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PASSAGE TWO OF THE DAY: "Much seemed to urge the court toward a quick resolution of the issues. He said he has retained a forensic psychiatrist to evaluate Zandstra, who had suffered strokes within a year and a half of the state police interview that have left him with vascular dementia, a progressive disease that alters blood vessels in the brain. Zandstra, who previously moved under his own power but appeared in court in a wheelchair Thursday, has deteriorated physically and mentally during the time he has been incarcerated, Much said. “It is our position, judge, that a prolonged pretrial detention equates to a life sentence or a death sentence,” he said. “Either he’s going to die in prison or become incompetent based on the progression of this disease.” Scanlon set a status date for March 20 and said he would issue a ruling on Much’s motion at that time."
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SUB-HEADING: "Zandstra attorney argues to throw out case in 1975 killing of Gretchen Harrington Cites defendant’s 1975 polygraph, and that victim’s sister and father were being investigated.
PHOTO CAPTION: "A booking photo of David Zandstra. The retired minister from Georgia was charged in July 2023, with murder in the 1975 slaying of an 8-year-old girl whose remains were found in Ridley Creek State Park most a half-century ago."
GIST: "Common Pleas Court Judge Anthony Scanlon heard arguments on defense counsel’s motion to quash murder charges against retired Maple Township minister David Zandstra in the 1975 death of 8-year-old Gretchen Harrington.
Zandstra was charged with first-degree murder and related offenses in July after allegedly admitting to beating Gretchen to death on the morning of Aug. 16, 1975.
He was later extradited to Pennsylvania and held on all charges following a preliminary hearing before Magisterial District Judge Walter A. Strohl in November.
But defense attorney Mark Much maintains his 83-year-old client was coerced by Pennsylvania State Police troopers into giving a false confession.
He included various documents in his motion to quash that included another confession to the crime that Gretchen’s sister, Zoe, provided to state police in 2021.
Confession and arrest
Troopers Andrew Martin and Eugene Tray interviewed Zandstra in Marietta, Ga., on July 17, 2023. Much has said that “interrogation” took place over four hours, though Deputy District Attorney Geoff Paine, who is prosecuting the case, contends the tape ran for four hours while the actual conversation was much shorter.
Zandstra allegedly told the troopers during that interview that he saw Gretchen walking along Lawrence Road the morning of her disappearance and that she accepted a ride in his Rambler station wagon.
He said he then drove to Ridley Creek State Park.
“Upon parking, Zandstra instructed Harrington to take off her clothes but she refused,” according to an affidavit of probable cause for his arrest. “He indicated that at this time, or around this time, he ejaculated. At some point after this, Zandstra struck Harrington in the head with his fist.”
Gretchen began to bleed from the blow and Zandstra checked for a pulse, but soon believed she was dead, according to the affidavit. He allegedly covered her half-naked body with sticks and left the area.
Gretchen’s body was discovered almost two months later. An autopsy determined the cause of death was cranial cerebral injuries and the manner of death was homicide.
Held for court
Zandstra has been held for court on charges of criminal homicide, murder in the first-, second- and third-degree, kidnapping and possessing an instrument of crime.
Zoe Harrington, who was 11 years old when Gretchen went missing, testified at the preliminary hearing that the morning she went missing, Gretchen was supposed to walk to Trinity Chapel Christian Reform Church at 140 Lawrence Road less than a half mile from their home on Laurence Road.
She said it was the only day that one of Gretchen’s siblings or parents did not walk with her. Her baby sister had been born that same week and it was a bit chaotic at the home, Zoe said.
Gretchen was last seen by neighbors walking at 9:20 a.m., according to the affidavit.
District Attorney Jack Stollsteimer previously said students would begin classes about 9:30 a.m. at Trinity Chapel, where Zandstra served as minister from 1969 through 1976, then half would be transported at 10 a.m. to the Reformed Presbyterian Church at 144 Lawrence Road, where Gretchen’s father, Harold, served as the reverend.
Zoe said she realized her sister was missing when she noticed Gretchen was not outside with other students at her father’s church next door to their home, but she was unsure of the time. She said Gretchen was not with her best friend, one of Zandstra’s daughters.
They began looking for her and Zoe asked Gretchen’s teacher where she was, but she said Gretchen never arrived.
Zoe Harrington also identified several pieces of clothing found with her sister’s remains when they were discovered by a jogger in the park on Oct. 14, 1975.
Retired state police captain and former chief of the Delaware County Criminal Investigation Division John McKenna testified that he was called out to the state park after the jogger made the discovery.
McKenna noted the girl’s skull appeared to be fractured. He said Gretchen’s skeletal remains were covered by sticks and twigs, and that her blouse was neatly folded next to the body.
A pair of children’s panties was also found on a nearby tree branch, he said, and a pair of shoes was on the ground nearby. Zoe Harrington identified the blouse as one her mother had made.
Martin testified that he was assigned the case in 2014, but caught a break after a witness came forward in 2022 and described being molested by Zandstra at a sleepover around the time of Gretchen’s disappearance.
