MEDIA, Pa. (AP) — A retired Georgia minister was discovered not responsible Friday within the killing of an 8-year-old woman whose stays have been present in a southeastern Pennsylvania park practically half a century in the past.
A jury acquitted David Zandstra, 84, of the Atlanta suburb of Marietta, after deliberating for an hour on the finish of a four-day trial.
Zandstra was charged in the summertime of 2023 with the kidnapping and killing of Gretchen Harrington, who disappeared in 1975 whereas strolling alone to a Bible camp at a chapel the place Zandstra was a pastor. His physique was discovered two months later by a jogger in Ridley Creek State Park in Media, Pennsylvania.
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Harrington was supplied a experience from Zandstra on the day of his disappearance, the Delaware County district legal professional mentioned when the fees have been filed. Prosecutors mentioned Zandstra confessed to the killing after investigators acquired new info after which interviewed the retired minister.
His legal professional, Mark Much, instructed jurors that investigators pressured and tricked Zandstra into confessing to against the law he did not commit. Defense legal professionals mentioned there was no bodily proof linking the retired minister to the woman’s dying and that police had been investigating different suspects who have been extra prone to be the killer.
Defense legal professional Christopher Boggs instructed the Philadelphia Inquirer that Zandstra’s household was pleased he might return house after 18 months in custody.
In the times after the woman’s disappearance, a whole bunch of individuals searched close by wooded areas, and authorities distributed greater than 2,000 flyers and arrange a 24-hour hotline that acquired a whole bunch of calls, The Inquirer reported.
When the woman’s physique was discovered, her garments have been “folded and piled neatly” subsequent to the physique, together with her underwear hanging from a tree department “like a flag… as if to attract consideration to the placement,” the newspaper wrote. the time.
