All we know is that they havent been in touch with their mother since before she was convicted. The investigation into who killed Bill McGuire began in Virginia but eventually moved to New Jersey. Melanie remembers this as. Dig, dig.". But she didnt report Bill missing. There were times I wanted him gone, she told 20/20. As a realtor at the Weichert office in Franklin Lakes, she, along with her husband, pharmacist Bill Ligosh of Wyckoff, New Jersey, were deemed well qualified and capable of taking good care of the toddlers. [13] She was also convicted of the lesser charges of perjury, desecration of human remains, and possession of a weapon for an unlawful purpose. We looked very closely at Dr. Miller, said Prezioso. She will not be eligible for parole until she is 100 years old. Miller was also married with children. So I think the police said, Well, prove it. After a nearly month and a half long trial, Melanie McGuire was found guilty. She will not be eligible for parole until she has served 66 years in prison. Prosecutors have always maintained that they believed Melanie McGuire likely had an accomplice. He was 39 years old. Once Melanie spots Bills car from the highway, she decides shes going to move his car, said Shlosberg. After all, a medical-grade towel found with Bills body matched those stocked at the clinic as well as those she kept at her home. It also promised to better educate staff and inmates about the federal Prison Rape Elimination Act, and said it had set up an early-warning system to identify problematic behavior by staff. But though Bill and Melanie had two sons together, their marriage swiftly soured. 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. [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. I have a book that I can look in that doesn't leave an internet history, Melanie McGuire told "20/20.". Melanie McGuire, 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". She was immediately booked into the Middlesex County Adult Correctional Center on first-degree murder charges, but made her $750,000 bail ($1.04 million today). [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]. Edna Mahan Correctional Facility for WomenMelanie McGuire prison record. The 47-year-old is currently serving a life sentence at the Edna Mahan Correctional Facility in Clinton, New Jersey . For the first time in years, she says she has hope that an explosive new podcast, "Direct Appeal," could help exonerate her. 2023 Cinemaholic Inc. All rights reserved. Miller eventually testified against Melanie McGuire at her trial. 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. After a nearly month and a half long trial, Melanie McGuire was found guilty. https://t.co/ZGewROXCaQ pic.twitter.com/hlzcKR96Ss. Melanie McGuire Suitcase Killer Lifetime Movie - 94.3 The Point 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.. She later told police that she believed he'd gone to Atlantic City to gamble as he had a penchant for doing so. Though a jury agreed and sentenced Melanie McGuire to life in prison, the so-called Suitcase Killer has long insisted upon her innocence. New Jersey fertility clinic nurse Melanie McGuire stands accused of murdering her husband, William, in 2004. 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. Then, they looked in Pennsylvania. On camera, Melanie tells them: Make up your mind. She says she is innocent. Melanie McGuire Today: Where Is the Suitcase Killer Now in 2020. Melanie McGuire Was Sentenced to Life in Prison for Murder of Husband Bill, Please review our privacy policy here: https://heavy.com/privacy-policy/, Copyright 2023 Heavy, Inc. All rights reserved. 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. The podcast hosts and Melanie McGuire herself, raise questions about whether it's even possible the gun she purchased was the murder weapon. 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. "After all these years, I still feel hurt. N.J. Woman Charged In Husband's Killing - The Washington Post Actress Candice King who is best known for her work in the Vampire Diaries will play McGuire. Her defense lawyers have not said if McGuire will testify . ET on Saturday, June 18 on the Lifetime network. Wronko, who is also Locane's boyfriend, is appealing the new sentence, which he believes violates her double jeopardy protections. "People ask me, 'Explain this. Melanie McGuire is serving a life sentence in the murder of her husband, Bill McGuire, at a womens correctional facility in New Jersey. Colombia Finds Two New Shipwrecks Near The Site Of An 18th-Century Spanish Galleon That Sank With Billions In Treasure, The Life And Death Of JFK Jr., The Beloved Son Of John F. Kennedy, What Stephen Hawking Thinks Threatens Humankind The Most, 27 Raw Images Of When Punk Ruled New York, Join The All That's Interesting Weekly Dispatch. When a bullet passes through, its smooth surface becomes imprinted with the same number of lands and grooves as the barrel. 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. Melanie McGuire was victim Bill's wife, who was accused of his murder and dubbed the "Suitcase Killer" when the case went to trial. Melanie McGuire says she isnt hoping for prison release, in a new jailhouse interview with @ARobach Friday at 9/8c during a new #ABC2020. 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. It was reliving it. It doesn't make any sense.' 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 . 