There's less of a waiting period.. Their relationship began in 2002, according to the appeal. Prosecutors argued that she killed her husband so. So if you wish to learn more about her and her current whereabouts, heres what we know. Because the murder did not occur in Virginia, however, authorities turned over their investigation to the New Jersey State Police.[10]. (The court awarded custody to Bill McGuires sister, Cindy Ligosh.) (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Less than a year later, the McGuires had their first son. 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. We should mention that after Melanie was convicted of the charges against her, her family started a custody battle with Cindy, but to no avail. Melanie then became the prime suspect in the investigation. Fairleigh Dickinson University criminology professors Meghan Sacks and Amy Shlosberg have an entire podcast called Direct Appeal dedicated to questioning Melanies conviction. In April 2004, defendant conducted internet research to learn about buying a gun and about poisons, sedative drugs, and murder. She offered explanations for the stories she told police, such as her claim she stumbled across her husbands car in Atlantic City and moved it. Melanie McGuire, now 47, maintains her innocence from the Edna Mahan Correctional Facility for Women in Clinton, New Jersey, the states only womens prison where there are approximately 500 inmates. This stuff exists, she said on the show. They shared two children together but their marriage was seemingly not a happy one as McGuire embarked on an affair with Dr. Bradley Miller, who was then a partner at the clinic she worked in, per Fox News. During her trial, Miller protested McGuire's innocence, testifying that she had called him on April 28 to say that she was going to tell her husband she wanted a divorce after they had closed the deal on a new home, ABC News reported. Powered by. Melanie McGuire says she isnt hoping for prison release, in a new jailhouse interview with @ARobach Friday at 9/8c during a new #ABC2020. [9] Similarly, a medical grade towel found with Bill's body matched those stocked at the clinic where Melanie worked. She does have an interesting new cellmate: In 2020, Melanie began sharing a cell with former actress Amy Locane, who starred in the TV show "Melrose Place." With the story debunked, the request for a new trial was withdrawn. The appeal raised many claims contending she did not receive a fair trial, including prosecutorial misconduct, failure to consider a mitigating factor, a tainted jury, and exposure of the jury to inflammatory media accounts. Prosecutors believed that McGuire forged the prescription as she had access to this prescription pad. https://t.co/ZGewRPfd2o pic.twitter.com/i4dBUBR7PJ. These documents exist. https://t.co/ZGewROXCaQ pic.twitter.com/hlzcKR96Ss. The medical examiner determined that the body had been shot multiple times. I just wanted to get away from him at that point. Melanie McGuire explained that the night after Bill McGuire went missing, she was becoming angrier at her husband and suspected she knew where he was: Atlantic City. 1:15. When investigators discovered the affair, they approached Miller. There were two charges, totaling 90 cents, on her statement that proved she had driven to Atlantic City after her husband went missing. They recovered searches including: How to purchase guns illegally, How to commit murder, Undetectable poisons and, generally, how to sedate or kill someone, according to investigators. Lands and grooves are rifling characteristics that are machine pressed into the barrel of a gun. But despite her apparent grief, police soon began to suspect that Melanie McGuire had murdered her husband. But though both the podcast and the making of the movie have brought attention to the Suitcase Murder, it doesnt change the fact that Melanie McGuire is behind bars. After exiting the older child's school, Melanie started walking toward her vehicle when law enforcement emerged from the bushes, taking her into custody without incident. I just burst into tears, Melanie said of learning about her husbands death in a 2007 interview. Dig, dig. McGuire is lodged at the Edna Mahan Correctional Facility for Women, serving a life sentence in Clinton, New Jersey. This episode takes you through the case and trial, while showing Melanie being interviewed on an episode of 20/20 in 2007, and showing Melanie speak from prison today. [8] She married United States Navy veteran William T. "Bill" McGuire (born September 21, 1964) in 1999. Melanie and Bill McGuire pictured hugging at an unknown date. Melanie McGuire, who is not eligible for parole until she is 101 years old, said the hardest part is not being there for her children. She said her marriage to Bill McGuire was not going well and claimed that he was violent. McGuire offered a message to her sons on 20/20, who are now adults, encouraging them to look deeper into the case and find the truth for themselves. Copyright 2023 Meredith Corporation. It was the 28th of April 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. Making matters worse, Melanie McGuire had called the company and attempted to have those charges removed. 