Jersey Man Washes Ashore in VA

Seven weeks after a New Jersey man's body parts began washing up in suitcases in the Chesapeake Bay in Virginia, authorities still don't know who killed William McGuire or why.

Nor do they know where he died -- and they say that may be their most vexing problem.

"Where is huge," said criminal defense lawyer John S. Furlong. "Because once you know where, you can start thinking about who might have seen it, who might know something."

"You need a crime scene," agreed Woodbridge Police Capt. Charles Rowinski. "If we don't know where the killing took place, unless someone confesses, it would be very difficult to solve."

McGuire, 39, was a computer analyst and disappeared on April 30 after having a fight with his wife and leaving their apartment.

The couple had just closed on a $500,000 home in Warren County, and McGuire had scheduled a two-week vacation starting May 3 to move. His body parts were found inside three suitcases floating in the Chesapeake on May 5, 11 and 16.

Virginia Beach police will own the investigation at least until homicide detectives find the crime scene. That's because the remains surfaced there.

But McGuire's car was found abandoned in Atlantic City, N.J., and he lived in Woodbridge, N.J., presenting logistical challenges that can slow the pace of any murder investigation and can make multistate cases difficult to solve, authorities said.

"Whoever has the body owns the body, so to speak," said Sgt. J.T. Orr, supervisor of the Virginia Beach homicide bureau.

"He lived in New Jersey, he had relatives in New Jersey, he worked in New Jersey, there's the best chance it occurred in New Jersey," Orr said.

But absent any hard evidence to back up the hunch, Virginia Beach police will continue to lead the probe into the death of a man who lived and worked 400 miles to the north.

They'll get help from New Jersey police agencies along the way.

"Most states have multi-jurisdictional court rules and investigative protocols," said Furlong, a one-time prosecutor who has both defended and prosecuted cases that unfolded across state lines. "In homicide cases, multi-jurisdictional agencies tend to be extremely cooperative."

Unwritten police protocols governing criminal investigations by multiple law enforcement agencies call for interagency cooperation. New Jersey even has formal protocols for coordinated investigations, which the state Attorney General's Office adopted in 2002.

"Most homicide detectives are self-motivated individuals who don't like to lose," said Detective Sgt. First Class Matt Kuehn of the New Jersey State Police, explaining why investigators in Virginia would doggedly pursue the McGuire case even if they don't know where the slaying happened.

Virginia Beach police already have been to New Jersey on the case and are planning to return. Atlantic City police arranged for forensics work on the abandoned car. And Woodbridge police have conducted searches at the request of Virginia Beach investigators, though Rowinski refused to say what was searched.

Orr said despite such interagency cooperation, the distance between where McGuire lived and where his body was found poses challenges.

"It took us weeks just to identify the victim," Orr said. That's a problem that presented itself because we were four states away. We were slowed down from the start."

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