Retired Marple pastor David Zandstra was acquitted on all charges Friday afternoon in the 1975 abduction and death of 8-year-old Marple resident Gretchen Harrington. Zandstra, 84, now of Marietta, Ga., had been charged with first-, second- and third-degree murder, as well as kidnapping. David Zandstra mugshot upon his extradition to Delaware County in summer 2023. A great deal was made at his trial about the alleged confession. Did subtle comments and body language mean he was getting the weight off his shoulders, or not? The jury came back with the acquittal after only about an hour of deliberations. He was accused of taking Gretchen off the street on the morning of Aug. 15, 1975, as she made her way to vacation Bible school at Trinity Chapel Christian Reform Church at 140 Lawrence Road, where Zandstra served as minister. Gretchen Harrington The prosecution’s theory was that Zandstra had offered Gretchen a ride in his green station wagon that morning and that she accepted his invitation because she knew him. He was accused of driving her 8 miles away to Ridley Creek State Park, striking her with a killing blow to the head, then covering her with sticks and returning to the church. Gretchen Harrington’s body was found in Ridley Creek State Park by a jogger. (DAILY TIMES) Gretchen’s body was discovered by a jogger in October of 1975, kicking off a 48-year murder investigation that finally appeared solved in July 2023, when Zandstra provided a taped confession to Pennsylvania State Police Troopers Andrew Martin and Eugene Tray. Jurors heard from Martin this week and viewed the entirety of that recorded interview. They also heard from Anthony Borsello, a former cellmate who claimed Zandstra had confessed to him too, as well as a woman who claimed Zandstra had tried to molest her just a few days before Gretchen’s disappearance, when she was about 10 years old and sleeping over at his house. That woman reached out to Martin in 2022 and showed him her diary from that period, in which she documented the alleged molestation and said she suspected Zandstra had tried to kidnap another girl from the area. Holes in the prosecution But defense attorney Mark Much said in closing arguments Friday morning that Martin and Tray tricked, coerced and confused the octogenarian into confessing to Gretchen’s murder, planting the idea in his head that he killed the girl when he never even saw her that day. Much pointed to accounts at the time and a 2023 letter from at least one person at Trinity that day who said they saw Zandstra present for opening ceremonies of the bible school at 9:30 a.m. By all accounts, Much said he was definitely there at 11 a.m. when Gretchen’s father, Harold, came looking for her. ALEX ROSE - DAILY TIMESDavid Zandstra in November 2023 being led from a preliminary hearing in Middletown Township, Delaware County. The trial of the now-84-year-old in the killing of 8-year-old Gretchen Harrington is over and he has been acquitted. (ALEX ROSE – DAILY TIMES) But others present said Zandstra was not upset or disturbed that day and did not appear to be acting out of the ordinary, Much said. Gretchen’s head had been struck at least twice, likely with a rock, but Zandstra had no blood on him. Further, there was no blood at the scene when she was discovered two months later, either on nearby rocks, her clothes or any other items, Much said. He noted Medical Examiner Albert Chu was never asked to opine on how long the body had been there, so she may have been snatched off the street and kept elsewhere for some time before being dumped in the park. Much said at least one witness claimed to have seen Gretchen that morning at 9:25 a.m., at Sussex Boulevard and Lawrence Road, right across the street from Trinity. The area of the churches in Broomall in 1975. (COURTESY OF THE DELAWARE COUNTY DISTRICT ATTORNEY’S OFFICE) He asked why Zandstra would offer to give her a ride when she was right there, and why he picked that day, the end of Bible camp when the children were preparing for an evening presentation, to abduct her rather than on any other day that week that she had also reportedly been walking alone along the half-mile trek from her house to Trinity. That intersection was also extremely busy in the mornings, Much noted, which would put Zandstra and Gretchen in a “fishbowl” where anyone could see them. But, he said, no one had, or at least no one had reported it. Meanwhile, it was known that another child rapist who later died in prison for similar crimes was in the area that day and that hair was found in his car that Martin said had “similar characteristics” to Gretchen’s. That hair was never sent out to a lab, Much said. Police search a field for Gretchen Harrington in 1975 before her remains were found. (COURTESY OF THE DELAWARE COUNTY DISTRICT ATTORNEY’S OFFICE) Much also noted Zandstra repeatedly used phrases in his confession video like “I guess” or “probably” in describing his actions that day, which Much attributed to him trying to conjure a memory, 48 years later, that was never there to begin with. Much noted that Zoe Harrington, Gretchen’s older sister, had claimed in 2021 to have been taken to a wooded area the night of her sister’s disappearance and told by her father and other men in robes and masks to kill Gretchen with a rock or they would kill her. Martin said that confession of a cultish gathering had several elements that made it unbelievable, and that Zoe suffered from mental health