Melanie McGuire serving life at Edna Mahan after 2007 conviction

According to People, Melanie McGuire, the former New Jersey nurse convicted of killing her husband and dismembering his body, has been serving a life sentence at the Edna Mahan Correctional Facility in Clinton, N.J., since 2007.

Bill McGuire went missing on April 28, 2004, and within days three suitcases containing his partial remains washed up on the Chesapeake Bay. Investigators tied a medical blanket found in a suitcase to the fertility clinic where Melanie worked, uncovered a two‑year affair with a coworker, found she had purchased a .38‑caliber revolver matching the bullets recovered and located computer searches such as "undetectable poisons" and "how to commit murder." Melanie was arrested in 2005 and in April 2007 was convicted of first‑degree murder and a related firearm charge; prosecutors argued she killed Bill to start a new life with her coworker, who had an alibi and whose calls with Melanie were secretly recorded.

McGuire has maintained her innocence, telling ABC News' 20/20 in September 2020, "The killer is out there and it's not me." Her appeals, including a 2017 challenge over testing certain computer evidence, have been unsuccessful and she remains incarcerated; she has said she is "terrified to hope" about being released because a thwarted hope would be "soul‑crushing."

Key Topics

Culture, Melanie Mcguire, Bill Mcguire, Edna Mahan, Chesapeake Bay, Bradley Miller