NJ 'Suitcase killer' Melanie McGuire case to be featured Sunday on TV

WOODBRIDGE - Melanie McGuire, the former township resident convicted of killing her husband, cutting his body into pieces and discarding them inside suitcases thrown into the Chesapeake Bay, apparently made a key mistake in the crime.

Sunday's night's episode of Forensic Files II, called "Human Sawdust" airing at 10:30 p.m. on HLN cable news channel, explores what that mistake was in the "nearly perfect crime." The show features half-hour episodes of crime and investigations.

The episode features interviews with Ken Serrano, a former Home News Tribune staff writer who now works for the Asbury Park Press, Virginia Beach Master Police Officer Stephen Miller, a Virginia Beach police forensic specialist and others, including Patricia Prezioso, who formerly served in the New Jersey Office of the Attorney General and was lead prosecutor in the McGuire case.

McGuire, 47, a former fertility nurse who was nicknamed the "suitcase killer," was sentenced to life in prison after being convicted in April 2007 of murder, possession of a weapon for an unlawful purpose, desecration of human remains and perjury in connection with the death of her husband, William McGuire.

McGuire must serve 85 percent of her life sentence before becoming eligible for parole. Her parole eligibility date is listed as May 20, 2073, according to the New Jersey Department of Corrections website. McGuire is an inmate at the Edna Mahan Correctional Facility for Women in Union Township, Hunterdon County.

Two years ago the New Jersey Supreme Court denied her petition to get relief from her life in prison sentence. She unsuccessfully had argued the trial court erred in denying McGuire's motions to examine and test a computer and garbage bags the state held as evidence, and the trial court erred in denying her petition for post-conviction relief without an evidentiary hearing.

William McGuire, a Navy veteran who worked as a computer analyst, was given chloral hydrate, shot, his body cut into three pieces, his blood drained before his body parts were stuffed into three matching black and green Kenneth Cole Reaction suitcases and thrown into the Chesapeake Bay near Virginia Beach, where they were found in May 2004, just days after he was last seen alive at the couple's home in Woodbridge. Days earlier, the couple had purchased a $500,000 home in Warren County.

READ: 'Suitcase killer' continues to seek relief from life sentence

He died from gunshot wounds to the head and chest.

His body was identified after a sketch of his face was released by police. Melanie McGuire had never reported her husband missing. She claimed the couple had argued before he left.

Melanie McGuire was charged with his murder more than a year after her husband's remains were recovered.

READ: Appeal process ends for 'suitcase killer' McGuire

She was convicted of her husband's murder following a televised trial in which she was represented by famed attorney Joseph Tacopina. In seeking post-conviction relief in 2014, McGuire claimed she was denied effective representation by Tacopina. Her request for post-conviction relief was denied in a 24-page Middlesex County court ruling.

Email: srussell@gannettnj.com

Suzanne Russell is a breaking news reporter for MyCentralJersey.com covering crime, courts and other mayhem.\