The Main Line Murders

Part Two: Jay & Bill

In the years after Susan Reinert's body was discovered, investigators would struggle to latch on to available leads. But two names that just kept coming up were two of Susan’s former-coworkers, Jay Smith and Bill Bradfield…

Listen to "The Main Line Murders (Part Two: Jay & Bill)" on Spreaker.

Jay C. Smith emerged from the region of Chester, the oldest town in Pennsylvania. Having been born in 1928 to a family of modest means, Smith would grow up in this quiet region of southeastern PA, and it was here that he would meet the woman that would eventually become his first wife, Stephanina Mary Zdun. The two would eventually marry - with Stephanina taking the surname Smith - and the two would only have one child together: a daughter named Stephanie, who grew up to have a complicated relationship with her parents.

Professionally, Jay Smith would find some early success in the Army Reserves, ultimately rising to the rank of Colonel. He also decided to pursue a separate career in education, finding work in the region where he had lived for his entire life (Delaware County). He would eventually become the principal of Upper Merion High School in the 1960s, which brought him into contact with a couple of figures that would go on to define his life: William "Bill" Bradfield and Susan Reinert.

It was here, at Upper Merion High School, that Smith's unusual (and often erratic) behavior would become public knowledge for the first time. But behind-the-scenes, trouble had been brewing for quite some time, and that would only get amplified with every passing year.

In the mid-1970s, Smith's wife Stephanina would get diagnosed with an aggressive form of cancer. While she would ultimately succumb to it in August of 1979, the next few years would see her in and out of hospitals. During this time, she began keeping a diary; in it, she would make note of her husband's bizarre behavior, which began to truly escalate during this time period. He began to participate in group sex and swinging groups - which she, herself, was not too keen on - and seemed to immediately precede more alarming behavior.

In September of 1977, the couple's adult daughter - who had since moved to the Philadelphia area and married - decided to return home to live with her parents. Stephanie brought her husband with her, Edward Hunsberger, and the two moved into the Smith's home in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania that Fall. This was right in the middle of Stephanina's cancer battle, so the family was in the midst of turmoil, and it seems like tensions were high between all of them.

Edward and Stephanie Hunsberger, Smith's son-in-law and daughter, respectively, were no saints. Both had been battling heroin addiction for some time, and had struggled to find - and keep - employment in the years preceding their move. Stephanie had been known by law enforcement to engage in sex work in the Philly area, and Edward was on active probation for an armed robbery he had carried out a few years prior (1975). Them moving back home with Stephanie's parents was an act of desperation, but one that seems to have done them some good... at least, for a time.

In the early months of 1978 - just a few months after moving in with Jay Smith and his ailing wife - their daughter and son-in-law would mysteriously vanish. Stephanie and Edward Hunsberger would suddenly (and swiftly) cut off contact with almost everyone they knew, and without any warning whatsoever. They left behind almost all of their belongings - including their clothing, their luggage, even their toothbrushes and toiletries - and just disappeared overnight.

The last known sighting of Jay Smith's daughter and son-in-law came in February of 1978, when they made a trip out to Edward's parents in North Wales, Pennsylvania. When leaving, they mentioned that they'd be back to visit soon, but from this point, they would just... vanish. Edward would fail to make his appointment with his probation officer later that month, and authorities would begin to reach out to their last known contact - Jay Smith - who would tell anyone interested in hearing his side of the story that Edward and Stephanie had left for California. According to him, the two had owed money to some drug dealers in the region, and had fled to the west coast, but couldn't provide any more information than that (he wouldn't even address the concerns that they had left behind all of their worldly possessions in his home).

Because Edward and Stephanie had been living as vagabonds for some time, their disappearance wasn't even noticed by their friends and family. Those that might have been able to look out for them were unaware that they might have even been in trouble, and were similarly unaware that something might have happened to them.

Roughly six months later, Jay Smith would be arrested for some other crimes he had committed: namely, being busted in a shopping mall parking lot while attempting to break into another vehicle while wearing a hood and holding two loaded pistols. A search of his own vehicle at the scene revealed more firearms, ammunition, and syringes containing powerful sedatives. It was unknown what he had been up to at the time, but a search of his home would reveal a more sinister personality that he had kept guarded for some time: in addition to perpetrating several armed robberies in the area (by posing as a Brink's security guard), he had also been committing welfare fraud for months at this point (by forging his daughter and son-in-law's signatures on government checks).

