Last Update: Saturday, 1 June 2013 KSA 10:19 - GMT 07:19
American mother killed in Syria kept many secrets, family says
Saturday, 1 June 2013
Nicole Lynn Mansfield became interested in the Middle East after a boyfriend
introduced her to Islam several years ago. (photo courtesy: AP/Mansfield Family
Photo)
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The Associated Press, Burton, Mich
A Michigan mother killed during fighting in Syria often left many
family members and friends in the dark about the details of another life -
marrying an Arab immigrant, moving around frequently and taking trips to the
Middle East, including the one that would be her last, relatives said Friday.
An aunt, cousins, a longtime friend and the
grandmother who raised Nicole Lynn Mansfield say they are left with
differing, incomplete accounts of the life of the 33-year-old mother,
who is the only American known to have been killed fighting in Syria.
They say some of Mansfield's mysterious activity including a trip to the
Middle East aroused the curiosity of the FBI, who contacted them a
couple years ago to ask why Mansfield had traveled to Dubai for a few
weeks.
“I was stunned, totally stunned, that she went over
there and she got herself into what she got into and ended up away from
us now,” said Mansfield's aunt, Monica Mansfield-Speelman, of her
niece's trip to Syria, where more than 70,000 people have been killed
during two years of civil war.
Family members said FBI agents
visited them Thursday and informed them of Mansfield's death. Simon
Shaykhet, an FBI spokesman in Detroit, said he could confirm agents
spoke to Mansfield's family, but he declined further comment. A
pro-Syrian government news agency said Mansfield and two others were
fighters for a group opposed to Syria's government and were killed in a
confrontation in the northwestern city of Idlib. The report on the
circumstances of the deaths could not immediately be confirmed.
Mansfield first became interested in the Middle East after a boyfriend
introduced her to Islam several years ago, her relatives said. She
continued with the religion after the relationship ended, going to
services at a nearby mosque. She also started wearing a hijab and
eventually did so around family despite their reservations.
She
later married an Arab immigrant, got divorced and travelled to Dubai,
telling her family at the time she wanted to learn more about Arab
culture and the politics of the region, relatives said. Though family
members asked questions, Mansfield, who has an 18-year-old daughter from
a previous relationship, never told them the details of her marriage or
trips overseas.
Mansfield-Speelman, who last saw her niece in
August, said she and other family members did not approve of her niece's
conversion from Christianity to Islam and her short-lived marriage to a
man they never met. The aunt said she doesn't know the whereabouts of
Mansfield's ex-husband.
Her grandmother, Carole Mansfield, said
she remembered warning her granddaughter about the potential dangers of
taking the Dubai trip alone.
“I said, 'Nikki, Nikki, Nikki, do
you realize you're looking a rattlesnake in the face?'“ Carole
Mansfield said. “'Oh, Grandma,' I can still hear her say.”
It
was after that trip to Dubai that family said the FBI contacted them for
information about Mansfield. Agents never told relatives why they were
interested in her.
A law enforcement officer confirmed that
Mansfield had been on the FBI's radar before she left for Syria. The
official spoke on condition of anonymity because the official wasn't
permitted to speak publicly about the investigation.
One of
Mansfield's cousins, Deidra Mansfield, said she was close to her cousin
for years growing up but they grew distant as she embraced her new faith
and spent more time away from home. Diedra Mansfield said she and
others unsuccessfully tried to keep her fully engaged with them.
“If I would call her, she'd act like everything was normal on the phone,” she
said.
She believed her cousin lived most recently in Detroit, where she told
family she was attending a school. But she never provided any details
about her education or her living situation.
One of Nicole
Mansfield's close friends, Tasha Williams of Huntington, Ind., said
Mansfield called in mid-May to say she would be returning on a flight
from Turkey to the U.S. in a few days after traveling to Syria to see a
man. She wanted to be picked up at the Cincinnati airport.
“She said she was in a hotel room. She needed to get away from everything. I
never heard from her again,” Williams said.
Williams said she and Mansfield were certified nursing assistants.
“My boss was holding a position for her in Indiana. This is where she's
supposed to be right now,” Williams said.
The longtime friend was able to glean some details about Mansfield's
other life that family members struggled to find out about. Williams
said Mansfield met a man from the Middle East online and they married at
the Grand Canyon in 2007 but divorced three years later when Mansfield
learned he had another family.
Even if Mansfield got in over her head, Williams said she believed her friend
would “absolutely not” take up arms.
“Nicole Mansfield has never been in a fight in her life except with me.
We were 13 and became friends the next day. She's the biggest scaredy
cat. ... She avoided drama at all costs,” Williams said.
Carole Mansfield is less certain as she grieves her granddaughter's death.
“I don't think that we will ever be told the truth,” she said.
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
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