Sunday News du lieu suivant : Lancaster, Pennsylvania • 6

A- 6 THE SUNDAY NEWS, July 24, 1983 A Whodunnit Still Unraveled fc--9 to eachers Murder angled In A Web Of Mystery fi. THE GRAND JURY said Bradfield this was still only a few months after Ms. Reinerts slaying advised Pappas, Valaitis and Ms. Myers to hire lawyers and to keep their mouths shut. It wasnt until two years later that Ms.

Myers began to cooperate with police. And then Pappas also began talk- PagA-l 3 MURDER IkAa PHILADELPHIA (AP) Hail-Jt 'stones pelted the lawn of the rented fc suburban home as a sudden summer tistorm blackened the sky that evening of June 22, 1979. A little later, a young brother and sister the girl 11, the boy 10 played happily with the pellets of ice. They were friendly, exuberant, gqpd-J looking kids. Inside the house, in suburban Ard-jnore, divorcee Susan Gallagher Rein- ert packed for a weekend trip, careful-Iy choosing the clothes her children would need for the brief holiday.

Susan Reinert, a 37-year-old high school English teacher, was a director of Parents Without Partners, which it was sponsoring a weekend in Allen- town. Pa. Because gasoline was then in short supply, she called her former 'in-laws for assurance she could drive her 1978 red Plymouth the 60 miles to i Allentown, and back, on a single tank. A little after 9 p.m., she came out with the suitcases, her kids climbed 'into the back seat, and off the family went for their first vacation after the end of school. jr That was the last time the neigh-- bors saw Susan, Karen and Michael Big-Big Mid-Summer SAVE 11to50 139 Different Items at Big Savings Floor Samples Clean-outs 1-of-a-Kinds Trestle BENCH Save OQ 30 While They Last 960i Terrific Savings on Stools Chests Dressers Hutches Deacons Benches Kitchen Cabinets Mirrors Cun Cabinets Beds Cash Pick-up Save TM.IFri.aril Sit, wH FJt Scfbort No comment.

Smith, now in jail for buri illegal possession of guns and reportedly made advances to Susan Reinert during one period and was rejected, according to the presentment. Others mentioned by the grand jury as recipients of Bradfields confidences, all linked to him through Upper Merion High: Swan Myer, also an English teacher, who, according to the grand jury, lived with Bradfield from 1973 to 1980. They started an art business and between them, the presentment says, lost nearly $100,000. Vincent Valaitis, another English teacher. Christopher Pappas, Wendy Ziegler and Jeffrey Olsen, all former pupils of Brad-field whom he told that Smith planned to kill Ms.

Reinert. Pappas later became a substitute teacher at Upper Merion High, and Ms. Ziegler had an affair with Bradfield, the presentment says. The grand jury, which had questioned all extensively, made these observations: Between Jan. 1, 1979, and the date of Susan Reinerts disappearance, Bradfield continued to inform Valaitis, Pappas and Myers that Smith would kill Reinert.

In April of 1979, Bradfield briefly indicated that Reinert might be killed by a kinky black male named After this revelation, he again returned to his story that Smith would kill Reinert and did not mention Alexs name again until after Susan Reinert was discovered dead. During the spring of 1979, Bradfield described to Pappas various methods which Smith was showing him which would permit the abduction of various individuals. These involved the use of two guns, tape, and a special jacket where items could be located quickly. At or about this time, Bradfield told Pappas that Smith would beat up and torture Reinert before he killed her, and he indicated to both Pappas and Valaitis that Smith would kill them if they approached the police about this information. what led directly to Bradfields arrest on the murder charge was a game of chess at Delaware County Prison, where he befriended a 23-year-old fellow inmate, Proctor Nowel.

Bradfield was being held there after his conviction on charges of swindling Susan Reinert. The sentence was four months to two years. He was trying to raise bail for HUA1PTY DUMPTY DELI 450 W. Orange Lancaster Freshly Made Subs 392-2967 PLUS AT STONYBROOK DRIVE-IN ONLY "TRON" LEGEND OF SLEEPY HOLLOW -HUS- lUNPAlIiTEDFUatmURE MMm1939 Columbia Lancasters alive. a Three anonyn found Susan Reinerts nude, beaten and drugged body in the trunk of her ear.

It had been abandoned on a motel 1 parking lot near Harrisburg, the state capital. THIS DEATH SCENE was 100 miles from her home, and about 70 miles southwest of Allentown. No one knows 1 how she got there or why. i The children have never been found. i The investigation of Susan Rein- erts gruesome homicide, as set forth in a grand jury presentment, discloses 4 a steamy tangle of relationships, de-Lception and greed.