During Jay Smith's subsequent trial (for the firearms and narcotics offenses), only one person other than his family would testify on his behalf: William "Bill" Bradfield, a longtime educator, who had worked with Smith for over a decade at Upper Merion High School. Bradfield would tell the jury that not only had Smith not been present to commit the crimes he was accused of - claiming that on the day in question, the two had been together hundreds of miles away - but that he simply wasn't capable of carrying out such a crime. He testified to Smith's kind and nurturing nature, and pleaded with the jury to let him walk.

Unfortunately, Bradfield's testimony did little to sway the jury, with his impassioned plea not changing any minds. Months later, the woman that Bradfield had been secretly dating for some time - one of his fellow educators at Upper Merion, Susan Reinert - would tell a friend that she was certain Bradfield had perjured himself during his testimony. In fact, she recalled being with him the entire weekend that he testified to seeing Jay Smith. There was no way for his testimony to have been true.

Following his conviction, Jay Smith was freed on bond. He was allowed to continue living in his home until his sentencing, which came in June of 1979. On the morning of June 25th, Smith turned himself in to authorities to begin his sentence of 2-5 years (which would later be amended to a 7.5 to 16-year sentence after he was found guilty of additional felonies). It just-so-happened that on the same day he turned himself in to authorities in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, the body of Susan Reinert had been found just a few miles away.

Over the next several months, the bizarre life that Jay Smith had lived would come back to haunt him. Investigators began probing his connections to both Susan Reinert (the victim) as well as Bill Bradfield (the primary suspect in Susan's murder). They would re-discover the bizarre disappearance of Smith's daughter and son-in-law, who had gone missing just months before he was arrested for a litany of offenses (including profiting from their disappearance via welfare fraud). Rumors would even link these two incidents from Smith's past, with a confidant of Susan Reinert's telling authorities that just a few weeks before her murder, she had told them about Jay Smith's missing daughter:

"Stephanie is alive. I'm not at liberty to say more than that."

An investigator would write about Smith to the Philadelphia Inquirer in June of 1980:

"You can't get a fix on the guy. This guy has a variety of lives and skins. Almost everybody you talk to has a different picture of him."

This is part two of the Main Line Murders.

In June of 1979, the body of 36-year-old Susan Reinert had been found in the wheel well of her vehicle, in the parking lot of a motel in Swatara Township, Pennsylvania. She had been beaten, bound, and gagged before her death, and multiple scrapes and bruises all over her body revealed a struggle had taken place beforehand.

An autopsy would originally rule Susan's death as having been caused by suffocation, but blood and tissue tests performed months later revealed that she had been injected with a lethal dose of some kind of opiate (likely morphine). A substance known as Butabarbital had also been found in her system, increasing the likelihood that she had been sedated before her death.

What truly alarmed investigators, however, was the apparent disappearance of Susan's two children, 11-year-old Karen and 10-year-old Michael, who had both been seen with her just days prior. While investigators probed the death of Susan over the next several months, neither of the children would be found, increasing the likelihood that they had been killed by the same person that tortured and murdered Susan.

As I detailed in the last episode, reporters began to run amok with several theories about Susan and the circles that she had been running in before her death. First, they reported that Susan had fallen prey to a Satanic cult, who had tortured her before killing her and her two children in some kind of sacrificial ritual. Then, locals began to expound upon this, theorizing that Susan had been killed in a "snuff" video, which was then distributed amongst perverts in the area. Both of these theories would be discounted by law enforcement, but that did nothing to quell the flames of gossip that had already begun to rage out-of-control.

While many continued to spread these unfounded rumors as fact, a task force made up of state troopers, local investigators, and FBI agents would oversee the investigation for the better part of a year, looking into Susan's past for any trace of her potential killer. By the one year mark, investigators had to admit that they had no suspects (officially), but a potential motive had already begun to make its way through the media: financial gain.

At the unveiling of Susan Reinert's will in the summer of 1979, it was determined that she had left behind everything to her boyfriend at the time, William "Bill" Bradfield. The two had worked together at Upper Merion High School, and - according to those that knew Susan well - had been carrying on a secretive relationship for more than four years at this point. But what investigators found surprising was that Susan had left behind everything to Bill in a will that she amended on May 4th, 1979. Previous incarnations had left behind everything to her two children, but something had encouraged her to change this just six weeks before her murder.

