NEW BRUNSWICK, N.J. — A forensic pathologist testified Wednesday that the husband of a fertility clinic nurse was shot as many as four times before his body was dismembered and stuffed into a set of luggage.

The witness told jurors the victim, computer analyst William McGuire, suffered two gunshot wounds she considered fatal, one that pierced his forehead and another that passed through his chest.

Dr. Wendy Gunther, an assistant medical examiner in Virginia, said two slugs recovered deep in the victim's chest tissue likely represented third and fourth gunshot wounds, but that the badly decomposed state of the victim's body prevented her from tracing the bullets' paths.

Prosecutors are seeking a first-degree murder conviction against Melanie McGuire, 34.

They claim the nurse, perhaps with the help of an accomplice, shot her husband, used a power saw to carve up his body and dumped it in the Chesapeake Bay. No one else has been charged.

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William McGuire's remains were discovered in three suitcases in the bay over a two-week period in May 2004. 

"It was a pair of legs, from the knees down. They looked like they had been sawed off," Gunther told jurors of the first suitcase found.  

William McGuire's remains were found in May 2004.

A second suitcase contained the victim's upper body, the third his lower torso. The pathologist said she was unable to determine when McGuire was killed, but that his legs appeared "fresh" when pulled from the water on May 5.

McGuire was last seen alive on April 28, the day he and the defendant closed on what prosecutors have called their "dream house."

Under questioning by assistant attorney general Patricia Prezioso, the medical examiner said there was little blood in the body or the suitcases. The prosecutor asked if the condition of the body was consistent with the theory that the assailant drained the blood, cut up the body and then refrigerated it before dumping it in the bay.

"Certainly," Gunther said.

As the physician spoke, Melanie McGuire took careful notes at the defense table. State Superior Court Judge Frederick DeVesa barred prosecutors from displaying photos of the autopsy, saying the disturbing images might inflame the jury.

Prosecutors called several other witnesses Tuesday in an effort to connect the defendant to the suitcases and its grisly contents.

A state police firearms examiner testified that the slugs removed from the victim were fired by a .38-caliber weapon, the same caliber as the revolver Melanie McGuire purchased at a Pennsylvania gun store two days before her husband was last seen.

A representative of a medical supply company said towels like the one wrapped around the victim's head were delivered weekly to Reproductive Medical Associates, the clinic where Melanie McGuire worked.

The employee, Timothy Lacek, said the towel bore the distinctive logo of Hospital Central Services, a regional supplier based in Allentown, Pa. He noted that the company supplied more than 100 hospitals and doctor's offices in New Jersey and said there was no way to trace the towel to a specific location.

Jurors also heard testimony about questionable behavior by McGuire after her husband went missing. A police detective investigating the victim's disappearance said she gave him the wrong phone number in a voicemail message.

Joseph Joraskie, now retired from the Woodbridge Police Department, also said McGuire denied that she or her husband owned a gun.

The man who sold the McGuires his house also recounted a brief but strange phone conversation with the defendant the day her husband was last seen.

Peter Burnejko said he called to congratulate William McGuire on the deal, but reached his wife instead.

"I said, 'Congratulations. I hope you are really happy with your home,'" Burnejko testified.

He said Melanie McGuire did not reply.

"I didn't hear anything. There was silence," he said, adding that he asked her to have her husband phone him and then quickly ended the conversation.

"He never called back," the witness said.

McGuire acknowledges having an affair with her doctor boss at the time of the murder, but insists she is innocent. Her defense says her husband was a compulsive gambler who may have been targeted by those he owed money to.

Testimony in the trial resumes Monday.