Gretchen Harrington: The Bible Camp Murder // 640

0:00What is going on True Crime fans? I'm your host Heath. And I'm your host, Daphne. And you're listening to Going West. Hello everybody. Going West is now a show about pastors and Bible cabs. We have another one. I don't know what's going on this summer. It's just like luck of the draw kind of thing. But I think what is so fascinating to me about covering stories like the one we have today is that like this type of environment is supposed to feel so safe. The people in the church are supposed to feel safe. Yeah. So it's, you know, we're going to be talking about a few different predators today actually as we're kind of like getting to the conclusion of today's story. But just want to say really big shout out to Irene for recommending this one. Otherwise wouldn't have heard of that. I'm surprised this isn't like a more well-known story. And of course we'd be really interested to see what you guys think about this story when it ends.

1:04You know, it's such a sad one that proves how much we don't always know the people that are living around us. And what they're truly capable of because I mean, again, like you said, this is supposed to be a very safe place. And as we're going to get into, there's a lot of monsters within. Yeah, it's really disturbing when we cover stories like this and you fully realize like, wow, sometimes you really don't know who's around you. Well, without further ado, this is the murder of Gretchen Harrington, also known as the Bible Camp Murder. In August of 1975, an eight year old girl left her Pennsylvania home and began the short walk to her final day of Bible Camp.

2:05But she never made it. Soon, her remains were found, but it wasn't until one of her childhood friends came forward with a disturbing memory that things started to move in the case. A memory that would turn investigators attention towards someone Gretchen knew, trusted, and would have no reason to fear. This is the story of Gretchen Harrington, the Bible Camp Murder. Gretchen Harrington was born on June 13, 1967 to Ena and Harold Harrington. And once she was born, Gretchen was the youngest of three girls joining a middle sister named Harriet, who actually went by Ann. We're going to call her Ann today and oldest sister named Zoe. Yeah, imagine that would be pretty hard. Harriet Harrington. Yeah, interesting. Harold and Harriet. Yeah, Harold and Harriet Harrington. Yeah, she goes by Ann now. So Harold, speaking of, I'd been a minister since September of 1954, so way before the girls were born, where he began in Newcastle, Pennsylvania.

3:08He was then transferred to Arizona from 1961 to 1964, which is where he met Ena. The pair married on March 16, 1962, and then they moved to Lake Reno, Minnesota, which is where Gretchen was born. And they lived there until 1968, when Harold was brought back to Pennsylvania to preside over a congregation in Marple Township, where the Harrington family settled in the personage of the Brumel Presbyterian Church. So they're living in the very small town of Brumel. Gretchen is remembered by her sister Ann as a happy, go lucky child who was, quote, innocent and uncomplicated. She was sensitive. She liked people. She didn't have a mean streak in her body at all. She was a nice person, a nice little girl who loved the TV show Gunsmoke and couldn't match her clothes. She'd wear stripes with plaid. She didn't care. Gretchen wouldn't be left behind. She didn't want to be left out. Gretchen loved playing board games, and in particular, shoots and ladders.

4:11One of her best friends, Kristi Zanstra, whose father, David, was also a local pastor, recalled Gretchen as being, quote, one of those just easygoing kids. We never fought. We just had fun together. We played together for as long as I can remember. We both had big yards with the personage, the church and the church grounds, and so we did a lot of playing outside. Swings, climbing trees, things like that. Gretchen was friends with everybody, and she was happy to play with anybody. It's kind of amazing for her that she has this best friend, Kristi, whose dad also works in the church. Both the families interact with each other on a daily basis. They had a really similar upbringing and very similar living situations at the personage. She had so many friends though. The Harringtons were well liked and respected in the community by all. They were described as a quote, cute loving family. At the time of Gretchen's disappearance, the Harringtons were living at 27 Lawrence Road in a tidy brick home on the grounds of the church, where their father of course was the pastor.

5:18The girls had been excited about the prospect of welcoming their new baby sister, Jessica, who was born the day before Gretchen vanished, which is really just kind of crazy timing. I don't think like a case doesn't come to mind where there was a baby born right when another one was taken away. This is really, really strange timing. Yeah, and actually, Ena came home from the hospital with baby Jessica the very same morning that Gretchen disappeared. So devastating. Well, up until then, the girls lived a happy and peaceful childhood, enjoyed many friends and played outside with the other neighborhood children basically every single day. They bassed in the sanctity of false safety until Gretchen's disappearance completely shattered that illusion. Her sister Anne or Harriet remembered quote, in the summertime, we all played together. Everybody was outdoors. People thought you didn't have to worry about the children. They were wrong. They weren't safe ever. Now, of course, this is 1975. They live in an unincorporated town in the township that had less than 5,000 people. So of course, they're going to feel safe because they know everybody.

