Pennsylvania Murders: Unhinged Principal Kills Teacher & Children

A sordid tale of love, affairs, and murder

In June of 1979, police found the body of a Philadelphia-area schoolteacher, Susan Reinert, nude, badly beaten, wrapped in chains, and curled into the wheel well of her car in a Harrisburg parking lot. She had two black eyes and bruises on her back from the chains. They had no idea that the case would shock the entire state of Pennsylvania.

The autopsy showed that Reinert was given a lethal injection of morphine.

Reinert, who was married with two children, Karen, 11, and Michael, 10, was having an affair with fellow Upper Merion Area High School teacher William Bradfield that started in the mid-1970s. They were supposed to get married.

By the time of her murder, Reinert had divorced her husband and taken out a $730,000 life insurance policy payable solely to Bradfield.

On June 22nd, 1979, a neighbor saw Reinert and her two children pile into her Plymouth Horizon hatchback. It was shortly after 9 pm. This was the last time that Reinert was seen alive and the kids were seen at all.

What happened to the single mother and her children became the focus of the biggest investigation in the history of the Pennsylvania State Police, the subject of two murder trials, three books, and a two-part television miniseries.

The police immediately looked at Bradfield, but he had an alibi. He was at the beach in Cape May, New Jersey the night that Reinert was killed and her children disappeared and was vouched for by some of his fellow colleagues at the school.

The focus shifted to the school where they all worked -- Upper Merion High School, in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania. Upper Merion was already roiling in scandal. The principal, Jay Smith, was headed to prison. He'd been caught robbing Sears stores dressed as a security guard and prowling a mall parking lot, armed and wearing a hood.

Bradfield acted as an alibi witness at Smith's robbery trial. The jury didn't believe him, however, and Smith was convicted. Reinert always had her doubts about Bradfield's testimony.

Everyone who knew Smith found him to be odd. His nickname among some of the teachers at their school was the "Prince of Darkness."

Smith's life was falling apart. His wife was dying of cancer. His daughter and son-in-law were addicted to heroin and missing.

Smith had a sentencing court date in Harrisburg the morning that they removed Reinert from her car. He was in close proximity to the parking lot where Reinert's car was discovered. Also found in the trunk of the car were an adult toy and a comb adorned with the name of Smith's Army Reserve unit.

With the principal and teachers embroiled in a murder investigation, angry parents swarmed the school board meetings to complain.

Bradfield and his alibi-providing friends were suspended from classroom duty. The rumor mill churned out tales of swinging faculty sex parties and devil cults. Anonymous callers said Smith chopped up bodies and burned them in the school incinerator. Orchards were dug up, and quarries were searched. Someone painted the words "Satan's Place" on the school walls.

Jay Smith wrote his former colleagues while in prison, denying the rumors swirling about his involvement in Reinert's murder and asking them to send him money. Meanwhile, William Bradfield was cashed in Reinert's insurance policy and was vacationing in New Mexico with another girlfriend.

Apparently, Bradfield was known as a womanizer amongst his colleagues and was said to be courting many females. While supposedly engaged to Reinert, he lived with another teacher, dated a former student, and planned to spend the summer with yet another girlfriend.

Eventually, Smith and Bradfield were both charged with involvement in Reinert's death and her children's disappearances. Smith was charged with committing the actual murders and Bradfield was convicted of planning them.

Trial testimony also showed that Bradfield had been telling his friends for months that he feared Smith would kill Reinert. No one could explain why they didn't think to warn her or call the police.

Smith was finally convicted of three counts of murder in 1986, but the convictions were thrown out on appeal in 1992. Bradfield was convicted of three counts of murder in October 1983 and is serving three consecutive life terms.

Smith was sentenced to death, but the late Pete Shellem, a reporter for The Patriot-News, wrote a story revealing that crime writer Joseph Wambaugh had offered the lead investigator in Smith's case $50,000 for information -- on the condition that Smith be arrested and face court.

In 1985, two of Smith's fellow inmates testified to the court that Smith had admitted his guilt in the Reinert case. Despite this, he never took responsibility for the murders.

Smith had served six years on death row when the Pennsylvania Supreme Court ordered his release. The court found that "egregious" prosecutorial misconduct, which involved hiding evidence and deals with informants, barred him from being retried on double jeopardy grounds.

Smith, who spent his final years obsessed with clearing his name, including writing a book blaming Wambaugh for his conviction, died a free man in May 2009. Bradfield died in prison in 1998.

Susan Reinert's children have never been found.