Casefile True Crime - Case 120: Bill McGuire

Episode Date: August 10, 2019

On May 5 2004, the first of three suitcases containing dismembered human remains washed up on the shores of the Chesapeake Bay in Virginia. Detectives had two difficult tasks ahead of them. First, they needed to identify who the remains belonged to. Secondly, they had to figure out who was responsible for the murder and why.  --- Episode narrated by the Anonymous Host Episode researched by Flossie Arend Episode written by Flossie Arend, Elsha McGill, and Milly Raso For all credits and sources please visit casefilepodcast.com/case-120-bill-mcguire

Our episodes deal with serious and often distressing incidents. If you feel at any time you need support, please contact your local crisis centre. For suggested phone numbers for confidential support, please see the show notes for this episode on your app or on our website. The month of April marks the beginning of the spring trophy fishing season throughout the United States. The warmer weather attracts a wide variety of deep water fish to the shallows to spawn and recreational anglers across the country flock to lakes, rivers and beaches hoping

to reel in a valuable catch. One such popular fishing spot is Chesapeake Bay in the country's east, a 200-mile-long estuary that encompasses the states of Maryland and Virginia, eventually meeting with the Atlantic Ocean at its outlet. The bay boasts a wide range of marine life, with delicacies like striped bass, crabs and oysters among the most prized bounty. Hobby fishing season was well underway by May 5, 2004, yet that particular Wednesday presented a miserable morning for those casting a line into Chesapeake Bay.

Local hobby fishermen and longtime friends, Chris Henkel and Dee Connors, had taken to the water by boat, but the rough weather had forced them to drop anchor at Fisherman Island, the meeting point between the bay and the ocean. The area was offering little apart from mud sharks and small fry, which was a disappointment, especially for these two young children, Sam and Claire, who had come along for their inaugural fishing trip. By 10am, the rain and wind finally subsided, restoring calm to the waves and bringing a welcomed touch of sun.

When the clouds finally parted, the men saw an opportunity to set sail for more fruitful waters, where they were guaranteed a better catch. Stretching above and below their boat was the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel, a 17.6 mile transit complex comprising of two bridges and two underwater tunnels. It facilitated traffic between Virginia's detached coastline, allowing travellers a faster and more direct route from the mainland to adjoining states. A series of four artificial islands marked the points where the bridge dipped below the surface of the water, transforming into the tunnel, before re-emerging.

Chris and Dee directed their boat past the fourth island, where they caught sight of something floating in the water alongside their vessel. It was a dark green suitcase. Given its proximity to the bridge, the man assumed it must have blown off the luggage rack of a people driving above and hauled it on board. Twelve-year-old Sam expressed his excitement at thinking they had stumbled upon Pirate's treasure and hastily zipped the bag open, finding it held items wrapped in thick black garbage bags sealed with blue adhesive tape.

Before anyone could stop him, Sam tore open one of the bags and screamed in horror as he discovered what lay inside. The garbage bags contained the pale legs of an adult human male severed at the knee joints. The suitcase didn't appear to have been in Chesapeake Bay for long. It featured the branding of American fashion house and designer Kenneth Cole, who sold a wide range of clothing, shoes and accessories. The medium-sized bag was a part of the casual and affordable reaction collection and featured

a retractable handle, wheels and black detailing. The following day, the local newspaper, The Virginian Pilot, ran a short, three-sentence article on the grim discovery, but the lack of details ensured it garnered little attention. Many suspected the lack of media coverage was an intentional act to ensure the gruesome homicide would not impact visitor numbers to the famed Virginia Beach. Six days later, at around midday on Monday, May 10, a graduate student cleaning up litter on the shores of Fisherman Island's bird sanctuary spotted a large, dark green suitcase lying on the sand.

She ignored the item, only to notice it was still there when she returned to the shoreline the following day. Moving into her curiosity, she unzipped the bag and released the nauseating stench of rot from within. It contained an item wrapped in black garbage bags that, upon closer inspection, made the student recoil in horror. Police arrived and immediately recognized the suitcase as a larger version of the one found days earlier that contained the severed legs.

This one was in worse condition, having been beached in the hot sun for days with the surf causing it to become severely waterlogged and filled with sand. Two layers of garbage bags concealed a human torso with the head and arms still attached. The victim was a Caucasian male aged between 30 and 40 with a muscular physique and short brown hair. Several gunshot wounds were found throughout his body, with those in the skull and abdomen proving fatal. X-ray imagery revealed two bullets still nestled in the victim's chest and waist.