At the center, ac- cording to authorities, was William I' Bradfield, an English teacher at Upper Merion High School, a man with a short red beard, steel-blue eyes, and substantial appeal for women. i Clustered around him were friends, colleagues, and former stu-s dents who eventually testified to the grand jury that Bradfield, for months 'I before Ms. Reinert's death, had kept telling them that she would be killed 3 by Jay Smith, the defrocked principal of Upper Merion who later landed in jt jail in an unrelated case. All kept silent until long after the slaying. 5 Trying to unravel the killing, federal, state and local investigators chased across America for nearly four in a search for clues, witnesses, S-.

missing cash, and the missing chil-f dren, now also officially considered murdered. Only their banker-father, Kenneth Reinert, still wont believe the chil- dren are dead. I just dont buy that. As long as there is no word, there is hope. Susan Reinert was divorced in CD TM By BARCAlpUNGER' Modulars with luxurious ottoman comfort hidden in each end! I t.

tappea Bradfield, according to the grand findings, not only played chess; ilked. This is how the grand jury recounts the in-iail conversations: Bradfield indicated to Nowell if he hadnt needed money, nothing would have happened to Susan (and) he would not be involved in the Reinert case. 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 indicated to Nowell that it was a shame the children had to suffer by mistake and also told Nowell that, when they killed, he had been present. In four years it was the most in- criminating evidence to surface against Bradfield and tapped Nowell, a 23-year-old alcoholic with a reedrd of 12 arrests in the last seven years, as the key prosecution witness. Bradfields lawyers, who tried to have the murder and kidnapping charges dismissed, argued that it was not enough to hold him for trial.

Nowell said he brought Brad-fields allegedly incriminating comments to the attention of authorities, many weeks after he heard them, because he was concerned about the children. He has two of his own. BRADFIELD was in Cape May, N.J., when the three Reinerts disappeared. The grand jury said he went there with Valaitis, Pappas and Ms. Myers for the purpose of establishing an alibi and told Valaitis that Smith was going to kill Susan Reinert that that he had done everything he could to protect her, and there was nothing more he could do to help her." Because Bradfield was allegedly at the shore during the murders, police began delving into Smith's back- round and uncovered evidence, some rom his late wife's diaries, that the former educator had lived a double life, including involvement in sex groups and using cocaine and other drugs.

Ml 1966. Matronly and demure, with dark-rimmed eyeglasses and a sometimes squeaky voice, she was a devoted single parent who took her kids to Little League games, swimming, gymnastics and art lessons, and was I still on friendly terms with her ex-hus-I band and his family. Since 1971, she taught English at Upper Merion. There sne had a spe-t'cial friend, department colleague ft Bradfield. She confided to others that 1 Bradfield was to be my future bus-t band.

JUST MONTHS BEFORE she was killed, she changed her will and made Bradfield sole heir of her $200,000 es- tate and beneficiary of some $880,000 i in life insurance. Bradfield, who investigators said had carried on other affairs of both i the heart and pocketbook even while he led Susan Reinert on what her friends called a roller-coaster r- romance, now is charged with her A murder and also with kidnapping and killing her children. Before his arrest on those charges, Bradfield was found guilty of swindling Ms. Reinert out of $25,000. He has appealed.

When ne tried to collect her estate and the life insurance, her family challenged the will and the insurance companies refused to pay. Bradfield dropped his claims. If he hadnt needed money, noth- ing would have happened to Susan," said the grand jury that charged him with murder. Bradfield has vigorously protested his innocence ana fougnt for his freedom. He is scheduled to go on trial Sept.

26. Throughout the grand Jury presentment, which charged Brad-field with masterminding the killings, he is quoted as telling his teacher friends over and over that Smith allegedly was going to kill Susan Reinert, and also a number of school officials. On the day that Ms. Reincrt body was found, Smith was In Harrisburg, a few miles from the death scene, where he was to be sentenced on firearms and disorderly conduct charges. He arrived in court nearly an hour late, explaining he had been stuck in a gas station line.

in the car with her body was a blue comb with the inscription, 79th Army Reserve Command." That was the unit Smith had been attached to as a colonel. There was an association of two or more people and a continuing conspiracy among them to kill Susan Keinert, the grand jury presentment says, but it implicates no one besides -Bradfield. Asked If Smith is considered a suspect, Attorney General LeRoy Zimmerman, who has been in charge of the investigation, replied, A I I 8 I 9 I I. r- V- a 9 I I SINK INTO THE LUXURIOUS COMFORT OF The Living End. This modular eystem offers high-back styling with built-in recliners In each end.

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Besides three counts of murder, he was charged with kidnapping, solicitation to commit murder, conspiracy to commit kidnapping and murder, and obstruction of the administration of law. The tight hold that Bradfield apparently held over his friends had long frustrated investigators. Gradually, they said, it began to fall part. Valaitis was the first to cooperate with police, back in September, 1979. Bradfield became very angry with Valaitis and stated to Valaitis, You've killed me," the grand Jury reported.

When Bradfield met with Pappas and Ms. Myers, he explained to them utat Valaitis had tola him and Indicated to Pappas that Valaitis' cooperation could be a 'death also discussed with Pappas the possibility of Valaitis getting killed because of his cooperation with 1 of his cooperation if Century Galleries 3130 COLUMBIA LANCASTER, PA 397-4923 HOURS: FRI. SAT. 10-5 Member Interior Design Society the police..