A former pastor has been detained and accused of the kidnapping and murder of an 8-year-old girl over 50 years ago as she traveled to a Bible camp for the summer.
David Zandstra, former pastor in Pennsylvania, has been charged with the kidnapping and murder of Gretchen Harrington, whose remains were discovered in a state park two months after she went missing.
After being questioned by detectives, David Zandstra, 83, of Marietta, Georgia, admitted to killing Gretchen Harrington in Broomall, Pennsylvania, in August 1975, according to a statement from the Delaware County District Attorney’s Office.
At a news conference on Monday, Delaware County district attorney Jack Stollsteimer declared, “We’re going to try him, we’re going to convict him, and he’s going to die in jail.” The former pastor will then need to learn what the God that he claims to believe in thinks of those who treat our children in such a cruel way, Stollsteimer added.
According to the statement, the Bible camp was being hosted in two churches in Marple Township at the time of Harrington’s murder: Zandstra’s Trinity Church Chapel Christian Reform Church and her father’s Reformed Presbyterian Church.
Her father called the former pastor, who was one of the people in charge of transporting the kids, and told him that the young girl hadn’t shown up at his own church earlier in the day, according to the district attorney’s office. Tragically, she did not come with the group to the second site.
Harrington’s skeletal remains were found in Edgemont Township on October 14, 1975, at a state park. According to the press statement, the coroner ruled that she died as a result of blunt head trauma and classified her death as a homicide.
According to WSB-TV, Karen Alsdorf, the former pastor’s neighbor, gave a contrasting impression of the former pastor.
“They’ve been wonderful people. They’ve always checked on us,” she told the outlet. “I just can’t believe it.”
A breakthrough in the case came from a witness
Investigators reported that in January of this year, they spoke with a source who was close friends with the former pastor’s daughter and frequently spent the night at the family’s house.
She reported to the detectives that when she was 10 years old, the former pastor was grabbing her crotch area as she slept at a friend’s house. According to the source, she informed Zandstra’s daughter, who responded that her father occasionally did it.
The source added that she remembered a classmate who had twice been on the verge of being abducted and had noted in her notebook in 1975 that she thought Zandstra was the most likely suspect.
Harrington was attending a summer bible camp on the grounds of two nearby churches. Zandstra was the pastor of one church while Harrington’s father served as the pastor of the other.
Investigators visited Zandstra in Marietta, Georgia, where he currently resides with his wife, in July of this year to conduct an interview with him.
The former pastor allegedly afterward admitted to giving Harrington a ride and transporting her to a nearby forested area after initially denying knowing what had happened to her.
When Harrington refused to remove her clothing, according to Zandstra, he punched her in the head, causing her to bleed. He fled the scene after leaving her body in the bushes.
According to Pennsylvania State Police Lt. Jonathan Sunderlin, “Justice does not have an expiration date.” “Whether a crime happened fifty years ago or five minutes ago, the residents of the Commonwealth can have confidence that law enforcement will not rest until justice is served.”