Retired pastor discovered not responsible of murdering 8-year-old woman

By Anugrah Kumar, Christian Submit Contributor Monday, January 20, 2025

Former pastor, David Zandstra, 83, (L) admitted to the murder of Gretchen Harrington (R) in 1975. — Former pastor, David Zandstra, 83, (L) admitted to the homicide of Gretchen Harrington (R) in 1975. | Delaware County District Legal professional’s Workplace

A jury has discovered an 84-year-old retired pastor not responsible of murdering an 8-year-old woman who was strolling from residence to her church’s Bible faculty. The decision within the decades-old case has cleared him of all fees.

Jurors reached their determination after a four-day trial in Delaware County, Pennsylvania, the place David Zandstra had been accused of taking the lifetime of Gretchen Harrington in 1975, The New York Instances reported.

Zandstra had been taken into custody in July 2023, a long time after the woman disappeared whereas strolling from her residence to what prosecutors described as a summer season Bible faculty, in accordance to NBC Philadelphia. Authorities in Delaware County alleged that he supplied her a trip, drove her to close by Ridley Creek State Park and killed her. The retired minister was dwelling in Georgia on the time of his arrest.

In the course of the trial, prosecutors cited statements attributed to Zandstra by regulation enforcement. Authorities stated Zandstra had confessed to the 1975 kidnapping and killing, however his lawyer contended the confession was coerced. Protection attorneys maintained all through the proceedings that their consumer by no means voluntarily admitted guilt and that he was pressured into offering particulars.

“It took jurors about an hour to succeed in a verdict” on Friday, clearing him of first-, second- and third-degree homicide fees, in addition to legal murder, kidnapping of a minor and possessing an instrument of crime, in response to the Instances.

Zandstra served as a pastor on the Trinity Chapel Christian Reformed Church in Broomall, Pennsylvania, within the mid-Nineteen Seventies. On the morning of Aug. 15, 1975, Gretchen was heading to a Bible camp at that church when she vanished.

Investigators later realized that Trinity Chapel Christian Reformed Church was lower than half a mile from her residence. A hiker found her stays in Ridley Creek State Park about two months after her disappearance.

On the time, a number of businesses and neighborhood members looked for the lacking woman.

Gretchen’s father, who was a minister at a special church on the identical street, contacted authorities when his daughter did not arrive for a session of the camp. Zandstra additionally referred to as the Marple Police Division the identical morning “to report Gretchen lacking.” A month later, on Oct. 14, 1975, the kid’s stays had been discovered within the state park.

Delaware County District Legal professional Jack Stollsteimer had earlier referred to the 1975 occasions as a case that had “haunted members of regulation enforcement since that horrible day.” He referred to as the woman’s killing against the law that “left a household and a neighborhood eternally modified.”

A witness had reportedly advised investigators about seeing Gretchen speaking with somebody driving a inexperienced station wagon or a two-tone Cadillac across the time of her disappearance. One other particular person got here ahead with allegations of sexual misconduct by Zandstra within the Nineteen Seventies.

When approached with these allegations in July 2023, police stated Zandstra admitted to providing Gretchen a trip and taking her to a wooded space. “He admitted to providing Gretchen a trip and taking her to a close-by wooded space. The defendant acknowledged that he had parked the automotive and requested the sufferer to take away her clothes. When she refused, he struck her within the head with a fist,” the regulation enforcement stated on the time.