The former Minister was acquitted of the 1975 murder of an 8-year-old child near Philadelphia

A former pastor was acquitted Friday of manslaughter in the 1975 killing of 8-year-old Gretchen Harrington when she was abducted on her way to a detention center. bible outside of Philadelphia and was executed.

The verdict in the case against former minister David Zandstra, 84, whose lawyers argued strongly during the four-day trial that their lawyers had been coerced into confessing, took about an hour. decades.

In addition to being charged with first, second and third degree murder, Mr. Zandstra was also found not guilty of all other charges, including murder, child abduction minors and possession of weapons.

Pastor of Trinity Chapel Christian Reformed Church in Broomall, Pa., Mr. Zandstra, where Gretchen went on the morning of August 15, 1975, when she disappeared. The church is less than half a mile from his house.

A hiker found his remains two months later in Ridley Creek State Park, located about 25 miles west of Philadelphia in Delaware County, Pa.

In a statement issued after the verdict, Christopher Boggs, one of Mr. Zandstra’s lawyers, said his client had maintained his innocence for years.

“We are happy that Mr. Zandstra has returned to his family,” he said. “Criminal justice is an amazing thing in this country and we thank the judges for their hard work this week. Our hearts and those of all of Delaware County continue to break for the Harrington family who deserve to end the nightmare of losing a family member. “

Prosecutors did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Friday, but in a press release following the verdict in Delaware County Circuit Court, Deputy District Attorney Geoffrey Paine on the decision to indict Zandstra in 2023. . prevented by the absence of some witnesses, according to The Philadelphia Inquirer.

“We’ve made a commitment to the families of all the victims,” ​​he said, “and we’re not going to change that commitment based on a case-by-case ruling.”

Harrington’s family representative did not immediately comment on the verdict.

Mr. Zandstra’s defense team sought to portray him before the jury of six men and six women as the troubled man that investigators had made him out to be. Mark P. Much, another lawyer for Mr. Zandstra, said they took advantage of his age and confidence during the hour-long interview.

Detectives with the Pennsylvania State Police said Mr. Zandstra, who was living in Georgia when they interviewed him in 2023, admitted to taking Gretchen to a wooded area and then tells Gretchen to take off her clothes.

He refused, according to the criminal complaint, which says the former pastor told authorities he ejaculated while Gretchen was in the car with him. After that, the investigator detailed the complaint, he punched Gretchen and she started bleeding from the head. Mr. Zandstra went on to tell police that he “attempted to cover her naked body with a tree and left the scene,” when he realized that Gretchen appeared to be dead, the complaint said.

During the trial, Mr. Zandstra’s attorney argued that prosecutors tried to compensate for the lack of physical evidence linking him to Gretchen’s murder by forcing him to confess.

One of the detectives who investigated Mr. Zandstra was questioned on Thursday about claims that investigators took blood from a stone at the crime scene, The Delaware County Times. The detective told Mr. Zandstra that authorities would send his DNA to other states where he worked as a minister to see if he had committed other crimes.

“I cheated,” said the detective.

“You lied,” replied Mr. Much.

“I cheated,” said the detective again.

Mr. Zandstra emerged as a possible suspect after the publication of a book about Gretchen’s abduction and murder in 2022 by two journalists, Mike Mathis and Joanna Falcone Sullivan.

He agreed to be interviewed for the book, and told one of the authors that a teacher at the Bible school asked him if he had seen Gretchen when she was missing, and he said no.

“The jury has spoken,” Ms. Sullivan, who attended most of the hearing, said in an interview Friday. “The case was not very strong.”

Shortly after the book was published, a woman contacted the police and identified Mr. Zandstra as a possible suspect, saying he had molested her around the time Gretchen disappeared.

He told investigators that he went to school with Gretchen and was friends with Mr. Zandstra too. During her double sleep in the Zandstra house, this lady said, she was woken up by Mr. Zandstra touching her on the stomach.

She gave investigators a diary she kept as a child. In an article dated September 15, 1975, he wrote: “What? “A guy tried to kidnap Holly twice,” he said, referring to a girl in his class.

“It’s a secret I can’t tell anyone, but I think he might have kidnapped Gretchen. I think it’s Mr. Z,” he wrote, referring to Mr. Zandstra.