The McGuire Diaries

(CBS News)  Produced by Liza Finley and Gail Abbott Zimmerman

[This story originally aired on Sept. 29, 2007.]

On May 5, 2004, John Runge of the Virginia Beach Police Department got a call from a fisherman stating that he had found a suitcase floating in the Chesapeake Bay.

"I opened the bag up, unzipped it, noticed that there were trash bags, black colored trash bags in the suitcase," Runge remembers. "Once I peeled the trash bags back I saw a pair of human legs from the knees down."

Five days later another suitcase washed up on the shores of Fisherman's Island; inside that suitcase was the torso of white male severed from the waist down. His head and arms were still attached. Later, a third suitcase with body parts was found by a fisherman and his wife.

The victim was eventually identified from a sketch: William McGuire, from Woodbridge, N.J.

McGuire was married to Melanie, who tells correspondent Maureen Maher, "When I heard how my husband was killed I was in complete disbelief and I could not imagine what he went through."

But Virginia homicide detective Ray Pickell had doubts. "I did not believe that Melanie McGuire was a grieving widow," he says. "I believe that she was responsible for her husband's death."

But Melanie insists she is innocent: "I did not kill the father of my children. I did not kill my husband."

Three months after the body of Bill McGuire was found in the Chesapeake Bay, his beautiful wife was not only a widow -- she was also a murder suspect.

"48 Hours" gave Melanie a video camera to document her innermost thoughts and fears. These video diaries, which she shot in the quiet of her bedroom near the Jersey Shore, captured Melanie in her most private and tortured moments.

Shown on "48 Hours" the first time, they are a rare glimpse into the mind of complex woman, who some say is a caring mother, others say a calculating killer.

"I can't help but think if I had made better decisions along the way, and left the marriage earlier, that I wouldn't be sitting here," Melanie confided in one of her video diary entries.

It is the last place anyone -- especially her mother Linda Cappararo -- ever expected to find Melanie. "She was every mother's dream. A good girl. Never got in trouble," Cappararo says. "Very supportive of her family. Happy. Wonderful student."

Melanie became a nurse. "There were several times where she would see an accident on the side of the road and she would stop the car and go over and assist. She was always there for people," Cappararo tells Maher.

It was a quality that caught the eye of then-28-year-old Bill McGuire, a veteran of the U.S. Navy.

Bill's sister, Cindy Ligosh, says Bill and Melanie were a perfect match from day one. "They were equals," Cindy remembers. "They both wanted the same things out of life or so I thought."

The couple married in June 1999. Less than a year later, the McGuires had their first son.

Melanie went to work at a fertility clinic and Bill began teaching computer science at a technical college. Melanie remembers this as a happy time for her. "I saw Bill morph into kind of a family man that he always wanted to be and it really touched me."

But, as with so many couples, the relationship did not withstand the test of time. By the birth of their second son, the couple had grown even further apart. One reason, according to Melanie, were Bill's frequent trips to Atlantic City. She says her husband had a gambling problem.

Melanie says Bill became increasingly erratic, even volatile. She remembers one night he called from the road in a rage after getting a speeding ticket. She hung up on him.

"He called back, cursing any number of obscenities at me. And told me that if I was there when he got home he was gonna kill me," Melanie tells Maher.

Melanie says she didn't believe him, but says she was scared.

Despite the ongoing battles, Melanie agreed to buy a new house with Bill. Why, if she was so unhappy, would she agree to a 15 to 30 year commitment of buying a home?

Says Melanie, "For the kids. Even though we weren't happy we weren't ending this marriage any time soon that I could see."

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[Cybernetic1]

There is divorce, why kill? Looks like she wanted to fake her husband's disappearance, erase her responsibilities and get a fresh start.

[G'z]

i am actually very sad for what happened to her. i guess this world is not fair. it is a crime that she didn't commit, there is no evidence. I don't understand why and how could they do that to her. WHY? how could anyone get up and go to sleep happy or live their life after sending an innocent women to prison. it just breaks my heart.. what they actually did was taking a Mother form her child and sending the real killer free..

[tsktsktsk-2009]

We all know that Melanie McGuire could have testified and given an account of her whereabouts in the days following her husband''s "disappearance". Of course, if she had- it would only have served to incriminate her further.

For those of you who watched the show but did not watch the trial in it''s entirety, not one person close to her testified on her behalf or gave her an alibi for any of the time in question. Not one. Her mother, her step-father, and her best friend. These were the people who could have helped her account for her time. Yet each one of these people immediately lawyered up when Melanie became a suspect. Why? IIRC, her step-father was noted by the prosecutor to have behaved suspiciously- speaking in code on taped phone conversations, trying to have an Atlantic City EZ pass hit removed from his account, and making "anonymous" phone calls trying to incriminate the victim''s sister (McGuire''s defense attorney stipulated in court that her step-father, Michael Cappararo, had placed the "anonymous" phone calls). Her best friend helped her to Clorox her rented townhouse. Her mother babysat. None of these people, who knew her best and were in daily contact with her, would or could take the stand. Not one of them would or could give her an alibi for even 10 minutes time in the days immediately following her husband''s supposed "disappearance".

[tsktsktsk-2009]

She and everyone close to her kept silent, except to tell lies about her dead husband to the police and the press, which only served to make Melanie McGuire look more guilty. The prosecutor stated to the court that not one shred of evidence was presented to back up their smears of Bill McGuire. Turns out he was not a degenerate big-time gambler, but was a net winner when he did gamble. There was no evidence that he was "involved with the wrong people". He was not a drinker, a drug user, and he was not abusive. He was a family man who loved his children dearly and spent all of his free time taking care of them. He was a hard worker and a good husband and father who had just bought a beautiful home for his family the day he was killed in cold blood by his wife.