One was covered in green fibres, having passed through fabric before penetrating the body. A blanket tucked behind the victim's head featured a tag that read, Property of H-C-S-C, initials for US-based healthcare organization Hospital Central Services Cooperative. The organization provided a variety of services, including an expansive laundry division that supplied linen to medical clinics across the country. A five-and-a-half pound weight marked with the fitness brand name WEDA was stored in an outside pocket of the suitcase in a bid to weigh it down. Both recovered cases were part of a three-piece luggage set sold by Kenneth Cole.

The third and final case in the set, the smallest one typically used as carry-on luggage by passengers on long-haul flights, was still unaccounted for. The perpetrator's use of a firearm and the clinical dismemberment of the victim led Virginia police to theorize that the killing was a gangland-style hit. As for identifying their John Doe, officers checked recent missing persons reports and turned their attention to the state's large military population, as his cropped haircut and muscular physique were akin to the conditions required for serving members of the armed forces.

The suitcases were believed to have been discarded into Chesapeake Bay from the bridge above, but as the structure lacked security cameras, no such act was caught on film. The midsection of the victim was still missing, from the belly button to the kneecaps, raising the collective concerns of police, media, and locals that more body parts remained undiscovered within the bay. Six days later, on Sunday, May 16, the Virginia Beach Marine Patrol were alerted to the sighting of a small green suitcase floating in the current near the second artificial island of the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel.

In the worst condition of the lot, this suitcase was completely waterlogged and contained a black garbage bag covering the final piece of the unknown victim's body, the abdomen and thighs, dressed in a purple pair of fruit-of-the-loom brand briefs. His skull, nose, and teeth were still intact, preserving the overall look of his face and facilitating the creation of a composite sketch, which was featured throughout regional news reports. The image caught the attention of local couple John and Susan Rice, who believed it looked like their close friend William McGuire, better known as Bill.

The Rices arrived to the Virginia Beach Police headquarters to view autopsy photos of the suitcase victim in an effort to confirm their identification. Sue was convinced it was Bill, but her husband was less certain, believing his best friend was alive, even though he hadn't heard from him in almost a month. This ran Bill McGuire's name through their database and found no record of the man having been reported missing. He did have a minor felony offense dating back to the early 80s for adopting aliases to write fraudulent checks.

Although he was never charged, Bill's fingerprints had been kept on file, which detectives sent for comparison against the suitcase victim. As they awaited the results of the fingerprint analysis, investigators dug further into Bill McGuire's history. The 39-year-old lived in a rental apartment three states north in the New Jersey township of Woodbridge with his wife and two young sons. A Navy veteran, Bill was currently employed as an adjunct professor at the New Jersey Institute of Technology and was the co-owner of software consulting company JVista Software.

Weeks earlier, on Wednesday, April 28, he finalized the purchase of a two-story colonial style homestead in the rural New Jersey township of Asbury. Two days later, on Thursday, April 30, a domestic violence restraining order had been filed against him by his wife, Melanie. Bill and Melanie had met while working in the hospitality industry and quickly fell head-over heels in love. By 1997, the pair moved in together as they concentrated on their long-term career goals, and by the end of the year, they were engaged.

Melanie was already two months pregnant with their firstborn by the time their wedding took place in June 1999 and fell pregnant again two years later. Many reported the pair seemed a perfect and equal match, sharing a sharp and sarcastic wit they played off one another. Bill was the mischievous practical joker who took immense pride in being a family man. Melanie, who was eight years his junior, was an intelligent and headstrong woman with a caring and compassionate side displayed through her work as a fertility nurse. Yet, the Maguire's unsteady marriage seemed indicative of a near-decade long relationship

that had gone through its fair share of difficulties. The couple were not immune to squabbles and even fell foul of the law, with Bill caught driving with a suspended license and Melanie later lying under oath to protect him. Police discovered the restraining order Melanie had taken out against her husband had not yet been served, meaning Bill would not have been notified of it. Furthermore, a court date had not been set to make it permanent. Detectives contacted Melanie to inform her, and she explained that Bill hadn't been in contact since he left their apartment three weeks earlier.

She suspected he was having an affair, and was convinced he was either in Atlantic City where he was known to frequent the casinos, or Virginia Beach where he had always wanted to live. She had divorce papers ready, having filed the documentation with the state that described Bill as a volatile husband with a crippling gambling and drinking problem. Melanie explained that his behavior had recently become more erratic, with the desire to purchase a dream family home becoming an obsession, as he stayed awake for 48 hours at a time scrolling through real estate listings.

She also claimed he threatened to kill her, resulting in her fleeing the apartment and placing their children in the care of her parents. The final straw came during a fight in the early morning hours of Thursday, April 29. Melanie stated Bill had, quote, Threatened to disappear, work under a false name and social security number, and never provide her with any financial support. He left the apartment that day, and since then, had made no effort to return, contact her, or provide financial support to his family.