In her will, Susan had signed over everything to Bill Bradfield upon her death: this included more than $200,000 in property from Elk County and $30,000 in cash that she had inherited from her mother the year prior. This - paired with more than $800,000 in life insurance policies - created an estate of more than $1 million, which was left entirely to Susan's secret boyfriend.

While suspicions were flared over this sudden change in Susan's inheritance, investigators were again called to investigate another mysterious disappearance: roughly $25,000 that had gone missing from Susan's bank accounts in the months before her death. This was money that she had inherited from her mother, but she had begun to withdraw from the bank in the weeks leading up to her murder. Eventually, it would be learned that she had given the money to Bill Bradfield - under the guise of him placing the funds in high-yielding investment funds - but none of these investment companies recalled working with either Bradfield or Susan Reinert. Investigators believed that Bradfield had mishandled the money, and likely forged documents that he gave to Susan explaining away the missing funds.

After these revelations, John A. Reilly, the assistant District Attorney of Delaware County, would become the administrator of Susan Reinert's estate, where he could oversee her will and inheritance as the investigation into Susan's death continued to unfold. Soon, it became clear that this was evolving beyond a simple civil suit into something more complex... something that was undoubtedly criminal.

In March of 1980, 46-year-old Bill Bradfield was called to testify in a civil suit filed on behalf of the murdered Susan Reinert by her brother, Patrick Gallagher, and ex-husband, Kenneth Reinert. The suit alleged that he had intentionally misled Susan into investing tens of thousands of dollars into fake investment funds, and then made off with the money shortly before her death.

At first, Bradfield - as he had done with the criminal investigation into Susan's death - had declined the opportunity to testify. But months later, a judge would compel him to in front of the court, and force him to go on-the-record for the first time in this unfolding case.

In June of 1980, Bradfield finally testified for the first time as part of the civil trial, and attempted to downplay almost every connection he had to this case; namely, his relationship with Susan, which he claimed wasn't as serious as she had told her friends and family. In front of the court, Bradfield testified that Susan and he had not been planning to get married later that year, as Susan had told numerous confidantes. In fact, Bradfield wouldn't even admit that the two had been romantically involved, describing Susan as a friend of his that he viewed as "very troubled."

"Mrs. Reinert rarely did as I suggested she should do.

"She dated people who I thought she ought not to date and she went places she should not go."

At one point during his testimony, Bradfield even implied that Susan had engaged in a secretive affair with the former-principal of Upper Merion High School, Jay Smith, but that was not backed up anything other than his word. Numerous friends and family members recalled her carrying on a relationship with Bradfield for several years, but nothing about a relationship with Jay Smith (who was serving several years in state prison, at this point).

During his testimony, Bradfield also denied handling any of Susan's money for investments or otherwise, telling the court at one point:

"Mrs. Reinert never gave me anything."

Bradfield testified that he knew very little of Sue's money management, but implied that he didn't know of her having any.

"She seemed always to me to have very limited means."

When asked about why, then, Susan had named him the beneficiary of an estate worth more than $1 million, Bradfield pled ignorance. He said that Susan had been a good friend of his, but seemed to blame her as an unreliable person that was always running into trouble, and asking him to help fix things after she made a mess of them... at least, that's the implication I get when reading his testimony from these proceedings.

Those that knew Susan - friends, family, neighbors, coworkers, and other acquaintances - say that this description of her was the furthest thing from accurate. Many of these individuals would testify over the next several weeks, rebuffing many of the falsehoods that they claimed Bradfield was spreading about Susan, including his statements about Susan mistaking their relationship for a romantic one, and him never handling any of Susan's money.

A fellow teacher from Upper Merion High School testified, claiming that they had been aware of Susan and Bill's relationship for some time. They alleged that Susan had given Bradfield her mother's diamond wedding ring, hoping to have it reset and presented to her at their wedding later that year. Others recalled similarly specific details, which showed the escalation of Susan and Bill's relationship over time.

Meanwhile, Susan's brother, Patrick Gallagher, would claim that he had become aware of Bill's handling of Susan's money more than a year before her death. When their mother was still alive, Bill had started to provide investment advice to both her and Susan, dating his involvement with the family's money to as far back as 1978.

Also, Susan's psychologist, Roz Weinburger, would provide details about Susan and Bill's relationship told to him by Susan over sessions held over several months, which were backed up by extemporaneous notes.