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. Investigators also found Bills car where Melanie suggested it would be Atlantic City. Melanie McGuire is serving a life sentence in the murder of her husband, Bill McGuire, at a womens correctional facility in New Jersey. So she drove around until she found his car and then moved it as a prank. [B]ut gone doesnt mean dead.. Leave a sympathy message to the family in the guestbook . He lived with his wife Melanie and their two boys in an apartment in Woodbridge, New Jersey, United States. But though Bill and Melanie had two sons together, their marriage swiftly soured. She graduated from Oberlin College, where she earned a double degree in American History and French. Entertainment Weekly may receive compensation for some links to products and services on this website. 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. Melanie McGuire, the 34-year-old fertility clinic nurse convicted of killing her husband and stuffing his remains into suitcases, was sentenced to life in prison this morning. "And I'm driving down, and I take the first pass on this, on this highway, and I see a dark sedan, and lo and behold, there it is, Melanie McGuire said. Melanie Mcguire has been languishing in a prison cell for the past 13 years. But this was the first time somebody was basically saying, We hear you, said Melanie McGuire. William McGuire was 39 when he died. [9] Green fibers had been found on one of the bullets lodged in Bill's chest; the fibers were identified as polyester fill, a common material found in household furniture. Did Melanie McGuire dismember her husband? Police identified the man in the suitcases as 39-year-old William McGuire, from Woodbridge New Jersey, and they quickly focused their attention on Bill's wife, Melanie McGuire, who did not report him missing. "Suitcase Killer: The Melanie McGuire Story" premieres June 18 at 8 pm on Lifetime. (Video By Bumper. [9] Melanie admitted that the couple owned the same set of luggage that the body was found in, a matching three-piece set of Kenneth Cole suitcases. [9] A witness testified that Melanie used the same towels to protect furniture when she moved. However, not much else about the day was typical. Download is FREE. There were times I wanted him gone, she told 20/20. 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. New Jersey Department of Corrections/Find a Grave, Edna Mahan Correctional Facility for Women, Data from the New Jersey Department of Corrections, Melanie McGuire Was Sentenced to Life in Prison for Murder of Husband Bill. After a nearly month and a half long trial, Melanie McGuire was found guilty. Today, Melanie McGuire is almost 50 and is serving a life sentence at Edna Mahan Correctional Facility for Women in Clinton. There are times when podcasts and media can shine a light on certain cases where what the government did was not right. On April 28, 2004, the last day anyone ever saw Bill alive, Melanie had dropped off their sons, aged 2 and 4, at their daycare as routine at around 8:20 am. In this special, she speaks up about her innocence, her troubled marriage, her affair with Dr. Bradley Miller, and how she wishes she could still be a part of her childrens lives. Locane is back behind bars for killing Helene Seeman, 60, in a 2010 drunk driving collision in New Jersey's Montgomery Township. Melanie McGuire told the podcast "Direct Appeal" that she is not the suitcase killer, and that the true murderer is still on the loose. A grand jury returned a second indictment in 2006, charging her with eight additional counts regarding anonymous communications, according to the appeal filed in her case. McGuire, who was convicted in 2007 of killing her husband Bill McGuire, said the hardest part has been not being able to watch her two sons grow up. Dr. The victim, a coroner found, had been shot multiple times. Melanie McGuire Today: Where Is the Suitcase Killer Now in 2020. Suitcase Killer The Melanie McGuire Story is available to watch in Canada with a Philo subscription! Before she was charged with murder, Melanie contacted E-ZPass and attempted to have the $0.90 charge removed from her account history. Watch new at 9/8c on ABC. 