It says: The State alleged that defendant wanted to end her marriage to Bill but also had concerns about divorce. After re-examining her murder conviction over a decade later,. She said her marriage to Bill McGuire was not going well and claimed that he was violent. She put his remains into a 3-piece suitcase set, and those three pieces were later found in Chesapeake Bay. [29], Edna Mahan Correctional Facility for Women, Possession of a weapon for an unlawful purpose, Fisherman Island National Wildlife Refuge, Suitcase Killer: The Melanie McGuire Story, "Melanie McGuire Found Guilty of Murder in 2004 Shooting Death and Dismemberment of Her Husband", "Melanie McGuire, SBI Number: 000319833C", "Author to sign copies of Melanie McGuire book", "Case 120: Bill McGuire from Casefile True Crime", "Wife arrested in gory dismemberment murder", "General Discussion - Melanie McGuire guilty as hell", "Defense to withdraw motion for McGuire retrial", "Bit player in infamous N.J. murder case charged in bizarre murder-for-hire plot", "Man gets jail for plotting to kill online crush", https://www.state.nj.us/grc/decisions/pdf/2014-275.pdf, "McGuire sentenced to life in prison for suitcase murder", "State v. McGuire, 16 A. WOODBRIDGE - Former township resident Melanie McGuire has spent 13 years in prison after receiving a life sentence for the death of her husband, William McGuire, but in a new television. NEW BRUNSWICK - Melanie McGuire the former Woodbridge resident convicted of killing her husband, dismembering his body, packing it in suitcases and tossing it off a bridge in Virginia . Melanie McGuire was found guilty of murdering Bill McGuire, 39, in April 2004. A New Jersey grand jury indicted McGuire on charges of first-degree murder, second-degree possession of a weapon for an unlawful purpose, second-degree desecration of human remains and third-degree perjury in October 2005. by Chilling Crimes July 20, 2020. Melanie McGuire has been in prison for 13 years, but she still maintains her innocence, she said in an interview with 20/20. But though Bill and Melanie had two sons together, their marriage swiftly soured. [24][25] On April 29, 2014, McGuire filed a motion for post-conviction relief, alleging ineffective assistance of counsel and newly discovered evidence. Melanie McGuire has been dubbed the Suitcase Killer by the media for her role in butchering her own husband, William Bill McGuire, before packing up his remains into three suitcases and then disposing of them in the Chesapeake Bay. New Jersey fertility clinic nurse Melanie McGuire stands accused of murdering her husband, William, in 2004. She told Miller that she was furniture shopping, according to Prezioso, who said she believes that is when Melanie McGuire drove the suitcases with her husbands remains to Chesapeake Bay. After re-examining her murder conviction over a decade later, Sacks and Shlosberg, believe Melanie McGuire was wrongfully convicted. Melanie McGuire said that Bill McGuire had asked her to buy the gun for him since he had a felony conviction from a bad driving record, which barred him from purchasing one on his own. She reportedly spent most of her life in New Jersey. [9] The footage was blurry and the police weren't able to identify the person in the video. She will not be eligible for parole until she has. The court awarded custody of her two sons to Bill McGuires sister, Cindy Ligosh, and Melanie McGuire has had no contact with them since her trial. Prezioso said the evidence presented by the states computer forensic expert at trial was robust and Melanie McGuires legal team presented their own expert as well. She will not be eligible for parole until she is 100 years old. Then, they looked in Pennsylvania. They knew that Pennsylvania was close and a lot of people will go to Pennsylvania for firearms because gun laws are more lax, Sacks said. I still feel bothered. The victim, a coroner found, had been shot multiple times. McGuire had been married for five years by April 2004. A dramatization of the romance and marriage of the McGuires, the 2004 murder of Bill, the investigation, and the subsequent trial of Melanie, who who dismembered and disposed of her husband's body in suitcases. I guess it is comforting [that people are interested]. Melanie Lyn McGuire (ne Slate; born October 8, 1972) is an American former nurse who was convicted of murdering her husband on April 28, 2004, in what media dubbed the "suitcase murder". Miller agreed to cooperate with investigators and was never charged in the crime. Melanie McGuire says she isnt hoping for prison release, in a new jailhouse interview with @ARobach Friday