air on Netflix on April 3.

As an Austin-based journalist and cyclist, I covered Wilson’s murder from the hours after the news broke to the 2023 trial of her convicted killer, Kaitlin Armstrong, the ex-girlfriend of former professional cyclist Colin Strickland.

The film’s opening sequence, a grainy home video of Wilson as a very vocal baby, sets the tone. Truth and Tragedy is a story about a young woman who brought joy to those she touched, whose life was cut short by violence that remains incomprehensible to the people who knew her.

In May of 2022, Wilson visited Austin to attend the Gravel Locos bike race. She went swimming at a spring-fed pool with Strickland, whom she’d dated for about a week the previous fall. After eating dinner together, Strickland dropped Wilson off at the East Austin home of her friend, Caitlin Cash. Strickland’s then-girlfriend, Armstrong, later entered Cash’s home and shot Wilson three times with a handgun that Strickland had bought her. Armstrong fled to Costa Rica before ultimately being arrested by U.S. Marshals.

By telling Wilson’s story through the voices of those who loved her—primarily her parents Karen and Eric, her brother Matt, and her close friend Cash—the film functions as a thoughtful remembrance. Witnessing their resolve, composure and eloquence, is inspiring in the same way Wilson inspired the people she met through her racing. The film utilizes recurring excerpts from Wilson’s diary to showcase how deeply she cared about the people around her, and how much she strove to make the world a better place.

The sequence of events that led to Wilson’s murder, and ultimately, Armstrong’s conviction, is told through interviews with Austin police detectives and Travis County prosecutors, and by myself and others who became immersed in the tragedy through our work. Audio from my interviews with Strickland is also included in the film.

Through immersive visuals of Vermont’s Northeast Kingdom, the film helps us understand where and how Wilson grew up, at the base of Burke Mountain with an Olympic-level ski coach as a dad.

The film focuses on characters, like gregarious prosecutor Rickey Jones and the vulnerable yet unshakeable Cash. Because I know Strickland personally, my pulse started racing as I relived his dramatic exit from the courtroom following his testimony against Armstrong in 2023. Strickland eventually gave the filmmakers access, and the film shows him wrestling with the events. A central theme of finding peace after tragedy resonates through the film, a journey each person who knew Wilson has had to make on their own.

Kaitlin Armstrong exists as a shadow throughout the film, a former yoga teacher who became unrecognizable to her friends, including Strickland.

After the screening, the filmmakers took questions from the audience. At one point, Zenovich said, “I could hear a pin drop,” during the screening—noting how deeply rooted viewers were to the screen. Tears streamed from the faces of many audience members, from the opening credits to the closing slate, a testament to the emotion elicited by Wilson’s persona.

Wilson’s legacy carries forward through the Netflix film, and through the Moriah Wilson Foundation, which supports organizations dedicated to expanding access to recreation, sports, and educational programs. The Ride for Mo, a 52-mile gravel route around Burke Mountain, takes place May 9, 2026 in Lyndon, Vermont.