On Wednesday, May 26, 2004, Bill McGuire was finally located. The fingerprints stored in his police records were a match to the dismembered remains found in Chesapeake Bay. Deciding which police jurisdiction should front the investigation into Bill's murder was complicated, given there was no crime scene and he was last seen in his home state of New Jersey, but his body had surfaced in Virginia. Furthermore, the whereabouts of his Blackberry smartphone and vehicle, a blue 2002 Nissan Maxima, were unknown.

Police began tracing Bill's final movements, paying a visit to the New Jersey Institute of Technology to interview his colleagues. Their reports were unanimous. Bill was regarded as a model employee, and they were unable to imagine a scenario where the devoted father would elect to leave his family. This sentiment was shared by Bill's business partner and co-founder of JVista Software, Jay Tandava, who described him as the best friend a person could ever have. Bill had scheduled to take two weeks leave from May 3 to 17 to facilitate moving his

family and their possessions from their apartment into their new homestead. This timeframe later served as the period Bill's remains were discovered in Chesapeake Bay. At the time, Jay Tandava received two handwritten notes from Melanie McGuire that she had left wedged in his front door. The first had detailed a fight that occurred between her and Bill and explained they would no longer be moving into their new home. Melanie wrote that she hadn't heard from her husband in days, adding that he had been,

quote, behaving very erratically and strangely lately, and she was now seeking a divorce. The second note appeared four days later, inquiring if Jay had heard from Bill as Melanie was trying to figure things out financially and asked whether he had taken any money from the JVista Software company account. Melanie also spoke with Bill's direct supervisor, who reported that in the days following news of her husband's death, Melanie inquired about his life insurance policy. The Institute of Technology's life insurance policy provided up to three and a half times an employee's annual salary, making Bill's payout over $227,000.

Melanie McGuire agreed to speak with detectives, organizing a meeting at her divorce attorney's office. Upon their arrival, the detectives were led into a conference room where they were joined by Melanie, her divorce attorney, and, to their surprise, a criminal attorney. Melanie was aloof and evasive during questioning, giving clipped defensive responses. She maintained that her marriage was bleak and said Bill wasn't well liked, despite his family, friends, and co-workers stating otherwise. She called Bill an unfriendly person who had a habit of pissing people off and insinuated

that his boss had wanted to fire him. As for the fight that had resulted in Bill's departure, Melanie explained that Bill was asleep on the couch in their apartment when he awoke at around 4am on April 29 and instigated an argument with her. He threatened to leave her and berated her for being a bad mother before shoving her against the wall. The attack awoke her two-year-old son, who went to the room. Melanie scooped him up and took shelter in a bathroom, listening as Bill moved around

the apartment gathering his things before leaving. The next day, she filed a restraining order and moved into her parents' house. She denied owning a Kenneth Cole reaction three-piece luggage set or a gun. As for Bill's missing car, she believed it could likely be found in her husband's gambling horn of Atlantic City. After questioning Melanie, detectives retrieved the keys to the Maguire's former apartment in Woodbridge to conduct a search. Melanie had since vacated the property and the superintendent hadn't cleaned the apartment

in preparation for new tenants, so the empty space remained exactly as the family had left it. The detectives were therefore surprised to find the interior in immaculate condition. The walls had been repainted, and the hardwood floors gleamed as if polished, with one detective remarking, �You could have aid off the floor, it almost looked brand new inside.� Forensic testing revealed no traces of blood, hair, or saliva anywhere, and luminal tests performed in the bathrooms resulted in false positives, which can occur when heavy amounts

of bleach have been used. Detectives questioned neighbors. One described Melanie as a quiet lady, and Bill as the best neighbor. No one reported hearing any arguing or gunshots on April 29. The next morning, detectives met with Melanie and her criminal attorney at the storage unit that contained the Maguire's furniture and belongings. When asked to see anything that may have belonged to Bill, Melanie pointed to a small blue plastic Tupperware container that held mementos from his time in the Navy and some

family photographs. Melanie had since given away most of her deceased husband's things, including his clothing, weight set, and dumbbells. The exercise equipment was tracked down, but it did not match the five-and-a-half-pound weight from the suitcase that contained Bill's torso. Melanie told investigators that after taking some time to think after her police interview, she could now recall owning a set of matching green suitcases. She asserted they would have been designer because Bill preferred brand name things.

When detectives showed Melanie a picture of one of the Kenneth Cole suitcases that had held Bill's remains, she agreed it looked a lot like the ones they owned, but offered no explanation as to their current whereabouts. Detectives were informed by the storage facility manager that Melanie owned a second smaller locker that she had failed to inform them about. When asked if they could search this second locker, Melanie appeared surprised, but consented. Inside, detectives found Bill's wallet, which contained his Social Security and Health Insurance cards, a few business cards, and pictures of his family.

