Exxon Executive Reportedly Died Before Ransom Demand

Oil executive Sidney J. Reso was shot in the arm, bound, gagged and left in a stifling storage room where he died before his alleged kidnapers made an $18.5-million ransom demand, newspapers reported Monday.

One of two people charged led investigators to Reso’s body Saturday, but it took 12 hours of searching pine forest before his shallow grave was found, law enforcement sources told the Associated Press, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Results of an autopsy on Reso, who headed Exxon operations outside North America, were not released Monday.

Reso, 57, had a heart attack three years ago and was taking medication to control his cholesterol, but it wasn’t clear if another heart attack killed him and whether his arm wound had been treated.

Arthur D. Seale and his wife, Irene, both 45, were arrested June 19 in Reso’s April 29 kidnaping from his driveway in Morris Township. The Seales had refused to cooperate, but Mrs. Seale finally talked. Her account to investigators was detailed by the Star-Ledger and the Philadelphia Inquirer.

Mrs. Seale told investigators that her husband, a former Hillside police officer and Exxon security adviser, grabbed Reso as he stepped from his car on his way to work.

Seale forced Reso into a rented van and shot him in the arm during a scuffle, the newspapers said. Mrs. Seale drove the van to a small, sweltering storage room the couple had rented near the rural Lebanon Township home they shared with Seale’s parents, according to the reports.

Reso, the president of Exxon International, died on May 3, before the couple sent their first ransom note, the reports said. The demand was for $18.5 million. Agents were prepared to make a phony ransom drop, but the Seales were captured before it was made.

Blood stains were found in the rented van, but test results had not been released by Monday.

Seale obtained a passport on June 3 and planned to flee to Pakistan and stash money in Swiss or Pakistani bank accounts, prosecutors have said.

Mrs. Seale’s attorney, Sallyanne Floria, didn’t return telephone messages Monday.

The Seales were scheduled for arraignment today in U.S. District Court in Trenton on charges of kidnaping, extortion and conspiracy. Morris County prosecutor W. Michael Murphy planned to file felony murder charges against one or both of the Seales, probably today or Wednesday.

A federal magistrate ordered the Seales held without bond pending arraignment.