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. During her interview with ABC News, McGuire shared a message for her sons, saying: "Make up your mind. 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". 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. Melanie McGuire's defense team focused on the lack of physical evidence, insisting it was more likely that Bill McGuire was murdered as the result of his gambling, than at the hands of his diminutive wife. Its out there., 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." And on May 16, a third. Melanie Griffith set the Internet on fire. 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. Download is FREE. Who Is Melanie McGuire? Turn on desktop notifications for breaking stories about interest? Dont accept what youre just being told on the surface. She later told police that she believed he'd gone to Atlantic City to gamble as he had a penchant for doing so. Read More: Where Are William and Melanie McGuires Kids Now? It never made sense.. Melanie McGuire and defense attorney Stephen Turano, right, react to the verdict during her trial in New Brunswick, N.J., Monday, April 23, 2007. [9] The footage was blurry and the police weren't able to identify the person in the video. 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. We looked very closely at Dr. Miller, said Prezioso. It was a mistake on a gun manufacturer's website. The 62-year-old actress posted a jaw-dropping selfie on Instagram Tuesday night, featuring the . McGuire, now 47, was convicted of killing and dismembering her husband after a lengthy trial in 2007. "There was no evidence connecting him to this crime.. Her defense lawyers have not said if McGuire will testify . 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. He said he was leaving and he wasnt coming back and [that] I could tell my children they didnt have a father.. I dont know how you would dismember a body and effectively clean that up, said McGuire. Bill McGuire, 39, put a down payment down on a $500,000 house for the couple and their two young sons in April 2004. [23] On September 20, 2011, the New Jersey Supreme Court declined to hear her further appeal. Prezioso said she has no doubt Melanie McGuire's gun was the murder weapon. But when fishermen discovered a suitcase stuffed with Bill's remains just days after the couple had closed on their new dream home . Melanie remembers this as. For the first time in years, she says she has hope that an explosive new podcast, "Direct Appeal," could help exonerate her. She pleaded not guilty. [6][7] She enrolled at Rutgers University with a double major in math and psychology and graduated in 1994. I still feel bothered. (The court awarded custody to Bill McGuires sister, Cindy Ligosh.) They recorded her calls with family and friends, including Miller, with whom she was having the affair. "I panicked. 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. With the story debunked, the request for a new trial was withdrawn. At her televised trial, prosecutors explained that she had drugged Bill, shot him, and dismembered him. Shes now a 47-year-old inmate at the Edna Mahan Correctional Facility in Clinton, New Jersey, where she claims that shes not only innocent of killing her husband but that his real killer is still out there. Dubbed the "Suitcase Killer," she was found guilty and sentenced to life in prison on July 19, 2007, at the age of 34. This stuff exists. 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. Melanie Mcguire has been languishing in a prison cell for the past 13 years. Few, if any, knew that McGuire, a mother of two young sons, was having an affair with her physician boss, Dr. Bradley Miller. 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. Like, how could somebody think that I did that? https://t.co/f9HrMsbxkY. As McGuire maintains her innocence, she is running out of appeal options. A Wednesday. Would love your thoughts, please comment. Where Are William and Melanie McGuires Kids Now. Would love your thoughts, please comment. ", Credit: Jean-Paul Aussenard/WireImage; ABC, Amy Locane's prison cell roommate is the notorious Suitcase Killer. She didnt fit the profile, I guess, of a murderer, Shlosberg told 20/20. [B]ut gone doesnt mean dead.. By that point, the two had only flirted and corresponded via e-mail, only for a romance to blossom. 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. [24][25] On April 29, 2014, McGuire filed a motion for post-conviction relief, alleging ineffective assistance of counsel and newly discovered evidence. Don't accept what you're just being told on the surface. Like, how could somebody think that I did that? https://t.co/f9HrMsbxkY. It's out there," she said. There were five lands and grooves that my weapon was said to have made based on the company's website. Watch the full story on "20/20" Friday, Sept. 25, at 9 p.m. 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." 2023 Cinemaholic Inc. All rights reserved. Prezioso is certain that Bill McGuires murderer is the woman who was convicted and is now sitting in prison. The chart below captures the current COVID cases within the inmate and staff population, following Phase 2 testing, which includes retesting those individuals who were previously negative. Sacks firmly believes that prosecutors failed to answer key questions in the case. She put his remains into a 3-piece suitcase set, and those three pieces were later found in Chesapeake Bay. 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. However, not much else about the day was typical. Melanie then became the prime suspect in the investigation. The day before his disappearance, the couple closed on the purchase of their first home. His wife, Melanie McGuire, a fertility nurse and the mother of his two sons, was eventually convicted of murdering him and dumping his body. As improbable as it sounds, Melanie McGuire said she actually stumbled upon her husband's car. Bill had a gambling problem, Melanie explained, and after their fight she knew he would be at the casino. Melanie McGuire Today: Where Is the Suitcase Killer Now in 2020. With Candice King, Michael Roark, Tristan Laurence, Jackson Hurst. Melanie McGuire says she isnt hoping for prison release, in a new jailhouse interview with @ARobach Friday at 9/8c during a new #ABC2020. On June 2, 2005, more than a year after the murder, Melanie dropped her children off at child care and preschool. 