The Main Line Murder Case

[XanaDUer]

I have read Joseph Wambaugh's book on this case, "Echoes in the Darkness" and have always wondered what really happened in this case, and where are the bodies of the Reinert kids.

http://www.cnn.com/2009/CRIME/06/30/pennsylvania.reinert.murders/index.html

Thirty years ago, a neighbor peered out her window on a Friday evening in Ardmore, Pennsylvania, and watched Karen and Michael Reinert gather hailstones.

Their mother, Susan, called from the front porch of her modest home on Woodcrest Avenue and bundled the children into her orange Plymouth Horizon hatchback. It was just after 9 p.m.

Karen, 11, wore a small green pin with the letter P on her blouse, a souvenir from a class trip to the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Michael, 10, wore a Phillies T-shirt.

For those you you unfamiliar with this case, here is a synopsis from True Crime Library"

http://new.trutv.com/library/crime/notorious_murders/classics/mainline_murders/1.html

Jay C. Smith died about six months ago at the age of 80.

[mitchum]

1. Thanks for the link...

I have always wondered what the principals in that story looked like (Since Wambaugh writes "classy true crime" accounts, there are never 8 PAGES OF SHOCKING PHOTOS INSIDE!)

That is a fascinating story.

[XanaDUer]

2. Hi

I've been w/o internet for almost three days

I always wonder if and when they will find the kids' bodies.

[frogmarch]

3. I saw this case

on TV on one of the true crime shows. It was intriguing.

[frogmarch]

4. Here's the case in a nutshell

http://www.cnn.com/2009/CRIME/06/30/pennsylvania.reinert.murders/index.html?eref=rss_latest

Main Line murder case echoes 30 years later
By Ann O'Neill
CNN

Editor's note: Ann O'Neill is CNN.com's Crime section producer. This is the story of the first murder case she covered.

~~

What a complex case this was. Which of the two psycho suspects did it? I am one of those who think Smith and Bradfield were in cahoots with each other.

(snip)

Within weeks, we learned that Susan Reinert had named Bradfield, the man she thought she was going to marry, as the beneficiary of life insurance policies worth $730,000. Guida said he believes the children were killed so they wouldn't stand in the way of the windfall. "She was worth $7,000 a pound," Guida said. "The fact the children weren't there at the scene tells you who did this."

(snip)

Nearly everyone at Upper Merion found Smith odd; others said he was downright spooky. Teachers jokingly called him "the Prince of Darkness." In his best-selling book about the case, crime writer Joseph Wambaugh wrote, "Some thought that Jay Smith looked like an obscene phone call."

There was no question that Smith's life was coming undone. His wife was dying of cancer. His daughter, who was addicted to heroin, was missing -- as was her husband. Like the Reinert children, Stephanie and Edward Hunsberger have never been found.