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. She was indicted on four additional, relatively smaller charges in October. She will not be eligible for parole until she is 100 years old. 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. 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. 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. 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. The media soon dubbed the case the Suitcase Murder.. 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. Melanie McGuire says she isnt hoping for prison release, in a new jailhouse interview with @ARobach Friday at 9/8c during a new #ABC2020. Download is FREE. 2023 Cinemaholic Inc. All rights reserved. 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. But this was the first time somebody was basically saying, We hear you, said Melanie McGuire. 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. 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. https://t.co/ZGewROXCaQ pic.twitter.com/hlzcKR96Ss. Melanie claims she's innocent, and hopes that she will be released someday. She put his remains into a 3-piece suitcase set, and those three pieces were later found in Chesapeake Bay. 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. 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. Five days after Bill McGuire went missing, investigators said Melanie McGuire made another bizarre road trip, this time to Delaware. The body parts belonged to a New Jersey father of two named Bill McGuire, and police soon suspected that his wife, Melanie McGuire, had killed him. She will not be eligible for parole until she is 100 years old. Miller was adamant that he had nothing to do with any crime, and he didnt know anything about this. Bill McGuire, 39, put a down payment down on a $500,000 house for the couple and their two young sons in April 2004. And shes not the only one who thinks that police arrested the wrong suspect. She says she is innocent. The Superior Court of New Jersey affirmed her verdict and sentence in 2011. The true crime drama sees Candice King take on the role of Melanie McGuire, and here is everything you need to know about her and her role in the case. Entertainment Weekly is a registered trademark of Meredith Corporation All Rights Reserved. Their relationship began in 2002, according to the appeal. "I won't be home until my oldest is 18 and my youngest is 16," she told EW. There are just too many holes in this story.. [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. 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. This suitcase was found to contain the head and torso with three bullet wounds, two in the chest and one in the head. McGuire, 34, a mother of two, is charged with first-degree murder in the April 2004 killing of her husband, 39-year-old state computer analyst William T. McGuire. 3d 411 - NJ: Appellate Div. 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. We heard from Barbara, a close friend of Melanie's, who has witnessed Melanie's ups and downs.I cant think of anyone more qualified to give an opinion on Melanie's behavior and emotional status. This is not one of those cases, said Prezioso. 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. With the story debunked, the request for a new trial was withdrawn. 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. She then graduated from the Charles E. Gregory School of Nursing (now Raritan Bay Medical Center) in 1997 with a nursing diploma. 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 . 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. Melanie McGuire listens to testimony today during her murder trial. (The court awarded custody to Bill McGuires sister, Cindy Ligosh.) She may be eligible for parole after serving 66 years in prison, court documents filed in her case said. McGuire is lodged at the Edna Mahan Correctional Facility for Women, serving a life sentence in Clinton, New Jersey. [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. 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. Melanie was a nurse at a fertility clinic and Bill was a computer programmer. Melanie McGuire/Bill McGuire. Melanie McGuire. [9] McGuire persisted in claiming she was innocent, and claimed her husband had become increasingly moody and unpredictable and was a compulsive gambler. In the interview, she continued to say that she was innocent and asked her sons to look into the case and not believe what they were seeing. The Twisted Case of Melanie McGuire That Chapter 1.81M subscribers Subscribe 64K 1.8M views 9 months ago 2004, Chesapeake Bay. The podcasters and Melanie McGuire also point to unexplained animal hair found on Bill McGuires dismembered body and noted in investigative reports. However, prosecutors established that the informant was "entirely incredible and routinely and habitually fabricates stories" according to a New Jersey State Police investigation, before recanting and accusing McGuire's attorney of suborning perjury. 