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. 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. Powered by. Miller looked at the prescription and he said, Thats not my signature and it appears to be Melanie McGuires handwriting, recalled Prezioso. 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. "My job is not to convince the world. Locane said she worries that her daughters and the public will forget her. Prosecutors argued that she killed her husband so. NEW BRUNSWICK - Attorney General Stuart Rabner and Criminal Justice Director Gregory A. Paw announced that Melanie McGuire was found guilty of murder today in the 2004 shooting death of her husband, William McGuire, whose severed remains were found in three suitcases along the Virginia coast in May 2004. At trial, prosecutors presented an apparent mountain of circumstantial evidence against Melanie McGuire in Bill McGuires disappearance and murder. Police also discovered small pieces of Bill's flesh, which authorities described as "human sawdust," inside the McGuire home, which they believed meant that McGuire had killed her husband. 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. The podcasters and Melanie McGuire also point to unexplained animal hair found on Bill McGuires dismembered body and noted in investigative reports. There were times I wanted him gone, she told 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. Melanie and Bill McGuire pictured in Atlantic City, New Jersey at an unknown date. In April 2004, defendant conducted internet research to learn about buying a gun and about poisons, sedative drugs, and murder. The victim, a coroner found, had been shot multiple times. Welcome to the Quantum Realm. During her arraignment on murder charges, McGuire's case was dubbed the "Suitcase Murder" by various media outlets. Watch new at 9/8c on ABC. They brought in the luminol, and they also pulled down parts of the walls. If youre willing to wear a wire, well believe you, said Sacks. Join half a million readers enjoying Newsweek's free newsletters. He ran tests, but he didn't do all the tests that you actually need to definitively say whether these bags match, added Sacks. I absolutely tried to have those charges taken off because I feared that people would look and think what they ultimately ended up thinking.. [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. She was indicted on four additional, relatively smaller charges in October. She also made inquiries of a friend about how to buy a gun. Do you know how hard it is to cut through bone? 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. William "Bill" McGuire was a husband and father of two. When investigators discovered the affair, they approached Miller. I still feel bothered. https://t.co/ZGewROXCaQ pic.twitter.com/hlzcKR96Ss. Melanie McGuire is currently in a New Jersey jail, awaiting sentencing on July 19. Dig, dig., 20/20 airs Fridays at 9 pm on ABC, right after Americas Funniest Home Videos at 8 pm. Born on October 8, 1972, Melanie grew up in Ridgewood, New Jersey, majored in statistics at Rutgers University, and enrolled in nursing school, according to The New York Times. Melanie McGuire, 34-years old, sentenced to life in prison for murdering her husband Photo Source: NJ.com (website) When a bullet passes through, its smooth surface becomes imprinted with the same number of lands and grooves as the barrel. The grainy images appeared to show Bill McGuire's car being pulled into a spot, but did not capture who the driver was. With all of her appeals exhausted, Melanie McGuire said she participated in the podcast hoping that new evidence might be discovered that could lead to her exoneration. I'm a nurse or I was a nurse, and I don't need to look up things like that. He probably would have broken my cheek if [the hit] had been a closed fist, Melanie McGuire said. Youre talking about hours [of driving] and there isnt enough time, said McGuire. 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 . The Superior Court of New Jersey affirmed her verdict and sentence in 2011. https://directappealpodcast.com/. 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. Fairleigh Dickinson University criminology professors Meghan Sacks and Amy Shlosberg have an entire podcast called Direct Appeal dedicated to questioning Melanies conviction. Family and friends can send flowers and/or light a candle as a loving gesture for their loved one. [22] She must serve more than 63 years before she is eligible for parole. She may be eligible for parole after serving 66 years in prison, court documents filed in her case said. The Departments virus mitigation tactics, along with its universal testing initiative of staff and inmates, has controlled the spread of COVID-19 within NJDOC facilities. [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. Wronko, who is also Locane's boyfriend, is appealing the new sentence, which he believes violates her double jeopardy protections. 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. In April 2004, Melanie and Bill McGuire seemed to have it all: successful careers, two young sons and a new $500,000 home. She will not be eligible for parole until she is 100 years old. https://t.co/ZGewRPfd2o pic.twitter.com/i4dBUBR7PJ. Lifetime is planning to release a movie about her case, Suitcase Killer: The Melanie McGuire Story in June 2022. I panicked, Melanie told 20/20. Dig, dig. She bought a gun two days before his disappearance in Pennsylvania, but said she did so for her husband, and speculated he was having trouble with someone. She said her husband left and that she never saw him again. Once Melanie spots Bills car from the highway, she decides shes going to move his car, said Shlosberg. 