• 5 years ago
"Melanie McGuire (born Melanie Lyn Slate on October 8, 1972) is a New Jersey woman known for being the perpetrator in the media-dubbed ""suitcase murder."" She was convicted of murdering her husband on April 23, 2007[3] and was sentenced to life in prison on July 19, 2007. McGuire is serving her sentence at the Edna Mahan Correctional Facility for Women in Clinton, New Jersey. Barring post-conviction relief, she will not be eligible for parole until she is 100 years old.

Melanie Lyn Slate grew up in Ridgewood, New Jersey.[citation needed] She enrolled at Rutgers University with a double major in Math and Psychology and graduated in 1994.[1] She graduated, second in her class, from the Charles E. Gregory School of Nursing (now called Raritan Bay Medical Center) in 1997 with a nursing diploma.[5] She married William McGuire in 1999.

In April 2004, McGuire and her husband Bill had been married for five years. She was a nurse at a fertility clinic and he was a computer programmer. The two were raising two sons in a Woodbridge, New Jersey apartment. That month, however, the couple planned to move to a larger home in Warren County. They closed on their new house on April 28, 2004, but never moved in. That night, McGuire drugged her husband, shot him to death, and then dismembered his body. She later put his dismembered remains into three matching suitcases, which were later found in the Chesapeake Bay. The day after Bill's murder, McGuire started covering her tracks. She began establishing an alibi, claiming after a domestic argument, her husband slapped her with an open hand in their bathroom, stuffed a dryer sheet in her mouth, and stormed off. On April 30, 2004, Bill's 2002 Nissan Maxima was found outside the Flamingo Motel in Atlantic City, New Jersey. Five days later, the first suitcase containing his remains was found near the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel. A murder investigation was launched.

On May 11, 2004, a second suitcase with Bill McGuire's remains was found, containing his head and torso. A third suitcase was recovered on May 16. Virginia Beach police released a composite sketch of the victim, which an acquaintance of Bill McGuire's recognized as being him. Melanie McGuire became the prime suspect in the investigation. Because the murder did not occur in Virginia, however, authorities turned over their investigation to New Jersey State Police.[6] During the investigation, much incriminating evidence was uncovered against McGuire. The police discovered a video of her parking Bill's car at the Flamingo Hotel. She claimed she had done this as a ""prank"" even though she had applied for a protection from abuse order days earlier based on the alleged ""slapping"" incident.

On April 26, 2004, McGuire purchased a .38 caliber handgun from a store in Easton, Pennsylvania with unusual wadcutter bullets. Bill was killed with a .38 caliber handgun with wadcutter bullets. In addition, police also learned that McGuire had been having a long-term aff

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