Guilty or Not Guilty: That Is the Question Posed in Lifetime's "Suitcase Killer: The Melanie McGuire Story"

McGuire a fertility clinic nurse and mother of two had begun an affair with a doctor working at her clinic when the dismembered body of her husband Bill turned up in three suitcases She soon found herself the lead suspect in his murder despite maintaining her innocence Throughout her trial enough evidence was amassed by the prosecution to convict her of the crime For Candice King who portrays McGuire going into the project with a mindset of innocence proved to be complicated quotI get very into stories and especially truelife crime storiesquot she recently explained while promoting the film quotI talked everybody39s ear off about this case For me personally I really felt it was my responsibility to tell Melanie39s story as those were the shoes I was fillingquotThis was someone who by her own account is a mother who was scared and had an abusive relationshipquot she added quotShe was very dedicated to her job and wasn39t perfect She had many selfadmitted faults I listened to the testimony that she39d given to her lawyers and there39s a great podcast called Direct Appeal in which she spoke for hours about her story and experiences That39s kind of the direction I was showing up to set with while following the script that we had There39s a lot of circumstantial evidence against Melanie and that39s what I find so fascinating about this case the actual physical evidence specifically in the condo she and Bill shared they couldn39t find anything within that condo They even took piping from the sinks to test and found nothingquotTo give an accurate portrayal King had to believe McGuire39s innocent claims quotYou have to go in servicing the characterquot she shared quotThe character is a real person so I39m going in telling her story Here there are two narratives her story the reason why she39s in jail and the fact that others believed the prosecution39s version and what they said happened I showed up playing Melanie McGuire as Melanie McGuire and what she shared To this day she declares her innocence She passed a polygraph test not admissible in court but it39s there So that39s absolutely the role I came to and whose story I was sharing while acting out the script and the storyquotFor King whose name is forever synonymous with the fantasy genre following her eight seasons as Caroline Forbes on The Vampire Diaries while filming this soon found herself in some familiar territory quotYes absolutelyquot she enthused quotEssentially recreating what is a horrific scene of a body being cut up in a bathtub I oddly felt right at home with a bunch of fake blood being thrown at my face And the fake saw sounds amp8230 those really brought me back to some Vampire Diaries days So absolutely reallife and fantasy amp8230 there are a lot of parallels shockinglyquotThe subject of McGuire39s possible innocence was a major topic of discussion during production too leaving the cast39s opinions divided quotWe talked about this endlesslyquot recalled Michael Roark who portrays McGuire39s illfated husband Bill quotIf you look at the facts of the case there are so many things other than the facts presented that even the discovery in the trial seemed like it was a bit off We39re not even sure the presented facts are all the information There39s no smoking gun evidence but Melanie had behavior that kind of looks like someone who would be guilty There wasn39t a lot of research material on him so I played Bill the way I would play Bill But do I think she was guilty I don39t know but I39ve got opinionsquotquotI was kind of tornquot admitted Jackson Hurst who portrays McGuire39s lover Dr Bradley Miller quotI went in thinking she was guilty as charged I started listening to the podcast and doing my own research and I realized the forensic evidence was completely lacking and it was circumstantial You could get into the specifics of a few things but to this day I39m still torn That39s what makes this such a riveting story Lifetime did a good job and our director Nicole L Thompson did a good job at not forcing you to choose sides within the movie just tell the story so the audience can pick however they see fitquotquotI think that39s what39s so great about this filmquot chimed in executive producer Kim Raver Grey39s Anatomy quotThe talent tells the story and the directing of it It39s this incredible back and forth roller coaster with moments of 39Oh my God She did it39 39Oh my God She didn39t do it39 Unfortunately it is a real story but I think that39s what makes watching a true crime story so appealingquotAnd what Candice does so well in this movie which is difficult is play a human being with so many different layersquot Raver added in closing quotIt39s not onedimensional is she guiltyis she not guilty It39s really her specific performance in all these incredible multilayered moments You39re watching this real human navigate intricate details of her life and Candice really brings us into her world of how someone gets there whether they39re guilty or not guiltyquotSuitcase Killer The Melanie McGuire Story will be telecast Saturday June 18 at 8 pm on LifetimeClick the social buttons to share this content with your friends and colleaguesThe opinions and points of view expressed in this content are exclusively the views of the author andor subjects and do not necessarily represent the views of MediaVillagecomMyersBizNet Inc management or associated writers

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Guilty or Not Guilty: That Is the Question Posed in Lifetime's "Suitcase Killer: The Melanie McGuire Story"

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Steve Gidlow

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Guilty or Not Guilty: That Is the Question Posed in Lifetime's "Suitcase Killer: The Melanie McGuire Story"

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