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 and defense attorney Stephen Turano, right, react to the verdict during her trial in New Brunswick, N.J., Monday, April 23, 2007. [5], Melanie Lyn Slate grew up in Ridgewood and Middletown Township, New Jersey, attending Middletown High School South. So she drove around until she found his car and then moved it as a prank. 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. Lover admits lying about affair with McGuire - nj.com Custody of McGuire's two sons was given to her husband's sister, Cindy Ligosh, when she was convicted, and McGuire has not seen them since. Criminologists Dr. Meghan Sacks, and Dr. Amy Shlosberg dig into the evidence on the podcast. Over a period of 12 days in May 2004, three dark green suitcases were discovered in and near the Chesapeake Bay. 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. Sara James. There are just too many holes in this story.. Melanie and Bill McGuire pictured hugging at an unknown date. https://t.co/ZGewROXCaQ pic.twitter.com/hlzcKR96Ss. She pleaded not guilty. He probably would have broken my cheek if it had been a closed fist, Melanie McGuire told 20/20. "I panicked. Guilty or not, Melanie McGuire, the so-called Suitcase Killer, remains an object of fascination. Image Credit: ABC News / 20/20 Meghan Sacks, host of podcast "Direct Appeal" and Fairleigh Dickinson University criminology professor questions Melanie McGuire's guilt. In September 2020 McGuire took part in a rare interview with ABC News, in which she continued to profess her innocence for the crime. Data from the New Jersey Department of Corrections details cases since they implemented additional measures. 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. The evidence in this case points to a well-organized, meticulously planned execution of a murder, Prezioso said during the trial. McGuire is lodged at the Edna Mahan Correctional Facility for Women, serving a life sentence in Clinton, New Jersey. 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. The prosecution argued McGuires motive was her affair with Dr. Bradley Miller, a partner at the medical practice RMA Associates. Dubbed the Suitcase Killer, she was found guilty and sentenced to life in prison on July 19, 2007, at the age of 34. She was given a life sentence on July 19, 2007, and she is currently in jail at the Edna Mahan . ", Credit: Jean-Paul Aussenard/WireImage; ABC, Amy Locane's prison cell roommate is the notorious Suitcase Killer. Powered by WordPress.com VIP. The Suitcase Murder - Forensic Tales 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. 01: Three suitcases, containing human remains, surfaced in Virginia's Chesapeake Bay in May 2004. Author John Glatt wrote a book about the case, entitled To Have and To Kill. With Candice King, Michael Roark, Tristan Laurence, Jackson Hurst. Miller looked at the prescription and he said, Thats not my signature and it appears to be Melanie McGuires handwriting, recalled Prezioso. Upon further investigation, police discovered a security video of the car being moved in the early morning hours of April 30, 2004. 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. What Happened To Melanie McGuire, The Suitcase Killer? - Grunge.com During her interview with ABC News, McGuire shared a message for her sons, saying: "Make up your mind. [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. The McGuire Diaries - CBS News It shows no inmates or staff at the facility had confirmed positive test results between August 22, 2020, and September 25, 2020. "20/20" The Secret in the Suitcase (TV Episode 2020) - IMDb Melanie McGuire was convicted in the grisly murder of her husband, Bill McGuire, whose body was found dismembered in suitcases in the Chesapeake Bay. She said in a moment of admitted irrationality she decided to drive down there and look for his car. She suggested that her husband had been killed over his gambling debts, claiming that he was the one whod insisted that she buy a gun in the first place. This stuff exists, she said on the show. At trial, prosecutors presented an apparent mountain of circumstantial evidence against Melanie McGuire in Bill McGuires disappearance and murder. Suitcase Killer The Melanie McGuire Story is available to watch in Canada with a Philo subscription! [9] Her E-ZPass tag was recorded at a toll booth in Delaware two days after the murder; she claimed that this was the result of her going furniture shopping in Delaware, since it has no sales tax. Born on October 8, 1972, Melanie Lyn Slate has spent all of her life in New Jersey growing up in Ridgewood and Middletown Township. Now her children have neither a mother or a father, neither one, because of Melanie McGuire. 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. 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. At the time, the case created a media sensation, with McGuire dubbed the "suitcase killer.". 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 . After finishing high school, she enrolled at Rutgers University for a double major in math and psychology, which she achieved in 1994. "I can't even fathom that. Don't accept what you're just being told on the surface. 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.. It was hard. In September 2020, Melanie McGuire sat down with 20/20 and gave her first interview in 13 years. She had apparently grown worried about their well-being upon noticing their behavior and got them tested. Dr. Suitcase Killer: The Melanie McGuire Story airs at 8 p.m. Who Is Melanie McGuire and Where Is the 'Suitcase Killer' Now? - Newsweek Dubbed the "Suitcase Killer," she was found guilty and sentenced to life in prison on July 19, 2007, at the age of 34. Prezioso said she has no doubt Melanie McGuire's gun was the murder weapon. 