'America's Shamima Begum' tried to ransom her own kids to ex-husband before joining ISIS

dailystar.co.uk:

Shamima Begum shamelessly tried to ransom her children to her ex-husband back in America.Allison Fluke-Ekren, 42, moved to Turkey shortly after marrying her second husband Volkan Ekren in 2005, bringing along her eight-year-old son Gabriel and her seven-year-old daughter Alaina.She was undergoing a bitter custody battle with the kids’ father and her ex-husband James Fluke, 47, at the time.Her former sister-in-law, Amy Fluke, 49, told the Daily Mail that Allison began sending her ex-spouse emails and notes demanding more than $6,000 (£4,400) for the return of their two kids.

She said: “They were telling him he could have the kids back for a certain amount of money. Sometimes it was $5,000 or $6,000, and it started being more and more.

I don't remember the highest amount.” Amy added that her family wanted to bring her nephew and niece back to the US and refused to pay any ransom.She explained: “We were trying to fight for the opportunity to get them back to the United States to have a custody hearing, and that's when we lost all contact with the children for about five or six years.”The 42-year-old acted even more horrifically by faking her own death while living in Syria, and cruelly taunted James that their daughter Alaina was dead.

Relatives revealed Gabriel managed to escape back to the US when he was 17 and has made a quiet new life for himself, but Alaina's whereabouts remain unknown and she could still be in Syria.