issues, including delusional paranoia. But Much said Zoe’s description of the murder fit the physical evidence at the scene better than Zandstra hitting the girl with his fist and that Martin never even bothered to follow up on any of the names she provided as possible attendees. Much pointed out that Zoe’s DNA was collected, but was never sent out to a crime lab. He noted DNA from an unknown female was found on a piece of Gretchen’s clothing. Two other unknown males contributed to DNA on the victim’s shorts and underwear, he said, but Zandstra was excluded as a contributor to DNA found on any evidence collected from the crime scene. Prosecution’s pluses In his close, Deputy District Attorney Geoff Paine said troopers had taken Zoe seriously enough to seek a consensual phone intercept of her speaking to her father about it, but she backed out and ultimately her story did not make enough sense to take seriously. Paine said Zandstra was thwarted in trying to molest the woman with the diary three days before Gretchen went missing. Had the woman’s account of that sleepover been handed over to authorities when she first disclosed it in 1975, Paine said, things may have gone very differently. But it was handled “within the church,” as things often were back then, and Zandstra was gone to a new parish the following year, Paine said. Zandstra said in the video that he recalled that accusation and how it was handled. Borsello had said in his testimony that Zandstra told him he was driving a green “Nash rambler” at the time. Though Much argued Borsello had gotten his information from the news or Zandstra’s affidavit of probable cause in the cell, Paine noted that single piece of information about the “Nash” was present only in Zandstra’s recorded statement and appeared nowhere else. Though Zandstra said he must have hit Gretchen with his fist, Borsello said the former minister told him he used a rock, which would match the medical evidence presented by Chu. Paine added that the other child rapist Much mentioned had a different M.O. from this case, so was not considered a suspect. Another of Gretchen’s sisters, Harriett Anne Myers, had also testified that Gretchen would never get in a car with a stranger, but Zandstra was known to their family. Zandstra provided several details about the abduction in his confession: That Gretchen had asked to go home during the car ride, that she was partially clothed when she died and that he ejaculated at some point. Borsello had also said Zandstra told him the girl wanted her mother and told him she wanted to go home. Just before the confession, Zandstra said he wanted to help give the family closure, “Because I’ve looked in the mirror too many times and said, ‘Why, why did you do this?’ ” Zandstra also clearly recounted in the video picking up Gretchen that day, telling her to get in the car and taking her to a wooded area. He said he did so, “I guess to have some sort of sexual pleasure,” but was unequivocal when describing parking somewhere where they would not be seen and telling Gretchen to remove her clothes. Paine said that is not something someone would admit to unless they were there and had done those things, no matter how turned around they might have been by deceptive questioning tactics. In another part of the tape, Zandstra said he had thought about it more than a thousand times. When asked at the end of the interview if he had anything to add, Zandstra said, “A lot of tears.” Then, some 16 minutes after the interview ended, Zandstra told Tray, “You guys are good. You ruined my life.” This was, Paine said, the honest confession of a man who had held in these horrors for 48 years and was finally letting them out. Lawyers comments “We knew that this was going to be a difficult case going in, witnesses from 50 years ago that had either passed away or were in a condition that they couldn’t testify to give us all the information that we knew existed,” said Paine after the trial. “We weren’t going to shy away from that and the idea that we might lose a case based on it is not going to stop us from going forward on these difficult cases.” Paine said the DA’s office has made a commitment to all of the families of cold case victims and it was not going to change that commitment based on one verdict in one difficult case that, if the office had not gone forward with it now, might never get the chance to due to the defendant’s age. “We believe that we had the right person,” he said. “We respect the jury’s verdict. They had a difficult job and the reality is, on a 50-year-old case, it’s difficult to find evidence, it’s difficult to have physical evidence, it’s too old to have DNA, a positive match, because evidence degrades. But we’ll still go forward if we believe that we have the right person for a case like this.” “David Zandstra maintained his innocence for 48 years and as Mr. Much said in his closing, he maintained his innocence for most of his interview, and he maintains his innocence to this day,” said defense attorney Chris Boggs, who second-chaired with Much on the case. “Our firm and Mr. Zandstra’s family are very proud and grateful of Mr. Much’s efforts and we are happy to have Mr. Zandstra returned to his family. Criminal trials in this country are amazing things and we thank the jury for their hard work this week. Our hearts along with all of Delaware County still break for the Harrington family who deserve an end to the nightmare of losing a family member.”