A pastor who was a trusted family friend has been arrested and charged with the 1975 murder of eight-year-old Gretchen Harrington, a cold case that haunted the Philadelphia suburb of Broomall, Pennsylvania, for nearly half a century. David Zandstra, now 83, confessed to luring the young girl into his car and beating her to death on the morning of August 15, 1975, according to Delaware County District Attorney Jack Stollsteimer. Zandstra, a retired minister, was taken into custody in Marietta, Georgia, on July 17, 2023, after detectives confronted him with decades-old evidence and new allegations of sexual đť“Şđť“«đť“ľđť“Ľđť“®.
The case had languished for 48 years, with investigators running out of leads after Gretchen’s remains were found in Ridley Creek State Park in October 1975. She had suffered two blunt force impacts to her skull, and her homemade shorts, sewn by her mother, were found with her body. The community was devastated, and the search for a killer consumed the first responding officers and generations of detectives who followed.
The break came in January 2023 when a woman, identified only as SF in court documents, contacted Pennsylvania State Police. She had been a childhood friend of Gretchen and her older sister Zoe, and she also was a frequent playmate and sleepover guest at the Zandstra home. The woman told troopers that in August 1975, one week before Gretchen vanished, she awoke in the middle of the night at the Zandstra house to find Pastor Zandstra touching her inappropriately.
She shifted her position, and he left the room. The next night, she said, he touched her again. When she told Zandstra’s daughter Mara about the behavior, Mara replied, “He does that sometimes, and sometimes I hear my sister crying in the middle of the night.”
The woman’s parents forbade her from sleeping over again. She also provided a diary entry from September 15, 1975, which read, “Guess what, a man tried to kidnap Holly twice. It is a secret so I cannot tell anyone, but I think he might be the one who kidnapped Gretchen.
I think it was Mr. Z.”
Zandstra’s name had been in the investigative files since the day Gretchen disappeared. He had been the pastor of the secondary church at the Trinity Chapel Christian Reformed Church, where Gretchen was headed for summer Bible school. On the morning of August 15, 1975, Gretchen walked alone from her home on Lawrence Road.
Her father, Pastor Harold Harrington, had encouraged her to maintain her perfect attendance record. Zandstra, who was responsible for transporting children that day, told police he never saw Gretchen.
But witnesses reported seeing a girl matching Gretchen’s description talking to someone in a green station wagon or a light-top, dark-bottom Cadillac, which matched Zandstra’s car. Zandstra also provided an unusually detailed description of Gretchen’s shorts to police, despite claiming he never saw her that day. They were dark blue with a zipper and snap in the front, with pockets on each side, and no visible buttons.
The shorts were homemade, and such specific details were not information he should have had.
When state troopers interviewed Zandstra in July 2023 at the Cobb County Police Department, he initially denied any involvement. Then investigators revealed the new allegations from the woman who had been a childhood friend. Zandstra finally confessed.
He said that after Gretchen walked out of her father’s view, he pulled up in his green AMC Rambler station wagon and invited her inside. Instead of driving to church, he took her to a secluded, wooded area.
He ordered her to remove her clothes, but Gretchen refused and said she wanted to go home. Zandstra told detectives he struck her with his fist, causing her head to bleed. After feeling her pulse and determining she appeared lifeless, he dragged her body from the car and attempted to cover it with sticks.
He then drove to the church and continued with his day as if nothing had happened. Zandstra showed no emotion during the confession, according to Detective Phil Stoddard of Marietta, Georgia, who observed the interview.
Zandstra was arrested on charges of murder in the first, second, and third degrees, kidnapping of a minor, and possession of an instrument of crime. He is currently being held without bail in Cobb County, Georgia, fighting extradition to Pennsylvania. The district attorney’s office is seeking a governor’s warrant to return him to Delaware County, a process that could take up to two months.
Stollsteimer vowed to try and convict Zandstra, stating, “He is going to stay in jail for the rest of his life, and then he is going to have to find out what the God he professes to believe in holds for those who are this evil to our children.”
The arrest sent shockwaves through the community of Broomall and Marple Township, where Gretchen’s murder had shattered the innocence of the 1970s suburban childhood. Karen Frank Zetterberg, a Bible school classmate of Gretchen’s, remembered how her mother cut her hair short to make her look like a boy after the disappearance, so she would not stand out. “We were always taught in church that evil exists in the world, but you do not really understand evil until something like this happens,” Zetterberg said.
