David Grunwald

Sixteen-year-old David Grunwald disappeared after dropping off his girlfriend on the evening of November 13, 2016, in Palmer, Alaska. When he failed to return home, his parents immediately reported him missing. Join Mike and Gibby as they discuss David Grunwald. What initially appeared to be a missing-person case quickly became one of Alaska's most shocking murders after investigators uncovered a brutal killing involving a group of teenagers, extensive efforts to destroy evidence, and a motive that never made sense. You can help support the show at patreon.com/truecrimeallthetime Visit the show's website at truecrimeallthetime.com for contact, merchandise, and donation information An Emash Digital production See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

• 0:00Speaker 00

  Every good true crime story has a twist. DraftKings Casino has a spin. Flex spins let you spend your way. Didn't see that coming? That's because flex spins are exclusive to DraftKings. New casino players play $5 and get 1,000 total flex spins, including 100 lightning link spins. Unlock 50 spins a day at varying values for your first 20 days. You decide where the story goes next. Download the DraftKings Casino app, sign up with code TCAT, and spend your way. The crown is yours. In partnership with DraftKings Casino. Gambling problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER in Connecticut. Help is available for problem gambling. Call 888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org.

• 0:45Speaker 00

  Please play responsibly. 21+, physically present in Connecticut, Michigan, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia only. Void in Canada. Eligibility restrictions apply. Non-withdrawable spins issued at 50 spins per day for 20 days. Valid for select games only and expire each day after 24 hours. Spin values vary. See terms at casino.draftkings.com/promos. Ends November 22, 2026 at 11:59 PM Eastern Time. Hello, everyone, and welcome to episode 521 of the True Crime All the Time Podcast. I'm Mike Ferguson and with me as always is my partner in true crime, Mike Gibson. Gibby, how are you?

• 1:24Speaker 01

  Hey, man, I'm excited. We got five, two, one.

• 1:27Speaker 00

  Okay.

• 1:27Speaker 01

  Like that five, two.

• 1:29Speaker 00

  Do I like it? You, do I like what? You counting down with your fingers?

• 1:35Speaker 01

  I rattled the fly, man.

• 1:36Speaker 00

  Okay. Are you hoping that catches on like six, seven?

• 1:40Speaker 01

  Yeah. Six, seven, six, seven.

• 1:43Speaker 00

  Oh, I'll be glad when that goes away.

• 1:45Speaker 01

  Yeah, it should be going away soon, I hope.

• 1:47Speaker 00

  All right, buddy. Are you ready to get into this episode of True Crime All the Time?

• 1:51Speaker 01

  I'm ready.

• 1:51Speaker 00

  We're talking about David Grunwald. 16-year-old David Grunwald went missing shortly after dropping his girlfriend off one night in November 2016. Investigators soon learned that David mentioned visiting a friend that night. When questioning his friend and his associates, police uncovered details about a horrific murder with seemingly no motive.

• 2:17Speaker 01

  Wow.

• 2:17Speaker 00

  And those are always ones that, you know, they're kind of hard to understand, right?

• 2:22Speaker 01

  They are.

• 2:22Speaker 00

  No clear-cut motive. What was the reason? But, you know, we'll get into it all. David Benjamin Grunwald was born on January 8, 2000 at the Elmendorf Air Force Base in Alaska to parents Benjamin and Edith Grunwald. Both of David's parents were in the Air Force and National Guard with decades of service between them.

• 2:45Speaker 01

  How cool would it be to be born in Alaska wilderness?

• 2:50Speaker 00

  Yeah, I mean, as a baby, are you taking advantage of the wilderness? I would say no.

• 2:56Speaker 01

  Well, that's true. I mean, I got to think that not everybody was like me that could take that stuff in at an early age.

• 3:03Speaker 00

  That came out with a full head of hair, ready to go and tackle the world. David wanted to be a pilot and considered joining the military himself someday. At the time of his death, David was just a junior in high school. He was studying aviation and was in his school's engineering club. He built his own computer and fixed up a 1995 Ford Bronco that he bought for just $700.

• 3:29Speaker 01

  That's all impressive.

• 3:30Speaker 00

  It is.

• 3:31Speaker 01

  It really is.