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. She actually obtained the means to incapacitate Bill from her workplace, which eventually became her downfall. [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. It is physically exhausting. Melanie McGuire, a New Jersey woman who was sentenced to life in prison, in 2007, for the murder of her husband Bill McGuire, discusses the case and maintains her innocence; A nurse said her husband walked out on her. Born on October 8, 1972, Melanie Lyn Slate has spent all of her life in New Jersey growing up in Ridgewood and Middletown Township. I still feel bothered. Candice King as Melanie McGuire in "Suitcase Killer: The Melanie McGuire Story," which explore the real death of Bill McGuire in 2004. Sacks seconded her co-host, saying: Melanie did not incapacitate, shoot [or] use a saw to dismember her husband. The 47-year-old is currently serving a life sentence at the Edna Mahan Correctional Facility in Clinton, New Jersey . "Beware of pretty faces that you find, a pretty face can hide an evil mind." -Johnny Ramistella. Melanie had to withdraw her appeal after the prosecutors debunked the story, and so, on July 19, 2007, she was sentenced to life in prison. I still feel bothered. Melanie went to Middletown High School South and. He said he was leaving and he wasnt coming back and [that] I could tell my children they didnt have a father.. [9] Police released a facial reconstruction sketch of the victim, which an acquaintance of Bill McGuire's recognized. McGuire got the unfortunate luggage nickname after she was convicted of drugging her husband, shooting him to death, and stuffing his dismembered body into three dark green suitcases that were later found in the Chesapeake Bay. I still feel bothered. 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. 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. I just burst into tears, Melanie said of learning about her husbands death in a 2007 interview. 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. One of the three suitcases that contained parts of Bill McGuires body. The prescription for chloral hydrate came from Millers prescription pad. After they released a sketch to the public, one of Bill McGuires friends soon came forward. Please review our privacy policy here: https://heavy.com/privacy-policy/, Copyright 2023 Heavy, Inc. All rights reserved. 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. This suitcase was found to contain the head and torso with three bullet wounds, two in the chest and one in the head. On June 5, 2005, investigators arrested Melanie McGuire and charged her with first-degree murder. 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. In the meantime, the two young McGuire children, ages 5 and 7, are being raised by Bill's sister, Cindy Ligosh. 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. 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. Edna Mahan Correctional Facility for WomenMelanie McGuire prison record. He lived with his wife Melanie and their two boys in an apartment in Woodbridge, New Jersey, United States. The killer is out there and its not me, Melanie told Robach. There are just too many holes in this story.. Melanie McGuire listens to testimony today during her murder trial. by Sarah Jae Leiber Sep. 21, 2020. After all these years, I still feel hurt. She became known as the "Suitcase Killer" during her televised 2007 trial. [9] On May 11, a second larger suitcase was found on the beach of Fisherman Island National Wildlife Refuge, by a graduate student cleaning up litter on the beach. 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. And then, two years later, they were blessed with another baby boy. In June 2005, Melanie McGuire was arrested and charged with Bill's murder (per NBC News ). It is with deep sorrow that we announce the death of Lena Christine Kindschi of Perry, Oklahoma, who passed away on February 27, 2023, at the age of 92, leaving to mourn family and friends. When investigators processed Bill McGuire's car, they also found a bottle of the sedative chloral hydrate and two syringes. Melanie McGuire, sentenced to life in prison for killing her husband in a case known as the "Suitcase Murder," filed a petition in New Jersey Superior Court Thursday asking a judge for more. Melanie McGuire, now 47, maintains her innocence from the Edna Mahan Correctional Facility for Women in Clinton, New Jersey, the state's only women's prison where there are approximately 500. The prosecution argued McGuires motive was her affair with Dr. Bradley Miller, a partner at the medical practice RMA Associates. Yet, in the end, it turned out that shed lied about it all. His business partner described him as a good father . A staff writer for All That's Interesting, Kaleena Fraga has also had her work featured in The Washington Post and Gastro Obscura, and she published a book on the Seattle food scene for the Eat Like A Local series. 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. Bills car contained a bottle of chloral hydrate, a sedative, and two syringes, which had been prescribed by Bradley Miller. Therefore, more than a year after the incident, on June 7, 2005, Melanie was officially arrested and charged with first-degree murder. 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. In a new episode of "20/20," co-anchor Amy Robach sits down for the first on-camera interview with Melanie McGuire since she was sentenced to life in prison 13 . That requires two drivers so certainly that means someone helped her, said Prezioso. If I wanted to look for something like that, I have a [physicians' desk reference]. 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. Sacks and Shlosberg claim that the tests run by the state's plastic expert were not sufficient to conclusively link the bags found in Melanie McGuires house and the ones used to wrap Bill McGuires body. But Melanie maintains that she did not commit the infamous Suitcase Murder. Melanie McGuire told the podcast "Direct Appeal" that she is not the suitcase killer, and that the true murderer is still on the loose. McGuire was charged with first-degree murder on June 2, 2005, for which she pleaded not guilty, and she made bail. The case is being featured on a two-hour ABC special, Suitcase Killer, which airs Friday, September 25, 2020 at 9 p.m. Eastern time. [9] McGuire persisted in claiming she was innocent, and claimed her husband had become increasingly moody and unpredictable and was a compulsive gambler.