Martin said a medical examiner’s report indicated Gretchen had been killed by two blunt-force impacts to the right side of her skull, which would have caused life-threatening trauma.
Martin admitted on cross-examination by Much that he told Zandstra he had evidence against him that was not actually in his possession, including that a witness had seen Zandstra’s Rambler approaching Gretchen that day and that police had recovered rocks with blood on them.
Motion to quash
Much said Thursday that discovery in the case is ongoing and he intends to suppress Zandstra’s statement to the troopers. A hearing on that motion is expected to be scheduled.
Part of the discovery Much has already received included a mirandized statement from Zoe Harrington confessing to her sister’s murder in 2021, as well as a sworn affidavit from state police for Harold Harrington that same year seeking a wiretap to intercept communications from a Montgomery County residence concerning the case and indicating that he had murdered his daughter.
Much also attached a September 2023 DNA report that found Zandstra was excluded as a contributor to DNA profiles obtained from evidence in the case and the results of a polygraph test conducted in November 1975.
The polygraph was deemed “inconclusive” since Zandstra did not show reactions to relevant or “probable lie” questions, according to a note, but did show strong reactions to an outside subject, indicating something other than the crime was bothering him.
In his arguments, Paine said police will investigate information that comes to them in the course of their due diligence, but in this case did not seriously pursue either Zoe or Harold Harrington as suspects.
“Clearly, Miss Zoe Harrington’s statement was not believable to the point that police continued to investigate, and that’s what happened here,” Paine said. “Unfortunately, she has some history of mental illness and was a very young girl at the time that this murder of her sister happened.”
Paine also said that upon finding Gretchen’s body, investigators retrieved “every bit of litter they could find” in the area, and it was those items Zandstra was excluded from in DNA tests.
The clothing and other items Gretchen was wearing — the items Paine said were actually linked to the case — did not produce any interpretable results.
Results of polygraph tests have not been admissible since the 1920s, Paine noted, though he thought it was telling that Zandstra did not even react to questions designed to set a baseline for what his reaction would be if he were lying.
Finally, Paine said that Zandstra was far from confused during his July interview and actually corrected officers on the times and dates of certain events that took place in the 1960s and 1970s. He noted Zandstra did refer to the Bible character King David when asked about informing family members of his admissions.
Zandstra allegedly said David, who he called his namesake, “confessed his sins and was forgiven.”
Next steps
Much seemed to urge the court toward a quick resolution of the issues. He said he has retained a forensic psychiatrist to evaluate Zandstra, who had suffered strokes within a year and a half of the state police interview that have left him with vascular dementia, a progressive disease that alters blood vessels in the brain.
Zandstra, who previously moved under his own power but appeared in court in a wheelchair Thursday, has deteriorated physically and mentally during the time he has been incarcerated, Much said.
“It is our position, judge, that a prolonged pretrial detention equates to a life sentence or a death sentence,” he said. “Either he’s going to die in prison or become incompetent based on the progression of this disease.”
Scanlon set a status date for March 20 and said he would issue a ruling on Much’s motion at that time."
The entire story can be read at:
https://www.delcotimes.com/2024/02/10/zandstra-attorney-argues-to-throw-out-case-in-1975-killing-of-gretchen-harrington/PUBLISHER'S NOTE: I am monitoring this case/issue/resurce. Keep your eye on the Charles Smith Blog for reports on developments. The Toronto Star, my previous employer for more than twenty incredible years, has put considerable effort into exposing the harm caused by Dr. Charles Smith and his protectors - and into pushing for reform of Ontario's forensic pediatric pathology system. The Star has a "topic" section which focuses on recent stories related to Dr. Charles Smith. It can be found at: http://www.thestar.com/
SEE BREAKDOWN OF SOME OF THE ON-GOING INTERNATIONAL CASES (OUTSIDE OF THE CONTINENTAL USA) THAT I AM FOLLOWING ON THIS BLOG, AT THE LINK BELOW: HL:
https://www.blogger.com/blog/
FINAL WORD: (Applicable to all of our wrongful conviction cases): "Whenever there is a wrongful conviction, it exposes errors in our criminal legal system, and we hope that this case — and lessons from it — can prevent future injustices."
Lawyer Radha Natarajan:
Executive Director: New England Innocence Project;
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FINAL, FINAL WORD: "Since its inception, the Innocence Project has pushed the criminal legal system to confront and correct the laws and policies that cause and contribute to wrongful convictions. They never shied away from the hard cases — the ones involving eyewitness identifications, confessions, and bite marks. Instead, in the course of presenting scientific evidence of innocence, they've exposed the unreliability of evidence that was, for centuries, deemed untouchable." So true!
Christina Swarns: Executive Director: The Innocence Project;
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YET ANOTHER FINAL WORD:
David Hammond, one of Broadwater's attorneys who sought his exoneration, told the Syracuse Post-Standard, "Sprinkle some junk science onto a faulty identification, and it's the perfect recipe for a wrongful conviction.
https://deadline.com/2021/11/alice-sebold-lucky-rape-conviction-overturned-anthony-broadwater-12348801
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