• 3:32Speaker 00

  But, you know, you think, and I always hate to say back in the day, and I know people hate when I say it, but you used to be able to work on cars a little easier.

• 3:41Speaker 01

  True.

• 3:41Speaker 00

  Before they became completely computerized. So a 1995 Ford Bronco, you could do a little bit more with, I think. And, you know, I remember, and I kind of went through this phase too, where it was kind of in vogue and I think it still is to a large degree, but to build your own computer.

• 4:02Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 4:02Speaker 00

  That was like a big deal. Right? To buy the motherboard and the RAM and all of that and kind of put it together in a case.

• 4:11Speaker 01

  Yeah, my son-in-law just did that. But he's, you know, computer guy.

• 4:16Speaker 00

  Yeah. I mean, that's, he works in that field.

• 4:18Speaker 01

  He does, yeah. Yeah, so he knows how to do that. But I was also in an engineer club back in the day.

• 4:24Speaker 00

  Mm-hmm.

• 4:25Speaker 01

  I mean, it's like train engineer.

• 4:27Speaker 00

  I was going to say it was like a train engineer and you just did it to wear the hat, so.

• 4:31Speaker 01

  Well, the hat was pretty cool.

• 4:32Speaker 00

  The hat was cool and you had a whistle.

• 4:34Speaker 01

  Yep.

• 4:35Speaker 00

  That used to go boop, boop. But it said that David had a close group of friends and often helped them with rides or gave advice. One friend thanked David for helping him avoid drugs.

• 4:50Speaker 01

  Well, that's cool.

• 4:51Speaker 00

  I mean, I will say he seems like, like he was a really good kid.

• 4:54Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 4:55Speaker 00

  You know, he had his head on right. He had some goals. Sounds like he was a good person to his friends, helpful, all of that. The night of November 13, 2016, seemed like a normal Sunday. David told his parents he loved them as he headed out. He spent the afternoon with his girlfriend, Victoria.

• 5:17Speaker 01

  I love it that he said, you know, hey, I'm headed out. Love you, mom and dad. Oh, I think more kids should do that.

• 5:26Speaker 00

  Do you think kids don't do that?

• 5:28Speaker 01

  I don't.

• 5:29Speaker 00

  Okay.

• 5:29Speaker 01

  You know, I just, I just think more should do it.

• 5:33Speaker 00

  I don't know. My kids say it a lot.

• 5:35Speaker 01

  Do they?

• 5:36Speaker 00

  Yeah, but we are a very, I love you family. And some families just aren't like that.

• 5:41Speaker 01

  No, I know.

• 5:42Speaker 00

  But, yeah, we almost always say it whenever we are going somewhere. You know, because in my way of thinking, you just never know.

• 5:52Speaker 01

  You don't know.

• 5:53Speaker 00

  Especially when you're, when you research as much true crime as we do, it kind of becomes very obvious.

• 6:01Speaker 01

  For me, it just sounds weird because I'll hear like parents say, I love you. And the kids are like, yep, I'll see you later.

• 6:07Speaker 00

  Okay, yeah, that's, that's kind of weird, but.

• 6:10Speaker 01

  Your mom probably wants to hear that I love you back, you know?

• 6:13Speaker 00

  I get you.

• 6:14Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 6:15Speaker 00

  Around 6:30 PM, David called his mother, Edith, to tell her he was going to miss his 9:00 PM curfew. She factored in the Icy Road and told him it was fine if he was home by 9:20.

• 6:28Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 6:28Speaker 00

  Okay, so pretty conscientious of him to call and say, I know I got a 9:00 PM curfew. I'm not going to make it. Just want to let you know. So she's like, all right, I'll give you 20 minutes. But after that, I'm laying the hammer down.

• 6:46Speaker 01

  That's right. Because I don't know if I should believe you or not.

• 6:48Speaker 00

  Right. David dropped Victoria off at her dad's house in Palmer, Alaska around 6:30 to 7:00 PM. But David's parents got worried when he didn't come home by 9:20. They called his girlfriend around 9:40 PM. She said David left an hour earlier, which would have been about 8:40.