6:29But little did they know someone among them was a predator on Friday, August 15th, 1975. Gretchen was looking forward to attending her final day of a two-week vacation Bible school, which her sisters and many other friends, including her best friend, Christy Zanstra, were attending that summer. Both Gretchen's past or father Herald and fellow pastor David Zanstra were presiding over the camp. Now, typically, Gretchen walked there with her two older sisters, although that day, Anne and Zoe chose to stay home to welcome baby Jessica. But Herald encouraged Gretchen to attend the final day of camp because she had otherwise perfect attendance that summer. He's like, you don't want to mess up your Bible school streak. You're almost there. This is like the last day. So he sent her off to camp on foot, watching her from the driveway until she walked far enough down the road. Her commute was a straight shot down Lawrence Road, which again, this is the road that they lived on, and was only about a half a mile or 0.8 kilometers from their house. So this was very close.

7:35But this leader actually haunted Herald Harrington, knowing that he sent his daughter off to her abduction. Gretchen set off for Trinity Chapel around 9.20 a.m. that morning. Then Bible study would begin at David Zanstra's church and the kids would then transfer to Gretchen's father's church so this would be Herald's church. So Lawrence Road, where she would have been walking, was a pretty highly trafficked road. It had the department buildings and churches and houses and a grocery store. But we're definitely not as many buildings as are there today. This was of course the 70s. So there's been a lot of building over the years. Sure, but it's not like some rural out in the country type of road. Yeah, so there's definitely a lot of cars driving by as she's walking. But again, like you're saying, this was a very familiar walk for her. She had been doing it for about two weeks. But the timeline of that morning is pretty muddy. Though Harold reported his daughter missing to the police at 11.29 a.m. as per the official police report.

8:35Later, a Delaware County news outlet would report that several of Gretchen's friends from Bible school came to the front door of the Harrington's home just after 1 p.m. to report that she hadn't arrived to camp that day. David Zanzstra, who was Trinity Chapel's pastor, reported that one of her Bible teachers passed a message to him saying that Gretchen hadn't made it to class about an hour into the day. And this set off alarm bells for everybody as soon as David got the word about 60 kids were sent from Trinity Chapel to reform Presbyterian and David remembered quote, I was running a Volkswagen bus with a certain amount of children to bring them to the church building. And when I got there, I think one of the teachers from Gretchen's class asked me if I'd seen Gretchen. She said, I thought Gretchen might be with you. And I said, no, she said she's not here either. I went to pastor Harrington's house and they confirmed that she had left to walk up the street. And I said, she's not here.

9:35I must have at that point called the police. And obviously as we know, David is very familiar with Gretchen. This is his daughter's best friend. Yeah. And the reason why this is so alarming is the fact that an eight year old doesn't have anywhere else to go. It's not like she's sneaking off to go hang with friends somewhere else. Like she has been going to Bible school every single day for two weeks. She should be there. So the fact that she's not. It's immediately, you know, very strange and concerning. Yeah. And you know, it's not like she's a teenager. And even some people brought up like, oh, maybe she went to the store to buy baby Jessica gift or get something for her mom for bringing home this baby because she really wanted to be there that day to see the baby. And then her dad was kind of like, oh, thinking she had her whole life to see Jessica. But her parents were like, no, she wouldn't have done that. She wasn't that type of kid. She wasn't going to like go the store by herself. So there was no reason for her to not show up to buy that day. David's wife Margie recalled Harold saying quote, she's gone. I know she's gone. He said, I usually walk her up the street. But for that day, I only watched her for a little bit. And then I went into the house.

10:45And you know, obviously understandably so he's been taking her to camp every day for almost two weeks. He is just welcoming his new baby into the house. Like this is kind of a chaotic day and not where anybody thinks this day is going to go. Yeah. I mean, can you imagine your newborn coming home from the hospital. This is so exciting. It's a celebration. It's supposed to be such a happy day. And then another one of your children goes missing. No, seriously, like welcoming one child and letting go of another. It's so devastating. So Gretchen's middle sister and believes that she was the first to notice Gretchen's disappearance, though she claims that the day was a blur for all of them, of course. Christie Zanzstra later recalled quote, I remember a sense of panic in the air. My parents looked very scared. There were other adults around. I sensed this urgency, but I didn't understand the magnitude of them thinking she was gone gone. At the time, I really think I lived under the assumption that she would come back. I did not think in any way my friend is gone or is dead. I thought I don't know where she is, but eventually she's going to come back.