Jim Cristaldi, who as a youth delivered newspapers to the Harrington family, recalled a time when children roamed freely, building forts in the woods and playing in Darby Creek. “We were innocent, and this absolutely shattered our innocence,” he said. The search for Gretchen had transformed the community, with hundreds of people joining the search parties that combed the hills and creeks.
The sight of a Pennsylvania State Police helicopter hovering overhead haunted residents for decades.
Gretchen’s family released a statement expressing gratitude for the arrest and asking for privacy. “Gretchen was only eight years old when she was suddenly taken away from us on her way to church,” the statement read. “If you met Gretchen, you were instantly her friend.
She exuded kindness to all and was sweet and gentle. Even now, when people share their memories of her, the first thing they talk about is how amazing she was.” Her parents, Harold and Ina Harrington, were married for 59 years.
Harold passed away in 2021 at age 94.
The Christian Reformed Church, where Zandstra was ordained in 1965, issued a statement expressing condolences and grief. “We recognize that we live in a broken and sinful world where violence can happen anywhere by anyone, even within our churches and by leaders we hold to the highest standards,” the statement said. Zandstra served at churches in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, California, Texas, and Georgia during his career, retiring in 2005.
His neighbors in Georgia expressed shock, describing him as a friendly man who walked with a cane.
District Attorney Stollsteimer raised the possibility of additional victims, given Zandstra’s decades of work with children across multiple states. “We are concerned that there may be more victims who might have been assaulted by this man,” he said. Law enforcement is urging anyone with information to contact the Pennsylvania State Police or the district attorney’s office.
A DNA sample was collected from Zandstra to be compared against evidence in other open cases across Pennsylvania and the country.
The resolution of this case is a testament to the persistence of law enforcement across generations. Pennsylvania State Police Lieutenant Jonathan Sunderland stated, “Justice does not have an expiration date. Whether a crime happened 50 years ago or five minutes ago, the residents of the Commonwealth can have confidence that law enforcement will not rest until justice is served.”
Corporal Andrew Martin of the criminal investigation assessment unit and missing persons unit was singled out for his unwavering determination to solve the case.
JoAnn Falcon Sullivan, who wrote the true crime book “Marple’s Gretchen Harrington Tragedy” published in October 2022, described her shock and disbelief at the news. Sullivan, who grew up in Broomall and was nine years old at the time of the murder, said she and her co-author Mike Mathis had worked with the Marple police to comb through cold case files. The book’s release may have spurred new interest and fresh details that helped break the case.
“I think we got people talking again,” Sullivan said.
Michelle DeLaune, president and CEO of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, praised the collaboration between multiple agencies. “Today’s announcement is a testament to the power of perseverance and a family and community’s commitment to justice regardless of how much time has passed,” she said. The case had been assigned to multiple detectives over the decades, with each one handed the file and never giving up hope.
The confession has brought a measure of closure to the family and the community, but it has also reopened deep wounds. The Harrington family’s statement captured the emotional complexity: “We are grateful for the continual pursuit of justice by law enforcement, and we would not be here today if it was not for them. As a family, we ask for privacy at this time as we continue to digest this information.”
Zandstra’s wife, Margaret, who brought supper to the Harrington home on the day of the murder, did not respond to requests for comment. At the time of the disappearance, she was described by observers as appearing in shock but resigned to the loss. The irony of her husband’s betrayal has been deeply felt by the community.
The case has also prompted renewed discussion about the safety of children and the betrayal of trust by those in positions of authority. “He is every parent’s worst nightmare,” Stollsteimer said. “This heinous act left a family and a community forever changed.
At long last, I can announce today that David Zandstra had admitted to this crime. Justice has been a long time coming.”
The investigation into Zandstra’s past continues, with detectives in multiple states reviewing cold cases involving missing or murdered children and sexual assault allegations. The district attorney’s office is working to expedite his extradition and ensure he faces trial in Pennsylvania. “We are going to try him, we are going to convict him, and he is going to stay in jail for the rest of his life,” Stollsteimer said.
For the residents of Broomall, the arrest closes a chapter that began on a sunny summer morning when an eight-year-old girl walked up a hill with a Bible in her hand. The image of that helicopter hovering over the neighborhood has finally found a landing point, but the legacy of loss and shattered innocence remains. “It is much easier to believe that some outsider had done this,” one resident said, “instead, it was a respected member of our community, a religious leader with a wife and young girls of his own.”