• 7:11Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 7:12Speaker 00

  David's parents drove up and down the road to his girlfriend's home, worried that he might have gotten into an accident. They drove the road twice before driving to the Alaska State Trooper Post in Palmer to report their son missing around 11:45 PM. David's father said it was totally unlike it to be almost three hours late.

• 7:34Speaker 01

  Well, that is extremely late, you know? And the fact that they went up and down the roads that he should have or would have taken and didn't see him, it's alarming.

• 7:44Speaker 00

  It is, and you know, parents know their kids, right? You could have a kid who is so punctual, it's scary.

• 7:55Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 7:55Speaker 00

  Never misses a curfew. And then you might have a kid who is not all that worried about it and you got to get on them. So you, but you know what your kids are like.

• 8:07Speaker 01

  Right.

• 8:07Speaker 00

  So by that, you kind of know when to start worrying and when maybe you don't need to worry as much.

• 8:15Speaker 01

  And I would tell my mom, hey, I'll be home in a little, little bit. I'm just here in town. And then she would call around and then eventually find out that I was like three towns over.

• 8:26Speaker 00

  At some girl's house, I'm sure. David's girlfriend, Victoria, quickly remembered that David said he might go see a friend in Palmer. The next day, November 14, David's Bronco was found on a trail on Bald Mountain Ridge about 20 minutes from his family's home. And the car was so badly burned that metal pieces had fallen off and no material was left inside.

• 8:53Speaker 01

  Wow.

• 8:54Speaker 00

  No remains were found in or around the vehicle. Police searched the surrounding area, but they didn't find David. So I mean, you know, your level of worry as a parent, or in this case, David's parents, goes from worried to extremely worried or shocked or panic-stricken or whatever you want to call it.

• 9:17Speaker 01

  Yeah, I'd be scared. I mean, what's going, what happened?

• 9:20Speaker 00

  And maybe scared is the best word.

• 9:21Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 9:22Speaker 00

  I mean, this was not a small fire. It did a little bit of damage. This whole car was engulfed, obviously. You have metal pieces falling off the car. Okay, it got really hot.

• 9:36Speaker 01

  It did.

• 9:37Speaker 00

  Several days later, Edith Grunwald told news outlet KTUU that David's friend was named Eric, but she had never met him. In a late November interview with the Anchorage Daily News, his parents noted that his phone pinged at least once off a tower near Palmer that night. On December 2, 2016, human remains were found by the Kneec River. Outside Palmer, a shell casing was found near the remains. And these remains were soon identified as David Grunwald.

• 10:13Speaker 01

  So, I mean, worst possible news for the parents? But is it, I mean, it's terrible.

• 10:21Speaker 00

  Absolutely.

• 10:22Speaker 01

  I mean, you know, he didn't die in, in the blaze, right? The fire. But he's still, he's dead.

• 10:31Speaker 00

  Yeah. And you know, something happened to him.

• 10:35Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 10:36Speaker 00

  Because there is that, we do a lot of unsolved cases as well. So there's that thing that people always talk about where not knowing is, is very tough. And some people go the rest of their lives, not knowing what happened to their loved one. Now, the Grunwald family knows, but it's a, it's a horrible ending.

• 10:56Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 10:57Speaker 00

  Now, the Kneec River, I hope I'm saying that right. You and I did a serial killer case many, many years ago.

• 11:05Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 11:06Speaker 00

  That involved this river and about 1,000 people told me how to say it. And I can't remember.

• 11:15Speaker 00

  So hopefully I got it right. You know, that's, that's the problem. You know, we get a lot of people who call, leave a voicemail, more emails, right? Saying, hey, this is, uh, you messed this one up. This is how it said, or whatever. But if we don't say it for four years, four or five years, very little chance I'm gonna remember.

• 11:38Speaker 01

  I know. I seen a message about the Honduras one we just did, how we said that name wrong.

• 11:45Speaker 00

  Oh, I'm sure.

• 11:45Speaker 01

  Like one, one of the Ts was silent or something. Like, well, how would, how would you know?

• 11:51Speaker 00

  Absolutely. It happens. Even more so in, um, you know, when we do cases in other countries, but we've messed plenty of US, uh, cities and things like that up.

• 12:03Speaker 01

  Arkansas, wasn't that one that we had, has a lot of weird names?

