McGuire's colleague testifies in murder trial Testifies that the apartment smelled 'like a morgue' BY KATHY CHANG Staff Writer NEW BRUNSWICK - Lori Thomas, who was a colleague of Melanie McGuire at the fertility clinic in Morristown, said the day she went to McGuire's Woodbridge Center Plaza apartment at the end of May 2004, it smelled "like a morgue." "It just smelled horrible," said Thomas. "There was a strong smell of bleach, must, and cleaning supplies, it was horrible … like a morgue." Thomas said the last time she was in a morgue was last month for her current job as a hospice nurse. She said the smell was worse in the upstairs bathroom in the apartment. "When I walked into the morgue, I recollected the same smell that I smelled in Melanie's bathroom," she said. "The shower stall was scrubbed and the grout looked chalky." During cross-examination, Stephen Turano, one of McGuire's defense lawyers, questioned why Thomas never described the apartment as smelling "horrible" during her grand jury testimony or "like a morgue." Turano also questioned why she didn't describe the apartment in those words in at least three statements she gave to detectives in July 2005. During grand jury testimony, Thomas said that it looked like McGuire was cleaning and moving out of her apartment. Thomas said that there were no blood stains on the bedroom mattress. McGuire is on trial for killing her husband, William McGuire, in their Woodbridge Center Plaza apartment and later dismembering his body between April 28, 2004, and May 5, 2004. McGuire, who resides in Brick Township, remains free on $2.1 million bail. Thomas, who described her relationship with McGuire as colleagues, went over to McGuire's apartment with her then boyfriend that day to pick up a Thomasville living room entertainment set she had purchased from McGuire, which included two coffee tables and a plant stand that she described as "extremely" heavy. "I remember that it was a weekend and it was very hot," said Thomas. "I don't remember what date it was, but I know it was the end of May 2004. Melanie told me she had to move out of the apartment. It might have been Memorial Day weekend or the weekend after. When we got there, Melanie let us in. She was with her friend Selene Trivizas. From what I saw, all the furniture in each room seemed intact. I asked for a bottle of water and Melanie told me to make myself at home. I did see black trash bags in a box on the kitchen counter." Thomas said that Melanie and Trivizas were upstairs most of the time her boyfriend and she were at the apartment. Virginia Beach police found the first small, dark green Kenneth Cole Reaction carry-on suitcase - which the jury heard contained the legs, cut from the knees down, of the deceased - floating in the water between the fourth island and the high-rise bridge near the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel at 11:30 a.m. on May 5, 2004. The second matching suitcase, which the jury heard contained the torso of the deceased, was discovered almost a week later on May 11. The third suitcase, a 20-inch, contained the midsection of the deceased, found on May 16. William McGuire's body parts were found in black trash bags inside the suitcases. Thomas, who said she stayed in the apartment for, at the most, an hour and a half, asked McGuire if she could see the whole apartment because she liked the apartment. "My boyfriend at the time and I were considering to move in with each other," said Thomas. "It was a nice apartment. We saw the first floor and the second floor, but Melanie said she'd rather not show the basement because it was disorganized." Thomas told the jury that she observed that Melanie and Selene were wearing shorts, tank tops and surgical gloves. During grand jury testimony, Thomas told the jury that the gloves she had seen were not yellow gloves that can be bought at the grocery store. "Because the tops of the furniture were marble, Melanie gave me hospital blankets to wrap the furniture so it would not break," said Thomas, who said she knew that they were hospital blankets because they had the HCSC label. An HCSC blanket was found in the second suitcase that contained the torso of William McGuire. The jury, 12 women and four men, also heard testimony from Justin Marrero, who helped McGuire move out of her apartment Memorial Day weekend in 2004, as a favor to his cousin, Benji, who is the younger brother of McGuire's friend Selene Trivizas. Marrero said he didn't know McGuire personally. Marrero, who lives in Brooklyn, N.Y., said McGuire and Selene were not there during the move. "My cousin Benji, myself, Selene's husband Alex, McGuire's mother and father, and a taller gentlemen were there," said Marrero. "We moved furniture, which included bedroom frames, mirrors, china closets, heavy tables, which filled the storage bin [in Edison] to the max." When asked during direct examination about the black trash bags filled with men's clothing, Marrero said he did not see the black trash bags get packed, but they appeared in the process of the move. "I first saw them in the living room," he said. "The bags contained jeans, belts, shirts, suit tops, and jackets. There were five to six bags. To my knowledge they were going to be discarded if not taken." Marrero took the trash bags of clothing and also other pieces of furniture, weight sets, and rugs back to his apartment in Brooklyn. Later during the investigation, police seized the black trash bags and some of the pieces of furniture. During cross-examination, Marrero said he was at the apartment for five to six hours and did not see any visible damage or stains in the furniture.