A three-judge panel upheld the previous conviction of a former Morristown fertility clinic nurse on Wednesday, March 16, for murdering her husband, chopping up his body and dumping three suitcases filled with his parts into the Chesapeake Bay in 2004.

Melanie McGuire, formerly of Woodbridge, Middlesex County, and a nurse at Reproductive Medicine Associates of New Jersey, on Madison Avenue, was found guilty of multiple charges, including the murder of her husband, William T. McGuire, in April 2007, sentencing her to life in prison plus five years. She must serve at least 66 years in prison before she can be considered for parole. The ruling issued Wednesday upholds that sentence, which had been appealed by McGuire, now 38, arguing that her trial and sentencing were unfair.

Melanie, who grew up in Brick in Ocean County, and William McGuire were married in 1999 and had lived with their two sons in Woodbridge at the time of the murder. According to court documents, the family had closed on the purchase of their first home in April 2004. Shortly after, William McGuire stopped returning calls, which witnesses had said was unusual for him. On three dates, from May 5 to May 16, 2004, his body was found in the waters near the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel, in Virginia, cut into three sections, drained of blood, wrapped in garbage bags and packed into three matching suitcases. Melanie McGuire was arrested and charged with the murder in June 2005.

Currently serving her sentence at Edna Mahan Correctional Facility for Women in Union Township, Hunterdon County, attorneys for McGuire had argued in her appeal that the jury had been tainted by being repeatedly exposed to "highly inflammatory media accounts" and that jurors may have been posting to Internet message boards during deliberations, in addition to other charges.