at 9/8c during a new #ABC2020. He was 39 years old. The publication reported that two days after Bill left, McGuire filed for a restraining order so he couldn't unexpectedly take their children, and three weeks after he had disappeared she filed for a divorce. They also discovered a bottle of the sedative chloral hydrate and two syringes in Bill's car, which they traced to a pharmacy near their children's daycare, and they learned that McGuire had bought a gun 48 hours before her husband's disappearance. Dont accept what youre just being told on the surface. Bills car contained a bottle of chloral hydrate, a sedative, and two syringes, which had been prescribed by Bradley Miller. Dig, dig. According to PEOPLE, Melanie claimed that Bill had a gambling problem and a volatile temper. https://t.co/ZGewROXCaQ pic.twitter.com/hlzcKR96Ss. Prosecutors argued that she killed her husband so. After his body was found and detectives notified Melanie McGuire of her husband's death, she told them to look for Bill McGuires missing car in Atlantic City -- she claimed he had a gambling problem and frequented the city. Miller also said in his . Born on October 8, 1972, Melanie Lyn Slate has spent all of her life in New Jersey growing up in Ridgewood and Middletown Township. READ NEXT: Melanie McGuire Today: Where Is the Suitcase Killer Now in 2020? McGuire appealed her case, saying she did not receive a fair trial. She became known as the Suitcase Killer during her televised 2007 trial. Days later, an unidentified man, believed by many to be her stepfather, also contacted E-ZPass and attempted to have the charge removed. After all these years, I still feel hurt. After a nearly month and a half long trial, Melanie McGuire was found guilty. She is currently incarcerated at the Edna Mahan Correctional Facility for Women in Clinton, New Jersey, according to her prison records. "I have this Forrest Gump-ian way of touching something and it becomes a hit!" I believe that the evidence presented to the jury told the jury what happened," Prezioso said. [26], On September 25, 2014, McGuire appeared in court with her new attorney Lois DeJulio, a public defender, to try to get a hearing that could overturn her 2007 murder conviction, on the grounds that her previous legal representation by Joe Tacopina was inadequate or ineffective. [9] The third and smallest suitcase, containing arms, was recovered floating in the water near the Chesapeake Bay BridgeTunnel's second artificial island on May 16. [6][7] She enrolled at Rutgers University with a double major in math and psychology and graduated in 1994. Therefore, from what we can tell, even today, as young men, William and Melanies sons reside in New Jersey with their aunt, uncle, and cousins the only family theyve ever known. Melanie McGuire says she is innocent, and wants her sons to know she did not kill their father, she said in interviews with 20/20. One contained legs, another a pelvis, and the third a torso and head. Dubbed the Suitcase Killer, she was found guilty and sentenced to life in prison on July 19, 2007, at the age of 34. In April 2004, Melanie and Bill McGuire seemed to have it all: successful careers, two young sons and a new $500,000 home. Actress Candice King who is best known for her work in the Vampire Diaries will play McGuire. Powered by WordPress.com VIP. Their theory was that this nurse, who was kind of so meticulous, had somehow just forgotten to wipe the bottom of her shoes, that she accidentally tracked these human sawdust particles of Bill's body from the house to the car, said John Glatt, a true crime author who wrote To Have and To Kill, a book about Melanie McGuires case. I still feel bothered. In the evening hours of April 28, 2004, after the closing on the new house, she allegedly drugged and incapacitated Bill and then shot him sometime during April 28-29. Read More: Where Is Melanie McGuires Family Now? It was while Melanie was pregnant for the second time, during the 38th week, that her affair with Dr. Bradley Miller, her co-worker in the fertility clinic where she worked as a nurse, began. At that time, Melanie was a nurse at a fertility clinic and had managed to have a long-standing affair with one of the doctors there, Bradley Miller. Getty Images. Melanie McGuire is serving a life sentence in the murder of her husband, Bill McGuire, at a women's correctional facility in New Jersey. She was sentenced to life in prison on July 19, 2007 and is serving her sentence at the Edna. [23] On September 20, 2011, the New Jersey Supreme Court declined to hear her further appeal. She was sentenced to life in prison on July 19, 