A safe enclave of upper-middle class values and million dollar properties, Upper Saddle River is a quiet bedroom community miles away from both Manhattan and the Mafioso that made New Jersey notorious. But, upon the discovery of a dismembered scientist, the whole town soon learned that a conniving wife could be as vicious as any wise-guy mobster.

Just south of the New York State Thruway, Upper Saddle River was a quaint old colonial town that, by the nineties, was a bedroom community full of second, third, and fourth generation Americans who had moved away from the old boroughs of NYC to the safety and serenity of the suburbs. With its small mansions and countless cul-de-sacs, Saddle River might seem like a typical upscale suburb, but to its inhabitants, the town is the fulfilment of the Statue of Liberty's promise and an inspiration for immigrants like Yakov and Rita Guzman.

The Guzmans were Russian Jews who fled persecution by the Soviet Government for practicing their religion. Yakov and Rita moved to America in the 1970's. Rita arrived first and became an activist, speaking to the press and standing before congress, pressuring the Soviets to allow Yakov, a prominent microbiologist, to join her in America. The couple finally reunited two years later, and by 1989 Yakov was making six-figures working for a research lab. The couple bought a half-million dollar house in Saddle River and Rita was a card carrying American. Her cards, however, were Visas and MasterCards. Rita spent thousands on clothes, cosmetics, and dog grooming. But in February 1995, Yakov said nyet to his wife's consumerism, moved into a one-bedroom bachelor pad on the New York side of the thruway, and filed for divorce from Rita. Unfortunately for Yakov, divorce wasn't the only way to sever a marriage.

Easter morning, 1996, a Bergen County sheriff's deputy caught a man tossing garbage bags into the Passaic River. The bags contained the bloody 66-piece puzzle that used to be Yakov Guzman. The officer arrested the man on the spot.

The man was Vladimir Zalenin, Rita's cousin. He told the cops that he and Rita had surprised Yakov inside his apartment. Zelenin felled him with the axe and then Rita proceeded to hack off Yakov's hands and fingers in order to conceal his identity. By the time the cops reached the Guzman home, Rita and her passport were long gone. Fearing she had fled the country, the cops put airports in the tri-state area on alert and launched a dragnet that caught Rita days later, hiding in a Long Island lab where Yakov had once worked. Pinning the crime on her would be difficult as well, with no evidence other than Zelenin's testimony tying Rita to the actual murder. Prosecutors found a loophole however and were able to charge Rita under the Violence Against Women Act, since she had crossed state lines to commit domestic violence against her spouse.

In 1997 a Federal jury found Rita Guzman guilty. She's currently serving a life sentence and Saddle River is trying piece back together its shattered image as a nice, safe suburb.