Jay C. Smith

Jay C. Smith (June 5, 1928 – May 12, 2009) was an American high school principal in Pennsylvania who was convicted and sentenced to death in 1986 for the 1979 murder of one of his school's teachers, Susan Reinert, and her two children, Karen and Michael. His conviction was overturned by the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania in 1992, based on findings of judicial and prosecutorial misconduct.

Smith subsequently filed civil suits against those involved in his conviction. However, all of them were rejected. An appellate court stated, "Our confidence in Smith's convictions for the murder of Susan Reinert and her two children is not the least bit diminished."

While still a serving officer with the Reserves, he completed his Bachelor of Science degree in education and English in 1972. He earned a Master of Science degree at Pennsylvania State University, then completed his Doctor of Education degree at Temple University, in 1974. He was also the sole beneficiary of her $230,000 estate (equivalent to $million in ).

Smith was subsequently convicted of a series of store robberies during the late 1970s, despite Bradfield testifying on his behalf that the robberies must have been perpetrated by someone else because he and Smith had been vacationing far away in Ocean City when the robberies were committed. Smith allegedly arrived late to his subsequent sentencing hearing in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, four hours after Reinert's body was discovered in the trunk of her car, which had been parked at a Harrisburg motel parking lot that was located roughly one hundred miles away from her home in Ardmore. Police were initially unable to find an explanation for why she had left home two days before her body was found or why her body and car had ended up in Harrisburg. They were also initially unable to locate her children, whom they subsequently classified as "missing." A pathologist subsequently determined that Reinert had been suffocated.

By 1983, police had uncovered more details about the murder case. Reinert, who had been volunteering during her non-teaching hours as the director of Parents without Partners, had voluntarily left her Ardmore home with her children on Friday evening, June 22, 1979, shortly after 9 p.m., to drive to Allentown, Pennsylvania for a Parents without Partners weekend gathering. Her neighbors confirmed for police this was the last time they saw Reinert and her children alive. Three days later, an anonymous caller informed police that Reinert's car was parked at a motel in Harrisburg. When police arrived, they found Reinert's body in the trunk of her car, but there was no sign of the children. Although a pathologist had determined that Reinert had been suffocated, police investigators subsequently determined that she had been beaten and drugged prior to her murder, and that it was the large amount of morphine that had been injected into her system that actually caused her death. The police also determined that on "the day that Ms. Reinert's 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." According to police, Smith had "reportedly made advances to Susan Reinert during one period and was rejected." Police also told the media that, during the course of their investigation, they had found "a blue comb with the inscription, '79th Army Reserve Command'", in the car next to Reinert's body, and had since learned that Smith had been a colonel in that same army unit. However, although the police were investigating Smith, the grand jury that was analyzing the police reports of the Reinert case investigation were offered "no evidence linking Smith to the murder." The grand jury's presentment did indicate, though, that "there was an association of two or more people and a continuing conspiracy between/among them to murder Susan Reinert."

During those grand jury proceedings, it was revealed that several former teaching colleagues and former students of Bradfield "had testified to the grand jury that Bradfield, for months before Ms. Reinert's death, had kept telling them that she would be killed by Jay Smith." Bradfield was subsequently charged with "masterminding" Reinert's murder and "with kidnapping and killing her children." Placed in jail at the Delaware County Prison, following his conviction for fraud, Bradfield reportedly told a fellow inmate "that the whole plan of the crime ... was only to involve 'Susan,' but that something had gone wrong," and said "it was a shame the children had to suffer by mistake." He also reportedly said "that when 'they' were killed, he had been present." The young couple were long-time heroin addicts; Stephanie had resorted to prostitution, and Edward had been convicted of armed robbery, in support of their addiction.

Smith's daughter, Stephanie Hunsberger, and her husband have never been found. The couple was reported missing in 1978. Widowed by his first wife, Stephanie (Zdun) Smith, who had succumbed to complications from cancer in August 1979, he remarried in 2002. He and his second wife, Maureen, became resident administrators of an adult-care facility and subsequently lived in a community for senior citizens in Hunlock Creek.

In popular culture Smith was portrayed by actor Robert Loggia in the two-part, made-for-television movie, Echoes in the Darkness, which was based on Joseph Wambaugh's book by the same name. It aired on CBS in early November 1987.

The murder case was featured in the pilot episode of the documentary TV series Death By Gossip with Wendy Williams, which aired on Investigation Discovery.