Town note
Woodbridge is the oldest township in the state of New Jersey.
about 0:07:02The story
William Theodore McGuire, known as Bill, was born on 21 September 1964 in River Edge, New Jersey, the youngest of three children. His father was a pressman for the New York Times and his mother a homemaker, and the family lived first in the Bronx before moving to River Edge. His parents divorced in 1968 and then remarried and divorced each other several times, and his older sister Cindy largely brought him up. At 15 he moved in with Cindy and her husband in Vernon Township and enrolled at Vernon Township High School. He was an average student, charming and popular, and in 1982 he joined the Navy. He served six years as a computer specialist, much of it aboard the USS America, and made a lifelong friend of a fellow recruit, John Rice.
Bill was discharged in 1990. In 1992 he and his wife Marcy, the younger sister of his friend Lenny Polski, moved to Edison, New Jersey, and the marriage collapsed; Bill moved into a townhouse in Woodbridge with a friend, Brian Gerber. She was bright, manipulative and quick-tempered. They married in June 1999, had two sons in 2000 and 2002, and settled at the Woodbridge Center Plaza Apartments.
By 2004 the marriage was strained. The couple agreed to buy a four-bedroom house on two acres in the Asbury section of Franklin Township for $507,000, and the closing was set for 28 April 2004. That afternoon Bill called the gas company and two friends to say the deal was done. He was never heard from again after about 6.10 that evening.
On 11 April she searched the family computer for undetectable poisons; on 16 April she searched for guns without a permit and for instant poisons; on 24 April she telephoned gun shops in Pennsylvania; and on 26 April, using a false Pennsylvania address, she bought a .38-calibre Taurus revolver and ammunition from John's Gun and Tackle Room. Bill's blue 2002 Nissan Maxima was found parked outside the Flamingo Hotel in Atlantic City on 30 April.
On 5 May 2004 two men fishing near the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel in Virginia pulled a dark green suitcase from the water. It held a pair of human legs, severed below the knee. On 10 May a graduate student found a second suitcase on the beach at a bird sanctuary on Fisherman's Island; it held a head and torso with gunshot wounds. On 16 May a third suitcase was recovered, holding the lower torso and upper legs. All three were matching Kenneth Cole cases. A 5.5-pound Weider weight had been packed in with the remains.
Susan Rice, wife of Bill's best friend John Rice, recognised him at once and called Virginia Beach homicide.
Virginia transferred the case to New Jersey on 29 September 2004. Investigators learned of the gun purchase and the computer searches, and in March 2005 Dr Miller admitted a three-year affair; he was later granted immunity. Joseph Tacopina took over her defence in November.
She has always maintained her innocence.