As this civil suit into Sue's missing $25,000 continued to progress, her brother and ex-husband continued to move the case forward, filing a separate lawsuit later that month (June 1980). This suit was filed on behalf of Susan and her missing children and aimed to recover the full amount of an insurance policy taken out on Susan's life just weeks before her death ($450,000 from USAA). In their suit, they were hoping to move the funds into a trust, which they would then use to fund a private investigation (to compliment the ongoing police investigation).

These civil suits would continue to play out over the next year or so throughout the court system but would continue to grow far beyond a simple civil suit.

As many struggled to make sense of Susan's brutal end - more than a year later - many that knew her were surprised to learn just how taken she had been by Bill Bradfield, the man she had described in legal filings as "her future husband."

Try as he might to distance himself from Susan Reinert, Bill Bradfield was unable to stop journalists from digging into his life, attempting to decipher what had led him to the situation he now found himself in: suspending from work as a high school educator (and forced into taking a medical leave of absence for over a year) and suspected of defrauding a coworker over several months (if not years). He was also suspected of having played a part in her death and the disappearance of her two children, whose whereabouts were still unknown. All of this just made journalists more eager to figure out the man at the center of this scandal, and that led to the publication of Bradfield's life story in numerous newspaper articles.

William Sidney Bradfield Jr. had been born in Colorado on February 11th, 1933, to William Sidney Bradfield Sr. and Nora E. (Watson) Bradfield. His father, a mid-level business executive, would eventually relocate the family out to the Philadelphia region, where Bill would spend the majority of his life.

In 1955, Bill Bradfield would graduate from Haverford College with a degree in philosophy but would go on to attend many post-graduate schools (including Villanova, St. John's College, and West Chester State College). He obtained a master's degree in English in 1964 and started work at Upper Merion High School at around the same time.

By this point, Bradfield had already racked up two failed marriages, which resulted in three children (all sons). From here on out, Bradfield seems to have made a conscious decision to not get serious with any one woman; instead choosing to carry on several long-term relationships with women (including his fellow teachers at Upper Merion High School).

A former co-worker, who agreed to speak to the Philadelphia Inquirer in June of 1980, spoke about how she had taught alongside Bradfield before growing close to him. Like Susan Reinert, she had been charmed by Bradfield into having an affair as her own marriage fell apart at home:

"He was one of the brightest people I ever met. I now think there's something perverse about him in terms of wanting to attract women who were vulnerable and innocent. He was involved with three or four other women the same time he was seeing me, but he presented them as inconsequential."

It seems like this intelligence drew a lot of women to Bradfield, who were also lured in by his charming and conversational personality. The New York Times would later report that Bradfield had a "hypnotic effect on women," and the Philadelphia Daily News would describe him as a "Svengali"-type. It seems like Susan wasn't immune to his charms, with one of her friends later recalling to the Philadelphia Inquirer (in the same article quoted above):

"He was an articulate, seemingly scholarly person. Sue appreciated highly educated, cultured, well-spoken people, and he was more like that than anyone she ever knew. She believed he had a value system similar to her own, an interest in knowledge, teaching, beauty, all that stuff."

Bill and Susan had been carrying on a secretive relationship since 1974, which was right around the time that Susan separated from her ex-husband, Kenneth. According to those that knew the two, they had carried on this relationship up until Sue died in 1979; keeping it a secret from almost all of their co-workers at Upper Merion High School, who were shocked to learn of it after Susan's death.

One of the most surprising voices that weighed in on the enigmatic Bill Bradfield was none other than Jay Smith, the former-principal of Upper Merion, who was serving a decade-long prison sentence at the time. Even though the two seemed to have an undeniable link to one another - due to Bradfield being the only non-family member to testify in Smith's 1979 trial - the two attempted to describe their relationship as cordial but impersonal. Adversarial, even.

In a letter written in October of 1979 from the Dallas State Correctional Institute, Smith said about the other man:

"I viewed William Bradfield as a superior teacher who had an uncanny influence on the brightest students and on much of the staff. He also had an unusual influence on the powers-that-be (superintendent's office and school board). I viewed him as someone I had to be alert about, always. The principal's office is not a windless isle in a tranquil academic ocean. It is a turbulent place with many winds blowing. Bradfield was a strong wind. Not friendly. Perhaps hostile. Perhaps."