2007, and is serving her sentence at the Edna Mahan Correctional Facility for Women in Clinton, New Jersey.She will not be eligible for parole until she is 100 . ABC News correspondent Amy Roach sits down for the first on-camera interview with Melanie McGuire since she was sentenced 13 years ago in 2007 to life in prison for the murder of her husband and father of her two children, William Bill McGuire. Read More: Where Are William and Melanie McGuires Kids Now? The bullets that came out of my husband had six lands and grooves," said Melanie McGuire. Author John Glatt wrote a book about the case, entitled To Have and To Kill. People are feeling this way now, but when it's no longer a story, I'll just be forgotten. Lands and grooves are rifling characteristics that are machine pressed into the barrel of a gun. Also if the crime scene didnt happen [at the family home] and shes home with her children all night, where is this happening? The jury deliberated for three days before convicting her of all four counts lodged against her in the first indictment, and acquitted her of the eight counts filed in the second indictment. Bill McGuire, 39, went missing on April 29, 2004. Melanie McGuires story made national headlines in the mid-2000s, when she was charged with first-degree murder and dubbed the Suitcase Killer by some in the media. In September 2020 McGuire took part in a rare interview with ABC News, in which she continued to profess her innocence for the crime. All we know is that they havent been in touch with their mother since before she was convicted. Watch the full story on "20/20" Friday, Sept. 25, at 9 p.m. On May 11, another suitcase was discovered. On April 23, 2007, McGuire's murder trial jury found her guilty of first-degree murder, finding that the evidence established her culpability for the murder beyond a reasonable doubt. Miller, however, claimed that the prescription was written in Melanies handwriting. I grabbed the baby and went to the bathroom right behind me and shut the door. I still feel bothered. After all these years, I still feel hurt. ABCs 20/20: Interview with Melanie McGuire is a two-hour broadcast wherein the suitcase killer opens up about the circumstances that landed her in prison for the rest of her life. In addition, Melanie was 38-weeks pregnant with her second child when the relationship started, based on reporting from New Jersey-based news outlet CentralJersey.com. ET on Saturday, June 18 on the Lifetime network. Bill worked as a computer program analyst for a Newark, New Jersey college and Melanie worked as a fertility nurse, according to a 2011 appeal filed in her case. ], Pretty Little Liars Reboot Is Coming-of-RAGE Horror with More Murder, Cast of Pretty Little Liars, 2017, l-r: Troian Bellisario, Ashley Benson, Lucy Hale, Shay Mitchell, (cropped) photo: Dominick D / CC BY-SA, 2012-2023, 2paragraphs Productions, LLC. The Melrose Place actresswho is now serving a second sentence at Edna Mahan Correctional Facility for Women in New Jerseyshares a prison cell with Melanie McGuire, the infamous "Suitcase Killer." Suitcase Killer: The Melanie McGuire Story: Directed by Nicole L. Thompson. These documents exist. Sacks firmly believes that prosecutors failed to answer key questions in the case. She then called Miller the next morning, and he said "she was upset" and had told him about the fight they'd had. Bill McGuire, 39, disappeared April 28, 2004, shortly after announcing to his friends that he and his wife had just closed the sale of their first home, according to an appeal filed in her case. Miller eventually testified against Melanie McGuire at her trial. According to state records, she must serve at least 85% of her sentence before she can even be considered for parole, which means shell become eligible for it on May 20, 2073. When investigators discovered the affair, they approached Miller. She also made inquiries of a friend about how to buy a gun. So she drove around until she found his car and then moved it as a prank. After seeing this report Melanie McGuire told Miller a story that prosecutors later called preposterous. As Dr. Bradley Miller testified in the Melanie McGuire court case, there was an ongoing affair between himself and Melanie when Bill McGuire was killed. Bill called his friends to happily tell them the news. I just burst into tears, Melanie said of learning about her husbands death in a 2007 interview. Friday on #ABC2020: The co-hosts of the @directappeal podcast tell @ARobach why they believe Melanie McGuire was wrongfully convicted: I dont think that there was enough evidence to convict her. https://t.co/ZGewROXCaQ pic.twitter.com/qJfD3ATBkD. On June 2, 2005, more than a year after the fact, Melanie was charged with first-degree murder, leading to her sons being taken and placed into a much safer home for them to grow up in. [9], On May 5, 2004, the first suitcase, containing human legs, was found by two fishermen and two children floating near the Chesapeake Bay BridgeTunnel's fourth artificial island, and a murder investigation was launched. Investigators searched the home for evidence multiple times, checking to see if Bill McGuire had been killed and dismembered there. Now the former fertility nurse is 47 years old and spending her life sentence in Edna Mahan Correctional Facility in Clinton, New Jersey. She wished to avoid purchasing a house at substantial expense and beginning a new phase in a marriage she regretted. Who Is Melanie McGuire? The podcast hosts and Melanie McGuire herself, raise questions about whether it's even possible the gun she purchased was the murder weapon. And on May 16, a third. I have a book that I can look in that doesn't leave an internet history, Melanie McGuire told "20/20.". Would love your thoughts, please comment. Nevertheless, because all the evidence was against her, a jury found her guilty of murder, unlawful possession of a weapon, desecrating human remains, and perjury on April 23, 2007. Police also learned that Melanie had been having a long-term affair with a co-worker named Bradley Miller. Bradley Miller told a Middlesex County court this afternoon that he lied to a grand jury when he said he stopped having sex with . Lifetime's new film Suitcase Killer: The Melanie McGuire Story explores the shocking death of Bill McGuire on April 28, 2004. "My job is not to convince the world. If I wanted to look for something like that, I have a [physicians' desk reference]. The Twisted Case of Melanie McGuire That Chapter 1.81M subscribers Subscribe 64K 1.8M views 9 months ago 2004, Chesapeake Bay. [15][16][17][18][19] On July 19, 2007, at the age of 34, McGuire was sentenced to life in prison.[20]. I panicked, Melanie told 20/20. Melanie McGuire, 34-years old, sentenced to life in prison for murdering her husband Photo Source: NJ.com (website) I looked down and theres my 2-year-old. The podcast, hosted by Fairleigh Dickinson University criminology professors Meghan Sacks and Amy Schlosberg questions Melanie McGuire's guilt and suggests that there is evidence in the case that never received the legal scrutiny it deserved. How Marvel went big with Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania. She says she is innocent. In June 2005, Melanie McGuire was arrested and charged with Bill's murder (per NBC News ). (Video By Bumper. When Bill McGuires body was found with bullet wounds, prosecutors pointed to the fact that Melanie McGuire had purchased a gun in Pennsylvania just two days before her husband was reported missing. "I won't be home until my oldest is 18 and my youngest is 16," she told EW. Like, how could somebody think that I did that? she said on 20/20. Investigators discovered that the parking lot had surveillance cameras, and they pulled the security footage thinking they had stumbled upon a smoking gun that would show who dumped Bill McGuire's car. Sometimes, she said, hed get violent with her. Make up your mind. During the next three days, according to the State, and likely with the help of an accomplice as yet unidentified, defendant caused Bills body to be cut into sections with a reciprocating saw and a knife, wrapped the body in industrial-type garbage bags sealed with adhesive tape, and packed it into the matching set of luggage. [1], By April 2004, the McGuires had been married for five years. But police soon found that the couple had a deeply unhappy marriage, that Melanie had begun an affair with a co-worker, and that someone in the McGuires home had searched for things like how to commit murder online. Like, how could somebody think that I did that? she said on 20/20. She was accused and convicted of murdering and dismembering her husband, William Bill McGuire, after which she packed him up in three suitcases and threw him into the Chesapeake Bay. In April 2004, defendant conducted internet research to learn about buying a gun and about poisons, sedative drugs, and murder. On May 5, 2004, a couple of fishermen and their children noticed a dark green Kenneth Cole suitcase floating in the waters of the Chesapeake Bay. She allegedly wanted to spend the rest of her life with her lover, and so, she did what she could to get rid of her husband. As improbable as it sounds, Melanie McGuire said she actually stumbled upon her husband's