11:49And I think that's probably the consensus among a lot of people when a loved one goes missing. They don't assume that they're never going to see that person ever again. It's like, she's probably going to be back at some point. Yeah, it's surreal. Yeah, it really is. Well, neighborhood parents mobilized immediately and scoured nearby homes and apartment buildings, sectioning themselves off into groups and walking up and down Lawrence road. Some groups even walked the surrounding woods and creeks like everyone in that neighborhood was out looking for Gretchen. But one area that they specifically didn't check was Ridley Creek State Park, even though it was nearby because they didn't expect to find her in such a large area. They were looking mostly in the neighborhood and spots that were super close by. And that park by the way is about 2,600 acres, so very big. Yeah, so they're not thinking in their heads like, you know, we're looking for a body. We're looking for a place where somebody was disposed of a little girl. Their minds aren't even going there. They're like, where could she have walked to?

12:56Yeah, I mean, you know, they just didn't think to go that deep into a state park because this kind of thing just didn't happen there. Little girls didn't end up murdered while missing posters circulated immediately with a detailed description of what she was wearing that day, which was a blue and white short-sleeved shirt, blue sneakers, and dark blue shorts. So this prompted many tips and sightings, but none of them were proven to actually have been Gretchen. By the end of that first day of the search, morale was pretty low and hope was seriously dwindling. Margie Zanzstra reflected, quote, We continued on with the Bible school that morning, but with heavy hearts. We went down to the Harrington's house later in the day about dinner time and took them some dinner, and she had not appeared by that time. So we were pretty sure that something bad had happened. She remembered Ena being in a complete days and that she was crying, essentially accepting the fact that Gretchen was gone. You know, everybody was just in total disbelief that something could have happened to her, and a place that she knew so well.

14:03That same day that she disappeared helicopters were sent out hovering over the woods of marble township areas which may have been concealing Gretchen while detectives, on the other hand, scoured court records to compile lists of nearby sex offenders. Her case was compared with others in the area's law enforcement wonder if, you know, there could be some sort of connection to her disappearance with like some sort of serial killer. Yeah, because now they're like she's not anywhere nearby. Nobody she knows has seen her. She's not at the camp. Something happened and this is really bad. And we also know that this was a very prevalent time for serial killers. The 70s and 80s. This was something that was, you know, it was popping up all over the place. So they're thinking in their minds. Let's go look back see if we can find any other missing children and see if we can link those cases to Gretchen. So true, this is unfortunately the trend of the era. Well, by Sunday, two days after Gretchen had disappeared, the search was officially called off, but the marble township police department maintained that they would continue to devote all available resources to this search.

15:12But even police chief Daniel Hennessy admitted that they didn't have a clue where she had gone. I mean, they had no trace of her whatsoever like she was plucked from the sky from the onset of the investigation. Police believe that it was likely that Gretchen knew her of doctor because of how seamlessly she was taken from an otherwise busy street. Yeah, they're wondering why she maybe why maybe nobody heard a scream or saw like a fight taking place in ultra-cool. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. And you know, this is a very small area. Like you said, the whole township is like around 5,000 people. It's not like super rural. It's only an hour-ish from Philadelphia. So it is next to a big city. So certainly there could have been somebody passing through. But you know, it still was a small area. It's not too secluded. So detective Richard Manken believed that her killer lured her into a vehicle on the east side of Lawrence Road between 9.20 and 9.30 a.m.

16:14Most likely between the Lawrence Court apartments and the Brighton Village apartments based on witness statements. Gretchen had last been seen by the mother of a fellow Bible school attendee who drove by Gretchen on the way to drop off her own child. There were reports of both a green pickup truck and a white car in the area, though these vehicles were never able to be located. On August 17th, a woman who lived in the area named Sharon Smith told police that she was reporting for work when she was stopped at a traffic light at Sussex Boulevard and Lawrence Road. And so while she's like sitting at this traffic light, she's just kind of looking around. And she spotted the driver of a vehicle stopping to talk to a young girl. But the traffic light changed and she kept driving. So she couldn't be sure whether or not the little girl got into the vehicle or if the girl knew the driver like she didn't clock it immediately as like a suspicious situation. And you know what's really interesting here is the fact that this was such a common thing.

