MORRISTOWN, N.J., Aug. 20 (UPI) -- A Massachusetts woman was charged Friday with arranging to have the wife of a Boston man killed during a visit to the victim's family in New Jersey.
Investigators said they had recovered text messages between Kashif Parvaiz and Antoinette Stephen of Billerica, Mass., during the days before Nazish Noorani, 27, was killed Tuesday night in Boonton, NorthJersey.com reported.
"You hang in there. Freedom is just around ur corner," Stephen allegedly texted last week.
Noorani and her husband were set upon by gunmen Tuesday night as they walked with their young son. She was shot in the chest and killed while her husband suffered four superficial wounds and the boy, who was in a stroller, was not injured.
Parvaiz and Stephen have been charged with murder and conspiracy. Morris County Prosecutor Robert Bianchi said Friday their relationship was unclear.
"There is obviously a relationship," he said. "I'm not saying it's a physical relationship. I'm not saying it's a girlfriend-boyfriend relationship."
Parvaiz allegedly first told police he and his wife and been targeted because they were Muslims by three men who said they were terrorists. He then admitted being involved in the killing but said he arranged it with a man, investigators said.
