On the morning of Aug. 15, 1975, Gretchen Harrington, 8, left her house in Broomall, Pa., for summer time Bible faculty. The Trinity Chapel Christian Reformed Church was lower than half a mile down the highway, however Gretchen by no means made it.
Skeletal stays discovered close by in Ridley Creek State Park on Oct. 14, 1975, had been later recognized as Gretchen’s. The reason for her demise, which was dominated a murder, was discovered to be accidents to her head. However, for many years, nobody knew who killed her.
On Monday, the district lawyer’s workplace in Delaware County, Pa., west of Philadelphia, introduced that it had filed fees towards David Zandstra, 83, of Marietta, Ga., in Gretchen’s homicide. Mr. Zandstra, who was a minister on the church within the Nineteen Seventies, was charged with felony murder, kidnapping of a minor, possessing an instrument of crime and homicide of the primary, second and third levels.
Mr. Zandstra was taken into custody in Georgia on July 17, the authorities stated. He’s being held in Cobb County, Ga., the place he has been denied bail.
Jack Stollsteimer, the Delaware County district lawyer, stated at a news conference on Monday that Mr. Zandstra was combating extradition to Pennsylvania, and that his workplace was in search of a governor’s warrant to carry Mr. Zandstra to Delaware County.
“We’re going to strive him, we’re going to convict him and he’s going to die in jail,” Mr. Stollsteimer stated. “After which he’s going to have to search out out what the God he professes to imagine in holds for individuals who are this evil to our youngsters.”
The fees filed towards Mr. Zandstra have introduced a way of closure to Broomall, which has been haunted by Gretchen’s abduction and homicide for almost 48 years. Chief Brandon Graeff of the Police Division in Marple Township, which incorporates Broomall, stated on the information convention that Gretchen’s homicide had “reworked this neighborhood.”
“Pre-August 1975, it was Any City, U.S.A.,” he stated. “Put up- that day, it modified the whole lot for the children, for the dad and mom, for the households, for everyone as a result of no person might do something anymore within the innocence that they used to do it earlier than this occurred.”
Gretchen’s household stated in a press release on Monday that they had been “extraordinarily hopeful that the one that is answerable for the heinous crime that was dedicated towards our Gretchen can be held accountable.”
“It’s tough to specific the feelings that we’re feeling as we take one step nearer to justice,” the household stated. “The kidnapping and homicide of Gretchen has eternally altered our household and we miss her each single day.”
It was unclear if Mr. Zandstra had a lawyer. His spouse, Margaret Zandstra, didn’t instantly reply to a request for touch upon Monday.
The web site of the Christian Reformed Church lists Mr. Zandstra as a retired minister and says he was ordained on Sept. 20, 1965. Along with the Trinity Chapel Christian Reformed Church in Broomall, Mr. Zandstra additionally served at church buildings in New Jersey, California and Texas between 1965 and 2005.
The Christian Reformed Church stated in a press release on Monday that it needed to “lengthen our condolences to the household of Gretchen Harrington.”
“We’re moreover grieved to listen to {that a} C.R.C. pastor has been arrested for her homicide,” the church stated. “We acknowledge that we reside in a damaged and sinful world the place violence can occur wherever by anybody — even inside our church buildings and by leaders we maintain to the best requirements.”
The Delaware County District Lawyer’s Workplace stated it had collected from Mr. Zandstra a DNA pattern that will be in comparison with DNA collected in different open instances in Pennsylvania and throughout the nation.
“We’re involved that there could also be extra victims who may need been sexually assaulted by this man,” Mr. Stollsteimer stated. “We wish to maintain him accountable for the whole lot he did.”
Joanna Sullivan, a co-author of “Marple’s Gretchen Harrington Tragedy: Kidnapping, Homicide and Innocence Misplaced in Suburban Philadelphia,” which printed in October 2022, stated on Tuesday that she was “shocked” when she discovered that Mr. Zandstra had been charged within the case.
Ms. Sullivan, who grew up in Broomall, was 9 when Gretchen went lacking. In reporting for the e-book, Ms. Sullivan and her co-author, Mike Mathis, interviewed Mr. Zandstra, his spouse and his daughter. Mr. Zanstra had a “murky recollection” of the day Gretchen went lacking, Ms. Sullivan stated.
After Gretchen’s abduction and homicide, Ms. Sullivan stated there was a way of worry and apprehension in Broomall. She stated she remembered seeing a helicopter flying over her neighborhood within the search effort for Gretchen.
“That picture stayed with me for the remainder of my life,” Ms. Sullivan stated of the helicopter.
‘I believe it was Mr. Z’
Gretchen was purported to be at Trinity Chapel Christian Reformed Church by 9:30 a.m. on Aug. 15, 1975, based on a police felony criticism. Round 11 a.m. that day, Harold Harrington, Gretchen’s father and the reverend of the church, discovered that she wasn’t there and known as the Marple Township Police Division to report her lacking.
Within the weeks that adopted, the police spoke with a number of individuals to piece collectively what had occurred to Gretchen. They interviewed Mr. Zandstra twice, on Aug. 19 and once more on Oct. 30. He instructed them that he had picked up some kids and pushed them to the church the day Gretchen went lacking, however he denied having seen her that day, based on the criticism.
The police had been unable to search out any leads that would steer them nearer to discovering who had killed Gretchen, and the case went chilly. Then, earlier this 12 months, investigators interviewed a girl, recognized within the criticism as “CI #1,” who had come ahead and stated she went to high school with Gretchen and Zoey Harrington, considered one of Gretchen’s sisters.
The lady instructed investigators on Jan. 2 that she was pals with Mr. Zandstra’s daughters, and that she would usually play on the Zandstra house and keep in a single day. The lady instructed the police that, throughout two sleepovers, she was woke up by Mr. Zandstra touching her groin space.
Ultimately, the lady stated, she instructed her dad and mom, and that a short while afterward the Zandstras moved to Plano, Texas, a Dallas suburb, based on the criticism.
As the lady was being interviewed, she confirmed investigators a diary that she stored when she was a lady. In a single entry, dated Sept. 15, 1975, she wrote: “Guess what? A person tried to kidnap Holly twice,” referring to a lady in her class.
“It’s a secret so I can’t inform anybody, however I believe he is perhaps the one who kidnapped Gretchen. I believe it was Mr. Z,” she wrote, referring to Mr. Zandstra.
The interview and the journal entry prompted investigators to trace down Mr. Zandstra, who was dwelling in Marietta, northwest of Atlanta.
Investigators interviewed Mr. Zandstra at Cobb County police headquarters in Marietta on July 17. At first, Mr. Zandstra denied having seen Gretchen on the day she went lacking, based on the police criticism. However ultimately, it stated, he confessed.
He instructed the police that he noticed Gretchen strolling to church that morning, and that he picked her up in his inexperienced A.M.C. Rambler station wagon. However as an alternative of taking her to church, Mr. Zandstra instructed investigators, he drove her to a wooded space close by, parked the automobile after which instructed Gretchen to take away her garments, and she or he refused.
He instructed the police that he ejaculated whereas Gretchen was within the automobile with him, based on the police criticism. After that, Mr. Zandstra stated, he struck Gretchen together with his fist and she or he started bleeding from her head. Realizing that Gretchen seemed to be useless, Mr. Zandstra instructed the police, he “tried to cowl up her half-naked physique with sticks after which he left the realm,” the criticism stated.
“He murdered, together with his naked arms, this poor younger woman after which lied about it for 48 years,” Mr. Stollsteimer stated on the information convention on Monday.
Alain Delaquérière contributed analysis.