Samantha Sally

Sally grew up in Springdale, Arkansas. She and her sister, Lori, were raised in a strict Jehovah's Witness household which forbade music and television. The two girls faced corporal punishment and, according to Lori, were sexually abused by an adult relative. Samantha did not complete high school. She married her first husband as a teenager, and the marriage was short lived. Sally had one son while living in Oklahoma. She had met her then-partner in 2004, Sally moved to Elkhart, Indiana in 2011 to live with her sister, Lori, after being laid off from a job in Oklahoma. The two worked at a delivery company, where Samantha met Moussa Elhassani, a brother of Lori's husband. His family owned the company. Elhassani, a non-observant Muslim, had been born in Morocco and moved to the U.S. in the early 2000s. Sally and Moussa began dating, and married in 2012. In June 2013, Sally had a daughter. Over time the relationship became emotionally and physically abusive, and Elhassani cheated on Sally. At one point Samantha was approached by the FBI, who asked her to become an informant on her job, and send them information regarding particular shipping details of certain customers; she agreed. == Life in the Islamic State ==

In early 2015, Sally and her husband began selling their assets and buying gold. According to Sally, this was in preparation to move to Morocco to live with her husband's family, as the couple were seeking a "new start". On April 7, the family flew to Istanbul. Sally has said the stop in Istanbul was meant to be a layover before continuing on to Morocco, but after landing her husband told Sally and the children they were taking a 10-day surprise vacation in Turkey. Sally characterized the stay as "romantic", but said that the mood changed after they arrived in Sanliurfa, a city in southeastern Turkey. A few days later, Elhassani drove the family in a van to the Syrian border, after telling Sally he was driving them to the airport. Elhassani stopped the car at the border, grabbed their daughter, and began walking; Sally said she followed with her son so as not to lose track of her daughter, figuring she could later cross back across the Syrian border. On July 24, 2018, Sally and her children were flown back to the United States, where Sally was arrested. Sally's children were taken into state care; her eldest son was put in the custody of his father, while her parents took custody of the other three children. == Criminal charges ==

Upon her return to the U.S., Sally was initially charged with lying to an FBI officer. This was in connection to her role as an FBI informant prior to leaving the U.S. A month after her return, the additional charge of "providing material support for terrorism" was added. Sally denied this charge, but in November 2019 pled guilty to the reduced charge of "providing financial support for terrorism" in the hopes of receiving a shortened prison sentence. On November 9, 2020, Sally was sentenced to six and a half years in prison. == Personal life ==

As of 2018, Sally identified as Christian. == In media ==

Sally's story was covered in the BBC Sounds podcast ''I'm Not A Monster and in the 2020 Frontline and Panorama documentary Return from ISIS''. In 2024, Jessica Roy published a book on the lives of Samantha Sally and her sister Lori, titled American Girls. == References ==