William Bradfield: The Reinert Murders, Motive, and Jay Smith

William Sydney Bradfield Jr. was a suburban Philadelphia high school English teacher convicted in 1983 of conspiring to murder his colleague and lover Susan Reinert and her two children, Karen and Michael, in a scheme to collect $730,000 in life insurance she had left him. The William Bradfield murder case, which spanned more than a decade of investigation and prosecution, ended with three consecutive life sentences; the children’s bodies have never been found.

Who Bradfield Was

Bradfield chaired the English department at Upper Merion High School in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania, on the affluent Main Line. He began a romantic relationship with Susan Reinert, a teacher at the same school, in 1974, while simultaneously involved with at least three other women, including his live-in girlfriend Sue Myers.¹

Reinert appears to have believed the relationship was serious. Her will referred to Bradfield as “my future husband” and named him the sole beneficiary of life insurance policies totaling $730,000, the sole heir to her estate, and the guardian of Karen and Michael.² Also central to the story was the school’s principal, Jay C. Smith, whom prosecutors would later cast as Bradfield’s co-conspirator. A colleague, English teacher Vincent Valaitis, later described the two men as “two intense psychopaths.”³

The Murders

Susan Reinert, 36, and her children Karen, 11, and Michael, 10, were last seen leaving their home in Ardmore, Pennsylvania, around 9:20 p.m. on June 22, 1979, reportedly to meet Bradfield. Three days later, at 5:20 a.m. on June 25, Reinert’s nude body was found in the trunk of her orange Plymouth Horizon hatchback in the parking lot of the Host Inn in Swatara Township, near Harrisburg. An anonymous caller had telephoned authorities to report a “sick woman in the trunk of a car.”¹

She had been beaten and was found bound with a chain. The cause of death was a lethal injection of morphine, administered 24 to 36 hours after the beating.¹ The children were not in the car. They have never been located and were declared legally dead in March 1987.⁴

Motive and Evidence

Investigators focused on Bradfield quickly. The $730,000 in life insurance naming him sole beneficiary supplied an obvious financial motive. Reinert had also given him $25,000 to invest in a certificate of deposit at 12 percent interest. Prosecutors alleged Bradfield had stolen that money and killed Reinert in part to prevent her from discovering the theft as the certificate neared maturity.¹ Former prosecutor Richard Guida put it bluntly: “Money. She was worth $7,000 a pound.” The children, prosecutors said, were killed because they “wouldn’t stand in the way of the windfall.”⁵

People close to Bradfield filled in the rest. Sue Myers signed an affidavit stating she had read a passage in Bradfield’s diary that said, “I wish I could kill Susan Reinert for insurance money.” She returned the diary to Bradfield, and it was never recovered.² Valaitis testified that Bradfield had told him months before the killings that he feared Jay Smith intended to murder Reinert. Bradfield never took that fear to the police.³ Valaitis also testified that Bradfield urged him to join a group trip to Cape May, New Jersey, on the weekend of the murders, apparently to create an alibi.⁶

The Theft Conviction and the Murder Trial

The murder charges did not come first. In 1981, Bradfield was convicted of theft by deception for misappropriating the $25,000 Reinert had entrusted to him. He was sentenced to two years in prison.¹

After his release in 1983, prosecutors charged him with three counts of first-degree murder and three counts of conspiracy in the deaths of Susan, Karen, and Michael Reinert.⁷¹

Bradfield never admitted involvement in Reinert’s death or the disappearance of her children. He died in prison in 1998.¹

Jay Smith, the Alleged Accomplice

Prosecutors cast Bradfield as the planner and Jay C. Smith, the Upper Merion principal, as the man who physically carried out the killings. Smith was already a convicted criminal, with prior convictions for firearms violations and the robbery of a Sears store. He happened to be in Harrisburg for sentencing on those charges the same day Reinert’s body was discovered there.⁸

Smith was convicted of the three murders in 1986 and sentenced to death, based in part on testimony from two of Bradfield’s friends who said Smith had told them he intended to kill Reinert. Physical evidence included a plastic comb from Smith’s Army Reserve unit found in Reinert’s car and a pin belonging to Karen Reinert found under the passenger seat of Smith’s vehicle.³

His conviction did not hold. In 1989, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court vacated it and ordered a new trial, finding the hearsay testimony from Bradfield’s friends had been improperly admitted. The court also found prosecutors had deliberately suppressed physical evidence, including adhesive strips taken from Reinert’s feet during the autopsy that contained sand particles supporting a defense theory that the murder occurred at a beach.⁹⁸ In 1992, citing what it called “outrageous behavior by prosecutors,” the Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled that retrying Smith would violate the state constitution’s double jeopardy clause. He was released from death row on September 18, 1992, was never retried, and maintained his innocence until his death on May 12, 2009. Smith’s release did not affect Bradfield’s conviction.

The Missing Children

More than 45 years after they vanished, Karen and Michael Reinert have never been found. The investigation at its peak involved a task force of more than a dozen Pennsylvania State Police detectives and FBI agents.¹⁰

One possible clue surfaced after Bradfield’s death. A photograph recovered from his prison cell showed a stone marker resembling a hooded figure in a wooded area. Investigators believe the marker may indicate where the children are buried but have not identified the location.⁴ Investigators have also said a third, uncharged person may know where the children were taken.¹⁰

As of 2025, Pennsylvania State Police continue to treat the case as an open cold case and have released age-progression images of the children as adults. A reward of up to $5,000 is offered for information leading to the location of the children, an arrest, or the resolution of the case. Tips can be submitted to PSP Harrisburg at 717-671-7500 or to an anonymous tip line at 1-800-472-8477.⁴

1
Charley Project. Karen Reinert
2
The New York Times. Pennsylvania Ex-Teacher Faces Murder Trial
3
CNN. Pennsylvania Reinert Murders
4
PennLive. Mysterious Photo May Hold Clues in 1979 Harrisburg Cold Case
5
CNN. Pennsylvania Reinert Murders
6
U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. Smith v. Holtz Opinion
7
The New York Times. Teacher Convicted in Slaying
8
The New York Times. Jay C. Smith Obituary
9
FindLaw. Smith v. Holtz
10
CNN. Pennsylvania Reinert Murders Police