In the early morning hours of Monday, June 25, 1979, the body of Upper Merion English Teacher Susan Reinert was found in the open hatchback of her car in Swatara Township, just outside of Harrisburg.  Her children, Karen and Michael, were never found.  After many false leads and years of investigation, Upper Merion English Teacher William Bradfield and Principal Jay Smith (who was already being prosecuted for four other crimes) were convicted of the murders, although Smith was later freed due to what was described at the time as egregious prosecutorial misconduct.

Given the many published twists and turns in the case, the fact that neither of the two ever admitted to the murders, the rumors of Smith's abberant behavior and the rampant speculation in the newspapers, it should be no surprise that many of us have garbled memories of this tragic story.  This talk represents the barest outline of the results of a long and painstaking attempt to create an accurate and factual timeline of the events leading up to the murders. Adherence to that factual timeline is an essential feature of any would-be theory of the crime.

David Montalvo taught high school physics for over 35 years, 33 of those years at Upper Merion Area High School. He and his wife Lynda (who still teaches chemistry at UMAHS) have lived in King of Prussia for 20 years and raised two daughters there. David became involved with the King of Prussia Historical Society in early 2015, becoming president in 2019. David's head may be in the sciences, but his heart has always been in the humanities.