Nail Salon Owner Sentenced to 46 Months After 'Plot to Exact Revenge' and Set Competing Salon on Fire

Kim Lien Vu, 46, "developed animosity" toward those at the other salon, per officials

An Ohio nail salon owner was sentenced to 46 months in prison after admitting that she plotted to burn down a competing salon.

Liberty Township native Kim Lien Vu, 46, admitted in a guilty plea in September that she conspired to commit malicious destruction via fire, months after she worked with an employee on a "plot to exact revenge on the competing salon" beginning in December 2022, per the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Ohio.

After Vu "developed animosity" toward those at the other salon in Monroe, she and co-defendant Cierra Marie Bishop, 30, began to discuss setting it on fire, per the office.

The two women continued to text about the plan, which they referred to as "Job 1," and which involved "a remote-controlled incendiary device that could start a fire within a small box."

On February 5, 2023, Bishop was seen on surveillance footage with another friend and co-defendant Makahla Ann Rennick, 19, entering the salon after Rennick had made an appointment under an alias.

The alias of “Katelynn" was decided on after Vu and Bishop advised Rennick to “just use another name, sound White," per the U.S. Attorney's Office.

Bishop reportedly entered the salon during Rennick's appointment and "tucked the device under a salon desk before leaving." A salon employee found it and realized it smelled like gasoline.

According to local ABC affiliate WCPO, the plot took place at Bora Bora Nail Salon in Monroe, and it appeared that "the plan was to detonate or ignite the device that evening and destroy the salon."

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Vu is the owner of two nail salons in West Chester Township, Allure Nails Vu LLC and Love Nail Vu LLC, per Secretary of State records obtained by the Journal-News.

"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 the box had begun to catch on fire," the U.S. Attorney's Office reports. "Monroe police officers and fire department responded to a call reporting a dumpster fire near the salon."

Vu, who was headed toward a property in Virginia as an alibi, was in contact with Bishop during the ordeal.

"The three women were indicted by a federal grand jury in February 2023," the office notes. "Bishop has pleaded guilty and is currently awaiting sentencing."

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