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Retired pastor charged in 1975 cold case murder of 8-year-old girl [1]

['Rob Beschizza']

Date: 2023-07-25

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.

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[1] Url: https://boingboing.net/2023/07/25/retired-pastor-charged-in-1975-cold-case-murder-of-8-year-old-girl.html

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