On February 20th, 1981 - a Friday - police showed up at the home of Bill Bradfield in Downington, Pennsylvania. They arrested him on two counts of theft and a single count of conspiracy; alleging in their warrant that Bradfield had kept the $25,000 given to him by Susan Reinert, which she had only given under the pretext of Bradfield investing the money. In the months since this missing $25,000 was first broached by Susan's loved ones, Bradfield had failed to account for the funds.

A former-student of Bradfield's, named Wendy Ziegler, had also been charged as a co-conspirator in this case. Ziegler, who was 20 years old at the time and attending a university out in California, was alleged to have become a romantic interest of Bradfield's after her high school graduation and was expected to face similar charges as Bradfield.

The following Monday - February 23rd, 1981 - Bradfield was freed on bail (which had, somewhat ironically, been set at $25,000), but both he and Ziegler would be forced to appear in court the following month to officially face charges.

Just a couple of weeks later - before the criminal trial could even begin - Bradfield would face an additional setback. The original civil suit filed by Susan Reinert's brother and ex-husband had come to a resolution nearly two years after her death. It was announced that $36,000 would be allocated from Susan's still-unresolved estate "to pay for further investigations into the whereabout of the children." The funds would also be used to contest the rest of Susan's will, to prevent Bradfield from collecting a single dime.

Leading up to his trial, Bill Bradfield would attempt to change the venue. He was hoping to move the trial outside of Delaware County, where he had received a lot of media attention (most of which was negative). This request was denied, however, and his trial officially started later that year, in the summer of 1981.

When it came to the missing $25,000 that Susan Reinert had withdrawn in the months leading up to her death, prosecutors had prepared a solid case against Bradfield, claiming that he - and he alone - had been responsible for receiving the money and mishandling it. One of the smoking guns that they presented in court came via testimony from a young man named Christopher Pappas, who was one of Bradfield's closest confidantes.

Pappas had been with Bradfield on the weekend of Susan's murder, at the weekend away in Cape May, New Jersey. Pappas was one of Bradfield's closest friends and had become his regular substitute at Upper Merion High School. He spent several hours with Bradfield every week and claimed that he was aware of the money given to Bradfield by Susan Reinert, having been with him when he received it. According to Pappas, the two had counted out the money - which came in the form of several 50 and 100 dollar bills - and amounted to roughly $28,000 in total. Afterward, Bradfield had attempted to wipe their fingerprints off of the cash, saying that he didn't want to implicate either in however he had procured it.

Christopher Pappas testified that Bill Bradfield had been saving up the money to buy a boat, but had refused to put it in a bank, believing that it wasn't safe to do so. Instead, he had asked Pappas to secure a safety deposit box in his name, at a Southeast National Bank in West Chester, Pennsylvania, where the money was then stored over several months. Other than Pappas, only two other people had access to the security deposit box: Bill Bradfield and his young girlfriend, Wendy Ziegler.

Pappas had been with Bradfield throughout the weekend of Susan's murder, and the two had flown out on a flight to New Mexico on the day that Susan's body was found (June 25th, 1979). The two had started taking summer courses at St. John's College, but Pappas claimed to have not known about Susan's murder. He claimed to only know about the security deposit box, which had several thousand dollars left in it by the time Bradfield and he left for New Mexico. But by September of 1979, it was empty; reportedly drained by Bradfield's girlfriend, Wendy Ziegler.

Ziegler was one of Bradfield's former-students, who - like many women - had become enamored with him. She would ultimately become one of his romantic interests after her graduation and had gone to the security deposit box after Pappas and Bradfield left for the summer to take out the rest of the money.

Another person that testified in the trial was Patrick Gallagher, Susan Reinert's older brother, who had split their mother's inheritance in the months before Susan's murder. He told the court that he was privy to most of Susan's investments, and had become aware of her giving the missing $25,000 to Bradfield months beforehand. According to Gallagher, Bradfield had claimed that the investment funds he was putting the money into could guarantee annual increases of 12%, which was silly to pass on, Susan claimed. However, of the companies that Bradfield had spoken of investing the money with, none reported having any holdings for either Bill Bradfield or Susan Reinert, leading to the belief that it was just a lie on Bradfield's part.

Investment slips found in Susan's home seemed to show her having investment accounts at numerous banks and firms in the region, but a check with these companies revealed that no such investments had ever been made. The employee names on the slips had been fabricated entirely, and prosecutors alleged that this was of Bradfield's making.