Although it was a curious find, they left the wallet in the storage locker for the time being. Meanwhile, an employee for a private towing company contacted police and explained that on Saturday, May 8, just over a week after Bill disappeared, they removed a blue late model Nissan Maxima from the parking lot of the infamous Flamingo Motel in Atlantic City. Located on the busy casino strip of Pacific Avenue, the Motel was a near two-hour drive-away from the McGuire's apartment and retained a poor reputation as a haven for delinquents. According to the towing company employee, they were summoned to pick up cars after they

were left stationary for at least four or five days. Detectives arrived to the run-down Flamingo Motel and found no record of Bill having stayed there. CCTV footage showed Bill's car entering the parking lot at 12.41am on April 30, before a man emerged from the vehicle and exited the frame. The grainy low-quality footage prevented investigators from confirming the man was Bill. The car remained abandoned in the same space until it was towed eight days later. Police seized Bill's car and while it showed no signs of tampering, it contained several

items of interest. His Blackberry smartphone and laptop were in the trunk and most notably, the glove compartment contained a glass vial of translucent pink-tinged liquid and a hypodermic syringe with the needle missing. Without knowing exactly which drugs to test for, forensic toxicologists were at a loss as to what the liquid could be. As investigations progressed, Melanie's negative portrayal of Bill's character was reflected in several front-page news stories.

People alluded to the incidents described in her divorce filing, including Bill's erratic manic behavior, abuse, and gambling addiction. Bill's first wife also spoke to the media, describing her former husband as abusive and manipulative. She claimed the dissolution of their marriage began when Bill initiated an affair with Melanie and described filing a restraining order against him a year later after he allegedly threw rocks through her windows. These statements were in stark contrast to those provided by Bill's friends, family,

and colleagues who consistently maintained he was a likeable and kind man who cared deeply for his wife and children. The varied characterization of Bill McGuire left many questioning what to believe, with the head of the Virginia Beach Homicide Unit telling reporters, We've run into the same paradoxes as you have. We have very different opinions on what this gentleman was like. On Monday, July 12, 2004, the day of Bill McGuire's funeral, a massive storm pounded New Jersey, flooding streets and inhibiting travel.

The service was pushed back several hours to allow additional time for interstate mourners to arrive. A queue of cars formed at the Brigadier General William C. Doyle Veterans Memorial Cemetery, as guests waited in their vehicles for a break in the weather. At around 4pm, Melanie McGuire announced that she was going to leave to pick up her two young sons from daycare. It wasn't the first time she had shown disinterest in the service, expressing beforehand that the event should not go ahead due to the possible media presence.

She provided no flowers or any photographs of Bill, leaving his friends and siblings to organise some decor to adorn his urn at the front of the chapel. Melanie was convinced to stay and the funeral eventually commenced, with the military chaplain piecing together his sermon on what little information she had provided. At one point, he turned to her to ask what her husband's name was. John Rice's eulogy to his best friend provided a much needed personal touch to the uncomfortably hollow service. He described Bill as a loving father and proud military man.

John fondly lamented Bill's wild sense of humour, which ensured he was always the centre of attention, saying, I could tell you a hundred different stories about Bill. Bill and I shared a lot of great memories. Like me, Bill was not a perfect person, but he was a perfect friend. The service lasted only 20 minutes, and the following week, Melanie put the McGuire's Asbury homestead on the market, listing it for slightly more than it had initially cost. Four months after Bill's body had surfaced, full responsibility of the languishing case

was handed to one central police agency, the New Jersey Division of Criminal Justice. They began the arduous task of rereading over the case reports, reinterviewing witnesses, reviewing all 221 pieces of evidence, and retrieving Bill's blood, urine, and body tissue samples. They reexamined the suitcases, with the discovery of a long brown hair, a purple fibre, and a scrap of red nail polish, elevating the theory that a woman may have been involved in the crime. The manufacturer of the blanket that was found around Bill's head, Hospital Central Services

Cooperative, provided investigators with a list of their clients. It included the Reproductive Medicine Associates Clinic in Morristown, where Melanie McGuire worked. A witness recalled Melanie had used some of the blankets to protectively wrap a dining table whilst clearing out her apartment following Bill's death. Investigators also retrieved six black garbage bags Melanie had filled with Bill's clothing and offloaded to a friend. They were compared to the garbage bags that contained his remains, with dye patterns and

perforation marks similar across all, meaning they were likely manufactured on the same assembly line within hours of one another. They also combed through Bill's emails, noting that at 6.17am on the morning of his disappearance, an email was sent to his boss that read, I'll be out sick today. Despite co-workers describing Bill as a power user of his blackberry, he had entered his boss's email address incorrectly, and out of character mistake that caused the message to go unscent. Ballistics experts identified the bullets extracted from Bill's body as flat-nosed

