Colleen LaRose

Colleen Renée LaRose (born June 5, 1963), also known as Jihad Jane and Fatima LaRose, is an American citizen who was convicted and sentenced to 10 years for terrorism-related crimes, including conspiracy to commit murder and providing material support to terrorists.

She had married at age 16 and never finished high school.

After a quick divorce, she later married again at age 24, and divorced after a decade.

LaRose later married Rodolfo "Rudy" Cavazos in 1988, when she was 24 years old; the marriage ended in divorce ten years later in 1998.

She had moved from Texas in 2004 to live in Pennsburg, Pennsylvania.

LaRose moved to the Philadelphia area in 2004 to live with her new boyfriend, Kurt Gorman, whom she had met in Ennis, Texas, when he was on a business trip.

She helped him care for his aging father.

After personal losses and attempting suicide in 2005, she converted to Islam.

She was prosecuted in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.

Spurred by the deaths in short order of her brother and father, LaRose apparently attempted suicide on May 21, 2005, by consuming eight to ten cyclobenzaprine pills along with alcohol.

Her sister Pam in Texas had been worried about her and called 911 to alert police.

LaRose told responding police that she did not want to die.

She lived with Gorman for about five years.

During that period, she apparently converted to Islam and became radicalized, however, Gorman said that she "never talked about international events, about Muslims, anything".

Her interest in Islam was sparked by a Muslim man she met in a bar in Amsterdam.

After returning to Pennsylvania she began reading Muslim websites and signed up at a Muslim dating site.

She learned the basics of Islam from a mentor in Turkey and converted "via instant messenger".

"I was finally where I belonged," she recalled.

She took the Muslim name Fatima.

She became fixated with YouTube videos of attacks on Muslims by Israel and America.

She posted copies of what appear to be attacks on U.S. troops in Iraq.

Her Myspace profile featured messages such as "Palestine We Are With You" and "Sympathize With Gaza".

In her profile, she said she is a recent convert to Islam.

Her Myspace profile also reportedly included a post that read: "I support all the Mujahideen [Muslim warriors] I hate zionist & all that support them!"

On June 20, 2008, she posted a comment to the YouTube account "JihadJane" (account has since been suspended), saying that she was "desperate to do something somehow to help" suffering Muslims, according to authorities.

LaRose was taken into custody in October 2009, and her arrest was made public on March 9, 2010, after seven alleged co-conspirators were arrested in Ireland (five of whom were later released by the Irish authorities).

Among those arrested in Ireland (later released by the Irish authorities, but then arrested by U.S. authorities and charged as a co-defendant with LaRose in a superseding indictment) was Jamie Paulin Ramirez, an American woman from Colorado, whose parents say she was recruited by LaRose.

Specifically, LaRose was charged with trying to recruit Islamic terrorists to wage violent Jihad and of plotting to murder the Swedish artist Lars Vilks, who had drawn a cartoon of the Islamic prophet, Muhammad.

She was arraigned and initially pleaded not guilty on March 18, 2010.

She faced a maximum penalty of life in prison, and a $1-million fine.

On February 1, 2011, she pleaded guilty to all charges against her.

She was convicted on January 6, 2014, and sentenced to 10 years.

She was released from prison on November 2, 2018.

LaRose was born in Michigan and grew up in Detroit.

She has one sister, Pamela, who is three years older.

Their parents divorced when Colleen was 3.

She was raped by her biological father from about age 7 to age 13, when she ran away and became a prostitute.

LaRose was briefly married at the age of 16 to Sheldon Barnum, who was 32 at the time.

A miscarriage left her unable to have children.

Eventually, she moved to Texas.