The Shadow
HACKENSACK, N.J. (AP) – The family of a woman murdered in northern New Jersey 35 years ago has won a $10 million settlement from her killer.
Susan Reeve’s family plans to donate the money they get from Robert Reldan to a scholarship fund they established at her alma mater, Hollins University in Roanoke, Va.
Reldan, a 70-year-old nephew of the late New Jersey philanthropist Lillian Garis Booth, was initially was convicted in 1979, but then won a retrial because prosecutors had told the jury about previous rapes he committed. He was convicted again in 1986 and is serving a life term at Trenton State Prison.
Under the settlement finalized Thursday, Reeve’s family will immediately receive a $770,000 payment and the income from a $9 million trust left to Reldan by Booth. It resolves a lawsuit that Reeve’s family had filed in December 2008.
Booth, of Alpine, was known for her charity work. It included establishing the Lillian Booth Actors Home in Englewood, along with numerous donations to hospitals and other medical facilities. She was the widow of Ferris Booth, a private investment counselor who inherited a fortune from his father and grew it further through shrewd investments.
In 1978, Reldan was convicted of plotting to kill Lillian Booth so he could gain a hoped-for inheritance. He was then convicted in late 1979 in the 1975 murders of Reeves and another young Bergen County woman.
The 22-year-old Reeve was walking to her parents’ home in Demarest when she was abducted and raped by Reldan. A recent college graduate, she was engaged and had just started working at a New York City advertising firm when she was killed. Her body was found two weeks later
