On May 5, 2004, the first suitcase, containing human legs, was found floating near the
Chesapeake Bay Bridge–Tunnel's fourth artificial island, by two fishermen and two children, and a murder investigation was launched. During the investigation, incriminating evidence against Melanie was uncovered. On April 26, 2004, Melanie had purchased a
.38 caliber handgun from a store in
Easton,
Pennsylvania. Bill had been killed with a .38 caliber handgun with wadcutter cartridges. Melanie's receipt for the gun also listed an unspecified purchase of $9.95. There were only two items, in the store, for that amount and one of them was a box of wadcutter cartridges. Police received a tip, from a private towing company employee, who said he towed a 2002
Nissan Maxima (Bill McGuire's car) from the Flamingo Motel in
Atlantic City, on May 8, 2004. Upon further investigation, police discovered a security video of the car being moved in the early morning hours of April 30, 2004. The footage was blurry and the police weren't able to identify the person in the video. Melanie later claimed she had moved the car as a "prank", even though she had applied for a
protection from abuse order days earlier after allegedly being slapped by her husband. Police also learned that Melanie had been having a long-term affair with a co-worker named Bradley Miller. Her
E-ZPass tag was recorded, at a toll booth, in
Delaware, two days after the murder. She claimed that this was the result of her going furniture shopping in Delaware, because the state has no sales tax. Before she was charged with murder, Melanie contacted E-ZPass and attempted to have the $0.90 charge removed from her account history. Days later, an unidentified man, believed by many to be her stepfather, also contacted E-ZPass and attempted to have the charge removed. The plastic bags that contained Bill's body parts and the bags that contained Bill's clothes, which Melanie had given away to a friend, were demonstrated, by forensics, to have been manufactured on the same assembly line within hours of one another. Melanie admitted that the couple owned the same set of luggage that the body was found in, a matching three-piece set of Kenneth Cole suitcases. Green fibers had been found on one of the bullets lodged in Bill's chest. The fibers were identified as polyester fill, a common material found in household furniture. Bill and Melanie owned a green couch and investigators theorized that the murderer used a pillow or couch cushion, as a makeshift
silencer, when Bill was shot. Similarly, a medical grade towel, found with Bill's body, matched those stocked at the clinic where Melanie worked. A witness testified that Melanie used the same towels to protect furniture when they moved into their home. ==Trial==