car. Melanie McGuire says she isnt hoping for prison release, in a new jailhouse interview with @ARobach Friday at 9/8c during a new #ABC2020. Through record tracing, they found out that the chloral hydrate was picked up at a Walgreens pharmacy just down the road from the McGuire children's daycare on the morning that Bill McGuire disappeared. A top priority for New Jersey investigators was determining if Melanie McGuire had ever owned a gun. [4] She was sentenced to life in prison on July 19, 2007, and is serving her sentence at the Edna Mahan Correctional Facility for Women in Clinton, New Jersey. Dig, dig., 20/20 airs Fridays at 9 pm on ABC, right after Americas Funniest Home Videos at 8 pm. She said in a moment of admitted irrationality she decided to drive down there and look for his car. Watch the full story on "20/20" Friday, Sept. 25, at 9 p.m. Two years later, in 1999, she married William Bill McGuire, a US Navy veteran, and started a life with him in Woodbridge Township, New Jersey. [5], Melanie Lyn Slate grew up in Ridgewood and Middletown Township, New Jersey, attending Middletown High School South. Meanwhile, investigators found more and more evidence that suggested that Melanie McGuire had killed her husband. According to some reports, in 2007, during Melanies murder trial, Cindy put it into evidence that both of her sister-in-laws children, then aged 5 and 7, had been positively diagnosed with autism. [9] The couple had two sons and lived in a Woodbridge Township, New Jersey, apartment, but planned to move that month to a larger home in Warren County. The Melrose Place actresswho is now serving a second sentence at Edna Mahan Correctional Facility for Women in New Jerseyshares a prison cell with Melanie McGuire, the infamous "Suitcase. He ran tests, but he didn't do all the tests that you actually need to definitively say whether these bags match, added Sacks. 2023 Oscars predictions: See who will win at the 95th Academy Awards. Five days after Bill McGuire went missing, investigators said Melanie McGuire made another bizarre road trip, this time to Delaware. "After all these years, I still feel hurt. Miller was also married with children. Following the 2018 investigation into allegations of sexual abuse at the prison, the DOC released a statement in April, 2020, saying reforms were introduced at the prison to make it easier for inmates to report sexual abuse. In September 2020, Melanie McGuire sat down with 20/20 and gave her first interview in 13 years. That same year, she married her husband, a U.S. Navy veteran named William Bill McGuire. After they released a sketch to the public, one of Bill McGuires friends soon came forward. [1] She graduated, second in her class, from the Charles E. Gregory School of Nursing (now Raritan Bay Medical Center) in 1997 with a nursing diploma. Check out what's clicking today in entertainment. Don't accept what you're just being told on the surface. After all these years, I still feel hurt. McGuire went through a lengthy trial, which was televised on Court TV, from February to April 2007. The grainy images appeared to show Bill McGuire's car being pulled into a spot, but did not capture who the driver was. On April 26, 2004, Melanie had purchased a .38 caliber handgun from a store in Easton, Pennsylvania; Bill had been killed with a .38 caliber handgun with wadcutter bullets. But she didnt report Bill missing. "People ask me, 'Explain this. During her arraignment on murder charges, McGuire's case was dubbed the "Suitcase Murder" by various media outlets. So I think the police said, Well, prove it. Melanie McGuire claimed that her gun could not have been the murder weapon since the numbers of lands and grooves on the bullets that came out of Bill McGuire didn't match the number that the manufacturing website said it had made her gun with. The case involved 21 witnesses qualified as experts, hundreds of pieces of evidence and 21 days of testimony. NEW BRUNSWICK - Melanie McGuire the former Woodbridge resident convicted of killing her husband, dismembering his body, packing it in suitcases and tossing it off a bridge in Virginia . Her defense lawyers have not said if McGuire will testify . Melanie went to Middletown High School South and. Like, how could somebody think that I did that? Melanie McGuire told ABC News Amy Robach in a rare interview from prison for "20/20.. But though she denied parking it there, Melanie later claimed that she had gone to Atlantic City and moved the car to mess with him. There was. There are times when podcasts and media can shine a light on certain cases where what the government did was not right.