Wis. Hitwoman Who Traveled Overseas to Kill Delivered Chilling Message to Target's Dad By Ben Brachfeld

The “unexceptional” Wisconsin woman convicted this week of traveling overseas to murder a man on behalf of her lover delivered chilling messages to the man’s dad, whom authorities believe was also a target.

Aimee Betro, 44, attempted to assassinate Sikander Ali at point-blank range outside his home in Birmingham, England in August 2019, but failed when her gun jammed. She later returned to the scene and fired at the Ali home several times, causing extensive damage before fleeing the scene in a taxi.

While in the taxi, Betro opened her burner phone and fired off a series of threatening texts to Ali’s father, who lived in the same home on a cul-de-sac.

“Stop playing hide n seek. You’re lucky it jammed,” Betro wrote in one message, according to West Midlands Police. “Who is it? Your family or you? Pick one.”

Betro, an otherwise unassuming woman from West Allis, Wis., without a significant criminal footprint, traveled to the U.K. posing as a tourist before heading north to meet with Mohammed Nazir, her lover whom she met on a dating app.

Nazir had recruited Betro to assassinate Ali’s father — or a member of his family — as revenge after a fight at the father’s clothing store the year prior left him and his dad, Mohammed Aslam, injured, and their families feuding, per West Midlands Police.

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After meeting up with Nazir, Betro purchased a burner phone and a Mercedes as a getaway car, using the alias Becky Booth, per the Crown Prosecution Service.

Late on Sept. 7, she drove the Mercedes to the cul-de-sac and lay in wait for about 45 minutes before Ali showed up in his own vehicle. She could be seen on CCTV getting out of the vehicle, gun in hand, and attempting to fire at Ali from point-blank range, but the weapon jammed, allowing Ali to get back into his car and escape.

Ali smashed into the Mercedes’ door as he fled, leaving a dent that allowed investigators to match the vehicle with one Betro was seen driving earlier, per the CPS.

After the second shooting at the Ali residence, which damaged the home, Betro fled the country — but her DNA was found on a glove recovered from the Mercedes.

Nazir and Aslam were each convicted on conspiracy to murder charges last year, receiving sentences of 32 years and 10 years respectively.

Betro, meanwhile, was hiding out in Armenia as a fugitive from the law for five years, until she was tracked down by a Daily Mail reporter who tipped off police to her whereabouts. She was extradited back to the U.K. soon after.

Betro is scheduled to be sentenced on Aug. 21.