38-calibre wad-cutters, typically used in close-range target practice. It was an odd choice for a killer, and led one detective to believe the gunman was inexperienced. Records showed that no one in connection to the Bill McGuire case owned or had recently purchased a 38-calibre firearm in New Jersey. But as the gun laws in the neighbouring state of Pennsylvania were far more lax, these records were also searched, revealing a link. Three days before Bill went missing, a Model 85 for blue-metal 38-calibre special Taurus handgun with a two-inch barrel was purchased at John's Gun and Tackle Store in the Pennsylvania

City of Easton. Weighing just 13.5 ounces, the light weapon was small enough to fit inside a handbag. It was one of only five gun models on the market that could use 38-calibre wad-cutter bullets. The sale receipt also listed an unspecified purchase valued at $9.95. There were only two items in the store marked with that price, one of which was a box of wad-cutter bullets. When the shop owner was shown a photo lineup and asked to identify the person who had purchased

the weapon and ammo, he singled out the image of Melanie McGuire. He remembered her vividly, as he didn't get many female customers, and she was the first registered nurse he'd ever had in his store. By early 2005, the circumstantial evidence implicating Melanie McGuire in the murder of her husband was piling up, but investigators were not convinced she acted alone. In March, they began covertly monitoring her phone calls, and during conversations with her stepfather Michael, it appeared as though the two were speaking in coded language. She also spoke frequently with her boss at the fertility clinic, Dr Bradley Miller.

Although Miller was a married family man, the phone conversations between the pair indicated a level of familiarity that extended beyond the professional relationship, and it soon became apparent they were having an affair. Miller was subsequently ambushed and interrogated by investigators, but he refused to speak without a lawyer present. He was issued with a subpoena to appear before a grand jury and released. On Sunday, March 13, Miller and his lawyer met with detectives to negotiate immunity for providing truthful information about Melanie McGuire.

In an ensuing four-hour interview, the doctor confessed that the two had been having an ongoing affair, despite his partnership agreement with the fertility clinic expressly forbidding fraternization with colleagues. Her intimate relationship began in March 2002, when Melanie was 38 weeks pregnant with her second child. Over the next three years, the pair frequented motels throughout New Jersey and communicated via secret cell phones they called their love lines. They talked constantly, professing their love and making plans to leave their families to

start a new life together. According to Miller, on the night that McGuire's had finalized the purchase of their Asbury home, Melanie called to inform him that she was going to tell Bill she wanted a divorce. Miller tried calling her several times over the next few hours, desperate to know the outcome of the discussion, but was met with her voicemail. At 9 the next morning of April 29, Melanie finally rang him back, relaying the fight between her and Bill, and saying she wanted to move out of the apartment and file a restraining order against him.

Melanie and Miller continued to meet for rendezvous throughout May, even after Bill was discovered murdered. The day her husband's car was recovered, Melanie called Miller to inform him that blurry CCTV footage captured in the Flamingo Motel parking lot had reported a man driving Bill's vehicle. But it hadn't been a man in the footage at all. It was her. She explained that the night after Bill left their apartment, she drove to Atlantic City looking for him and found his car in the parking lot of the Taj Mahal Casino.

Enraged, she decided to move it a mile and a half away to the Flamingo Motel so he wouldn't be able to find it. Afterwards, she couldn't remember where she had parked her own car, so she took a cab back to the Maguire apartment. By the time she arrived home, Melanie felt energized enough to return to Atlantic City so she hailed an off-duty cab and returned straight away to pick up her vehicle. Yet, police discovered there was no record of any local cab companies taking a lone female passenger the near two-hour drive between Atlantic City and Woodbridge at the times Melanie

claimed to have taken the journey. Melanie told Miller she returned to Atlantic City days later with her stepfather to check if Bill's car had been moved, but it was still where she had left it. She returned again on her own on Tuesday, May 18, but the car was no longer there. Melanie claimed she hadn't told Miller this sooner because she didn't want to upset him or make him think she wanted Bill back. Months later, she admitted another secret. A few days before the settlement of the Maguire's new home, Bill had asked her to purchase a

gun. Since their new home was in a rural area, he wanted a firearm to protect their family, but his criminal record prevented him from buying one. Melanie obliged and made the purchase. Despite the strangeness of these stories, Dr. Miller admitted his infatuation with Melanie had blinded him to skepticism. Melanie's phone conversations revealed she was also in regular contact with a man named James Finn.

