Police charge Sussex County man in connection with wife's stabbing death

STANHOPE -- A 59-year-old Stanhope man has been charged with killing his wife by stabbing her 47 times with a kitchen knife, law enforcement officials said today.

Valentino Ianetti Jr. called 911 at about 2 a.m. Tuesday to report a stabbing at his home on New Street and upon arrival police found the body of Ianetti’s 57-year-old wife, Pamela Ianetti, Stanhope police said.

Assistant Sussex County Prosecutor Gregory Mueller said the woman’s body was found lying on the floor in a bedroom of the couple’s single-family home. A long kitchen knife with apparent blood stains was found at the scene, he said.

Stanhope Police Chief Steve Pittigher said the victim had been stabbed 47 times, but the couple had no history of domestic violence.

An autopsy performed by the county medical examiner determined that Pamela Ianetti died from "multiple, sharp-force wounds," according to a news release from the prosecutor’s office.

Mueller and Pittigher said the motive for the killing was still under investigation.

During a brief first-appearance hearing today in Superior Court, Judge N. Peter Conforti, sitting in Newton, maintained $500,000 cash bail with no 10 percent option for Ianetti. He is charged with first-degree murder and third-degree possession of a knife for an unlawful purpose.

At the recommendation of Assistant Sussex County Prosecutor Frances Koch, Conforti stipulated that Ianetti have no contact with the victim’s family, whether or not he posts bail.

The bespectacled Ianetti only spoke at the hearing to tell Conforti that he understood the status of his bail.

The Ianettis were former longtime residents of the Lake Hiawatha section of Parsippany, where they operated V&P Homes Improvements. The couple moved to Stanhope about 20 years ago.

Pamela Ianetti had been employed by Morris County for 17 years, most recently as nursing supervisor at the Morris View Nursing Home, now called the Morris View Healthcare Center, in Morris Plains. She left the job in June 2003, according to Morris County records.

Pittigher said the killing was the first in Stanhope in his memory.

"It’s definitely the first since 1988," when he joined the Stanhope force, said Pittigher.

Police from Stanhope, Netcong and Byram, and detectives from the county prosecutor’s office and the State Police assisted in the investigation. Stanhope Sgt. Charles Zweigle and Detective Christopher Bork made the arrest.

The investigation is continuing and anyone with any information about the killing is asked to call the prosecutor’s office at (973) 383-1570.

Staff writer Lawrence Ragonese contributed to this report.

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