A passerby’s horrifying discovery of a blood-soaked suitcase along the Chesapeake Bay cracked open one of the most disturbing murder cases of the early 2000s — a crime now back in the spotlight decades later.
The case is drawing renewed attention after “Suitcase Killer: The Melanie McGuire Story,” a 2022 Lifetime movie dramatizing the crime, began streaming on Netflix, introducing a new audience to the shocking killing of William “Bill” McGuire and the conviction of his wife, Melanie McGuire.
Suitcases wash ashore
In May 2004, authorities were alerted after fishermen spotted a suitcase floating in the Chesapeake Bay. Inside were human remains. Two more suitcases later surfaced along the Virginia shoreline, each containing additional body parts.
According to the New Jersey Attorney General’s Office, the victim was identified as William McGuire, a 39-year-old computer programmer, whose severed remains had been placed inside three matching suitcases and dumped into the Chesapeake Bay. The luggage later washed ashore near the Chesapeake Bay Bridge in Virginia.
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Attention quickly turned to McGuire’s wife, Melanie McGuire, a nurse and mother of two from Woodbridge, New Jersey.
Prosecutors allege a calculated killing
During a six-week trial, prosecutors argued that McGuire used her medical training as a nurse to carefully plot her husband’s murder so she could start a new life with her lover — a doctor who worked with her at a fertility clinic.
The New Jersey Attorney General’s Office said evidence showed McGuire purchased a .38-caliber handgun and ammunition in Pennsylvania just days before her husband disappeared. Prosecutors said William McGuire was shot twice — once in the head and once in the chest — after he was likely drugged with a powerful sedative.
Authorities also alleged McGuire forged a prescription for chloral hydrate, a sedative, using the name of a fertility clinic patient. Investigators said she purchased the drug at a Walgreens on the morning of the killing, shortly after dropping her children off at daycare.
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Internet searches recovered from the couple’s home computer included queries such as “how to commit murder,” “undetectable poisons,” and how to illegally obtain firearms, according to the Attorney General’s Office.
Forensic evidence and cover-up claims
Prosecutors told jurors that McGuire shot her husband inside the couple’s Woodbridge apartment, dismembered his body, and wrapped the remains in black trash bags before placing them into suitcases.
Forensic experts testified that tiny fragments of flesh found inside William McGuire’s abandoned Nissan Maxima belonged to the victim and were not consistent with material shed by a living person. The vehicle had been left at a motel in Atlantic City, authorities said.
Investigators also linked the trash bags used to dispose of the body to bags found in the McGuires’ apartment. Tape recovered from the bags contained razor stubble with DNA from both Melanie and William McGuire, according to the Attorney General’s Office.
Defense disputes the case
McGuire’s attorney, Joseph Tacopina, argued that the petite nurse was physically incapable of killing her 6-foot-3-inch, 210-pound husband, let alone dismembering his body.
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Tacopina also told jurors it would have been impossible to carry out such a violent crime inside the apartment without neighbors hearing something or investigators finding clearer physical evidence.
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The defense suggested William McGuire, who prosecutors said had gambling debts, may have been killed by someone else.
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McGuire did not testify. Jurors instead heard secretly recorded conversations between McGuire and two men close to her — her lover, Dr. Bradley Miller, and a friend — in which she repeatedly denied any involvement in her husband’s death.
Jury reaches verdict
In April 2007, a Middlesex County jury convicted McGuire of first-degree murder, desecration of a corpse, perjury, and possession of a firearm for an unlawful purpose, according to the Attorney General’s Office.
She was acquitted on several additional counts tied to anonymous communications sent to law enforcement.
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Prosecutors acknowledged that some questions remained, including whether McGuire had an accomplice, but said the evidence against the mother of two was overwhelming. No accomplice has ever been named or charged.
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“Melanie McGuire went to extraordinary lengths to cover up her crime,” then–Attorney General Stuart Rabner said following the verdict. “The state also went to great lengths to expose and convict her.”
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McGuire was sentenced to life in prison, where she remains incarcerated at the Edna Mahan Correctional Facility for Women in New Jersey. She has repeatedly appealed her conviction, but courts have denied those efforts.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Stepheny Price covers crime, including missing persons, homicides and migrant crime. Send story tips to [email protected].
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