ENVY: The Kidnapping and Murder of Sidney Reso

High Life and Hard Times

Their first foray into the world of business came in 1987 when they opened a furniture store in the affluent resort community of Hilton Head, S.C. That failed and within a year, the Seales declared bankruptcy. Most people in that situation would retrench, but the Seales plunged deeper into their pursuit of the high life, moving to Vail, Colo., an even more prestigious playground for the rich and famous, according to court papers and published accounts. Arthur Seale took a job as a stockbroker, while his wife found whatever work she could. In a jailhouse interview with a reporter in 2003, Seale described himself at the time saying, "I was egotistical, I was self centered, and I was driven. I measured success in terms of toys."

He left out one other adjective. He was, authorities would say, also avaricious.

Seale now maintains that at least part of his desperation was the result of a family tragedy. While in Vail, he has told reporters, he learned that his daughter had been raped while the family was in South Carolina — she was then 11. By the time they reached Vail, she was acting out and in desperate need of counseling, Seale has said. The family, who still managed to maintain a patina of affluence, was unable to afford it.

Whatever the real cause of their financial instability, the Seales ultimately gave up on Vail and returned to New Jersey, where they moved into the retirement community where Arthur Seale's elderly parents lived.

As reporter Deena Winter reported in the Bismarck Tribune on Nov. 17, 2003, after her jailhouse interview with Seale, in New Jersey they continued to maintain their lavish lifestyle, running up huge tabs on Arthur Seale's father's credit cards, and even sending their son to a pricey boarding school in the rolling hills of Vermont.

But in the months before Sidney Reso's brutal kidnapping, it had started to dawn on Arthur and Irene Seale that they couldn't maintain the charade of wealth much longer.