Body in 3 Suitcases Was NJ University Professor

June 4, 2004
By MATTHEW JONES, The Virginian-Pilot

VIRGINIA BEACH – The man whose dismembered body was found floating in three suitcases last month in the Chesapeake Bay was a senior programmer analyst and adjunct professor at the New Jersey Institute of Technology in Newark.

The body of William T. McGuire , 39 , of Woodbridge, N.J. , was identified after an anonymous caller saw a police artist’s sketch and contacted Virginia Beach Crime Solvers. A forensic examination confirmed the identification.

Police did not release any further information Thursday about McGuire. They still have not said how, when or where they think he died.

On Thursday, the school announced that McGuire graduated cum laude from the university in 2001 , with a bachelor’s degree in management, and had worked there for four years. The university did not release further details, and employees there referred all questions to a spokeswoman.

“The NJIT community is shocked by the loss of a young life full of promise, and extends its deepest sympathies to his family, friends and co-workers,” said spokeswoman Jean M. Llewellyn.

Prosecutor Thomas Kapsak of Middlesex County, N.J. , told the Newark (N.J.) Star-Ledger on Thursday that McGuire was in Woodbridge in late April, two or three weeks before he was killed, but there is no evidence that he died while he was there.

Woodbridge police are helping Virginia Beach police in retracing McGuire’s trail before his death, Kapsa k said. He added that his office is not involved in the case, nor has it been asked to talk with McGuire’s wife, Melanie .

“She’s still around and available,” Kapsak told the Star-Ledger.

Attempts to locate Melanie McGuire were unsuccessful Thursday .

A woman at the apartment complex where the McGuires lived, who declined to give her name, told reporters at the Star-Ledger on Wednesday that Melanie McGuire turned in the keys to their apartment this week, and that the McGuires had two children.

McGuire’s body was found in three separate suitcases in and around the Chesapeake Bay over a week and a half.

On May 5 , a fisherman found the first suitcase near the fourth island of the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel . On May 11 , a graduate student spotted the second suitcase on the shores of Fishermans Island , off the Eastern Shore. On May 16 , a recreational boater found a suitcase floating off the second island of the bridge-tunnel.

Anyone with information is asked to call Virginia Beach Crime Solvers at 1-888-LOCK-U-UP .

Reach Matthew Jones at 222-5150 or matthew.jones@pilotonline.com.

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