• 12:07Speaker 00

  Oklahoma.

• 12:08Speaker 01

  Oklahoma, that's what it was.

• 12:09Speaker 00

  Yeah, we've messed a lot up in Oklahoma. There are, um, a, a lot of city names that I think are rooted in maybe, uh, Native American heritage and they're pronounced differently than the way they look. But on December 3rd, Alaska State Troopers arrested 16-year-old Eric Almendinger. They soon announced that Eric was charged in, as an adult with first degree murder and kidnapping. I mean, 16 years old.

• 12:43Speaker 01

  Young.

• 12:44Speaker 00

  Very young. You think back when you were 16 years old.

• 12:48Speaker 01

  Yep.

• 12:48Speaker 00

  Wearing your singlet, wrestling other boys, getting sweaty. It's not something I was into, but I, I know that that was a big part of your life.

• 13:00Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 13:00Speaker 00

  Sweaty wrestling with other boys, but at 16 years old, you're, you're just starting to come into your own. Right? You really are. It's 16. Most people, especially when you and I were 16, we were chomping at the bit to get our driver's license. Nowadays, I swear like kids are waiting.

• 13:19Speaker 01

  They're fine. They don't wanna drive.

• 13:20Speaker 00

  No.

• 13:21Speaker 01

  Yeah, they're like.

• 13:22Speaker 00

  They're waiting a lot longer. You know, in our generation, it was like, all right, the day you turn 16, man, you're down. Oh, shit, I just hit the

• 13:31Speaker 01

  microphone.

• 13:32Speaker 00

  The microphone, but you're down at the, the thing, trying to get your test scheduled or whatever it is.

• 13:37Speaker 01

  Yeah, I remember I, I did the fast track to get mine. It was like, did everything in three days, like the courses and all that.

• 13:43Speaker 00

  Uh huh.

• 13:44Speaker 01

  You had to pay a little extra, but it got you so you can go ahead and get your license and you were good, you know? So.

• 13:50Speaker 00

  And you had to go out on a date with the instructor?

• 13:53Speaker 01

  Well, you know, you do what you gotta do.

• 13:55Speaker 00

  Sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do. But, you know, to be charged at 16 years old with not just a crime.

• 14:02Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 14:03Speaker 00

  But first degree murder and kidnapping.

• 14:07Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 14:07Speaker 00

  Uh, it's almost unbelievable.

• 14:09Speaker 01

  But you know, you think about this 16-year-old, to be able to do those things.

• 14:14Speaker 00

  Yeah, if he did it.

• 14:15Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 14:16Speaker 00

  Uh, I mean, he deserves it, right? If he did it, it's just, it's just tough to believe that that's something that 16-year-olds are

• 14:23Speaker 01

  capable.

• 14:24Speaker 00

  Thinking about or, yeah, I, it's tough for me. And Alaska State Trooper Dispatch report noted, others involved in this incident have been identified, but have not been charged as of yet.

• 14:39Speaker 01

  Okay.

• 14:40Speaker 00

  So you can take that to mean this wasn't a lone act, right? By this Eric Almendinger, there were other people involved. State troopers had been visiting the Almendinger home almost daily because David's girlfriend told them he mentioned visiting Eric. According to court documents released in December 2016, David was pistol whipped, driven to a remote location, forced to walk 200 feet into the woods, and then shot once in the head. And we just got done talking about what a good kid this was.

• 15:18Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 15:18Speaker 00

  What would make a 16-year-old or a group of similar aged children, they are technically children, kids at that point, want to make this kid walk out into the middle of a remote location, a forest, and, and then shoot him in the head?

• 15:39Speaker 01

  Almost like execution style.

• 15:41Speaker 00

  Yeah. It was an execution. I think, I think you could say that. A tip from another teen led troopers to David's body. In his interview with police, Eric Almendinger denied pulling the trigger and said another teen shot David who begged for his life. But obviously that means if you're Eric, you were there.

• 16:03Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 16:04Speaker 00

  Cause you can't even give that information if you're not there to witness it. According to court documents, troopers first located and spoke to Eric on November 16th. He denied seeing David on the night he disappeared and claimed that he took a cab to Anchorage. Troopers determined Eric was lighting. Lighting? Let's go with lying.