17:17You know, like obviously we're talking about the fact that this was kind of the area that the era, sorry, for serial killers. And it's like it's because we didn't have dash cams, we didn't have traffic cameras, we didn't have any of those things. So these people, these guys, these serial killers or abductors, whatever you want to call them, they were so bold during that time because they knew that really the only thing that could really capture them were witnesses. Yeah, and as we're going to talk about like obviously as we all know with DNA testing, not being in any way advanced. Yeah, you know, resources were, were limited back then. Yeah, there was just really a lot of things going well for terrible people back then. Well, Sharon added that it may have been a green station wagon or a Cadillac with a light top and a dark bottom, which obviously matched what others had reported. And then even more reports came in of a dark green pickup truck with a missing tailgate that was stopped along the side of the road.

18:21So, you know, it seems like this might be the car. Everyone's talking about a green vehicle. I think that's pretty important. Yeah, I think so too. Well, the pickup truck was reported as having no tailgate and fenders that protruded from the side of the vehicle. It had a sheet of plywood in the bed of the truck and a dent on the left rear fender as well as Pennsylvania license plates. Well, on December 8th, 1975, an anonymous call came to the editor of the local paper, the Delaware County Daily Times. From a middle aged woman who reported that she saw two people force a young girl into a white car that was believed to be a Ford. And she was even able to offer up the numbers of the license plate of this car. The white sedan was described as being boxy and in poor condition, and it was an older model Ford or car. And was said to be driven by a white man who was about five feet seven inches tall with a medium build, collar length hair, and wearing shorts and a tank top.

19:22He was described as being between the ages of 16 and 23, so obviously seemed like a young man. So among all of these tips that were coming in, something horrific was finally found. Because two months before the tip that I just discussed, on October 14th, 1975, Gretchen's remains were found by a hiker in Ridley Creek State Park, which again is that park that they decided to not search. And though this discovery would bring closure to her whereabouts, the brutality of it would bring more questions as to who in their community could be capable of taking care of the city. Could be capable of something so sinister and who among them was hiding a terrible secret. The hiker, Andrew Lewis Van Dyke, Jr. reported her remains to be quote, skeletonized. She was found about 16 miles or 25 kilometers from the city limit of Philadelphia and about eight miles or 13 kilometers from Gretchen's home.

20:30So you know, obviously heath you brought up that they specifically didn't search this area because they didn't think that she would be there. Because how would you have been able to get there because it was miles and miles away. It was like the closest or one of the closest state parks that you would search, of course. But again, back in the early days of the search, they didn't think to do that. So it wasn't like, oh, the state park is in our backyard. It was a few miles away. Yeah, and to be fair, they did do their due diligence. I mean, they searched everywhere that they thought might be relevant within a certain vicinity, but nobody thought to look there. Well, she was officially identified by her dental records as well as a Brett in her hair and her clothing, which had been hand-soned by her mom. Her head had been beaten and police believed that she had most likely been sexually assaulted. Eerily, her clothes were folded and placed in a tidy pile near her body, which obviously just continued to paint a horrific scene of Gretchen's final moments. The Pennsylvania State Police took over the case from the Marple Township Police Department because the body was found on state park property, of course.

21:38The next day, her father Herald reported sadly, quote, we had an idea it would end like this, but all along, we had looked for a miracle. So at that point, police had a whole new set of witnesses to find, anybody who had been in or near Ridley State Park around the time that Gretchen vanished. We'll get this. A teen girl reported seeing a disheveled man lurking around where Gretchen's body was found nine days before it was found. So she learned where Gretchen was and she was like, I saw a weird dude in that area like a little over a week ago, but she wasn't the only one. Because two days after Gretchen was found, two more teenage girls told police that there was a man lurking in the woods watching them. Why is there so many creeps hanging around hanging out in the woods? This is what I mean. You never know who in your life is a creep. So police searched long and hard for this man, but they were never able to locate him.

22:42Gretchen was laid to rest and the emotional funeral was presided over by, of course, both David Zantstra and Gretchen's father Herald. Well, two years after Gretchen's murder, in an interview with the Delaware County Daily Times on July 29, 1977, Lieutenant Richard Mankin stated, quote, it was really bad. It was something I'll never forget. While Richard retired in 1993 and passed away in 2020, but his son Chuck claimed that Gretchen's disappearance haunted him for the rest of his life, stating, quote, marble township was surely not the place where a kidnapping would take place. It was a very quiet community of good people. I think the fact that it did and remained unsolved bothered my father much more than he let on. Because just so you guys know, this crime wasn't solved back in those days. You know, they didn't have advancements in DNA testing like Daphne mentioned, and they had no concrete suspects, no confessions, and no clues as to who had done this.