The two had attended nursing school together in the mid-90s, and although the nature of their current relationship was unclear, their conversations were often flirtatious. In early April 2005, James was questioned by police for close to eight hours, during which he claimed the two had reconnected in September 2004 after he reached out to Melanie to offer his sympathies for the loss of her husband. He initially denied having romantic feelings for her, but when he was informed Melanie had purchased a gun less than a week before Bill's murder, he cracked, admitting he had been in love with Melanie since nursing school.

Back then, he had professed his love to her, but she kindly rejected him, and they remained close friends. According to the book To Have And To Kill by John Glatt, for Christmas in 1995, Melanie bought James a copy of Stephen King's thriller novel Dolores Claiborne, which tells the story of an abused woman who kills her husband and gets away with it. Inside, Melanie scrawled, Now here is a story of a woman with true strength and wisdom. You can learn a lot from her.

Why did? After Melanie married Bill, she and James fell out of touch, but she began writing him letters in February 2004, which increased in frequency over the following months. She complained of her dissolving marriage, described her husband's erratic behavior, and expressed a fear of him. According to James, Melanie made it sound like Bill was a substance abuser, or experiencing a psychotic break. The week before Bill went missing, James responded to a particularly disturbing email from Melanie

by advising her to leave the house with her kids and stay with her parents. He recommended she buy a small handgun for protection, suggesting a .40 caliber 9mm semi-automatic as it was a more manageable weapon for someone with her diminutive 5'3' stature. When he later questioned Melanie about whether she had made the purchase, she categorically denied it. Now realizing she had lied to him, James bin also negotiated immunity with investigators and consented to engage in several wiretapped phone conversations with Melanie. During one call, James begged her to reveal the location of the gun she had purchased,

but Melanie said the last time she saw it was in a lockbox in her old apartment. She claimed to have checked the lockbox after discovering Bill had been murdered, but it was empty. On the morning of Thursday, June 2, 2005, a little over a year since Bill's body parts surfaced, Melanie McGuire was formally charged with his first-degree murder. She pleaded not guilty, and in a subsequent press conference, it was announced that additional arrests were possible and that the prosecution may seek the death penalty. New Jersey State Police Superintendent Joseph Fuentes said,

The investigation has woven a very strange tale of lies, deceit, infidelity, and murder. At the time of her arrest, Melanie lived in the township of Brick, New Jersey, and detectives immediately secured a warrant to search her residence. They left with multiple items, including her personal computer, DVDs, and a circular saw. Melanie's Nissan Pathfinder car was also processed for evidence, as were her two storage units, with detectives finding the lockbox she mentioned during her phone conversation with James Finn. It didn't contain the gun, but instead Bill's wallet, meaning it had since been placed in there after detectives caught sight of it in the storage unit a year earlier.

Five days after her arrest, Melanie's parents used their home as collateral to secure her $750,000 bail. Two months later, strange letters were sent to several recipients, including the State Attorney General, local newspaper The Trentonian, Melanie McGuire's lover Dr Bradley Miller, her divorce attorney, and Melanie herself. Four pages of rambling text implicated organized crime groups in Bill's murder, citing his gambling addiction as the cause and accusing him of being a rampant cheater and pathological liar. The letters mentioned three significant details that had not been released to the public throughout the course of the investigation. That Bill was wearing purple briefs at the time he was killed,

that his arms were still attached to his torso, and that a dumbbell had been used to weigh down one of the suitcases. The letter referred to Melanie as a lousy lay and said she, quote, couldn't do what it took to and at 1.3 men to do. Investigators believed Melanie wrote the letters to divert the attention away from her as the murderer. On Tuesday, October 11, 2005, a grand jury hearing commenced to determine whether there was enough evidence to indict Melanie for first-degree murder. The prosecution were interviewing their final witness when a FedEx package arrived at the courthouse. Proceedings halted, and the jurors filed out of the chamber while the contents of the package were inspected. It contained a silver

bracelet and wedding ring suspected to have been Bill's, the lockbox key, a Nissan car key, a calendar with the words set her up written on the back, a plastic bag of prescription medications, and a tiny amount of marijuana. An anonymous letter addressed to the assistant attorney general claimed the author worked at the same real estate office as Cindy, one of Bill McGuire's older sisters, and claimed to have uncovered the articles in the package in the trash, along with two handwritten to-do lists titled Final Stages and set her up. They alleged were penned by Cindy. They detailed a plan to implicate Melanie and her family in Bill's murder to inevitably claim his life insurance and adopt his children, clearly in reference to the fact