• 16:27Speaker 01

  I would say lying.

• 16:28Speaker 00

  Because data from his tablet indicated it was near David's SUV on the night it burned.

• 16:35Speaker 01

  I, I think a lot of people forget in this digital age.

• 16:40Speaker 00

  Yep.

• 16:41Speaker 01

  There's a lot of things being captured on all those devices from the smartwatch, from your smartphone to your smart tablet to your, I don't know. I mean, there's

• 16:51Speaker 00

  Everything's so smart.

• 16:52Speaker 01

  Everything's so smart. Exactly.

• 16:54Speaker 00

  But I think you're right. I, I, you know, we've heard, uh, like the Fitbits.

• 16:58Speaker 01

  Yep.

• 16:59Speaker 00

  Have been big in a couple of murders and you know, just things maybe that you don't realize. I think most people know their phone is kind of

• 17:08Speaker 01

  You'd hope.

• 17:09Speaker 00

  Giving away their location. I don't know how many people maybe think about a tablet as much or like a Fitbit or, or things like that, but a lot, a lot of things are tracking us nowadays.

• 17:22Speaker 01

  Yeah. I mean, your vehicles.

• 17:24Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 17:24Speaker 01

  I mean, if you have something inserted in you, like a device, like a medical, uh, something for your heart.

• 17:30Speaker 00

  Do you have something in this location here?

• 17:32Speaker 01

  Not yet.

• 17:33Speaker 00

  Iron Man?

• 17:33Speaker 01

  Not yet. You know, if I do, I would like to have the Iron Man thing. That'd be kinda cool.

• 17:37Speaker 00

  That'd be badass.

• 17:38Speaker 01

  It would, yeah.

• 17:39Speaker 00

  You know, I have a closet full of clothes, but I tend to go back to the same things. The ones I know that feel the best, fit the best. And right now I keep going back to Quince. I love everything I've gotten from Quince, but what I continually go for is their activewear flow net line. Quince focuses on high-quality wardrobe staples made with premium materials like 100% Mongolian cashmere, organic cotton and merino wool. Their styles are amazing and they design their clothes to become the dependable pieces you reach for day after day. Their 100% Mongolian cashmere sweater started just $60 and they are incredibly soft.

• 18:21Speaker 00

  And we know temperatures are getting ready to drop. Those sweaters are perfect. Everything at Quince is priced 50 to 80% less than similar brands. They work directly with ethical factories and cut out the middlemen. So you're paying for high quality, not brand markup. And it's not just clothing. Quince brings that same approach to everything they make. I love their bedding. They even have kitchen essentials and thoughtfully designed furniture. Find your next fall favorites at Quince. Download the Quince app for app exclusive offers or go to quince.com. Get free shipping on your order and 365-day returns. Now available in Canada and the UK too. And when Quince asks where you heard about them, let them know it was true crime all the time. It's the best way to support the show.

• 19:05Speaker 00

  So police obtained a search warrant for Eric's home on November 29th, and they found a camper on the property with what they described as an overwhelming smell of bleach. That's always gonna get, you know, a little bit of attention.

• 19:24Speaker 01

  It is.

• 19:24Speaker 00

  Right? In the wake of a horrific crime, but then they found blood on the floor, walls and toilets. So, all right, you're using bleach. We've said it, right? It's hard to clean up blood.

• 19:38Speaker 01

  It is.

• 19:39Speaker 00

  Especially to completely erase it from a crime scene. On December 2nd, police interviewed an acquaintance of Eric who said that Eric and a 16-year-old named DJ showed up at his house on November 13th. Eric said he killed David and needed advice. The acquaintance sent him away. Okay. I'm telling you, man, if I'm 16 years old and a guy I know shows up at my door and says, hey, I just killed someone. I need your help. Friendship over.

• 20:16Speaker 01

  Absolutely.

• 20:16Speaker 00

  We're done.

• 20:17Speaker 01

  Bye.

• 20:19Speaker 00

  Not to mention the fact that I'm picking up the phone, I'm calling police.

• 20:22Speaker 01

  Yeah, I'd be like, uh, what'd you do with the gun? Do you still have it on you?