1:15. [9] Police released a facial reconstruction sketch of the victim, which an acquaintance of Bill McGuire's recognized. 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. It was a mistake on a gun manufacturer's website. [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. [11] Through her attorneys, Joe Tacopina,[12] Steve Turano, and Marc Ward, she pleaded not guilty to the charges. In 2007, McGuire was convicted of killing and dismembering her husband, Bill. "After all these years, I still feel hurt. When a bullet passes through, its smooth surface becomes imprinted with the same number of lands and grooves as the barrel. When investigators discovered the affair, they approached Miller. 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. "There was no evidence connecting him to this crime.. The MCUs tiniest heroes are kicking off its biggest phase yet, setting up the next several years of storytelling. YouTube Lifetime's new film Suitcase Killer: The Melanie McGuire Story explores the shocking death of Bill McGuire on April 28, 2004. Bill called his friends to happily tell them the news. These documents exist. [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. Melanie says in the past, when theyre angry at each other, its a way of messing with each other, I guess you could say., It sounds beyond ridiculous sitting here saying it and I acknowledge that Its the truth, Melanie McGuire told 20/20.. Melanie and Bill McGuire cut the cake at their wedding. 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. The grainy images appeared to show Bill McGuire's car being pulled into a spot, but did not capture who the driver was. As of June 22, 2020, two inmates had died of COVID-19. I'm a nurse or I was a nurse, and I don't need to look up things like that. She was sentenced to life in prison on July 19, 2007 and is serving her sentence at the Edna. Where Are William and Melanie McGuires Kids Now. 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. They opened it and found a mans dismembered legs, cut off at the knee. Prezioso said she believed that Melanie McGuire was planting the car in Atlantic City to create an illusion that Bill McGuire was still alive. Melanie McGuire says shes innocent and that someone else killed her husband, Bill, in 2004. Melanie McGuire said she's speaking in a new #ABC2020 interview tonight with @ARobach, 16 years after she was convicted of murdering her husband, because she believes "the killer is out there and it's not me." YouTubeMelanie McGuire says shes innocent and that someone else killed her husband, Bill, in 2004. It was reliving it. I absolutely tried to have those charges taken off because I feared that people would look and think what they ultimately ended up thinking.. In the early morning hours of April 29, 2004, the day her husband disappeared, Melanie McGuire said that they had a violent fight and claimed that he choked her with a dryer sheet and hit her before leaving the house. And my answer is I can't explain because I don't think it makes any sense either," Wronko told EW earlier this month. They lived in an apartment Woodbridge, New Jersey. [1], By April 2004, the McGuires had been married for five years. 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? Like, how could somebody think that I did that?. There was. 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. There were times I wanted him gone, she told 20/20. [9] Police believed that she used a syringe and prescription from her work to obtain the drug used as a means to incapacitate her husband.[11]. Investigators also found trash bags in Melanie McGuire's home that they believed matched those used to wrap parts of Bill McGuire's body. The New Jersey fertility nurse was sentenced to life in prison back in 2007 for murdering her husband Bill in April 2004. Bills car contained a bottle of chloral hydrate, a sedative, and two syringes, which had been prescribed by Bradley Miller. According to PEOPLE, Melanie claimed that Bill had a gambling problem and a volatile temper. Dubbed the Suitcase Killer, she was found guilty and sentenced to life in prison on July 19, 2007, at the age of 34. 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. Melanies not the only person who believes that the police got it wrong. The killer is out there and it's not me. The circumstantial evidence against Melanie McGuire was mounting by this point, but investigators were still having trouble finding any physical evidence that would link Melanie McGuire to her husband's murder, according to Sacks. Offers may be subject to change without notice. Thirteen years have passed since Melanie McGuire's conviction. It doesn't make any sense.' The investigation into who killed Bill McGuire began in Virginia but eventually moved to New Jersey. McGuire will not be eligible for parole until she is 100 years old. 