Computer yields Internet search about murder McGuire's computer also contains searches for guns, chloral hydrate BY KATHY CHANG Staff Writer Someone at approximately 5:44 p.m. on April 18, 2004, typed the words "how to commit murder" into a search engine on the Internet on the McGuires' home desktop computer, according to a New Jersey State Police computer forensics expert. The state alleges that Melanie McGuire, the 34-year-old former fertility clinic nurse, who is on trial for killing her husband, William McGuire, in their Woodbridge Center Plaza apartment and later dismembering his body almost three years ago, typed in those words in the search engine. McGuire, who resides in Brick Township, has pleaded not guilty to all the charges against her and remains free on $2.1 million bail. Jennifer Seymour, a computer forensics expert who was working at the New Jersey State Police digital technology unit at the time, testified on March 13 about what she recovered from an HP Pavilion desktop computer that was seized from McGuire's divorce attorney's office (Risa Kliener of Wilentz, Goldman & Spitzer law firm in Woodbridge, on Sept. 8, 2005) originally from the McGuires' residence, and two Dell Dimension desktops - one seized from the McGuires' residence and one seized from the residence of Melanie McGuire's parents, Michael and Linda Cappararo, in Barnegat. Seymour also looked for evidence on five other computers and eight hand-held devices, but focused on the three desktops. Seymour, who said there is no way of finding out who conducted the searches, began examining the computers on Sept. 13, 2005. "Investigators explained to me what pieces of evidence and what time periods were important," said Seymour. During her investigation, Seymour found two Hotmail account e-mails that had been deleted between the defendant and Dr. Bradley Miller, who was McGuire's boss. The state believes that McGuire killed her husband in part because she was having an affair with Miller. "The conversations appeared to be two people who had an intimate relationship," said Seymour. "Expressions that were made were comments like 'I miss you' and 'I love you.'" Seymour searched the Pavilion for any Internet activity by searching the word search, but she acknowledged it was only a small portion of the computer she searched. "The nature of searches I found related to names of chemicals, poisons, guns and gun laws," she said. The state displayed the searches, which were executed from April 11, 2004, to April 26, 2004, to the jury of 12 women and four men. The state contends that McGuire killed her husband between April 28, 2004, and May 5, 2004. On April 18, 2004, the computer user searched for "how to purchase guns in Pennsylvania," and "purchase guns in N.J." The jury heard evidence last week that McGuire had purchased a Taurus model 85 .38-caliber handgun and a box of bullets from John's Gun and Tackle Room gun shop in Easton, Pa. Among the data that Seymour found were two cache files from the Internet dated April 26, 2004, from the Web site psyweb.com, which included one for chloral hydrate. The state alleges that McGuire conducted several Internet searches for the sedative, 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. Toxicology tests have come back negative for the sedative; however, experts have testified that the sedative has a short half-life of four minutes. On April 26, 2004, at approximately 8:44 p.m., someone searched for the store location for a Walgreens at www.walgreens.com/storelocater. The state alleges that two days later, McGuire forged a prescription of chloral hydrate to someone else's name at a Walgreens on New Durham Road in Edison. The Old Bridge woman on that prescription testified that the name, address, and date of birth on the prescription are hers; however, she has never seen the prescription and has never been prescribed chloral hydrate in her life. She added that her phone number was one digit off. The woman told the jury that she was a patient of Dr. Bradley Miller at Reproductive Medicine Associates of New Jersey in Morristown from the end of March 2004 to April 16, 2004. McGuire worked as a fertility nurse at the clinic. She also told the jury that she had only stepped into a Walgreens once in her adult life either in Matawan or in Aberdeen. Joseph Tacopina, one of McGuire's defense attorneys, asked the woman if she had ever met Melanie McGuire before. She replied no. Yen Kim Lee, the pharmacist who was working at the Walgreens in Edison on April 28, 2004, testified that an adult dosage (2 ounces - 60 milliliters) of chloral hydrate was prescribed in liquid form. The date and time on the prescription was 8:32 a.m., which was printed out on the computer. Lee testified that the promised time is usually 15 to 20 minutes after the drop-off time. The promised time said 8:50 a.m.