• 20:27Speaker 00

  You getting all the information, uh, ahead of time so that you can give to police?

• 20:31Speaker 01

  Oh, make sure he doesn't have that gun on him still.

• 20:33Speaker 00

  Well, that's true. Before you say no to him.

• 20:36Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 20:36Speaker 00

  Police also spoke to DJ who consulted an attorney and led the police to David's body. After David's body was found, police interviewed Eric again. He was questioned for about six hours with his father and grandmother present. Remember he is only 16 years old.

• 20:55Speaker 01

  Wonder how difficult that had to be for the parent and grandparent.

• 20:59Speaker 00

  Well, I don't know. I mean, imagine you have two kids, I have two kids. Imagine one of your kids being accused of murder.

• 21:08Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 21:09Speaker 00

  I, I can't, I can't even imagine it. The thoughts that would be going through my mind. And obviously you wanna protect your kids as much as you can, but. How much can you protect them if they killed somebody?

• 21:22Speaker 01

  That's true. I guess all I can do is bring that attorney in right away.

• 21:26Speaker 00

  Yeah, that's all you can do. At first, he said he didn't know anything about David's death. But you know, they they're not going to stop with that. They continued to push him for answers. Eric soon admitted that David came to his home to drink and smoke marijuana in the camper. While doing so, DJ texted Eric, asking him to bring a gun to the camper. Eric handed a forty caliber gun to DJ, who bludgeoned David with it. Now Eric admitted he stood by and did nothing to stop it while it happened. He said he accompanied DJ as the teen loaded David into his Bronco,

• 22:08Speaker 00

  drove him to the river and made David walk into the woods and shot him.

• 22:15Speaker 01

  So he first beat David with the gun.

• 22:18Speaker 00

  This DJ.

• 22:19Speaker 01

  DJ did.

• 22:20Speaker 00

  Yep.

• 22:20Speaker 01

  Okay.

• 22:21Speaker 00

  Accord, according there.

• 22:22Speaker 01

  Yeah. And then him and Eric got him in the Bronco, drove out there. And then DJ walked him down the path and shot him.

• 22:30Speaker 00

  Yeah. To me, that's the takeaway, right? From this interview is he's putting himself there.

• 22:38Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 22:38Speaker 00

  But he's essentially laying all of this on DJ. However, in a second recounting of the incident, Eric blamed the shooting on another sixteen year old named AB.

• 22:52Speaker 01

  Okay. Well, that's a problem now. Story's changing.

• 22:55Speaker 00

  Story's changing, which is never good. Eric acknowledged burning David's Bronco, taking a cab from the site, cleaning the camper and burning a blood soaked rug. So, okay, you start off by saying you were there when it all happened, but you didn't do any of it. Besides, give the gun to this DJ guy.

• 23:20Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 23:21Speaker 00

  Now DJ is nowhere to be found. It's a guy named AB who killed him. But now you've said, I burned his Bronco.

• 23:33Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 23:34Speaker 00

  I then took a cab, went back to the camper, cleaned up all the blood, all of that.

• 23:39Speaker 01

  As the father and grandmother sitting there, I mean, I'd be like, what the heck did we do wrong? And raising this kid to think that that was okay?

• 23:50Speaker 00

  Well, and the other thing is, as a parent, a lot of times you know when your kid is lying.

• 23:56Speaker 01

  Oh, yeah.

• 23:56Speaker 00

  Now, police are good at it, but a parent has spent this person's whole life.

• 24:02Speaker 01

  Right.

• 24:03Speaker 00

  With them, right? They've seen them their whole life. I know when my kids are lying.

• 24:08Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 24:08Speaker 00

  I do.

• 24:09Speaker 01

  I mean, if they, even if they got past the police interview, soon as you got out to your truck, you'd be like, all right.

• 24:16Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 24:17Speaker 01

  Tell me what really happened, because I know what you told them is not true.

• 24:20Speaker 00

  Let's cut to you know what.

• 24:22Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 24:22Speaker 00

  The only motive investigators could get from Eric was that David had smoked all of his weed.

• 24:29Speaker 01

  Is that really why you would kill somebody? You know, you smoked all my weed, damn it. I'm gonna kill you.

