Susan Reinert was one of Pennsylvania’s most notorious murder cases.
Part 3
Let’s do a quick review.
June 22, 1979 – Susan Reinert, 36, and her two children drove away from their home in an orange Plymouth hatchback. They lived in Ardmore on Philadelphia’s Main Line. The children were Karen, 11, and Michael, 10.
They were supposed to be heading 49 miles north to Allentown to spend the night in a motel. Susan was scheduled to give a speech the next morning at a meeting of Parents Without Partners.
But she never gave that speech, and she and her two children seemingly disappeared into thin air.
Two days passed without a trace of them.
June 26, 1979 – On the morning of the fourth day Susan Reinert’s orange Plymouth hatchback was observed in the parking lot of the Host Inn Hotel in Harrisburg – 87 miles from Allentown and 97 miles from her home.
Her nude body was found in a fetal position in the wheel well of the hatchback with her hands tied, her body brutally beaten, her face bruised, and both of her eyes blackened.
A subsequent autopsy determined that the cause of death was a lethal dose of morphine.
There were no signs of either one of her children.
Suspects
Susan Reinert was an English teacher at Upper Merion High School and investigators immediately identified two suspects in her workplace. One was the head of the English department, William Bradfield, and the other was her former principal Jay C. Smith.
The detectives theorized that either one could have acted alone, or that both could have acted in concert with each other.
Susan Reinert and William Bradfield had been lovers for nearly three years but, at Bradfield’s insistence, they kept the affair a secret. According to Susan Reinert they were engaged. She so believed they were engaged that she changed the beneficiaries on her life insurance policies from her brother and children to “my intended husband William Bradfield” as the sole beneficiary,’
Her existing life insurance policies were as follows – $30,000 purchased in 1977, $100,000 in April 1979 two months before she disappeared, and $450,000 the same month. Plus, she bought a new policy for $150,00 on the day before she disappeared. The total death benefits amounted to $730,000.
Also at Bradfield’s urging she withdrew $25,000 from her savings account and gave it to him to invest for both of them. Add it all together and it spells M-O-T-I-V-E.
August 19, 1978 – Jay C. Smith was Susan Reinert’s principal at Upper Merion High School until he was terminated the year before she disappeared.
He was terminated after being arrested at a local shopping center. A search of his Ford Granada uncovered several loaded handguns, a hooded mask, and assorted burglary tools. They also found a syringe filled with morphine in his trunk. Remember: a lethal dose of morphine killed Susan Reinert.
A subsequent search of his home discovered additional firearms, three pounds of marijuana, and a large quantity of prescription pills. Plus security-guard uniforms and badges. Plus a massive cache of pornography, much of it dealing with bestiality. Plus four gallons of nitric acid and some office equipment, all of which had been reported stolen from Upper Merion High School.
Police arrested Smith but kept digging and linked him to two armed robberies that were recently committed by a man who matched his description and who was dressed in security-guard uniforms that matched the ones found in his car. He was arrested but posted bail and was still awaiting his trial on the day that Susan Reinert disappeared.
His trial began a few hours after the discovery of Susan Reinert’s body. William Bradfield testified as a defense witness for Smith and tried to supply an alibi. But the jury didn’t buy it, convicted Smith on all charges, and the judge sentenced him to five years in prison.
Something else suspicious was hanging over Smith’s head.
February 25, 1978 – 17 months before Susan’s Reinert’s disappearance, Smith’s daughter Stephanie and her husband Edward Hunsberger disappeared and have never been seen since. Both heroin addicts, they moved into Smith’s home in an attempt to get clean. The attempt failed.
Back to Susan Reinert – Law enforcement suspected that either Bradfield or Smith, or both of them working in collusion, had murdered Susan Reinert and her two children. So they kept working the murder case, trying to assemble enough evidence to make an arrest.
But whoever committed the crimes had hidden his, or their, tracks quite well, and the ongoing investigation lasted for six years.
A key to breaking the case against Bradfield was his former student Wendy Ziegler, by then 22. While Bradfield was “engaged” to Susan Reinert he was also romantically involved with Ziegler. The police found out she’d opened a safe deposit box and deposited $25,000 in cash in that box. They arrested her and charged her with theft and receiving stolen property.
She copped a plea in exchange for testifying against Bradfield.
At this point law enforcement believed that Bradfield and Smith conspired to kill Susan Reinert and her two children, but they believed that Smith had acted alone in committing the murder. Law enforcement had enough evidence to prove the conspiracy, but not nearly enough evidence to prove who committed the murders.
With Jay C. Smith already behind bars for his robbery crimes, law enforcement could take its time. There was enough evidence to convict him on those charges.
April 6, 1983 – Police officers arrested Bradfield. By then Susan Reinert’s children were also considered to be murder victims. So he was charged with three counts of murder and three counts of conspiracy to commit murder.
October 28, 1983 – The jury convicted him on all counts.
The conspiracy charges alluded to conspiring with Jay C. Smith who was still a prisoner at Graterford prison. Investigators kept working the case, which included obtaining testimonies from jailhouse snitches.
June 25, 1985 – Police officers arrested Smith and charged him with three counts of murder.
August 2, 1985 – The jury convicted Smith on all three counts and sentenced him to the death penalty.
This is the end of Part 3. William Bradfield and Jay C. Smith were both behind bars for the murder of Susan Reinert and her two children – but far from the end of the story.
Below are the other parts of the story.
Part 1 Victim … Part 2 Killer . . . Part 4 Bribery
I’m America’s Best Crime Writer – Barry Bowe – & I approve this message.
My first book – Born to Be Wild – was published in 1992 and is still selling on Amazon & Kindle. it’s a true story about certain members of the Warlocks motorcycle gang.
The story took 21 years to play out with many twists & turns. It’s an amalgam of Sons of Anarchy and Breaking Bad – but these outlaw bikers make the Sons look like Cub Scouts.
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