23:46But there was one person who stuck out to investigators emerging in May of 1976. This man's name was Richard Bailey, and he had pleaded guilty to no less than three cases that bore striking similarities to that of Gretchen's. He had been arrested on assault charges against a little girl back in October of 1971, so this would have been four years prior to Gretchen's murder. And on February 26th of 1973, he was charged with kidnapping and raping a nine-year-old girl and was also charged with corrupting the morals of a minor, aggravated assault in battery, assault to kill, and in decent assault. So this sick piece of shit was right in their midst. So he seemed like a pretty viable suspect at this point. I'd say. Yeah, well on February 21st of 1976, he was arrested yet again, but this time, for the kidnapping and rape of an 11-year-old girl. So with three charges stacked against him, the judge ordered him to serve a stricter sentence, and he was given 26 to 52 years in prison, which obviously just still does not feel like enough.

24:58Especially given the fact that he was only around 19 in 1975 and was already clearly this horrific, deranged pedophilic predator. It's creepy because, you know, we always say I can't drink a book all the time, but he has such a normal look to him. Like he kind of looks like this like dashing, crew-cutted, you know, young man. I mean, so did fucking Ted Bundy, you know? You know what I mean? You know what I mean? I think before I looked up a picture of him in my head, I was like, oh, he's probably like some old dude, even before I knew he was 19. Wait, you mean no scar across his full face? What the fuck? Not one scar. Not even one scar. But while he was incarcerated, he was assessed by a psychiatrist named John K. Fong. And John K. Fong was like, you know, you might look kind of dashing on the outside, but on the inside, some stuff is going on. Because he diagnosed him with sexual deviation, which I feel like it's such a 1970s diagnosis.

26:00You waited to describe that? Yeah. And pedophilia, as well as a passive-aggressive personality, which I didn't know you could be like diagnosed with, but that is what Dr. Fong said. Okay. Dr. Fong also reported that quote, it would seem that during periods when this patient is under a great deal of stress at work, where his image of himself becomes lessened, he bolsters his ego strength by relating sexually to children. Underneath the prison. Underneath the prison you go. Underneath the prison. Yeah, bury that motherfucker under the prison. That's a new one. But of course, Richard denied that he had any attraction to underage girls, which is like, come on, nobody is leaving that. Yes, you do. Just sick piece of shit like, yes, you do. That's literally why you're in prison. Like, right handed multiple times. So his truck was searched following his arrest to see if anything could connect him to Gretchen or any other cases. And inside on the floor was a dried weed that was consistent with a type of weed that could be found in Ridley State Park, of course, which is where Gretchen's body was found.

27:11A friend of Richard's also suspiciously came forward claiming that he was openly wondering about how much evidence police would need in order to catch the guilty party in the aftermath of Gretchen's abduction, which is like a really weird thing to wonder. Like, I wonder how much evidence they need to catch that killer. Like, how much can I get away with here? Yeah, I wonder if they're on my trail. Yeah, so his friend is claiming that Richard said this. This friend even claimed that Richard was able to describe the injuries that Gretchen sustained. And though this may obviously have been baseless bragging a lot of people like to take credit for horrible things that they didn't do, it was certainly enough to examine him as a key suspect in Gretchen's case. But nothing came about back then. So in January of 2006, over three decades after her murder, Gretchen's case was re-examined and notes were found from a line of questioning with a state trooper and Richard Bailey.

28:14Richard apparently told them, quote, if I killed this girl, I must have been sick. Yeah. At some point during one of his interviews, he also said, quote, it sounds like me, but I don't remember that. Come on, man, come on. I think it's just like, if I did that, it must have been sick. Yeah, just like all the other horrible shit you did. Well, it's just, that's just a crazy thing for somebody to say. And although he was kind of looked at, it's like, okay, look at him a little further here. Like, why would you say that? I mean, it's hard though, because back in his time, they didn't have any other evidence that he was connected other than that weed. So they don't have anything of Gretchen's in his car. Obviously, they can't test DNA. Like, they're not finding anything else. So that's kind of that. Yeah, well, multiple detectives remain convinced that Richard Bailey was the guilty party. But he died of natural causes on November 4, 2013, while still in prison.

29:17Never confessing to the crime. Retired, Marple Township Police Detective Barry Williams, who actually worked on the case from 1985 to his retirement in 2018, reported, quote, unfortunately, I think the guy that died in prison a few years ago probably got away with it. The indicators were there, the time, location, space, opportunity was all there, but as far as forensically, if we had the tools we have today, maybe we'd have something. It just wasn't there at the time. We couldn't come to a connection when I looked at the case in 2006 to come up with a finalization with the family, the District Attorney's Office, to maybe offer like a deathbed type of scenario where you go out to the sky and interview him, give him another shot to see if he wants to say something. Where maybe it's just for closure sake, but it never worked out. There was a lot of hearsay, but I still wanted to go out there and take a shot. It just never came to fruition. We couldn't come to an agreement.