• 24:34Speaker 00

  I mean, if, even if it's true, the weed is already gone.

• 24:38Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 24:39Speaker 00

  What good is killing this individual going to do?

• 24:43Speaker 01

  Damage is done. So he smoked all the weed. He got mad. That'd be like me if I ate all your masa chips. I mean, I don't think you would want to hurt me, but I know you like your masa chips.

• 24:54Speaker 00

  Let's just put it, let's just say it wouldn't be good.

• 24:57Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 24:57Speaker 00

  Because those are my snack of choice. Not to give a plug, because they're not paying us. I wish they would, because I do love those chips.

• 25:06Speaker 01

  I mean, I did take two bags home with me last week that you didn't know about. I don't think you do. Maybe you did.

• 25:11Speaker 00

  I just docked your pay.

• 25:15Speaker 00

  It was said that Eric showed very little remorse. On December ninth, two thousand sixteen, four more teenagers were charged in connection with David's murder.

• 25:25Speaker 01

  Wow.

• 25:26Speaker 00

  And let's talk about remorse a little bit.

• 25:28Speaker 01

  Sure.

• 25:29Speaker 00

  I get it. You have basically said two different people killed David.

• 25:36Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 25:36Speaker 00

  But could you not at least show some remorse just for the fact that a sixteen year old is dead?

• 25:43Speaker 01

  And you were there and witnessed it.

• 25:45Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 25:45Speaker 01

  According to his account.

• 25:47Speaker 00

  Even, even if, according to you, you didn't pull, you weren't the one that pulled the trigger. I feel like it'd be very easy to show remorse.

• 25:55Speaker 01

  I would think.

• 25:56Speaker 00

  But that's easy for us to say because we have that in.

• 25:59Speaker 01

  Right.

• 26:00Speaker 00

  You know, some of these people, they just don't have it, man.

• 26:02Speaker 01

  They don't.

• 26:03Speaker 00

  And it's a scary thing.

• 26:04Speaker 01

  Really is.

• 26:05Speaker 00

  A Palmer grand jury charged Dominic Johnson and Bradley Renfro, both sixteen, with first and second degree murder and evidence tampering, they were charged as adults. And I know that's a, ah, kind of a sticky subject for some people.

• 26:23Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 26:24Speaker 00

  My take is, you know, if you're sixteen, seventeen years old, and you kill someone in this type of way.

• 26:34Speaker 01

  Right.

• 26:34Speaker 00

  Meaning you purposefully did it, is essentially, like you said, an execution. I have no issues with you being charged as an adult.

• 26:44Speaker 01

  Yeah, I'm good with it too. You know, you, you made that decision. You, you have the capability of understanding right from wrong.

• 26:53Speaker 00

  Yep. Nineteen year old Austin Barrett was charged with first and second degree murder and kidnapping. Eighteen year old Devon Peterson was charged with three counts of tampering and first degree hindering prosecution. So according to prosecutors, the DJ in Eric Almendinger's statement was Dominic Johnson. Dominic was the one who told Eric to get the gun and the one who bludgeoned David. Prosecutors noted that David was shot and killed by either Dominic Johnson or Austin Barrett. So Austin would be the AB, right? In the second confession.

• 27:35Speaker 00

  The teens drove to Devon Peterson's house for advice after the fact. Devon admitted to state troopers that he saw Eric and Dominic that night, but told them they were stupid and sent them away because he didn't want the trouble. So that's why he got charged with tampering and hindering prosecution.

• 27:56Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 27:57Speaker 00

  Which is tough, because he really wasn't involved in this. These guys just happened to show up at his house, but once he had that knowledge.

• 28:07Speaker 01

  He didn't do anything with it.

• 28:08Speaker 00

  He didn't do anything with it, and they really put him in a terrible position.

• 28:15Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 28:15Speaker 00

  He just should have done something with the information he had.

• 28:19Speaker 01

  Right. Makes you wonder why they showed up to his house for advice. Like, why would they go to him for advice?

