A.

TITLE

Title of the article: New Jersey Superior Court, Appellate Division - Published
Opinions Decisions
Author: Ashrafi, J.A.D.,
Title of the Journal: State of New Jersey vs. Melanie McGuire,
Date of Publication: March 16, 2011

B. INTRODUCTION

Marriage is a sacred act of which shows the union between individuals,

becoming lifetime partners and companionship to one another, it is also being
recognized by the law as the law itself has the power of sanction and even dissolve it
apart from exchanging vows at the church during ceremony, named wedding.
Unfortunately to some couple, they tend to fail to commit with their vows due to
various factors and circumstances affecting their marriage, one of which are the
couple to be mentioned in this topic being one of those whose marriage ended up in
great doom and failure. This study will show the criminal case of the couple which
one of them got killed…by his own spouse.

The case was about a wife being sent to prison as she was convicted for
murdering her husband in a worst possible manner. How she wasn’t able to hide for
long despite her ways of disposing the traces of evidences.

C. SUMMARY OF THE ARTICLE

A jury convicted defendant Melanie McGuire, a nurse, of murdering her

husband, William "Bill" McGuire, a computer program analyst for a college in Newark,
desecrating his body, and two other charges. The court sentenced her to life in prison
plus five years. She must serve at least sixty-six years in prison before she can be
considered for parole. She appeals, arguing that her trial and sentencing were unfair.

On April 28, 2004, they closed on the purchase of the first home they would
own. They then returned to their Woodbridge apartment, and Bill called the gas
company at 5:37 p.m. to transfer their account to the new house. At 5:44 p.m. and
5:59 p.m., he called two good friends to tell them happily he had completed the
purchase of his new house. Later that evening, Bill did not return a call from the seller
of the house, as he had done promptly on prior occasions. There is no evidence that
Bill ever spoke to anyone again after 6:10 p.m. on April 28, 2004, other than perhaps
defendant. Bill's silence was unusual because he was normally very active on his
telephones and Blackberry, both socially and for work. On three dates from May 5 to
May 16, 2004, Bill's body was found in the waters near the Chesapeake Bay Bridge
Tunnel in Virginia. The body had been cut into three sections, drained of blood,
wrapped in garbage bags, and packed into three matching suitcases. The medical
examiner in Virginia found two bullets in the torso, and separate entrance and exit
bullet wounds to the head and the chest. Also found in one of the suitcases was a
blanket with markings from a hospital supply company.

Four weeks after Bill disappeared, the police notified defendant that her
husband's body had been found and identified William McGuire's remains were
discovered in three suitcases in the Chesapeake Bay the month after he was last
seen alive. The first, found floating in the bay by a fisherman, contained McGuire's
legs. In October 2004, New Jersey authorities took over jurisdiction of the murder
investigation from Virginia. The second, discovered by a scientist walking on
Fisherman's Island, contained William McGuire's upper body. The third suitcase,
pulled from the bay water, contained William McGuire's lower torso. In June 2005,
defendant was arrested and charged with Bill's murder. Investigators had gathered
numerous items of evidence, including: the reports of the medical examiners, grand
jury testimony, witness interviews, voluntary statements of defendant to the police,
statements defendant had made to friends and others, records from a gun shop in
Pennsylvania, business records such as telephone and pharmacy records,
surveillance tapes from business locations, expert evaluations of forensic evidence
gathered from the suitcases and from Bill's car, DNA identification of trace evidence,
expert examination of the personal computer owned by Bill and defendant,
handwriting and linguistics analysis, consensual taping of telephone conversations,
and court-authorized wiretapping of the telephones of defendant and her parents.

In addition, the State received evidence by anonymous communications

pointing to persons other than defendant as Bill's murderer. The State alleged these
anonymous communications were further evidence of defendant's guilt because she
or someone acting on her behalf was their source.
D. STRENGTHS AND WEAKNESSES OF THE ARTICLE

Strengths of the Study

The victim’s body was identified the moment it was discovered. The investigator had
collected all the body parts of the victim and the amount of evidences gathered
leading to the suspect’s involvement to the crime happened. One witness told that
she saw the same type of blankets in Melanie McGuire's home which is a medical
supply blanket that wrapped the head of the victim. An employee from a
Pennsylvania medical supply company testified that the blanket wrapped around the
victim's head was the same type of linen used at McGuire's fertility clinic.

The following professionals and experts had contributed in investigating and solving
the case:

The Virginia Beach police department forensics unit, testifies about the recovery of
three matching suitcases containing William McGuire's remains from Chesapeake
Bay. The Virginia medical examiner who performed autopsies on William McGuire's
remains, demonstrates the path of one of two bullets that caused McGuire's fatal
injuries. The pathologist said the victim suffered at least one and possibly two
additional gunshot wounds. The detective with the state police ballistics unit, inspects
one of two bullets removed from the victim's torso and said the bullets were
consistent with being fired from the same .38-caliber gun that Melanie McGuire
purchased two days before her husband went missing. The forensic scientist at the
state police crime lab, used a light box to show the patterns in the plastic of a
garbage bag containing William McGuire's remains. He testified that the woodgrain-
like marks were identical to those on bags from the defendant's home. McGuire's
remains were wrapped in black trash bags that prosecutors claim are identical to
ones Melanie McGuire used to dispose of her husband's clothes. Tiny pieces of
flesh were found on the floor mats of William McGuire's sedan. A medical examiner
said microscopic analysis showed the material was not sloughed off through normal
skin cell death, but removed through disease or trauma.

Weaknesses of the Study

The forensic toxicologist, told jurors that a small amount of alcohol was
detected in the victim's blood and urine. He said his Virginia laboratory did not
conduct tests for chloral hydrate, the sedative that prosecutors allege Melanie
McGuire used to disable her husband before shooting him. It was only later then that
they discovered that he was drugged. Melanie McGuire purchased a .38-caliber
handgun two days before her husband went missing. That gun has never been
found. The medical examiner said a "fiber wad" was attached to the bullet in the
victim's chest cavity. Prosecutors say it is proof the victim was shot through a green-
and-white throw pillow, but the defense has noted the green fibers do not match the
upholstery on the green velvet living room set in the McGuires' townhouse.

E. CONCLUSION

All the information stated in the article are in a detailed and accurate manner
as it was being provided with supporting facts and claims by the people involved
(witnesses) or relevant in the case. The information specifically in collecting the
evidences are valid as it was being legally obtained and thoroughly examined by the
experts in such fields.

Despite the gun that used to kill the victim was not found and the alleged
sedative the prosecutor presumed that the suspect used to drug the victim was not
determined because the lab experts did not conduct the test which identify such
substance and only to identify small amount of urine in the body (which means the
amount of drug in the victim’s body is vague), the case was still being solved
successfully because the systematic process that are being made in collecting,
analyzing, examining and interpreting the evidences needed in the investigation were
properly executed by the following experts and professionals. Moreover the amount
of evidences or proofs were still strong to point Melanie as the main suspect.

Photographs of Evidences