30:18We never got a definitive answer on which way we were going, then he passes on. But police even looked at someone very close to Gretchen, and the last known person to see her alive, her own father. In officer for Marple Township Larry Garry, later reported that Harold quotes, took it hard, it's such a shame. Gretchen's dad was kind of a suspect. He was the last one with her. The dad is always a suspect. I don't think there's any evidence at all, though. So this just shows how open they are to different ideas, because I think at this point they're kind of at a loss. They don't really know where to look. And that they're doing their due diligence looking at people close to her and trying to make sure that they've got all their ducks in a row and got all the time. I don't think it was Harold. Well, as time passed, the hope of finding answers in Gretchen's case became a lot more slim.

31:19All records were kept as hard copies, either handwritten or typewritten, and interviews and calls were kept on audio tapes or cassettes, the former of which the police department doesn't have any way of accessing anymore. So her murder just sort of faded away in the department. Gretchen's friend Don recalled that she rarely, if ever, saw the Harrington sisters or their parents in public again. Recalling, quote, they never came outside. We never saw them again. I think their parents were too afraid to let them out. I barely saw the mom again. His hair went from dark to silverish in the next year. He was a different person. He was a different man. This is really reminding me of the virgin suicides. Like the fact that now they're so terrified, they don't know who, obviously not the murder purpose, like they don't know who's responsible for what happened at Gretchen. So they're just kind of like closing the other girls away to make sure the same thing doesn't happen to them.

32:19Like I just think it's so crazy that as we described earlier in the episode, they were a cute loving family and they were so involved in the community and this completely destroyed them. Yeah, I mean all the kids were able to, you know, back in that time, it's like, you know how they'll say a lot of the times like, oh, like when the street light came on, that's when kids would go home. You know, they kind of had that mindset as well back in 1975. They're like, you know, let's just let the kids be kids. They want to go outside. They want to play. They want to hang out. But nobody ever expected that these predators were kind of lurking in the shadows waiting to abduct a young child. But after something happens like this, you kind of have to change the way that you live your life. You have to change the way that you see the world, you know, you can't just be so nonchalant and let your kids go off and do whatever it's like. So I get it. This changed the Harrington family and this changed the Marvel township. Well, current Marvel township police chief Brandon Greff has maintained, quote,

33:19this isn't closed. It's a cold case. It's not closed by any means. It sounds corny, but there's certainly a desire for justice if not for the family, but for Grech in. There's that sense of carrying the torch for the victim for her. But the police definitely received their fair share of strange clues even back in the day all of which led to dead ends. For example, in November of 1983, an anonymous letter was written into the police department. But its author was never identified. The letter was addressed to Marvel township and bore no return address. It fell into the hands of Lieutenant Richard Mankin, who later begged publicly for the author to follow up with more information. But they never received any further correspondence. The letter read, quote, Dear sir, as I was cleaning my living room today, I had a thought that I had several years ago flash into my mind, but which I had suppressed.

34:19I thought of Zoe Harrington, a little girl that went to the same school as my children at the time it happened. I thought of a known child molester that I knew the family of. I didn't want to cause them a problem and embarrassment, but for some reason years later I can't get that thought out of my head. Mr. Kierz, formerly of Brumel or Newton Square, then of Euclin, and now working somewhere on the Alaskan pipeline. I hope that you've already checked him out and he's clear, but if not, I'd feel better if he were investigated. I'm sorry, but I wish to remain anonymous and the details of this letter kept out of the press in an effort to protect the family. Thank you very much. This is so annoying to me. I know, like just forget what he up to lose. It's a little girl. You can still remain anonymous, though, and you can do a follow-up letter and give a little bit more detail. What do you think is going to happen? This is an eight-year-old girl we're talking about who's murdered. What is more important than solving that?

35:20Something I also wonder is why they mentioned Zoe, Gretchen's sister. I don't know, maybe that was just somebody that they knew more so than the other sisters, but sadly by the way there's no information on who this Mr. Kierz is. We don't have a first name, which again, like at least give the first name because who the hell's Mr. Kierz? That could be like 100 different people. So very disappointed. We don't know if police were ever able to find that person or question them or what came of this, but that's why they were so frustrated in not having another letter at least. Yeah, absolutely. Well, are you guys ready for a massive shock to this case? Well, it wouldn't be until 2023, so 48 years after Gretchen's murder that another tip came along that would shock those who still remained in that community as well as anybody who knew the key players of this case. In 2017, citing renewed interest in the case at the hands of the Cold Case Division, police began running down their list of past witnesses and anybody that they felt maybe integral to solving this mystery.