James McMullin, the manager of the Continental Bank in King of Prussia, PA, said that Susan had appeared to be "under pressure" when withdrawing more than $25,000 between February 14th and March 7th (1979).

With their case, prosecutors had successfully managed to establish a link between the missing funds and Bradfield's remarkably similar amount of cash (which he had done his utmost to remove any trace of). But when it came time to present a defense, Bradfield's attorneys offered up a relatively weak case of their own, doing little more than to try and obfuscate where Bradfield had received his large amount of mysterious cash. They hinted at there being no factual link between the money he gained and the money Susan Reinert lost, but this did not sit right with jurors, who just straight-up didn't buy it.

On Monday, August 3rd, 1981, Bradfield's five-day trial came to an end. The jury of seven men and five women deliberated his fate for an hour-and-a-half before returning with a guilty verdict.

After being convicted of having stolen $25,000 from Susan Reinert, Bill Bradfield was allowed to return home as he awaited sentencing. Meanwhile, Delaware County prosecutor Edward Weiss asked for the judge to increase Bradfield's bond from $25,000 to $75,000, believing that this conviction made Bradfield more of a flight risk, who might try and leave the country; especially since this conviction seemed to lay the groundwork for him to be charged with the murder of Susan Reinert (or, at least, conspiracy to). This request was granted by Judge Robert A. Wright.

Even though his maximum sentence in the theft case was seven years in prison and a $15,000 fine, the possibility of being charged with murder would continue to loom large over William Bradfield, as he waited to learn his fate in sentencing.

By the end of 1981, the investigation into Susan Reinert's murder - which had been handled by Pennsylvania state troopers, aided by investigators from local precincts and the FBI - was officially taken over by Pennsylvania state Attorney General LeRoy S. Zimmerman.

Zimmerman would be overseeing the murder investigation moving forward, which was an unprecedented step at the time for a case of this scope. After this decision was made in November of 1981, Zimmerman told reporters:

"It's a cold case, a difficult case. But it's a case that warrants a new look. The time has come for a new coordinated effort by all levels of law enforcement, county, state and federal, to solve this bizarre murder."

After making this decision, Zimmerman vowed to impanel a second grand jury in this case, which could begin issuing subpoenas once again and begin interviewing those close to the victim and suspects. This new approach would also allow investigators to circumvent traditional roadblocks that had stymied them in the past. Zimmerman explained this in his press conference:

"This is a clear case of multi-county involvement, which causes a jurisdictional problem. Mrs. Reinert may have been kidnapped in one county, murdered in another and her body found in a third."

The disappearance of Susan's two children, Karen and Michael, also raised a plethora of issues about which jurisdiction should be handling their case, or whether it should be made a federal matter (due to the possibility of kidnapping). Even though investigators believed the two had been murdered the same weekend as their mother, this streamlined process would make it easier for authorities to cooperate and receive the kind of information needed from multiple jurisdictions.

Even though Bill Bradfield had been freed on bail after his conviction for theft, he wasted no time in filing an appeal. Almost immediately after being found guilty of stealing $25,000 from Susan Reinert, Bradfield's lawyers had begun to appeal his conviction, citing the court's decision to not move the location of the trial, which - they alleged - prejudiced the jury against Bradfield . He also accused the prosecution of having insufficient evidence as one of his major concerns, as he continued to await his sentence.

Bradfield would finally receive a sentence later that year: for swindling $25,000 out of Susan Reinert, he would have to spend four months to two years in state custody. He also had his bail doubled from $75,000 to $150,000 after it was determined that he had threatened a witness from his trial: his former live-in girlfriend, Susan Myers, who had testified against him.

Despite that, though, Bradfield was again able to make bail. This was due, primarily, to a $7,500 cash payment made by Joanne Aitken, who was yet another of Bradfield's long-term love interests. Even though Bradfield was accused of ripping off and conspiring to murder another woman and her two children, that did not deter Aitken from being enamored with Bradfield, who would begin to live with her following his release on bond.

At around the same time that this was unfolding, Bradfield would also have to withdraw any claims to Susan Reinert's inheritance. This included the $880,000 in life insurance policies, which he was no longer eligible to receive. This allowed the estate to pass to her next-of-kin; which, according to prior incarnations of her will, should have been her two children, Karen and Michael. But because they were still missing, it then fell into the hands of Susan's older brother, Patrick Gallagher, who decided to place the funds into a trust until the children were found.

