Woman sentenced for nail salon bombing attempt
A Liberty Twp. nail salon owner has been sentenced to prison for attempting to set a Monroe nail salon on fire.
Kim Lien Vu, 46, pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in Cincinnati in September 2023 to conspiring to commit malicious destruction via fire. On Wednesday Judge Judge Matthew W. McFarland sentenced Vu to 46 months in prison.
Vu developed animosity toward individuals at a competing nail salon, Bora Bora Nail Salon on Hamilton-Lebanon Road (Ohio 63), and, beginning in December 2022, approached her employee about a plot to exact revenge on the competing salon, according to federal prosecutors.
Ohio Secretary of State records show that Vu owns two nail salons in West Chester Twp., Allure Nails Vu LLC and Love Nail Vu LLC.
Vu and her employee, co-defendant Cierra Marie Bishop, 30, of Hamilton, discussed the idea of setting the other salon on fire. Bishop began work to design a remote-controlled incendiary device that could start a fire within a small box. The two women frequently texted about the plan, which they referred to as Job 1.
On Feb. 5, 2023 surveillance camera footage showed Bishop and a friend, co-defendant Makahla Ann Rennick, 19, of Hamilton, entering the competitor salon. Rennick had made an appointment for a pedicure under the name “Katelynn,” at the direction of Vu. Rennick is shown receiving her nail services, according to court documents.
Vu was traveling to or already at a property she owned in Virginia to have an alibi, according to prosecutors.
During Rennick’s appointment, Bishop entered and exited the salon, looking for a place to plant the device. Eventually, Bishop walked to the restroom area in the rear of the salon and tucked the device under a salon desk before leaving.
A salon employee then found the suspected device, which smelled like gasoline. The employee opened the package, seeing that it looked like an explosive device, and took it outside near the salon’s dumpsters. The employee later went back outside to check on the device and noticed that the box had begun to catch fire.
Monroe police officers and fire department responded to a call reporting a dumpster fire near the salon.
Vu was in constant contact with Bishop throughout the planting of the device.
The three women were indicted by a federal grand jury in February 2023. Bishop and Rennick pleaded guilty and are awaiting sentencing, according to court records.