She lived in Main Street, Pennsburg, which in hindsight is about as rich a paradox as could be. Her apartment on the second floor of a block of flats in the Pennsylvania town was nondescript, except for some wind chimes and a star hanging from the balcony.
But on Wednesday the world learned of Colleen LaRose’s alleged second life, one quite out of keeping with the low-key figure she presented. She was blonde, blue-eyed, 5ft 2ins tall and wholly unassuming, according to a former boyfriend, Kurt Gorman. “She seemed normal to me. She was a good person,” he said.
But to the FBI agents who had been tracking her every move from at least as early as July last year, she was potentially a dangerous would-be terrorist intent on martyrdom and using the aliases Jihad Jane and Fatima LaRose.
The US media reported that LaRose’s case is linked to the arrest in Ireland on Tuesday of seven suspected plotters from Algeria, Libya and the US.
The arrest of LaRose, 46, has been seized on by US national security officials as a warning that terrorist groups want to recruit white Americans to circumvent tight travel controls.
LaRose was arrested on October 15 as she returned to the US from a trip to Europe, but details have only now been released to allow international agents to track her contacts. She is being held at a federal prison in Philadelphia.
She grew up in Texas but moved to Philadelphia in 2004. Neighbours in Pennsburg said she had a reputation for eccentricity. “She was the weird, weird lady who lived across the hall. We always called her the crazy lady,” said Eric Newell, adding that despite that he never thought she was dangerous. His wife, Kristy, said LaRose used to talk a lot to her cats.
Why and when LaRose converted to Islam is not known, but the indictment pinpoints her involvement in jihadist conspiracy to June 2008, when she allegedly posted a comment on YouTube under the alias Jihad Jane, saying she was “desperate to do something somehow to help” the suffering Muslim people. The charges detail how over the next few months she came into contact through the internet with five separate unnamed but known jihadists in Europe and south Asia.
Her boyfriend says she suddenly disappeared from her apartment. “I came home and she’s gone,” he said, adding that she stole his passport, for which she has also been charged.If convicted she faces life in prison and fines of up to $1m.