David Zandstra, 83, of Marietta, Georgia, was charged this week with the 1975 murder of 8-year-old Gretchen Harrington, one of Pennsylvania's oldest and coldest cases. Zandstra was well-placed to avoid justice, if not suspicion, being the child's pastor in Marple Township, 12 miles west of downtown Philadelphia.
"David Zandstra is a monster. He is every parent's worst nightmare," said Stollsteimer on Monday. "He killed that poor girl."
According to court documents, Zandstra was charged with homicide, murder, kidnapping a minor and related offenses.
Harrington disappeared on Aug. 15, 1975, while on a walk from her Marple Township home to a Bible school less than a mile away. …
Zandstra has given police a statement in which he allegedly admitted that he took her to a secluded place, told her to remove her clothes then, when she refused, he ejaculated in front of her before he beat her to death with his fists.
"Try that in a small town."
