What Marietta, Georgia’s David Zandstra did to Broomall, Pennsylvania’s Gretchen Harrington in 1975

David G. Zandstra, 83, of Marietta, Cobb County, Georgia, United States is a retired pastor. He is Margaret Zandra‘s husband.

David has lived in different parts of California, USA including Spring Valley, Fairfield and San Diego and in different parts of Delaware, Pennsylvania, USA including Broomall and Chester. He also previously lived in Plano, Texas, USA.

Zandra was a pastor at several of Christian Reformed Church in North America‘s churches in different parts of the U.S., including in Solano County, California.  On September 20, 1965, he became an ordained minister in New Jersey, USA.

From New Jersey, David moved to Chester. Between 1965 and 2005, he served at churches in New Jersey, California and Texas.

Gretchen Harrington’s murder, a cold case

In the early 1970s, David worked at the Trinity Church Chapel leading youth summer workshops for teen girls and assisting at a Bible school in Pennsylvania. One of the girls who attended the Bible school was Gretchen Harrington of Broomall.

Born in 1967, Harrington is Reformed Presbyterian Church reverend Harold Harrington‘s daughter and Zoey Harrington‘s sister. Gretchen was friends with one of David and Margaret’s children.

On the morning of August 15, 1975, Gretchen left her home in Broomall for summer Bible school. As part of the program, she started the day at the Trinity Church Chapel and from there, she was supposed to go to the Reformed Presbyterian Church.

While Gretchen was walking on her way to the Reformed Presbyterian Church, David was driving green A.M.C. Rambler station wagon and he offered her a ride. Instead of taking her to church, he took her to a wooded area of Ridley Creek State Park in Edgmont Township, Delaware County, parked his car and asked her to remove her clothes but she refused.

While Gretchen was in the car with David, he masturbated and after ejaculating, he punched her in the head with his first and she began bleeding. She appeared to be dead so he removed her from his car and tried to cover up her half-naked body with sticks.

Before leaving the area, David folded Gretchen’s clothes and left them in a neat pile near her body. He also hanged her underwear from a branch of a tree there.

At around 11:00 a.m., Harold learned that Gretchen was not at the church so he called the Marple Township Police Department to report her missing. When David was interviewed by investigators on August 19, 1975, he said he picked up children and drove them to the church on August 15, 1975 but he did not see Gretchen that day.

On October 14, 1975, a jogger found Gretchen’s skeletal remains in a wooded area of Ridley Creek State Park. An autopsy found that she died as a result of cranial cerebral injuries and the cause of her death was ruled a homicide.

On October 30, 1975, David was interviewed again and he insisted that he did not see Gretchen the day she was reported missing. No suspect was identified and the case went cold.

An unnamed witness and David Zandsta’s confession

From 1990 to 2005, David was at the Fairfield Christian Reformed Church. In the 2000s, he and Margaret retired to Marietta.

On January 2, 2023, a woman told investigators that she was friends with David and Margaret’s daughters and would often play at their house and stay overnight. The woman said she went to school with Gretchen and Zoey.

According to the woman, she was awakened by David touching her groin area during two sleepovers, one of which happened about a week before Gretchen went missing on August 15, 1975. Shortly after the girl told her parents about the molestation, David, Margaret and their children moved to Plano.

On July 17, 2023, Pennsylvania State Police corporal Andrew J. Martin and trooper Eugene Tray interviewed David at the Cobb County Police Department headquarters in Marietta. David initially denied having seen Gretchen on August 15, 1975 but eventually confessed to sexually abusing and killing the girl that day.

After David’s arrest, he was charged with criminal homicide, kidnapping of a minor, possessing an instrument of crime and murder of the first, second and third degrees. He is being held without bond at the Cobb County Jail in Marietta and is fighting extradition to Pennsylvania.