'Suitcase Killer: The Melanie McGuire Story': Gruesome 2004 real-life murder inspired Lifetime movie
Lifetime is well known for their multiple real life based shocking crime thrillers. The channel's new true-crime thriller 'Suitcase Killer: The Melanie McGuire Story' follows the real-life story of a mother of two and a former fertility nurse from Woodbridge, New Jersey, who killed her husband to continue an alleged affair. Candice King will play Melanie McGuire who was convicted of killing her husband in 2004. The Lifetime movie is scheduled to premiere at 8 pm ET on Saturday, June 18.
The gruesome murder case, gained widespread media attention and public interest. The case was mainly known as the 'Suitcase murder' and Melanie earned the nickname 'Suitcase Killer' for killing her husband and dismembering his dead body up into pieces and packing them into different suitcases.
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The true story about the 'Suitcase Murder'
In 1999, Melanie started to work as a nurse at Reproductive Medicine Associates, one of the country’s largest fertility clinics. The same year, she married her a US Navy veteran named William “Bill” McGuire and they had two sons together. Bill McGuire disappeared on April 28, 2004. Melanie claims that Bill was violent towards her that night when he pushed her against the wall during a fight, and tried to choke her with a dryer sheet. The very next day, Melanie attempted to file for a restraining order but she didn’t report to the police or anyone about Bill missing.
On May 5, 2004, a suitcase was found by a couple of fishermen near the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel with Bill’s remains, after which authorities started a murder investigation. Over the next 11 days, two more suitcases were found, one of which contained Bill's head and torso. Police had their doubts on Melanie and found several incriminating pieces of evidence against her. They found a CCTV footage that showed Melanie parking Bill's car at a hotel. Moreover, the police found that Melanie had purchased a .38 calibre handgun from Pennsylvania.
Melanie was arrested a year later and charged with first-degree murder. During the trial, which began in 2007, prosecutors argued that she murdered her husband in order to continue her affair with lover Bradley Miller, a doctor at the clinic where she works. They also put forward chilling details about how Melanie drugged her husband before shooting him to death and then cutting his body. Despite the evidence, Melanie continued to maintain her innocence at the trial. She was ultimately found guilty of first-degree murder by the jury on April 23, 2007. Subsequently, she decided to file a new trial on the basis of the claims that her husband could have been killed by gangsters from Atlantic City as he was in debt. The prosecution debunked the theory, after which she withdrew the re-trial request. She received a life sentence with no parole available until May 20, 2073. Melanie continues to maintain her innocence to this day.
