Melanie McGuire, Convicted As ‘Suitcase Killer,’ Claims New Evidence Proves Her Innocence

Melanie McGuire, the woman dubbed the “suitcase killer,” after she was convicted of first-degree murder for killing, dismembering and throwing the pieces of her husband’s body into suitcases and into the Chesapeake Bay, is claiming that she is innocent.

Prosecutors alleged that Melanie McGuire killed her husband in May 2004 after suitcases with Bill McGuire’s body parts were discovered along the shore of the Chesapeake Bay. The fertility nurse had been having an affair with a doctor at the practice she worked at, and allegedly had a difficult marriage with her physically abusive husband with whom she shared two young kids. So, prosecutors alleged that Melanie McGuire killed Bill McGuire to escape her violent husband and to be with her secret lover.

Melanie McGuire pleaded not guilty to the charge of killing her husband, and maintains to this did day that she is innocent.

On Friday night, Melanie McGuire is set to be featured in a 2-hour episode of ABC’s 20/20, where “new details” about the case have been promised to be revealed. McGuire was interviewed by ABC’s Amy Robach from prison, where the alleged murderer is living out her life sentence.

“After all these years, I still feel hurt. I still feel bothered. I still feel like, how could somebody think that I did that?” Melanie McGuire said during the interview.

Interest in this case was reignited after a podcast was created by two Farleigh Dickinson University criminology professors that said they believe Melanie McGuire was wrongfully convicted. The podcast Direct Appeal, hosted by Meghan Sacks and Amy Schlosberg, looks into the evidence presented against Melanie McGuire in the case, and argues that although the prosecutors had plenty of circumstantial evidence placing McGuire at the scene of the crime, they could not prove with any physical evidence that she was the one who killed Bill McGuire.

“Melanie did not incapacitate, shoot [or] use a saw to dismember her husband,” Sacks told ABC. “Do you know how hard it is to cut through bone? It is physically exhausting. Also if the crime scene didn’t happen [at the family home] and she’s home with her children all night, where is this happening? There are just too many holes in this story.”

20/20 The Secret In The Suitcase premieres Friday, September 25 at 9 p.m. ET on ABC.