36:28Now, it was at this point that they spoke with a friend of Christie Zanstra's who had been holding on to a piece of information since she was 10 freaking years old. This confidential information revealed to the police that she had come across a journal entry that she had written back in September of 1975. Crazy. Yeah. Just weeks after Gretchen vanished, there was an attempted kidnapping of another little girl named Holly and this informant wrote in her journal that she believed that pastor David Zanstra was capable of being the kidnapper as well as Gretchen's kidnapper. She also complained that once while spending the night at Christie's house, she awoke to find David molesting her. Disgusting. When she confided in Christie about this, Christie told her non-shelently by the way that her dad did that sometimes. But how sad if she said non-shelently like that maybe for her, she didn't know that it wasn't supposed to happen.

37:33Yeah. And that it could have been happening to her. I know. Oh my god. And this is a mother fucker who not only was responsible for the children at the Sunday school, but he was so close to the Harrington family, he was a trusted person within that circle. I mean, it just, it just makes you sad. Doesn't get more sick. Yeah. Well, in 2023, David Zanstra was living in Marietta, Georgia, so he had left Pennsylvania. Local Cobb County investigators actually paid him a visit and he spoke with them willingly. Now at first, he told investigators that he didn't even remember seeing Gretchen that day telling them, quote, my brain is 83 years old. Which I'll be fair that after so much time, maybe you're like, I don't know. I like, check my original statement. But it's like as we remember, as we read, like he said that he received a note from one of the teachers and that he was a part of the search party. Yeah, he was right there.

38:33He was involved. He was at the camp that she was supposed to go to that she was walking to the morning that she vanished. Yeah. Well, as these investigators are literally sitting in his home and he's saying, oh, you know, I'm 83. I'm just old. You know, my brain doesn't work. I don't know what happened. Finally, after hours passed, he eventually broke down and he confessed. He told detectives that he spotted an opportunity when he saw Gretchen walking along the side of the road that morning and he jumped at it. Because guess what color car David had him? What kind of car he had? A green station wagon. It was a rambler. Yeah. We would over this a lot earlier that he the man who was seen with a child that morning on Lawrence Road had a green vehicle of some kind. We talked about a truck, but we also talked about multiple witnesses spying a green station wagon. And that is the vehicle that David was known to drive in 1975. I also brought up a Volkswagen bus earlier because he had that too.

39:34But he primarily drove a green rambler station wagon. Hello. Well, in 1975, he would have been 35 to Gretchen's eight. But he picked her up in that station wagon and drove her to a wooded area where he forced her out of the car and told her to undress. When she didn't comply, he performed his own act of sexual gratification in front of her and then struck her on the head and potentially also assaulted her and then buried her in a panic. And continued on to that day's Bible camp as if nothing had happened. Later helping report her missing and leading the crusade to find her and comfort her grieving parents. This man needs ventilated. He needs he needs ventilated with by lead. He needs ventilated by lead. He needs ventilated. He needs ventilated by lead.

40:34Multiple multiple holes through his body caused ventilation by lead poisoning. Yeah, I mean, these are his words. He is saying this, by the way. He's confessing this. There's no evidence of this happening as we know. He's the one who is breaking the story down, right? Yeah, it's just so sick that after all these years, he probably, you know, and he continued on to be this pastor. Oh, look at me. I'm a, I'm a good upstanding citizen. I just, you know, fucking please myself to eight year olds. You fucking free. I'm. Well, in the years that follow Gretchen's murder, David moved his family all around the country taking pastoral positions in California, Texas and New Jersey before finally landing in Georgia. He was arrested on July 17th, 2023 and on July 24th, 2023, David was charged with first, second and third degree murder, criminal homicide, kidnapping of a minor and possession of an enemy. He was convicted of a crime in the murder of Gretchen Harrington in September of 2023.

41:41He was extradited to Pennsylvania. As you can imagine, those in the Harrington family that were still alive were horrified by this news. So they released a statement via Pennsylvania state prosecutors that read, quote, we are extremely hopeful that the person who is responsible for the heinous crime that was committed against our Gretchen will be held accountable. If you met Gretchen, you were instantly her friend. She exuded kindness to all and was sweet and gentle. We are grateful for the continual support of justice by law enforcement. And we want to thank the Pennsylvania state police for never stopping in their constant search for answers. We would not be here today if it was not for them. District attorney Jack Stolstheimer then said frankly, quote, we're going to try him. We're going to convict him and he's going to die in jail. And then he's going to have to find out what the God he professes to believe in holds for those who are this evil to our children.