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. [27][28], In 2022, Lifetime produced a movie called Suitcase Killer: The Melanie McGuire Story as part of its "Ripped from the Headlines" series of movies for television. Although investigators were unable to find physical evidence of murder inside the McGuire's home, they were able to find small pieces of Bill McGuire's flesh -- evidence that would eventually be referred to in the media as human sawdust -- from the car. Her defense lawyers have not said if McGuire will testify . They recorded her calls with family and friends, including Miller, with whom she was having the affair. Melanie McGuire is a former nurse who worked at a fertility clinic in New Jersey. "My job is not to convince the world. Bill had a gambling problem, Melanie explained, and after their fight she knew he would be at the casino. How Marvel went big with Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania. Born on October 8, 1972, Melanie Lyn Slate has spent all of her life in New Jersey growing up in Ridgewood and Middletown Township. She was indicted on four additional, relatively smaller charges in October. 2023 Cinemaholic Inc. All rights reserved. They insisted he was a compulsive gambler who had become increasingly moody, unpredictable, and tempestuous in the months before his passing. And on May 16, a third. His body was found in three separate suitcases in the Chesapeake Bay, which led to McGuires nickname, the Suitcase Killer.. Most recently, though, it has been the subject of ABCs 20/20, in an episode entitled Interview with Melanie McGuire, where we get Melanies complete perspective for the first time. She will not be eligible for parole until she has. Melanie McGuire/Bill McGuire. Melanie McGuire defends her innocence from inside prison in 2019, over a decade after she was convicted. Melanie McGuire was convicted in the grisly murder of her husband, Bill McGuire, whose body was found dismembered in suitcases in the Chesapeake Bay. I grabbed the baby and went to the bathroom right behind me and shut the door. The Edna Mahan Correctional Facility for Women near Clinton, New Jersey, made headlines for allegations of sexual abuse and for the recent spread of the coronavirus, New Jersey Spotlight News reported. Edna Mahan Correctional Facility for WomenMelanie McGuire prison record. Like, how could somebody think that I did that?". She then graduated from the Charles E. Gregory School of Nursing (now Raritan Bay Medical Center) in 1997 with a nursing diploma. At her televised trial, prosecutors explained that she had drugged Bill, shot him, and dismembered him. This is not one of those cases, said Prezioso. 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. [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. I still feel bothered. He probably would have broken my cheek if [the hit] had been a closed fist, Melanie McGuire said. Dig, dig.". 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. 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. McGuire told 20/20 she did not commit the crimes for which she was convicted. Also if the crime scene didn't happen [at the family home] and she's home with her children all night, where is this happening? 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. No one plugged the serial number of my gun into a website to find out what the specifications were, said Melanie McGuire. [5], Melanie Lyn Slate grew up in Ridgewood and Middletown Township, New Jersey, attending Middletown High School South. Melanie, who grew up in Brick, and William McGuire were married in 1999 and had lived with their two sons in Woodbridge at the time of the murder. 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. The 2004 case was dubbed the suitcase murder because the victims legs were found in a suitcase that washed up in Virginia Beach. Melanie McGuire is an American former nurse who was found guilty of killing her husband, Bill McGuire, on April 28, 2004, in a case called the "suitcase murder" by the media. The body was eventually identified as 39 year-old Bill McGuire, an employee of the New Jersey Institute of Technology, who lived more than 300 miles away in Woodbridge, New Jersey. Watch the full story on "20/20" Friday, Sept. 25, at 9 p.m. Melanie McGuire, 34-years old, sentenced to life in prison for murdering her husband Photo Source: NJ.com (website) However, the state's expert disagreed, testifying that he ran the tests he believed were necessary to link the bags. McGuire maintains her innocence, and wants her two adult sons to look into the case for themselves. Dont accept what youre just being told on the surface. The request was subsequently denied. YouTubeMelanie McGuire says shes innocent and that someone else killed her husband, Bill, in 2004. Please review our privacy policy here: https://heavy.com/privacy-policy/, Copyright 2023 Heavy, Inc. All rights reserved. Like, how could somebody think that I did that? she said on 20/20. 