An Iranian-American woman was strangled to death by her Italian-American husband in their suburban home in New Jersey Friday. The husband then stabbed himself to death in the chest.
When the husband’s father later arrived at the home, he found the couple dead in the house and their 15-month-old son sleeping quietly.
The murdered wife, Iran Denise Pars, was the daughter of Reza and Brigitte Pars and had been reared in northern New Jersey. She had recently taken up acting and had had a scattering of small roles and a part in a commercial.
She was 41 years old at her death, 14 years older than her husband, Michael A. Tabacchi, who worked 20 miles away in Manhattan for JPMorgan Chase.
Police in Closter, New Jersey, are still investigating the murder-suicide and have no motive. Most neighbors said they appeared to be a loving couple—but one neighbor told reporters she had heard a loud argument recently.
After autopsies, Bergen County Prosecutor John Molinelli said Sunday that Tabacchi, 27, had strangled and stabbed his wife once, then stabbed himself in the chest around 11 p.m. Friday.
“We believe that the husband killed the wife, but do not know what prompted all of it,” Molinelli said.
The toddler — by all accounts the centerpiece of a marriage that was taking root in a quiet, suburban neighborhood — was being cared for by his paternal grandparents, James and Silvana Tabacchi. He was named August James Tabacchi and was called Augie by his parents.
Molinelli said a knife, apparently a kitchen knife, was found near Michael Tabacchi’s body, but there was no note to suggest a reason for the deaths.
A neighbor, Kurt Vreeland, told The Record of Bergen County that Michael Tabacchi’s father and mother had discovered the bodies Friday night after receiving a text message from their son that prompted them to drive to their son’s home late Friday night. It hasn’t been revealed what the text message said.
Vreeland, who is Closter’s assistant fire chief and whose wife is an emergency medical technician, said Tabacchi’s father ran to his house seeking help. Vreeland said his wife tried to resuscitate the couple.
“It was too late,” he told reporters outside his home Saturday.
Mrs. Vreeland told reporters, “The only quote you’re going to get from me is that the love that they had for that little baby never wavered, despite the things that happened last night.”
In December, Iran Denise Pars wrote on her Facebook page: “My life is about as far from perfect as it can get. But everyday I leave a job I really like with people I really enjoy, to spend the night with my gorgeous, healthy, baby boy, cat and husband … not a bad life.”
In September, she wrote on Facebook about some advice her husband had given her and concluded: “LOVE this man.”
In November, she wrote about her son’s first steps: “Last night Augie took 4 steps on his own in front of both Mike and I, his grandparents, aunts and uncles. Talk about waiting for an audience…. It was the greatest thing I’ve ever seen.”
The couple married in a civil ceremony in July 2013 while Denise was pregnant. Their son was born in October 2013 and the couple bought their home the next month. They had a Roman Catholic church wedding ceremony the following May. The husband was Roman Catholic.
“On the surface, they seemed happy,” Myles Evans, who lives across the street, told The Record. “They always walked their dog up and down the street and would say hi. They seemed like a nice, young couple just starting out in life.”
But Yonca Bickici, who lives three houses away from the Tabacchi home, told The Record she had heard the couple yelling at each other while she was walking her dog.
Denise was a graduate of William Paterson University in northern New Jersey. She worked for a while as a barmaid in a tavern. She later became an administrative assistant at the children’s hospital at the Hackensack University Medical Center.
She had recently taken up acting, appearing in two TV pilots and a commercial for H&R Block. She was cast in the lead role of four student films made at New York University. She was once an intern at the radio station where shock-jock Howard Stern was based and he named her one of his intern beauty pageant winners.