42:42But David's defense attorneys, however, of course felt that his confession was coerced, that he was a disoriented elderly man and that he didn't understand what he was confessing to. And unfortunately, without DNA evidence to back up his confession, prosecutors were admittedly fighting an uphill battle here. In fact, the DNA found on her clothing pointed to a potential other outcome entirely. There were samples from two men and one woman. However, of course, because Gretchen's clothes weren't tested for DNA until years after her murder, these contributions could have absolutely come from another source aside from her murder. Yeah, I was thinking, you know, back then they probably didn't have the foresight to think, oh, there's going to be some sort of like great DNA advancements that's going to solve this crime. So it could have been contaminated by people that were holding the clothing where the DNA was found. Right, it also just could have been, it's not like it was blood evidence from somebody else that would point to something in the area. So, you know, I absolutely could see this not even being connected to one end up happening to her.

43:47But still, the lack of concrete evidence did not bode well for David's conviction. So David's trial commenced on January 13th of 2025. But ultimately, with no DNA and no physical evidence tying him to Gretchen's murder, the jury remained unconvinced. After a four day trial, he was acquitted of murder on January 27th of 2025 and released from police custody. And he died just 11 months later on December 15th of 2025. Which I do understand without evidence, you know, you would hope that somebody would not be charged with murder and serve the rest of their life in prison if there isn't anything that concretely proves that they were there. But this is one of those cases where it's like, he did it come on. Yeah, I think there was enough circumstantial evidence. The fact that there was the green rambler that people witnesses had seen. The fact that he even freaking admitted to it, like come on, just because your 83 does not mean that you don't know what you're saying.

44:54We know that. In fact, we know that at the beginning of that interview, he was playing dumb. He was acting like he didn't know anything. And then they kept pressing him and then he finally got a conscience somehow and he confessed. It's tough though, because it's like police can be really hard and they absolutely can't mind fuck you and manipulate you and they can make you say something that isn't real. That isn't true. They can help like spell it out for you. Yeah, it's like, yeah. That is absolutely possible. That could have happened here, but it's tough. The fact that a friend came forward and that apparently Christy herself acknowledged that this is something that her dad did, that he was a pedophile, that he molested children and that he was very close to the family. He was there. That did he had the same type of vehicle. It's like that feels like enough. Obviously it isn't. I think if we're going to go for Richard Bailey or David, I have to say David, something else we don't know is,

45:56was there a gap of time where he was missing from camp that day? Or like he kind of admits in his own confession, it all happened really fast and then he sped over to camp. Did he have enough time to commit this crime? Was he on his way to camp and saw Gretchen and saw an opportunity like he apparently confessed to? Very, very possible. I just wish we had more. And what's even more scary is the fact that he moved around to different states and there may be other victims out there. That David did something to you know well officially Gretchen's murder remains unsolved. Her father Harold Harrington passed away in 2021 without ever even seeing the arrest that took place in his daughter's case. Ena followed her husband passing away in October of 2023 just three months after David's arrest. So at the time she was able to go to her grave with the certainty that her daughter's killer was behind bars though we really don't know if they got it right.

46:57Thus, investigators are still wondering who was to blame. And what was David Zadstra? Like you said he's if he has other innocent victims in other cities and states. Thank you so much everybody for listening to this episode of Going West. Yes, thank you guys so much for listening to this episode. You know, I'm so glad I'm just so happy for today's technology. I'm so happy for DNA advancements. You know, the fact that these guys are not getting away with things like this anymore. I mean, seems like David did even though he died 11 months later. You know, there's a lot there's a lot of cold cases that are being solved at this period of time just due to these advancements. It's just tough to because if you don't preserve the evidence properly back in the day because you didn't have the foresight like we really can't do very much which seems to be the situation here.

47:57Here had they may be preserved things and you know come at the crime scene a little bit differently. We might have more concrete answers, but of course they had no idea. So very interested to see what you guys think of this story. If you think it was Richard, if you think it was probably David, if you think it was somebody else entirely. It's just a devastating story. Thank you so much again Irene for putting this one on our radar. Yeah, make sure you leave us a comment on our socials on Instagram at going West Podcast. We are also on Facebook as well as TikTok. And hopefully some of you guys are coming over to watch us on YouTube. You get to see the photos that are associated with the cases that we talk about right there as you're watching. Make sure you subscribe, leave us a comment, tell us your thoughts. If you have any recommendations by the way send them over to going West Podcasts at gmail.com. We have a long list, but we're always looking for new stories. So let us know and we'll see you next time. All right guys, so for everybody out there in the world, don't be a stranger.