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. 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. The New Jersey fertility nurse was sentenced to life in prison back in 2007 for murdering her husband Bill in April 2004. But just 48 hours later, 31-year-old Melanie requested a restraining order against him, alleging that he'd gotten violent during a fight the night before inside their New Jersey home. 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. Would love your thoughts, please comment. Melanie Griffith, 62, posts jaw-dropping selfie in lingerie and heels I still feel bothered. How Marvel went big with Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania. 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. On July 19, 2007 she was sentenced to life in prison without possibility of parole until she is 100 years old. His wife, Melanie McGuire, a fertility nurse and the mother of his two sons, was eventually convicted of murdering him and dumping his body. 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. Her trial began in March 5, 2007. Would love your thoughts, please comment. 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. 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. They were confident Miller was not involved in the crime but were never able to bring charges against anyone else. Sometimes, she said, hed get violent with her. Prosecutors believed that Melanie McGuires motive to kill her husband came from her desire to start a new life with her lover, Dr. Bradley Miller, a partner at the medical practice RMA Associates, where she worked as a nurse. Don't accept what you're just being told on the surface. She claims that someone went after Bill because of his gambling debts and that the real perpetrator of the Suitcase Murder is still out there. 2023 Oscars predictions: See who will win at the 95th Academy Awards. During her interview with ABC News, McGuire shared a message for her sons, saying: "Make up your mind. Where Is Bill Mcguire Now? The Suitcase Killer Melanie Mcguire Husband The 48-year-old actress and mother of two has been sober since the 2010 crash. After all these years, I still feel hurt," McGuire told "20/20", For some, it mightve seemed like a real-life episode of The Sopranos.. Melanie McGuire says she isnt hoping for prison release, in a new jailhouse interview with @ARobach Friday at 9/8c during a new #ABC2020. 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. A four-count indictment came down from a state grand jury. She put his remains into a 3-piece suitcase set, and those three pieces were later found in Chesapeake Bay. After all these years, I still feel hurt. After a 7-week trial, Melanie McGuire was found guilty of first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison. On June 5, 2005, investigators arrested Melanie McGuire and charged her with first-degree murder. She pleaded not guilty to all indictments and soon posted an accumulated bail of over $2 million. 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 . 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. Bill had a gambling problem, Melanie explained, and after their fight she knew he would be at the casino. 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. She then called Miller the next morning, and he said "she was upset" and had told him about the fight they'd had. 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. 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. 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. says the actress. 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. Investigators also found Bills car where Melanie suggested it would be Atlantic City. Watch the full story on "20/20" Friday, Sept. 25, at 9 p.m. I panicked, Melanie told 20/20. 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. She maintains her innocence, having recently told 20/20 that "after all these years, I still feel hurt. After reading about Melanie McGuire and the Suitcase Murder, discover the story of Nancy Brophy, the woman who wrote How To Murder Your Husband and may have indeed murdered her husband. Where Are William and Melanie McGuire's Kids Now? - The Cinemaholic Police also found a number of suspicious internet searches on the McGuires home computer, including questions like: how to purchase guns illegally, how to commit murder, and undetectable poisons. And they believed that the garbage bags in the McGuire home matched the bags wrapped around Bill McGuires dismembered body. 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. Melanie McGuire. 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. 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. The day before his disappearance, the couple closed on the purchase of their first home. 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.. 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. They recorded her calls with family and friends, including Miller, with whom she was having the affair. One of the three suitcases that contained parts of Bill McGuires body. In April 2004, defendant conducted internet research to learn about buying a gun and about poisons, sedative drugs, and murder. [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. But Melanie maintains that she did not commit the infamous Suitcase Murder. 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. ], 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. He ran tests, but he didn't do all the tests that you actually need to definitively say whether these bags match, added Sacks.