A California woman and her lover were arrested in connection to the fatal stabbing of her husband outside their home after investigators found evidence linking their alleged affair to the death, according to Hayward police.
Razma Mohammad-Ibrahim, 35, and Samim Azizi, 21, have been charged with murder in the killing of 51-year-old Parwiz Assar, police said in a Tuesday news release.
According to the release, on the night of Oct. 8, officers responded to reports of an assault with a deadly weapon and found Assar outside his Hayward home, unresponsive and suffering from stab wounds.
Assar was pronounced dead, and police began investigating his death as a homicide.
According to court documents cited by The Mercury News, Assar had seemingly sensed that his life was in danger but continued to return home to his wife.
Hours after Assar’s killing was reported, a close friend of his told officers that Assar feared his wife was planning to attack him and asked if he could stay at the friend’s residence, police said in the documents.
During the investigation, police said they discovered that Mohammad-Ibrahim and Azizi met around December and became involved in an intimate relationship.
On the night of Assar’s killing, Azizi texted Mohammad-Ibrahim a photo of himself hiding in a bush outside their home, along with the message “Look where I am,” according to The Mercury News.
Mohammad-Ibrahim allegedly messaged Azizi to be careful before he came out from the bush to repeatedly stab Assar.
Surveillance footage captured Assar’s stabbing as he walked to his front door, the outlet reported.
Police said that Mohammad-Ibrahim and Assar were married for roughly 12 years but had been experiencing “marital problems” prior to his death.
In April, Assar told police that his wife had kidnapped their children under the guise of a vacation to Canada and allegedly let their visas expire while there, according to The Mercury News.
In the two weeks before Assar’s death, officers were called to the couple’s home on a domestic disturbance report after Assar said he spotted an “unknown male” walking into their residence on his Ring security camera, according to the outlet.
Mohammad-Ibrahim had allegedly told police at the time that her husband was returning home with a gun when he discovered her affair with Azizi.
Investigators began collecting digital evidence linking Mohammad-Ibrahim and Azizi to Assar’s killing, including internet search history, text messages between the suspects, and social media activity, The Mercury News reported.
According to the newspaper, police found that Mohammad-Ibrahim had posted “Single Soon,” a song by Selena Gomez, to Instagram on the day of her husband’s death.
Digital forensics of Azizi’s phone data allegedly revealed that he and Mohammad-Ibrahim met at a motel before the killing and also traced him close to where Assar was killed.
Police said they believe that Mohammad-Ibrahim and her lover planned to kill her husband to end the marriage so she could be with Azizi, have full custody of her minor children, and have all of the family assets.
Azizi was taken into custody on Oct. 31 in Seattle, Washington, and is awaiting extradition to California. Mohammad-Ibrahim was taken into custody on Nov. 15 and denied bond.
Police said Mohammad-Ibrahim’s children are now in the care of relatives.