Gretchen Harrington almost skipped Bible camp the day she was abducted — and then killed — while walking there.
Her sisters, who usually traveled to the program with her, stayed home on Aug. 15, 1975, because the family had a new baby. But 8-year-old Gretchen had a perfect attendance record, prosecutors said, and her family encouraged her to go alone.
“And that ended up being, as we can know, a fateful decision,” Jack Stollsteimer, district attorney of Delaware County, Pa., told reporters Monday.
Gretchen’s remains were found two months later, unnerving her southeastern Pennsylvania community and prompting a nearly 50-year investigation into the identity of her killer. Last week, prosecutors say, the pastor of one of the churches that hosted the camp — and a friend of Gretchen’s family — confessed to her abduction and murder.
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David Zandstra, 83, is charged with criminal homicide; first-, second- and third-degree murder; kidnapping a minor; and possessing an instrument of crime. A phone message left Tuesday for an attorney representing him was not immediately returned.
“He is every parent’s worst nightmare,” Stollsteimer said of Zandstra at the news conference. “This is a man who is a remorseless child predator, who acted as if he was a friend, a neighbor and a man of God. And he killed this poor little girl.”
Zandstra was the pastor of the Trinity Church Chapel Christian Reform Church in Marple, where the camp Gretchen attended began in the morning. Zandstra would then transport the children to the nearby Reformed Presbyterian Church, where Gretchen’s father was the pastor, for the rest of the day.
When Gretchen’s father became worried upon learning his daughter hadn’t arrived at camp, Zandstra was the one who called the police, prosecutors said.
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In reality, Zandstra had offered Gretchen a ride when he saw her making the half-mile walk alone, authorities said. He was familiar to her; in addition to being the pastor at her camp, he was also the father of one of her best friends. She had no reason not to accept the offer.
But rather than taking her to camp, Zandstra drove Gretchen to a wooded area and asked her to undress, prosecutors said. When she refused, he allegedly performed a sexual act in front of her and then beat her with his hands.
Once Gretchen appeared to be dead, Zandstra allegedly tried to cover her body. Then, prosecutors said, he went back to Trinity Church and acted as if nothing had happened.
Share this articleShareGretchen’s remains were found Oct. 14, 1975, in Ridley Creek State Park in Media, Pa., about five miles from where she was abducted.
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Zandstra was first questioned by police the same month. A witness had told police they saw Gretchen speaking to the owner of a green car — one that matched Zandstra’s green Rambler station wagon, prosecutors said. Zandstra, however, denied seeing Gretchen the day she disappeared.
“This man is evil,” Stollsteimer said. “He killed this poor 8-year-old girl he knew and who trusted him, and then he acted as if he was a family friend not only during her burial and the period after that, but for years.”
After leaving Pennsylvania in 1976, Zandstra served as a pastor in other states before retiring in 2005, according to the Christian Reformed Church.
A breakthrough in the case came in January, when investigators interviewed a childhood friend of Zandstra’s daughter who often attended sleepovers at the family’s home. The woman said she woke up during a sleepover when she was about 10 years old to find Zandstra groping her groin area. When she told Zandstra’s daughter, the daughter “replied that the defendant did that sometimes,” prosecutors said.
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On July 17, investigators traveled to Marietta, Ga., where Zandstra lives, to talk with him again. He initially denied having a role in Gretchen’s disappearance, prosecutors said. But when investigators confronted him about other allegations of sexual assault against him, he allegedly admitted he had offered Gretchen a ride, drove her away and killed her when she refused to undress.
The confession appeared to lift a weight from Zandstra’s chest, Pennsylvania State Trooper Eugene Tray said at the news conference. Zandstra seemed “relieved,” Tray said, even when told he would be placed under arrest.
Zandstra was taken into custody in Georgia that day. He was denied bail and is fighting extradition to Pennsylvania. Officials said they believe that Zandstra may have sexually assaulted other people and that they took a DNA sample from him to compare with open cases nationwide.
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Gretchen’s father did not live to see the man who allegedly killed her face charges. In a statement, her remaining family members said that anyone who met her instantly became her friend and that they were “extremely hopeful” her killer would be brought to justice.
“Even now, when people share their memories of her, the first thing they talk about is how amazing she was and still is … at just 8 years old, she had a lifelong impact on those around her,” the family said. “The abduction and murder of Gretchen has forever altered our family and we miss her every single day.”
Zandstra’s alleged crime, Stollsteimer said, will not go unpunished.
“We’re going to try him, we’re going to convict him, and he’s going to die in jail,” Stollsteimer said. “And then he’s going to have to find out what the God he professes to believe in holds for those who are this evil to our children.”
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