Former pastor with North Texas ties charged with child’s murder in Pennsylvania cold case

A former pastor with North Texas ties is accused of abducting and murdering an 8-year-old Pennsylvania girl on her way to summer camp nearly 50 years ago, officials said.

David Zandstra, 83, was taken into custody July 17 and charged with the August 1975 murder of Gretchen Harrington, according to a press release from the Delaware County District Attorney’s Office in Pennsylvania.

District Attorney Jack Stollsteimer said he is thankful to finally have answers for the community.

“Gretchen’s murder created a ‘before’ time and an ‘after’ time for an entire community — and for an entire county,” Stollsteimer said in the release. “This heinous act left a family and a community forever changed.”

After leaving Pennsylvania, Zandstra pastored Bethel Christian Reformed Church in Dallas from 1976 to 1983, according to his bio on the Christian Reformed Church website. The church is no longer active.

Zandstra is reported to have lived in Plano, and Plano Police Department officials are asking for anyone who knows anything about Zandstra’s time in the area let them know.

“Apparently we have been listed in a news article as one of the places this monster could have lived,” Plano police said in the tweet Monday. “We will also be checking our records but as of right now we don’t have any information.

Authorities collected DNA samples from Zandstra to compare to samples connected with open cases in Pennsylvania and across the U.S., officials said.

Zandstra and Gretchen’s father pastored churches in close proximity to each other in Broomall, Pennsylvania, at the time of Gretchen’s disappearance. The two churches collaborated in hosting a summer camp, and Zandstra was responsible for driving the children from his church to the other one during the camp, according to the release.

Gretchen was last seen walking to Zandstra’s church for camp around 9:30 a.m. on Aug. 15, 1975. Her father became concerned when she didn’t arrive at his church with the other children and told Zandstra, who called police to report Gretchen’s disappearance, officials said.

A witness reported seeing Gretchen talking with the driver of a vehicle that looked like one owned by Zandstra, but when interviewed by authorities, Zandstra denied seeing Gretchen the day she disappeared. Gretchen’s remains were found in Ridley Creek State Park two months later.

In January 2023, an anonymous woman told authorities that Zandstra had touched her inappropriately when she was a child and she believed he was responsible for Gretchen’s disappearance, officials said.

Investigators met with Zandstra on July 17, and he admitted he saw Gretchen walking alone the morning of her disappearance, the release said. He told investigators that he offered her a ride and took her to a wooded area, where he asked her to remove her clothes. When she refused, Zandstra hit her on the head with his fist and hid her body, officials said.

Zandstra has been charged with criminal homicide; murder of the first, second and third degree; kidnapping of a minor and the possession of an instrument of crime, according to the release.

Zandstra is being held in the Cobb County Jail in Georgia without bond, according to Cobb County Sheriff’s Office records.

Lora Snyder, a former neighbor of the Harringtons, said in a public Facebook post that she grew up a block from where Gretchen was abducted.

“This has haunted our family forever,” Snyder said. “So glad there is closure for the family.”

The Harrington family said in a statement to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children that Gretchen was sweet and gentle and “had a lifelong impact on those around her.”

“The abduction and murder of Gretchen has forever altered our family and we miss her every single day,” the family said. “We are grateful for the continual pursuit of justice by law enforcement.”