A hit-man was hired to kill Jamie's daughter. She will never stop saying his name.

According to her mum, Riley Elder, is still struggling.

It's been four years since she was told by an FBI detective a kill order had been found for the then-19-year-old on the dark web.

It was 2021, and someone had paid a 'hitman' AUD $19,000 to have Riley murdered.

Listen: What happens when your ex tries to have you killed.

They wanted it to look like an accident gone wrong, and demanded 'proof of death' photos that showed her tattoo.

The man behind the attempted hit, Riley's ex-boyfriend Scott Berkett, has been convicted of his crime, but Jamie Elder told Mamamia's True Crime Conversations that Riley lives with fear every day.

"She's still scared. If there's a creak outside, even now, Riley won't sleep," Jamie said.

Riley doesn't want to talk to anyone about her experience. But she's happy to let her mum spread the word and be her advocate.

They're furious that the man responsible for the crime is already out on probation.

Scott was sentenced to five years for the crime, but was released from jail in three.

Jamie refuses to let him "live in the shadows."

Scott Berkett tried to hire a hitman to kill his ex girlfriend. Image: Facebook.

Riley and Scott met online in early 2019, while they were both admins for a Facebook group dedicated to their favourite anime show, RWBY.

As Riley lived in rural Idaho and Scott lived in Beverly Hills, their relationship played out online for over a year.

They decided to meet in October 2020, just as COVID-19 pandemic restrictions were starting to lift.

"It wasn't until they decided to meet that I had my major reservations," Jamie said.

"I refused to take her to the airport….I said 'you are an adult, you can choose to do what you want, but I can't support [this], it's not safe.'"

On her first night with Scott, Riley alleges that he coerced her into having sex.

While he hasn't been charged with anything related to sexual assault, according to the US Attorney's Office for the Central District of California, Scott's behaviour was described as "sexually aggressive."

After the break-up, Scott allegedly started harassing Riley.

"He wasn't only messaging her, he was messaging their community as well, and eventually ended up turning some of them to his side," Jamie said.

Riley doesn't want her picture shared, so instead her mum Jamie (pictured), is telling her story for her. Image: Supplied.

Riley's older sister found out about the harassment and called Scott's dad, demanding he stop.

"Consider the matter closed," Scott allegedly replied.

The family didn't know it then, but Scott had already handed over money to a 'hitman' and given them all of Riley's details.

Scott placed the hit on April 28 by messaging a dark web group to say he wanted the killing to "look like an accident," adding that a robbery gone wrong could also work, "so long as she is dead."

He also requested that her phone be recovered and permanently destroyed, with FBI information indicating he paid a total of $13,000 in Bitcoin between April 5 and May 5.

A plan uncovered.

The plan against Riley came to light when UK journalist Carl Miller stumbled on the backend of this website and the hundreds of kill orders within it.

Miller and his team soon discovered the website was a hoax designed to steal people's money, but the hits were ordered by real people with a real desire for bloodlust.

Miller set about intercepting the kill orders across the world and alerted American authorities about the threat against Riley.

"He [the detective] asked Riley ['who would order such a thing?'], and I could see the realisation in her face," Jamie said.

"She looked at me, and she goes, 'you don't think it's Scott, do you?'"

As part of an elaborate plan to secure a conviction, the FBI had Riley pose for fake 'proof of death' photos.

Watch: The moment my daughter realised her ex had hired a hit man. Post continues below.

Jamie said posing for those pictures left Riley with recurrent nightmares.

"Not that she wasn't already having them…but they showed me the photo [and that], is a really strange moment, because that could have been a reality," Jamie said.

It turns out, they didn't need the photos because, while Scott was detained, he offered another inmate, who was soon to be released, $10,000 to remove evidence linking him to the murder-for-hire plot.

The inmate reported the plan to the authorities.

"Riley didn't want to go to the sentencing, and so we didn't go," Jamie explained.

"So after the sentencing, the prosecuting attorney and the FBI agent called me to kind of debrief me over what happened, and they were appalled."

Scott Berkett was sentenced to five years in prison. Image: Facebook.

After Scott pleaded guilty to one count of use of interstate facilities to commit murder-for-hire, the judge heard from several character witnesses who testified in his defence.

Scott faced a statutory maximum sentence of 10 years in federal prison, however the judge imposed a five-year jail term.

Riley was angry at the sentence, but her mum was livid; especially when she found out he didn't even serve the five years he was sentenced to. Scott was also released without the family's knowledge, despite the fact they had signed up to a victim notification system that was supposed to update them on his progress through the court system.

"The last notification we got was that he was going to be released around Thanksgiving. So in November, I just looked it up to see, and he'd been released on October 11 and no one told her [Riley]…he was out for a month before we knew," Jamie told True Crime Conversations.

In 2024, the Elder family was dealt another devastating blow when Abby, Jamie's daughter and Riley's sister, took her own life.

For a family already hurting, it was an impossible loss to reconcile.

Talking about her girls and telling their stories is how Jamie gets through the pain.

She has cultivated a small but mighty community on TikTok who support her as she shares memories about Abby, and warnings about the man who tried to have Riley killed.

"I have a purpose….I talk about not only Riley's story, but Abigail's story. I just talk about it, that's how I hold it together. It's helped me immensely," she said.

As for Riley, her mum says she has a long road ahead.

"She's finding her way back to her art and her reading, but it's a slow process," Jamie said.

"The hits just kept coming, and I think it's going to be a while before everything has even a semblance of normalcy."

As for Scott, Jamie wants to make sure you remember him.

"If my child can't live free, he shouldn't either," she said.

Feature image: Jamie Elder. Supplied.