Bradfield would eventually begin serving his sentence in December of 1981 but was released just a few months later. Meanwhile, the revamped murder investigation continued to move forward.

After the second grand jury was empaneled in January of 1982, multiple witnesses were called to appear. This included many that had already given testimony - either in the prior grand jury or Bill Bradfield's trial for theft - and among them was none other than Jay Smith, the former-principal of Upper Merion High School, who was in the midst of serving a 7 to 16-year prison sentence.

In addition to questioning Smith about his involvement in the Reinert case, investigators and prosecutors were eager to chat with him about his missing daughter and son-in-law, Stephanie and Edward Hunsberger. If you recall from the episode introduction, they had been heroin addicts in recovery at the time of their disappearance in February of 1978, leaving behind all of their possessions in Smith's home.

Back in 1978, Smith had told investigators that his daughter and her husband had left for California, fearing blowback from some drug dealers that they had ripped off. Yet, over the next several months, he had continued to cash welfare checks from the two, forging their signatures multiple times to receive government funds (which he then used on illegal narcotics and other felonious acts). To investigators, this implied that he knew more about their disappearance than he was letting on, but without proof, there was very little that they could do.

It had long been theorized that Jay Smith had been the triggerman for Bill Bradfield, supposedly being the one to kill Susan Reinert and her two children and dispose of Susan's remains in such a way that Bradfield could collect her inheritance and life insurance. Because of this, Smith was called to testify in front of the grand jury several times over the next year. Each time he appeared in court, Smith, his attorneys, and the officials overseeing the case would refuse to comment on his cooperation - or what it meant for the future of the case.

Throughout the rest of 1982, things were relatively quiet on the investigative front.

In December of that year, police would receive a tip, telling them that the bodies of the still-missing Karen and Michael Reinert were in the trunk of a Lincoln Continental, which had been driven into a deep quarry in Chester County, Pennsylvania.

A search of the quarry would reveal several submerged vehicles - including a vehicle matching the tipster's description - but none of them had any bodies inside of them. This tip, just like several that had preceded it, would prove to be a dead-end.

However, the second grand jury would remain empaneled throughout this year, continuing to evaluate the evidence presented before it. Unbeknownst to the public at the time, the members of the grand jury were nearing closer and closer to a decision that would take this case to the next level.

Early on the morning of Wednesday, April 6th, 1983, William Bradfield was taken into custody by Pennsylvania state troopers. Having been released from prison the year prior, Bradfield was now charged with three counts (each) of murder, conspiracy to commit murder "with a person or persons unknown," kidnapping, conspiracy to commit kidnapping, and obstructing the administration of the law.

The second grand jury empaneled by the Pennsylvania state attorney general had recommended the indictment after reviewing all of the available evidence, believing that there was more than enough to find Bradfield guilty of these crimes. They also made the assumption - based on said evidence - that Susan Reinert's two children were likely dead at this point, having been potential witnesses in her murder and now missing for almost four years.

This indictment alleged that Bradfield had been aware that his acquaintance Jay Smith was going to kill Susan Reinert and her two children, but had done nothing to stop it, even conspiring with Smith to let the crimes take place. Surprisingly, though, no charges were filed against Smith at this time, but that was a shoe that was yet to drop.

According to the grand jury's findings, which were presented to the public on April 6th by Pennsylvania Attorney General LeRoy Zimmerman, one of the linchpins that inspired them to pursue charges against Bradfield was a confession from one of his fellow inmates. This inmate, a 23-year-old named Proctor Nowell, had been incarcerated alongside Bradfield at the Delaware County Prison at Broadmeadows. He claimed that - during a chess match with Bradfield - the other man had confessed to his involvement in the murders, claiming to have been present when Susan and her two children were killed in June of 1979.

Nowell, described as a convict with two children of his own, was encouraged to come forward and speak to investigators for no personal motivation other than doing the right thing; and officials reiterated that he was not obtaining any special treatment or reward for having done so.

At a presentment that April, it would be reported into the public record:

"After a meeting between his attorney and a Superior Court judge, Bradfield confronted Nowell, appearing depressed.

"Bradfield indicated to Nowell at that time that, if he hadn't needed money, nothing would have happened to 'Susan'...

"Bradfield told Nowell that the whole plan of the crime was for 'Susan,' that it was only to involve 'Susan,' but that something had gone wrong.

