CSI: New Jersey or Six Degrees of Separation

I'll just cut to the chase. I like to say that although our twins were born in Texas, they were built in a factory in NJ, at least that's where our fertility clinic was located. In June of 2005, 3 months into my pregnancy, I received an email from my college roommate asking me about the clinic where I was impregnated as she sent me links from several articles that had just appeared in the New Jersey newspapers. The story goes something like this:

Apparently sometime in 2004, spread out over the course of a week, 3 suitcases washed up on the shores of the Chesapeake Bay. Found inside the suitcases, wrapped in green plastic trash bags were the parts of the dismembered body of a man later identified as William McGuire. Forensics later showed that he had been drugged, shot, and cut up meticulously with a reciprocating saw. They speculated that the 3 suitcases had been tossed off of the Bay bridge and had floated around, never washing out to sea (much to the dismay of the murderer or murderers) only to be washed up separately; thus the body parts having to be fitted together like a puzzle. Upon questioning the wife, Melanie, she revealed that her husband had 1. over the past year become increasingly 'menacing' in their marriage, 2. liked to gamble and had accumulated horrid debts, 3. threatened her on the night of the closing on their new $500,000 house, and then 4. disappeared and she hadn't heard from him since. Within 2 weeks of his "disappearance", she had filed a restraining order against him and then filed for divorce. His car was later found abandoned in the parking lot of an Atlantic City motel.

It was revealed that Melanie was a nurse at RMANJ, a prominent Morristown, New Jersey fertility clinic. The clinic was founded by an old friend of mine from high school, hence our connection, and we were coincidentally sent there by our specialist here because it is considered one of the best in the country. We traveled back and forth across the country to the clinic several times to see Dr. Richard Scott who has great success rates with fertility-challenged women. It also so happened that Melanie was secretly carrying on a 2 year affair with one of the other doctors at the clinic, a Bradley Miller.

Well, last night the story was on Prime time "Family Secrets". It had also been on "48 Hours Mysteries". Melanie, after a year long investigation, was arrested and charged in 2005 with her husband's murder. She was recently tried and found guilty of chopping up her husband and is awaiting sentencing. Bradley Miller apparently wore a wire and turned state's evidence against Melanie but in the meantime continued to have an 'intimate' relationship with her. This is one of the juiciest tales of murder, adultery and betrayal that I have heard of in a long time. Of course there are no witnesses to the crime but the 'coincidences' are undeniable. She sure seems guilty to me. Major points include: 1. She had purchased a handgun in PA days just days before Bill's disappearance, 2. the suitcases were hers, 3. a blanket from RMANJ was found wrapped in one the suitcases, 3. the trash bags match those found under her kitchen sink, 5. they have Melanie on motel video-tape parking her husband's car in Atlantic City late at night...the list goes on. Wow, this is so worthy of a prime time Law & Order or CSI episode. Just do a Google search for Melanie McGuire and see what you come up with.

Back to the less than 6 degrees: In March 2005, Evan & I flew to NYC to spend a week going back and forth to RMANJ to get pregnant. When the day came, the embryos were cooked and ready, I arrived on a Tuesday afternoon for the transfer. (I promise to write a play-by-play report on this fertility struggle at a later date.) I was led down the hall, belly full of water to prep for implantation. As we passed Dr Scott's office, he was seated at his desk - not in scrubs - but beaming into a TV camera lens, obviously doing an interview and too busy to deal with me and my already anxious uterus. They led me to the waiting gurney and a masked doctor entered. He showed us a photocopy of 4 blastocysts and said: "Hi, I'm Dr Bradley Miller and I'll be transferring these 4 embryos and we'll hope for the best."

Well the best happened: I became pregnant with twins and Evan and I are the happy parents of Credence and Zelda. A few months later, Melanie McGuire was arrested, Dr Bradley Miller stopped working there and the rest is a prime time true crime episode. We never saw Dr Scott again but I hear he still works there and has a very high success rate.