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The true-crime genre has surged in popularity in recent years, but until recently, the movie Suitcase Killer: The Melanie McGuire Story had flown under the radar. Now that it is streaming, the film is going viral, having been rediscovered four years after its 2022 release. Suitcase Killer: The Melanie McGuire story is currently the second most-streamed movie on US Netflix (via Flix Patrol).
The best true-crime movies tend to follow one of two formulas. They are usually either feature-length true-crime documentaries or dramatic reconstructions of events that can range from a strictly faithful retelling to an embellished version just loosely based on the facts. Suitcase Killer: The Melanie McGuire Story is a dramatized version, but it remains close to the real story.
What Is Suitcase Killer: The Melanie McGuire Story About?
When fishermen and their children find a suitcase near the Chesapeake Bay Bridge, they expect to find lost luggage inside. However, when they open it up, the suitcase contains a pair of legs wrapped in a trash bag. As a murder investigation is launched, more suitcases containing human remains are found as police try to identify both the deceased person and the murderer.
After the body parts are identified as Bill McGuire's, suspicion falls on his wife, Melanie. The movie dramatizes the events leading up to the murder and Melanie's arrest for the crime, as well as the debates and investigations in the police department. While the subject matter is grisly, the movie shows very little, relying on implication rather than gore.
Why Suitcase Killer: The Melanie McGuire Story Is Going Viral
Suitcase Killer: The Melanie McGuire Story was originally aired on Lifetime, which often produced true-crime movies as part of its "Ripped From the Headlines" series. Now that it is available to stream on Netflix, Suitcase Killer has been discovered by a much wider audience. The short running time of just 90 minutes makes it an easy watch for fans of the genre.
The main actors in the movie are also likely to have had an impact on the streaming success of Suitcase Killer: The Melanie McGuire Story. Candice King starred in The Vampire Diaries before this biopic and went on to appear in the psychological thriller series We Were Liars. Michael Roark recently played Jeremy in the Emmy Award-winning soap opera Days of Our Lives.
What Happened To Melanie McGuire
Melanie McGuire and her defense team argued that Bill was killed by Atlantic City mobsters connected to his gambling addiction and piling debts. However, the evidence pointed to her as the guilty party, and she was convicted of first-degree murder and some lesser charges, including perjury. In 2007, she was sentenced to life in prison at the age of 34, and must wait 63 years before she is eligible for parole.
McGuire continues to claim that she was wrongfully convicted. In 2020, she gave an interview to ABC News, still protesting that she was not capable of murdering and dismembering a person, and mourning the loss of her sons, who live with Bill's sister. The subject of Suitcase Killer: The Melanie McGuire Story is currently serving her sentence at Edna Mahan Correctional Facility in New Jersey.
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