that Cindy had taken custody of Bill and Melanie's sons following the latter's arrest. The handwriting on the lists did not match Cindy's, nor that of any of her co-workers. Furthermore, the phone number for her office was wrong, as was the return address. The office also didn't use FedEx as a carry-on. It was clear the lists were penned by someone else entirely, so FBI forensic linguist James Fitzgerald was brought in to determine the true author. He was responsible for bringing infamous unabomber Ted Kaczynski to justice, and concluded that the lists and anonymous four-page letters sent in August

shared stylistic markers and punctuation commonalities with samples of Melanie Maguire's handwriting to an 85-95% degree of certainty. The FedEx package was determined to have been sent two days prior, paid for with an American Express gift card purchased at a ride aid drug store in the New Jersey City of Pisaik. Detectives reviewed the pharmacy's CCTV and spotted a woman matching Melanie's description into the store at 3.48pm. The gift card was purchased three minutes later. The prosecution believed it was no coincidence the FedEx package showed up during Melanie's hearing, calling it a mockery of the investigation and the last acts of a desperate woman.

On Wednesday, October 12th, the grand jury handed Melanie Maguire a four-count indictment for first-degree murder, second-degree possession of a weapon for an unlawful purpose, second-degree offense for desecration of human remains, and third-degree perjury for making false material statements to the family court, accusing her husband of being a threat to his family's health and safety. Her bail was increased to $2 million. Melanie hired hotshot Madison Avenue lawyer Joseph Takapeena, described in the New York Times newspaper as the Donald Trump of the New York defense bar. Takapeena was notoriously flashy with a flair for the dramatic. Although he wasn't licensed to practice law in New Jersey,

he was given permission to serve alongside a local attorney. Takapeena was quick to direct the media's attention to the overwhelming support shown to his client by her friends, family, and nursing patients, saying, I would not have come into the case if I did not have 100% confidence in Melanie Maguire's innocence and 100% confidence in my ability to represent her. A website titled The Friends of Melanie Legal Defense Fund was set up with donations from Melanie's support network and anonymous contributors securing her $2 million bail. By November, results of forensic testing revealed traces of Melanie's DNA on the floor of Bill's abandoned Nissan Maxima. Microscopic human tissue

and bone particles had also been discovered on the driver's side floor mat, described as human sawdust. A forensic anthropologist deduced the beveled knife had likely been used to cut Bill's flesh and then a reciprocating saw to get through the bone. The prosecution believed Melanie must have stepped in the human sawdust after dismembering Bill's body and tracked it into his car before she abandoned it in Atlantic City. In January 2006, a forensic team searched the Maguire's former apartment for a third time, looking for a possible source for green fibers found on a bullet recovered from Bill's body. They had been identified as polyester fill, a common material found in household furniture, leading investigators to theorize that Melanie may have used a pillow

to muffle the sound of the gun as she shot her husband. A list of furniture that had belonged to the Maguire's mentioned to green couch cushions that hadn't been seen since the murder. The forensic team extensively swept the apartment, vacuuming air vents, crevices at the base of the walls and even electric outlets, but to no result. On Monday, March 13, 2006, Melanie's defense team moved to have her indictment dismissed due to a lack of concrete evidence. The prosecution argued that whilst there were still unknown aspects in the investigation and their case relied strongly on circumstantial evidence, Melanie, quote, doesn't get the benefit of doing a good job of killing. The judge agreed, affirming Melanie was likely the last person to see Bill alive

and scheduled her trial for January the following year. Meanwhile, digital investigators processed the various electronic devices removed from the home of Melanie Maguire and that of her parents, which included eight handheld devices, three laptops, and eight computers. Several salacious messages sent between Melanie and Dr Bradley Miller proved their longstanding love affair. An internet search conducted on the Maguire's laptop 10 days before Bill was last seen alive read, How to Commit Murder. This was followed by searches for where to purchase a gun without a permit and how to purchase a gun in Pennsylvania, as well as instant and undetectable poisons, fatal insulin doses, and the highly

effective, fast-acting sedative, chlorohydrate. Investigators had long believed Bill had been incapacitated prior to being shot, with suspicions centered on the vial of unknown pink liquid. The internet search for chlorohydrate gave forensic toxicologists something specific to tests for, and their analysis of the liquid tested positive for the sedative. Investigators began combing through every prescription written out at the Reproductive Medicine Associates Clinic and discovered one had been made out for 500 milligrams of chlorohydrate, signed by Dr Bradley Miller. The prescription was for a patient with the initials TB who visited Dr Miller in March and April of 2004 to get a second opinion on a medical

issue. Detectives met with TB who revealed she had never received a prescription for any medication from the clinic. Detectives questioned Dr Miller, who denied writing the script, saying he would never prescribe chlorohydrate to a fertility patient. He did explain that nurses were given prescription writing privileges, so it was possible that Melanie had filled the script out herself. This was further corroborated by the managing partner of the practice, who verified it was not unusual for a nurse to sign a doctor's name on a prescription. The prescription was filled at a Walgreens pharmacy in Edison, New Jersey. The store's pharmacist confirmed filling out the prescription on Wednesday, April 28, 2004, the day before

