 I'm Darren Marlar and this is a Weird Darkness bonus bite. From all that's interesting dot com, after almost 50 years, Pennsylvania pastor arrested for murder of 8-year-old girl who was attending his Bible camp by Kalina Fraga. On a summer day in 1975, 8-year-old Gretchen Harrington was killed while walking to Bible camp in Broomall, Pennsylvania. Now, a pastor who knew the Harrington family has been charged with her murder. Charges have been brought against David Zandra, 83, off Marietta, Georgia. The Delaware County District Attorney's Office explained in a statement, noting that Zandra had confessed. Zandra has been charged with criminal homicide, murder of the first, second, and third degree, as well as kidnapping of a minor and the possession of an instrument of crime. The story began on August 15, 1975, when Gretchen set out to attend a Bible camp, held at two churches, the Trinity Church Chapel Christian Reform Church, where Zandra was pastor, and the Reformed Presbyterian Church, where her father was the pastor. When Gretchen failed to appear at her father's church later that morning, he called Trinity Church and spoke with Zandra's wife. Shortly afterward, The New York Times reports that Zandra himself called the police to report Gretchen missing. Two months later, Gretchen's skeletal remains were discovered at Ridley Creek State Park. A coroner classified the eight-year-old's death as a homicide, determining that Gretchen had died from blunt impacts to the head. But it took almost 50 years to determine what had happened to her. As The New York Times reports, police got a break in the case earlier this year when a woman identified as CI number one came forward. She had gone to school with Gretchen and her sister Zoe and had known Zandra's daughter. The witness told police that Zandra had touched her inappropriately twice when she attended sleepovers at his house. She also showed them diary entries from September 1975, in which she muses that Zandra may have tried to kidnap a different girl in town. Guess what? A man tried to kidnap Holly twice, the witness wrote in her diary. It's a secret, so I can't tell anyone, but I think he might be the one who kidnapped Gretchen. I think it was Mr. Zandra. Following this lead, NBC News reports, police went to speak to Zandra in Marietta, Georgia on July 17, 2023. At first, Zandra denied having anything to do with Gretchen's murder. But when the police told him about their new witness and her accusations against him, he confessed. He was relieved, state police trooper Eugene Tray said according to NBC News, it was like a weight was lifted off his shoulders. As Zandra told the police, he saw Gretchen walking to church on the morning of August 15, 1975 and picked her up in his car. Instead of driving her to church, however, Zandra drove her to a wooded area where he pleasured himself and demanded that she take off her clothing. When Gretchen refused, Zandra struck her with his fist, killing her. Zandra then covered her half-naked body with sticks and drove to work as normal. Over the next two months, he pretended to know nothing about Gretchen's death and according to People magazine, acted as a family friend who supported the Harrington's through Gretchen's funeral. It's difficult to express the emotions that we are feeling as we take one step closer to justice, Harrington's family said in a statement reported by People magazine. The abduction and murder of Gretchen has forever altered our family and we miss her every single day. We are extremely hopeful that the person who is responsible for the heinous crime that was committed against our Gretchen will be held accountable. Delaware County District Attorney Jack Stolzmeier plans to do exactly that. We're going to try him, we're going to convict him and he's going to die in jail, Mr. Stolzmeier said at a news conference about Zandra's arrest 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. Find the lake to the original story in the show notes and find more news in the Weird News and blog at WeirdDarkness.com.