Woman accused of her husband's murder free again
Defense attorney calls state's new charges against McGuire 'laughable'
BY KATHY CHANG
Staff Writer

A 34-year-old former fertility clinic nurse accused of killing her husband in their Woodbridge Center Plaza apartment two years ago walked out of Middlesex County Adult Correction Center in North Brunswick last week after posting bail.

Middlesex County Superior Court Judge Frederick P. DeVesa increased Melanie McGuire's bail by $100,000 from the previous $2 million due to an additional eight-count indictment against McGuire that was unsealed at a hearing in Superior Court in New Brunswick on Oct. 30. McGuire pleaded not guilty to the charges.

McGuire, who was already free on bail before the additional charges, posted 10 percent of the additional $100,000 bail order by DeVesa.

"She was released at 11:58 a.m. on Oct. 31," a county jail spokeswoman said.

McGuire, who resides in Brick Township, has been free on $2 million bail since being indicted on murder charges in June 2005.

State police arrested McGuire on June 2, 2005, and charged her with first-degree murder of her husband, William T. McGuire, 39, a Woodbridge resident at the time of his death. McGuire had just dropped off her two young boys, then ages 3 and 5, at two Metuchen day care centers.

Assistant Attorney General Patricia Prezioso detailed the eight new charges at the hearing, which include a third degree charge of hindering prosecution; a fourth degree charge of tampering with, or fabricating physical evidence; a fourth degree charge of providing false reports to law enforcement authorities; and a third degree charge for possession of a controlled dangerous substance.

The new charges are in addition to McGuire's original charges, which include murder, possession of a weapon for an unlawful purpose, desecrating human remains and perjury.

McGuire is accused of allegedly sending packages containing a letter allegedly written by her to mislead authorities in the latest charges. A package was sent to then-Attorney General Peter Harvey, the Trentonian newspaper and her former lawyer between on or about Oct. 9, 2005, and on or about Oct. 11, 2005, authorities said.

Authorities determined that McGuire used an American Express gift card that was purchased at a store in Passaic County to pay FedEx to mail a package containing one of the letters, authorities said.

The store's video surveillance camera captured an image of a woman who closely resembles McGuire just three minutes before the gift card was bought, authorities said.

McGuire is accused of allegedly sending Prezioso a package containing a letter, the victim's custom wedding ring, a bracelet and a key to the victim's car, while Prezioso was presenting the Middlesex County grand jury the original charges against McGuire in October 2005,

Authorities also allege that McGuire conducted several Internet searches for the sedative chloral hydrate, which is used in the short-term treatment of insomnia and to relieve anxiety and induce sleep before surgery. It is also used after surgery for pain and to treat alcohol withdrawal.

McGuire is accused of allegedly forging a prescription for the sedative at a Walgreens just days before she murdered her husband, authorities said.

Joseph Tacopina, McGuire's defense attorney, called the Attorney General's new evidence "laughable."

"There is no forensics data to back up the evidence," said Tacopina, who has been McGuire's lawyer for a year. "The woman in the grainy video [the surveillance video at the store in Passaic County where she allegedly purchased an American Express gift card] that they said looks like her with the same curly hair is laughable. The FBI determined that they can't 100 percent determine that it was her."

Tacopina called the new charges a "last ditch effort to salvage their [the Attorney General's Office] otherwise failing case."

"We believe Melanie is not her husband's murderer," said Tacopina.

Details of the grisly murder surfaced when a local fisherman discovered a small piece of luggage floating in the water between the fourth island and the high-rise bridge near the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel at 11:30 a.m. on May 5, 2004.

The man opened the suitcase and found human remains stuffed inside black plastic garbage bags. He called Virginia law enforcement, authorities said.

Virginia Beach police homicide investigators responded and transported the luggage and its contents to the chief medical examiner's Office in Norfolk, Va.

A graduate student conducting research in the area known as Fisherman's Island, discovered the second suitcase almost a week later, on May 11, 2004.

A boater found a third suitcase on May 16, by the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel.

Investigators determined the remains found in all three suitcases belonged to one man, William McGuire, an adjunct professor and senior programmer analyst with the information resource development department at the New Jersey Institute of Technology, authorities said. He had graduated from NJIT in 2001.

The investigation was coordinated by the New Jersey Division of Criminal Justice and the New Jersey State Police. It also included the Middlesex County Prosecutor's Office, the Woodbridge Police Department, and the Virginia Beach Police Department.

Authorities believe Melanie McGuire shot her husband on or about April 29, chopped up his body and stuffed his remains into three suitcases, which were later deposited in the Chesapeake Bay.

McGuire's Nissan Maxima was towed and impounded on May 8, 2004, after it had sat idle for several days at the Flamingo Motel on Pacific Avenue in Atlantic City, local authorities said last June.

In September 2004, Virginia authorities forwarded the investigation to the state Attorney General's Office.

Authorities allege on April 26, 2004, three days before the murder, Melanie McGuire purchased a .38 caliber handgun from John's Gun and Tackle in Easton, Penn., Paul Loriquet, a spokesman for the Attorney General's Office, has said.

"We believe the bullets were also purchased at the same location," he has said.

The Virginia medical examiner determined McGuire sustained at least two gunshot wounds - one to the head and a second to the chest, authorities said.

A paint chip found on the tape used to seal one of the trash bags containing William McGuire's remains was determined to be nail polish, authorities said.

A search warrant executed for Melanie McGuire's Brick home on Constitution Drive was issued and a second warrant was executed for an Aqua Lane residence in Barnegat - the home of Melanie McGuire's mother and stepfather. Both warrants were approved by Mercer County Superior Court Judge Linda R. Feinberg, authorities said.

A status hearing will be held on Nov. 9. McGuire's trial is set to begin on Jan. 22.