Bill allegedly left his apartment. The store was a mile and a half drive away from the daycare center where Melanie had dropped her children off 12 minutes before the prescription was filled. Given the discovery of new evidence, Melanie was hit with an additional eight-count indictment, charging her with hindering prosecution, evidence tampering, filing false reports, and possession of controlled substances. The judge increased her bail by $100,000, which she secured the following day. Over the following months, the legal teams disputed the admissibility of evidence resulting in court delays. Then, on Monday, March 5, 2007, after nearly three years of investigations, Melanie McGuire's trial finally began.

The prosecution asserted the motive for the murder rested in Melanie's affair with Dr. Bradley Miller. They presented the mountain of circumstantial evidence attesting to Melanie's guilt, and when they displayed the gruesome photos of the suitcases and their contents, the defendant hired them with an impassive expression. Referring to the investigation as sloppy, her defense team went to work attacking Bill's character, maintaining he was a volatile gambler and his death was in some way related. They relied on the fact that searches of the McGuire apartment had come up empty, and the murder weapon was still missing. In his three-hour closing argument, Joseph

Takapina insisted Melanie could not be convicted on circumstantial evidence alone, asserting the police hadn't even bothered to look at any other suspects. He pointed to the contradictory assumption that Melanie was somehow a criminal mastermind, yet neglected to cover her own tracks when it came to her incriminating online searches and gun purchase. The prosecution was certain Melanie had an accomplice, yet was still unable to identify who exactly. At one point, they left her mother and stepfather rattled when they indicated the latter was involved in the aftermath of the crime, based on previous comments made by Melanie, and their seemingly coded phone conversations.

On Monday, April 23, 2007, after four days of deliberation, the jury found Melanie McGuire guilty of the murder of her husband. They also found her guilty of possession of a firearm for unlawful purposes, desecration of human remains, and perjury. Melanie broke down into tears, collapsing into the arms of her attorney. Bill's sister, Cindy, took little joy in the ruling. Despite her hatred for Melanie, all she could think about were the two young boys who would have to live without a mother or a father, lamenting, they only have each other now. In the ensuing months, Joseph Takapina tried to overturn Melanie's conviction. His first appeal

was denied. On June 18, 2007, he argued for a new trial, claiming a new witness had emerged that could prove the mob was responsible for Bill's death. The witness was a prison inmate who claimed to have once been a mob bookkeeper and a loan shark. He claimed Bill owed $90,000 to the criminal organization, but when he also claimed to be a descendant of medieval emperor Charlemagne, as well as 18 United States presidents, Melanie's defense quickly withdrew the motion for a retrial. Prior to sentencing victim impact statements delivered by Cindy spoke of the impact Bill's murder had on her life. She said, His sons were just babies, only two and four years old.

When the sun rose on that April morning and their daddy was nowhere to be found, they were denied a chance to even say goodbye. Bill's niece, Laura, described that her uncle's infectious grin and the boyish mischief in his eyes were now marred by the police sketch of his lifeless expression and thoughts of his dismembered body. Speaking of Melanie's actions, Laura said, She has stolen our smiles, our laughter, our joy. She has also taken something deeper from all of us, our innocence, our faith in humanity. 34-year-old Melanie McGuire was sentenced to life in prison, Judge Frederick de Vessa said. The desecration of William McGuire's remains was particularly heinous and depraved.

His body was treated as trash. It was cut and soared apart and then packaged in garbage bags. His remains were left to decompose in the waters of another state without identification, so that his family and friends might always be deprived of a dignified funeral service and burial. Melanie challenged the ruling in March 2011, but to no avail. In 2014, she filed a petition for post-conviction relief, accusing her lawyer Joseph Takapina of denying her effective representation. She claimed he was high on prescription medications and too focused on extramarital affairs to concentrate on her defense. In January 2018, the Supreme Court officially denied her petition,

marking the end of the line for her appeal process. Despite suspicions that an accomplice assisted with the disposal of Bill's body, they have never been identified and no one else has ever been arrested or charged in relation to his murder. A reporter for New Jersey's home news tribune, Ken Serrano, provided extensive coverage of the murder from the outset. He said, the verdict in this case confirmed a pretty dark view of what people are capable of. You could be compassionate and caring and at the same time be incredibly diabolical. That was the truly chilling thing about this case.