"He also said that none of the plan was meant for the children. Bradfield indicated to Nowell that it was a shame the children had to suffer by mistake and also told Nowell that, when 'they' were killed, he had been present."

This presentment also brought into question Bill Bradfield's whereabouts on June 22nd, 1979, the last time that Susan, Karen, and Michael Reinert were known to be alive. Even though Bradfield had supplied statements for his whereabouts throughout the entire weekend, there remained a several hour gap on Friday evening that remained unexplained nearly four years later.

Through the grand jury process, it had been discovered that - in addition to living with Susan Myers and regularly seeing Susan Reinert - Bill Bradfield had been carrying on numerous affairs with other women. One such woman was his former-student Wendy Ziegler, who would later become his accomplice in the theft of Susan Reinert's money. Another such woman was Joanne Aitken, the same woman that had posted the $7,500 cash bond in 1981. Their relationship dated back years, and the night that Susan Reinert went missing (along with her two kids), Aitken had been staying at the Congress Hotel in Philadelphia under the name of "Mrs. William Bradfield" (making her just one of several women that believed herself to be his future wife). Bill had gone to visit her that evening, but - according to the grand jury - had left much earlier than he later recalled to investigators.

"There are no witnesses who can verify Bradfield's whereabouts until approximately 11:30 p.m. on June 22, 1979.

"At approximately 11:30 p.m., June 22, 1979, Bradfield returned to his residence and there met Susan Myers and Vincent Valaitis.

"Valaitis described Bradfield as being somewhat upset and irritated; he uncharacteristically attempted to hurry them along to leave the apartment."

From there, Bradfield had encouraged the three people that he spent the weekend with - Susan Myers, Vincent Valaitis, and Christopher Pappas - to go along with him to establish an alibi hundreds of miles away. All three would later testify against Bradfield, stating that he had expressed remorse for Susan Reinert's fate throughout that weekend - days before the discovery of her body would be made in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. These three also testified that, privately, they had begun to refer to their weekend getaway in New Jersey as the "alibi weekend."

It wasn't until Bradfield was convicted of theft - and these three began to grow concerned that they would be complicit in whatever actions he participated in - that they agreed to fully cooperate with the investigation. In return, Bradfield had started to grow frustrated with them; which, in the case of his former girlfriend, Susan Myers, led to physical threats.

Unbeknownst to William Bradfield, it was this hostile reaction that ultimately caused these former-friends of his to fully turn on him. By exposing them to his truly vicious nature, he had broken the spell that the others had been living under for years, no longer fooled by his charming nature. They, along with Bradfield's former-student-turned-girlfriend, Wendy Ziegler, agreed to cooperate with investigators... who presented their statements, along with the details of Bradfield's supposed jailhouse confession, to the grand jury that winter.

The arrest of William Bradfield, early on the morning of April 6th, 1983, would spell the beginning of the next phase in this case, which had grown cold nearly four years prior.

While there was no physical evidence linking Bradfield to the murder of Susan Reinert - nor the disappearance of her two children, who remained missing endangered for the time being - prosecutors were positive that they had built an airtight case against him. The prior conviction for theft was sure to provide the proper context when Bradfield's trial approached, and the alleged link to "persons unknown" - the person/persons responsible for disposing of the bodies - was likely more than enough to put Bradfield behind bars for the rest of his life.

While they would be right in that regard (that Bradfield would die in prison), it would not happen in the manner that they expected... and would not even mark the official end of this story. Not by a long shot.

That's on the next episode of Unresolved.

Continue to Part Three

Episode Information

Writing, research, hosting, and production by Micheal Whelan

Published on on May 24th, 2020

Producers: Maggyjames, Roberta Janson, Ben Krokum, Peggy Belarde, Quil Carter, Laura Hannan, Victoria Reid, Gabriella Bromley, Damion Moore, Amy Hampton, Steven Wilson, Scott Meesey, Marie Vanglund, Scott Patzold, Astrid Kneier, Lori Rodriguez, Aimee McGregor, Danny Williams, Sydney Scotton, Sara Moscaritolo, Thomas Ahearn, Seth Morgan, Marion Welsh, Patrick Laakso, Kelly Jo Hapgood, Alyssa Lawton, Meadow Landry, Rebecca Miller, Tatum Bautista, gravityheadzero, Erin Pyles, Jo Wong, Consuelo Moreno, Jacinda B., Travis Scsepko, Teunia Elzinga, and Jared Midwood