Karen Reinert

Status:

Open

Jurisdiction:

Pennsylvania State Police (PA)

Missing From:

Ardmore, Pennsylvania

Summary:

Karen Reinert, 11, disappeared on June 22, 1979, from Ardmore, Pennsylvania, along with her brother Michael and their mother Susan. Susan's body was found three days later in her car near Harrisburg, murdered. Karen and Michael were never found and are presumed deceased. They were declared legally dead in 1987.

Vital Statistics

Circumstances of Disappearance:

Karen and her brother Michael were last seen at approximately 9:20 p.m. on June 22, 1979, leaving their home in Ardmore, Pennsylvania with their mother, Susan Gallagher Reinert, to attend a Parents without Partners weekend gathering in Allentown. They were getting into Susan's orange Plymouth Horizon hatchback. Three days later, on June 25, 1979, Susan's body was found in the trunk of her car, which was parked in the lot of the Host Inn in Swatara Township, Pennsylvania. Susan had been beaten, bound with a chain, and killed with an injection of morphine 24 to 36 hours after the beating. There was no sign of Karen or Michael at the scene, and an extensive search turned up no signs of either of them. Karen was wearing a yellow scoop-necked peasant blouse and shorts.

Additional Details:

William Sidney 'Bill' Bradfield, an English teacher at Upper Merion High School and Susan's boyfriend, was convicted of the murders in 1983 after initially being charged with fraud. Bradfield died in prison in 1998 while serving three life sentences. Dr. Jay Charles Smith, principal of Upper Merion High School where Susan taught, was also convicted in 1986 and sentenced to death, but his conviction was later overturned due to concealed evidence by the prosecution. Both men maintained their innocence and died without revealing what happened to the children. In 1987, the same year that Joseph Wambaugh published 'Echoes in the Darkness' about the case, Karen and Michael were declared legally dead in March. Their father, Kenneth Reinert, died in 2002. Authorities discovered a mysterious photograph among Bradfield's belongings after his death showing what appeared to be a stone marker in a wooded setting, believed to possibly mark the children's grave, but despite dozens of tips, investigators have been unable to locate the site. The case was the subject of two murder trials, three books, and a two-part television miniseries. As of December 2023, the Pennsylvania State Police continue to investigate the case, which remains open but inactive, with a $5,000 reward offered for information leading to the recovery of the children's remains.

Case Last Updated:

Nov 02, 2026