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". Dont accept what youre just being told on the surface. We were not gathering evidence from a gun manufacturer's website. But, after that fateful April day, when the sun rose, their father was nowhere to be found. She maintains her innocence, having recently told 20/20 that "after all these years, I still feel hurt. He said he was leaving and he wasnt coming back and [that] I could tell my children they didnt have a father.. She was sentenced to life in prison on July 19, 2007 and is serving her sentence at the Edna. But life can spring an unexpected surprise, and it was an alleged infidelity in the McGuires' case that shattered to tragic pieces their marriage with the gruesome death of Bill in 2004. The killer is out there and its not me, Melanie told Robach. by Sarah Jae Leiber Sep. 21, 2020. To drive from New Jersey to the Chesapeake Bay in Virginia requires driving through Delaware, and the first suitcase turned up the very next day, Prezioso said. Melanie's receipt for the gun also listed an unspecified purchase of $9.95; there were only two items in the store for that amount, and one of them was a box of wadcutter bullets. McGuire was sentenced to 63 years, eight months and 30 days to life for first-degree murder, five to 10 years for desecration of human remains, two years and six months to five years for third-degree perjury, and a maximum sentence of life for second-degree possession of a weapon for an unlawful purpose, according to her prison record. "There was no evidence connecting him to this crime.. Prezioso believed the "human sawdust" was the result of Bill McGuire's dismemberment. Nothing in Melanie McGuires early life suggested shed turn to murder. On camera, Melanie tells them: Make up your mind. Melanie McGuire was victim Bill's wife, who was accused of his murder and dubbed the "Suitcase Killer" when the case went to trial. "It turned out that when the record check was done with Pennsylvania, a record came back that Melanie McGuire had purchased a gun," said Patti Prezioso, the lead investigator and prosecutor at Melanie McGuire's trial. She will not be eligible for parole until she is 100 years old. This stuff exists, she said on the show. Melanie went to work at a fertility clinic and Bill began teaching computer science at a technical college. [13] She was also convicted of the lesser charges of perjury, desecration of human remains, and possession of a weapon for an unlawful purpose. 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. [9] Melanie later claimed she had moved the car as a "prank",[8] even though she had applied for a protection from abuse order days earlier after allegedly being slapped by her husband. In 2004, Bill McGuire was found dismembered in three separate dark green Kenneth Cole suitcases that were found in and around the Chesapeake Bay, near Virginia Beach, Virginia. Thats what happened the night of April 28, 2004, the day Bill McGuire disappeared, according to his wife. According to PEOPLE, Melanie claimed that Bill had a gambling problem and a volatile temper. "People ask me, 'Explain this. As of June 22, 2020, two inmates had died of COVID-19. It was the timing of that purchase, though, that really caught the eye of investigators: It happened just two days before Bill McGuire went missing. "After all these years, I still feel hurt. During the 20/20 interview, Melanie sends a message to her now adult sons, whom she hasnt had contact with since her 2007 trial. My job is to convince the jury. Bill McGuire was murdered by his wife Melanie McGuire, and his body was found near Virginia Beach's Chesapeake Bay in 2004. Miller also said in his . They searched gun records in the state but found nothing. McGuire testified that during their argument her husband had become violent and he threatened to take their children away before leaving the home by himself, per CBS News. It was a mistake on a gun manufacturer's website. Youre talking about hours [of driving] and there isnt enough time, said McGuire. I'm a nurse or I was a nurse, and I don't need to look up things like that. Melanie McGuire has been in prison for 13 years, but she still maintains her innocence, she said in an interview with 20/20. Wronko, who is also Locane's boyfriend, is appealing the new sentence, which he believes violates her double jeopardy protections. Melanie McGuire says she isnt hoping for prison release, in a new jailhouse interview with @ARobach Friday at 9/8c during a new #ABC2020. https://t.co/ZGewRPfd2o pic.twitter.com/i4dBUBR7PJ. Prison inmates are in a closed environment. [1], By April 2004, the McGuires had been married for five years. Melanie McGuire is now serving a lifetime sentence at Edna Mahan Correctional Facility for Women in New Jersey, as Entertainment Weekly reports. 