New Jersey nurse who murdered and dismembered her husband before dumping his remains across Chesapeake Bay insists she is innocent in prison interview
A New Jersey nurse who shot and killed her husband before dumping his remains in the Chesapeake Bay, has insisted she is innocent in a rare interview from behind bars, 13 years after her conviction.
Melanie McGuire, 47, was sentenced to life in prison in 2007 after she was found guilty of murdering husband Bill McGuire, 39, at their Woodbridge apartment in 2004.
Prosecutors said McGuire, who was 31 at the time, used her expertise as a nurse to drug Bill before shooting him, dismembering his body and stuffing it into designer suitcases.
Melanie McGuire spoke to ABC's 20/20 in a rare interview behind bars that aired this week
McGuire was sentenced to murdering husband Bill McGuire in 2004, but she maintains she's innocent and the killer remains at large
McGuire spoke out from Edna Mahan Correctional Facility in Clinton, for the first time since she was jailed, in an interview with ABC's 20/20 revealing she is fighting to overturn her conviction.
'I'm doing this because there's a murderer walking around,' she said. 'The killer is out there and it's not me.'
'After all these years, I still feel hurt. I still feel bothered. Like, how could somebody think that I did that?'
During her trial, McGuire was revealed to be having an affair with a doctor at the fertility clinic where she worked, which the prosecution believed was the motive behind killing her husband.
They alleged McGuire had wanted to start a new life with her lover Dr Bradley Miller.
McGuire, who admitted to the affair, however, argued the two were in an unhappy marriage and claimed Bill was a gambling addict who was killed over unpaid debts.
During her trial, McGuire was revealed to be having an affair, allowing prosecutors to establish a motive
She also claimed Bill had asked her to purchase a gun for him since a previous felony conviction did not allow him to buy one, two days before he disappeared.
His cut up remains washed up in three Kenneth Cole suitcases on Virginia Beach, almost 300 miles away from their home, in May 2004.
McGuire told Robach that the timing of when she acquired the gun and Bill's disappearance was a 'coincidence.'
'However, he was on me for a while about that, about trying to get that.
'And if something was happening, if he was in some sort of trouble, that may very well have been the reason why he was so intent on getting it,' she said.
The interview follows the launch of a new podcast, Direct Appeal, which re-examines the murder case and whether McGuire was wrongfully convicted.
While McGuire told Robach she is 'terrified to hope' she could be released one day, she is hopes the podcast could help acquit her.