Colorado teenager, Shannon Conley, was sentenced Friday to four years in federal prison for conspiring to provide material support to a designated foreign terrorist group, the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS). The 19-year-old who now uses the name, Amatullah, which means “Female Servant of God,” was apprehended by federal authorities at Denver International Airport on April 8, 2014, after her father alerted the FBI to her plans. She was arrested as she was boarding a flight to Frankfurt, Germany where she planned to make connections to Istanbul and then on to Syria where she intended to marry a Tunisian jihadist she had “met” on the internet.

Conley faced a possible five years in prison and a $250,000 fine, but received a reduced sentence for cooperation with the authorities. Wearing a headscarf and regulation prison jumpsuit, Conley tearfully told U.S. District Court Judge Raymond Moore that the people who had influenced her had “misconstrued the Quran.” She said she now disavowed the radical views of the terrorist group, and was horrified by the violent attacks by ISIS, a claim Judge Moore said contradicted letters she had written in jail mocking fellow prisoners who had denounced Islam to influence their sentencing. The federal judge said from the bench that he wanted Conley’s sentence to serve as a deterrent to dissuade others from taking the same action to fight for ISIS.

Conley had been on the FBI’s radar since November 2013 when she was observed taking notes while wandering on the grounds of a church near her home in Arvada, a suburb of Denver. The pastor and security officer became alarmed when she told them not to worry about a terrorist attack because “terrorists are not allowed to kill aging adults and little children.” The pastor notified the police who referred the case to the Denver FBI office.

Over the next five months, federal agents conducted a series of open and candid interviews with Conley and her parents during which the teenager told them about her plans saying she believed “jihad must be waged to protect Muslim nations.” She revealed that she had joined the U.S. Army Explorers, a career exploration program under the auspices of the Boy Scouts, to gain first-hand knowledge and experience in military skills, such as field first aid and marksmanship, and intended to use the firearm experience to wage jihad with ISIS. Conley, a certified nurse’s aide, said she also hoped to help the ISIS cause as a camp nurse in Syria.

Court documents revealed that the FBI agents tried repeatedly to dissuade Conley from carrying out her plan by suggesting she pursue humanitarian work with the Red Crescent, a group similar to the Red Cross, and encouraged her to meet with an imam to discuss less radical ways to serve her faith.  Conley told them fighting in the Middle East was the only way to redress the wrongs suffered by Muslims saying, “I’d rather be in jail than doing nothing.”

Conley had converted to Islam while still in high school, although she admitted to her parents that her knowledge of the faith was based entirely on what she had learned on the Internet. She had adopted the customary dress of Muslim women, often disturbing other girls who told the school’s principal that Conley prayed on the bathroom floor. She “met” a 32-year-old man, identified only as “Y.M.” in redacted court documents, online and the two asked Conley’s father for his permission to marry after he discovered them Skyping. Despite her father’s refusal to give permission, which is required in the Muslim faith, Conley and “Y.M.” went forward with their plans until she was arrested at DIA.

ISIS is known for its sophisticated and successful use of social media, especially the internet, in recruiting  in the U.S., as well as in the U.K., Austria, France, the Netherlands, Canada, Norway and Sweden. Conley’s is only one of a growing group of converts intent on joint radical Muslim groups in the Middle East. In October 2014, three girls, also from Colorado, were apprehended in the Frankfurt airport as they tried to make their way along the same route to Syria that Conley had planned to take. The three girls, aged 15, 16 and 17, researched their travel online on websites developed by radical groups seeking to convert and radicalize recruits from around the world. The girls were taken into released into the custody of their parents without charges.

In a third Colorado case, 31-year-old Jamie Ramierez of Leadville converted to Islam and became involved with an Algerian she knew only through the Internet, also making online contact with an American woman, Colleen LaRose, known as, “Jihad Jane.” Ramierez left Colorado on Sept. 11, 2009, with her 6-year-old son to marry her Internet fiancé. They rendezvoused with LaRose and joined in an attempt to murder Swedish cartoonish Lars Vilks, who had offended Muslims by drawing Muhammad’s head on the body of a dog. The plot failed and both women are serving sentences for their participation in the plot.

On the same day Conley was sentenced, Britain’s Daily Mail reported that at least three young Minnesota girls are believed to have traveled to Syria intending to become nurses for ISIS. In a similar case, authorities in Austria are concerned that two young girls who left their home in Vienna to join ISIS will inspire copycats to follow the path to radical Islam and jihad.