Three Arapahoe County teen girls urged friends on social media to pray for them as they set off on an overseas trip apparently aimed at joining Islamic State militants.
The Denver Post on Thursday reviewed dozens of tweets by the girls, by at least one of their fathers, and by several supporters and detractors. The accounts of the three girls and the father have been deleted, but The Post retrieved cached messages sent from their accounts.
“Please if you read this tell me where you are? We are so worried about you #Isis #raqqa #Colorado,” the father of one of the girls tweeted at his daughter on Saturday.
Raqqa is a city in Syria that is considered the capital of the Islamic State militants.
The girls tweeted about Islam in the days leading up to their trip, which began Friday.
“I started to notice the people I called ‘friends’ weren’t my true friends,” one of the girls tweeted.
Authorities believe the three teens — two sisters, 15 and 17 years old, of Somali descent and another, 16 years old, of Sudan — likely were recruited online to travel to Germany, apparently on their way to join the Islamic State, school officials said Wednesday.
The girls’ parents reported them missing on Friday night, hours after they failed to show up at school or return home from the library. One of the families said the girls took $2,000 and fled with their passports.
The girls were then stopped by German police at an airport in Frankfurt, Germany, before being sent back to their parents in Denver. German authorities say they were alerted to the girls’ arrival by U.S. officials.
The Cherry Creek School District, where the girls attend high school, said the teens tweeted with fellow students about their trip, which first alerted school officials to the teens’ whereabouts.
“Students came in on Monday morning and reported the tweets to us,” said Tustin Amole, a Cherry Creek School District spokeswoman. “They said they were going to Germany and try to go to Turkey. Some of the students (on Twitter) told them it was a bad idea; others said good luck.”
Amole also said authorities believe the teenagers likely were recruited online.
“Our understanding, our belief is that they were recruited online,” Amole said. “That’s our belief based on information we have from various sources, including investigators. … That’s my understanding of what likely happened.”
In a tweet sent hours before she was reported missing, one of the girls said: “Please please please make (prayer) for me wherever you are. I truly need it, may Allah bless you all.”
“Please make (prayer) for us three,” one of the other girls tweeted. “It’s extremely urgent!”
Those holding Twitter accounts in the United Kingdom and east Africa offered words of support via Twitter, calling for blessings. Some of the girls’ tweets were retweeted dozens of times.
Others projected disgust and worry. One man tweeted: “All three of you scum can enjoy prison.”
The Post is withholding the Twitter handles, names and the high school of the three girls after school and law enforcement officials expressed concerns about the teens’ safety. The Twitter handle of one girl was first obtained by 7News.
Undercover federal agents have used social media to infiltrate and identify potentially radicalized U.S. citizens, and officials have said that social media is a powerful recruitment tool for militants.
Federal officials continued their silence on the situation surrounding the girls on Thursday. The Colorado U.S. Attorney’s Office said “it’s a matter under review that cannot be commented on.”
“Not only is the FBI and all levels of law enforcement very much engaged to ensure that young people don’t get over in harm’s way in Syria with ISIS or any other terrorist organization, but also I will say to the credit of the Arab and Muslim community here in Colorado there is a very real level of attention given to this issue,” John Walsh, Colorado’s U.S. Attorney, said during an unrelated news conference on Thursday.
“That is a community that understands and is horrified as anyone else with the prospect of young people being enticed by terrorist organizations to go over there and potentially lose their lives and freedom overseas.”
Walsh said he’s “met with community leaders over the years many, many times, and they are loyal and highly concerned citizens who want to make sure the right things happen for their children and families just like any American.”
Attempts to reach the girls and their families have been unsuccessful, although a family spokesman said the girls are in good condition. Voice mails left on a cellphone of one of the girl’s fathers were not returned on Thursday.
A U.S. official told The Associated Press that the girls were headed to Turkey en route to Syria and that investigators are reviewing evidence, including the girls’ computers.
The news of the three teens follows revelations that a 19-year-old Arvada woman was taken into custody as she tried to board a flight en route to Syria to fight alongside militants.
Shannon Maureen Conley pleaded guilty to a charge of providing material support to al-Qaeda and affiliates, including the Islamic State.
She is scheduled to be sentenced Jan. 23.
Jesse Paul: 303-954-1733, jpaul@denverpost.com or twitter.com/JesseAPaul
Staff writer Christopher N. Osher and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