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 . During her interview with ABC News, McGuire shared a message for her sons, saying: "Make up your mind. She later told police that she believed he'd gone to Atlantic City to gamble as he had a penchant for doing so. [22] She must serve more than 63 years before she is eligible for parole. ET on ABC 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. The pair lived in Woodbridge, New Jersey where Bill worked at the New Jersey Institute of Technology and McGuire was a fertility clinic nurse in Morristown. 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 was sentenced to life in prison on July 19, 2007. That same year, she married her husband, a U.S. Navy veteran named William Bill McGuire. Investigators, however, found it highly suspicious that Melanie had then tried to have 90-cent EZ Pass toll charges, which proved shed gone to Atlantic City, removed from her account. Prezioso said she has no doubt Melanie McGuire's gun was the murder weapon. He probably would have broken my cheek if [the hit] had been a closed fist, Melanie McGuire said. 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. Upon further investigation, police discovered a security video of the car being moved in the early morning hours of April 30, 2004. Powered by WordPress.com VIP. Meanwhile, investigators found more and more evidence that suggested that Melanie McGuire had killed her husband. Yesterday, more than a year after the three grisly discoveries, Melanie McGuire, 32, of Brick, N.J., was charged with first-degree murder in the April 29, 2004, slaying of her husband of four. 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 . She had apparently grown worried about their well-being upon noticing their behavior and got them tested. There's less of a waiting period.. McGuires case is being featured on a podcast, Direct Appeal. She is nearly out of options in the judicial system, the podcast website said, and now she is appealing to the public for help. The podcast hosts and Melanie McGuire herself, raise questions about whether it's even possible the gun she purchased was the murder weapon. The 47-year-old is currently serving a life sentence at the Edna Mahan Correctional Facility in Clinton, New Jersey . https://directappealpodcast.com/. When investigators processed Bill McGuire's car, they also found a bottle of the sedative chloral hydrate and two syringes. She will not be eligible for parole until she has. I panicked, Melanie told 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. The victim, a coroner found, had been shot multiple times. In addition to 20/20, her case is being examined in a podcast, Direct Appeal. She filed an appeal to the New Jersey Superior Court, which affirmed her conviction and sentence in 2011. Did Melanie McGuire dismember her husband? 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. She became known as the "Suitcase Killer" during her televised 2007 trial. Like, how could somebody think that I did that? https://t.co/f9HrMsbxkY. During her interview with ABC News, McGuire shared a message for her sons, saying: "Make up your mind. The film stars Candice King as Melanie McGuire, Michael Roark as William McGuire, Jackson Hurst as Bradley Miller, and Wendie Malick as Patricia Prezioso. Read More: Where Is Melanie McGuires Family Now? The McGuire family resided in a Woodbridge Township apartment but had plans to move to a much larger home in Warren County by the end of April. 3d 948 - NJ: Supreme Court 2011 - Google Scholar", "N.J. Supreme Court won't hear appeal of convicted 'suitcase killer', "Convicted killer Melanie McGuire seeking post-conviction relief in June hearing", "Suitcase killer Melanie McGuire seeks new review of evidence", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Melanie_McGuire&oldid=1142209125, This page was last edited on 1 March 2023, at 02:58. ABC News also reported that other evidence included McGuire's purported internet search history, which amongst others included "undetectable poisons.". 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. Powered by. She was given a life sentence on July 19, 2007, and she is currently in jail at the Edna Mahan . [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. Miller agreed to cooperate with investigators and was never charged in the crime. Prosecutors believed that McGuire forged the prescription as she had access to this prescription pad. William "Bill" McGuire was a husband and father of two. Melanie McGuire. Indeed, she spent most of her time bringing new life into the world. YouTubeMelanie McGuire married her husband in 1999 and later alleged that he had a gambling problem and a violent temper. McGuire told 20/20 she did not commit the crimes for which she was convicted. Investigators searched the home for evidence multiple times, checking to see if Bill McGuire had been killed and dismembered there. It never made sense.. Melanie Griffith set the Internet on fire. She wished to avoid purchasing a house at substantial expense and beginning a new phase in a marriage she regretted. Copyright 2023 Meredith Corporation. Edna Mahan Correctional Facility for WomenMelanie McGuire prison record. After re-examining her murder conviction over a decade later, Sacks and Shlosberg, believe Melanie McGuire was wrongfully convicted.