Kriti Mehrotra
ABC’s ’20/20: Interview with Melanie McGuire’ is an extremely intriguing episode, highlighting the flipside of a heinous crime by giving us the perspective of a convicted felon that still maintains her innocence. Melanie McGuire – dubbed by the media to be the “suitcase killer” for butchering her husband and then dumping parts of his body in the Chesapeake Bay in different suitcases – was found guilty in 2007. But, to this day, more than 13 years later, she still states that she had no hand in her husband’s slaying. Her family, especially her parents, who went as far as to help her in displacing evidence, have also stuck by her side this entire time.
Who Is Melanie McGuire’s Family?
Melanie McGuire’s family primarily consists of just her mother and step-father – Linda and Michael Cappararo. She also has a brother, but he prefers to lie low and does not speak much about his sister. In 2004, when her husband, William “Bill” McGuire, was murdered, it was allegedly Michael who helped his step-daughter in planting evidence to elude the police and showcase that Bill was probably still alive and well. Apparently, on the night of May 1, he took a trip with Melanie to Atlantic City, to where she had parked Bill’s car, to check up on it and to use Bill’s phone – which was deliberately left in it – to call her apartment. Their purpose was to create a false record so that the police would be able to positive state that Bill was staying somewhere near the area around that time.
However, this changed when Bill’s body was discovered. Melanie immediately became a suspect and was soon asked to answer a myriad of questions, including why there was a charge on her E-ZPass at a toll in Delaware two days after Bill’s murder. At that point, she claimed that she had driven there to shop for furniture since it has no sales tax. But, the very next day, she called the company and unsuccessfully attempted to have the charge removed from her account history, stating that it was incorrect. Days later, an unidentified man, believed to be Melanie’s stepfather, called and asked them to do the same, but again, to no avail. In the end, desktops recovered from Melanie’s home, and from Linda and Michael’s home, which showed internet searches about murder, helped Melanie’s conviction.
Where Is Melanie McGuire’s Family Today?
In their 70s now, from what we can tell, Melanie’s parents Linda and Michael Cappararo currently lead a comfortable life in Ocean County, New Jersey. They have been residing there for about two decades, and when, in 2007, Melanie was convicted, they sought to have her two sons come live with them there. They actually got into a somewhat messy custody battle with Bill’s elder sister Cindy Ligosh over this. However, as per the last reports, since Cindy had gotten guardianship of the kids as soon as Melanie was charged, the court dispute ended with the original decision being upheld. Even though Melanie is currently behind bars, her family hopes that media appearances and court appeals will one day help in at least reducing her life sentence to something more lenient.
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