As for Melanie''s statement that she "hasn''t had a chance to mourn for her husband"? This woman and her parent''s tried to leave the 10 minute funeral service she gave him before it began. They were shamed into staying but were the first to leave when it was over. Not one of the three shed a tear. They spent 3 years trashing his memory. Kind of hard to believe that she regrets not having time to mourn him.

[tsktsktsk-2009]

The only people to take the stand in McGuire''s defense were people who did not know her well at all, the peripheral people in her life. No family members took the stand. No current friends took the stand. No one close to her took the stand. The only people who tried to testify to her character, but who could not offer insight into her whereabouts, daily life, or true character and personality- were a former patient who only knew her on a professional basis, an old school-mate that had kept in touch periodically throughout the years by e-mail or phone, and her parent''s current neighbor. The neighbor perjured herself on the stand and testified that for 2 years prior to the murder and for a full year after the murder, Melanie came to her house 3 times a week to help her tend to her sickly daughter. This woman testified that she was so close to Melanie that "she thought of her as a second daughter". Laughably, this neighbor was forced to admit that her "second daughter", whom she saw so often and knew so well, had never even told her of her husband''s murder. She only learned of his death when she read about it in the newspaper- after Melanie''s arrest 1 year later.

[tsktsktsk-2009]

I''d like to know:
Where she found her husband''s car?
The name of either cab company, cab color, where she hailed the cabs, a description of the drivers, or any evidence that there was a trip back and forth from Atlantic City. Her claim that she and her husband had previously pranked each other- wasn''t supported by testimony.
Why did she offer 2 or 3 different accounts of her trip to AC? One story was that she rode down there with 2 other people- but that she would not reveal their names because she didn''t want to expose them to questioning by the police. Her second story was that she drove down by herself, found her husband''s car and moved it, but then forgot where she had left her own car. Claiming that she was too tired, her story is that she decided to take a one hour cab ride home, and go back to Atlantic City after she had rested. (At the time, her children were at her parents home- only half an hour from Atlantic City.) Upon returning back to Woodbridge, McGuire said she was refreshed and had remembered where she had left her car, so she took another one hour cab ride back to retrieve it. She never revealed where she had supposedly left her car.
Why didn''t she offer the name or general location of one store that she claims she shopped at as an excuse for her incriminating trip to Delaware? Not even so much as the color of a sign, a general description of a salesperson who may have approached her, or a remembrance of a piece of furniture that may have caught her eye.

[tsktsktsk-2009]

As for the crime scene, I agree with the prosecutor that the townhouse was the most likely place. Although her attorney insists that it would be impossible to erase all evidence of such a brutal crime, I believe that she used tarps and large disposable operating-room pads to control and absorb the mess. Then she had an entire month, before her husband''s body was identified, in which to clean up the apartment. According to NJ law, the exact time and location of death did not have to be proven in order to find her guilty.

[tsktsktsk-2009]

She had the best defense money could buy, but she was judged by a jury of her peers and found to be guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. She will take the answers to our questions to her grave. In the meantime, she will be serving a well-deserved life sentence for the premeditated murder and dismemberment of her husband.

Regarding the show- I took particular notice how McGuire qualified this statement to Maureen Maher saying, "I spent my whole life, my entire "professional" life- giving life". To me, this sounded almost like an admittance that in her personal life, she did indeed take life away.

And for the poster who commented on the bridge- the Chesapeake Bay Bridge and Tunnel does not have camera''s all along it''s 12 mile length. There are many places to pull off to the side, wait for a break in the one-way traffic, and then toss a suitcase- undetected- into the water below.

[lolaeleven]

Wow. I watched this and could only think, What a complete psycho. OF COURSE she murdered her husband. She thought she was clever and could get away with it but she got caught.
The most damning things were the blanket, the gun, and moving the car (how stupid) and how filing a police report. But even beyond that, watching her videotapes...how casually she speaks about picking out what to wear to her murder trial, and how shallow it is and how it''s her first time as a murder defendant and she doesn''t quite know the proper etiquette....
I felt chills run down my spine.
Because she is so far-gone out of her head. Classic sociopath.
And that whole "Not because I killed my husband... because I didn''t..." yeah right. Nice save.
Whatever.
She totally killed him. She got what was coming to her, too.
They should never let her out of prison. It''s scary to think what she could do to other people and not even bat an eye or have any harsh feelings about it later at all.
Weird. Scary. Ew.

[jgntec]

I have been going through the comment''s and read a lot that I didn''t see or hear on the show which is ok.I do have some things that don''t add up! No one reported anything to POLICE before or after he turnned up, but a missing person report. Their are cameras on that bridge to watch out for stopped car''s or trucks so that accdents don''t happen and to keep traffic flowing? if she had stopped to dump the body as stated in court she would have been seen? This didn''t happen .Who watched the kids while she did this? Where are the gas and food receats for this or photoes along the way? Even if she paided with cash their has to be something to show she was their.The list goes on and on but that is not for me two decider the court has done this and that is all that matters. If she did do this she had help and thy need to be found and brough to court,and when this happens they may find that the wrong cout convicted her and she will get out because they didn''t have power over the case,and she couldn''t be charged again because of doubble jeopardy and be free. No one knows for sur but those who did it and before to long they will tell.I hope 48hours Keep us informed on this case as it moves on.