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. She will not be eligible for parole until she has served 66 years in prison. She's now a 47-year-old inmate at the Edna Mahan Correctional Facility in Clinton, New Jersey, where she claims that she's not only innocent of killing her husband but that his real killer is still out there. Prosecutors allege that McGuire, 34, shot him to death, sliced his body into four pieces with a power saw and then dumped his remains in the Chesapeake Bay. During the investigation, incriminating evidence against Melanie was uncovered. Bill McGuire's body was found around Chesapeake Bay near Virginia Beach, Virginia, his corpse had been shot and then dismembered, and he was put in three separate suitcases which were found in May 2004. The appeal details the murder, the night of Bill McGuires disappearance, and the disposal of his body. Melanie McGuire, the Suitcase Killer, gave a rare interview to Amy Robach of ABC News in September 2020. The Twisted Case of Melanie McGuire That Chapter 1.81M subscribers Subscribe 64K 1.8M views 9 months ago 2004, Chesapeake Bay. According to 20/20, the police were able to quickly identify the dismembered man. Another important development for investigators was the discovery of Bill McGuire's car. The plastic bags that contained Bill's body parts and the bags that contained Bill's clothes, which Melanie had given away to a friend, were demonstrated by forensics to have been manufactured on the same assembly line within hours of one another. They looked high and low to connect Melanie to some pet, and once they found that there was no way to connect Melanie to these pet hairs, it became not of evidentiary value, said Sacks. Prosecutors also pointed to Melanie McGuire's supposed internet searches in the days leading up to Bill McGuires disappearance. As improbable as it sounds, Melanie McGuire said she actually stumbled upon her husband's car. Offers may be subject to change without notice. Getty Images. After finishing high school, she enrolled at Rutgers University for a double major in math and psychology, which she achieved in 1994. She then drove to Virginia on May 3, where the suitcases were thrown at night from an isolated stretch of the Chesapeake Bay Bridge into the bay. They pulled out the piping, pulling floorboards up, said Sacks. Trial photos of Melanie McGuire, a New Jersey nurse best known for being the perpetrator in the media-dubbed "suitcase murder." . Melanie McGuire Today: Where Is the Suitcase Killer Now in 2020? [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. Days later, an unidentified man, believed by many to be her stepfather, also contacted E-ZPass and attempted to have the charge removed. They really turned this place upside down a number of times They couldn't find any forensic evidence whatsoever to establish this was a crime scene.. I still feel bothered. 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. Melanie McGuire, a 34-year-old mother of two, maintains that she didn't kill her husband and says the real killer tried to frame her. ", Credit: Jean-Paul Aussenard/WireImage; ABC, Amy Locane's prison cell roommate is the notorious Suitcase Killer. Police discovered Bill's car in Atlantic City and when they obtained surveillance footage, they discovered that McGuire had used a highway toll twice to drive to the location, and that she'd attempted to have the charges removed, per ABC News. The bullets that came out of my husband had six lands and grooves," said Melanie McGuire. [21] The case has been profiled on television outlets: Snapped Oxygen Network; Dateline NBC; 48 Hours Mystery CBS; and The Investigators TruTV; Deadly Affairs Investigation Discovery, and Forensic Files II, among other true crime television shows. On April 23, 2007 McGuire was found guilty by a jury of first-degree murder, perjury, desecration of human remains and possession of a weapon for unlawful means. William "Bill" McGuire was a husband and father of two. Would love your thoughts, please comment. She was sentenced to life in prison on July 19, 2007. They discovered that Melanie had bought a gun in Pennsylvania two days before Bill went missing and that she was having an affair with a doctor at her practice, Bradley Miller. [24][25] On April 29, 2014, McGuire filed a motion for post-conviction relief, alleging ineffective assistance of counsel and newly discovered evidence. Then, they looked in Pennsylvania. Make up your mind. McGuire's conviction was affirmed by an appeals court on March 16, 2011. ET on ABC. Suitcase Killer: The Melanie McGuire Story airs at 8 p.m. Check out what's clicking today in entertainment. A few weeks later, once Bills body was discovered and Melanie was identified as the prime suspect, Dr. Bradley had asked her to swear upon her childrens life that she had no hand in this homicide, which she did. Meghan Sacks, host of podcast "Direct Appeal" and Fairleigh Dickinson University criminology professor questions Melanie McGuire's guilt. ABC dug into the case and interviewed McGuire in prison for their two-hour 20/20 special, Suitcase Killer, which airs at 9 p.m. Eastern time Friday, September 25, 2020.