• 28:25Speaker 00

  Yeah. Maybe they thought he knew something about this. I have no idea. Prosecutors accused Eric, Bradley, Dominic and Austin of acting as principals or accomplices in David's murder, and accused them of restraining and kidnapping David and destroying evidence. Devon was accused of suppressing or concealing a nine millimeter pistol and a forty caliber pistol used in the crime, and was allegedly involved in burning David's vehicle. Sources also reported that Devon and Bradley Renfro were arrested back in June two thousand sixteen for kidnapping.

• 29:07Speaker 00

  But it was unclear if they faced charges.

• 29:11Speaker 01

  What's going on with this kidnapping stuff, you know, these teens?

• 29:14Speaker 00

  Also, this seems like a, a bad group of kids.

• 29:19Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 29:19Speaker 00

  And they're doing bad things. And it wasn't, you know, just this one thing where David was killed. Obviously, they had been doing some things before that, some of them at least. After news of the arrest came out, people on social media criticized the Almendinger family and asked how such a violent crime could go on so close to the house without adults knowing.

• 29:46Speaker 01

  I understand, but today's world, the way kids are, I think they can do a lot of things without the parents knowing.

• 29:54Speaker 00

  Yeah, but you say today's world. You and I did a lot of things that our parents never knew about.

• 29:59Speaker 01

  Absolutely. They still don't know about, you know, they're never, they would never know about.

• 30:02Speaker 00

  Yes. I don't know that this is a new thing. I don't know that it's directly tied into today's world.

• 30:08Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 30:09Speaker 00

  I just think it's been, you know, for a very long time, kids have hid things from their parents. And I get it, the, the family of a murderer or accused murderer, they're going to catch some flak.

• 30:23Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 30:23Speaker 00

  There's just no way around it. But how can you say, you know, or make the assumption that they should have known that this was going on? I think that's tough.

• 30:36Speaker 01

  I think it is too.

• 30:37Speaker 00

  With the way kids hide stuff from their, their parents. Rod and Myler Almendinger, Eric's father and grandmother, said they didn't know what happened to turn a regular kid into a criminal. They said Eric was an animal lover, played basketball and won a prize at the state fair for baking.

• 30:59Speaker 01

  Maybe, maybe they were a special type of brownie.

• 31:02Speaker 00

  Yeah, I don't think so. I don't think you usually win prizes at the state fair for those. But he normally lived with his mother and visited his father on weekends. They said Eric was doing well in school until he befriended Devon Peterson in the summer of two thousand fifteen. Rod banned Devon from visiting because he thought he was a bad influence. Eric stopped visiting his father regularly at that point. By the summer of two thousand sixteen, Eric wasn't living with his mother anymore. He was essentially homeless and moving around to houses that served as drug dealing bases.

• 31:42Speaker 01

  All right. Well, that's where things start going bad then.

• 31:44Speaker 00

  Yeah. I mean, this kid took a nosedive.

• 31:47Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 31:48Speaker 00

  Right? In a short period of time, at least from what his father has said, it does make it seem like it coincided with this friendship with Devon Peterson.

• 32:01Speaker 01

  Yeah. So, I mean, at that point, maybe there's some things that the parents probably knew, but what can they control of that?

• 32:10Speaker 00

  Now, here's the thing though. When you're sixteen years old. You can't essentially be homeless.

• 32:19Speaker 01

  Not technically, right?

• 32:20Speaker 00

  Right? You can't make that decision.

• 32:22Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 32:23Speaker 00

  So I don't know who they called. I don't know what they did. I mean, there's some stuff there that maybe they might not have done correctly. Cause it does sound like they knew about some of this, but you know, knowing that he was going to murder this kid. And that's a little tough, right? To, to hang on them. He hung out with a group of teens who occasionally came by Rod's house to eat and talk.

• 32:53Speaker 02

  When it comes to group life and supplemental health insurance, how do you know you've found the right partner? When everything works in harmony, like innovative solutions,

• 33:06Speaker 02

  impactful products, and exceptional service? Check out Securian.com to find the partner that hits all the right notes.

• 33:17Speaker 02

  Insurance issued by Minnesota Life Insurance Company and Securian Life Insurance Company.

• 33:22Speaker 00

  In late October, Eric's father and grandmother agreed to let him stay at the house with another teen. Rod enrolled them in an alternative school and tried to keep them at home. When they snuck out to get drunk, he gave them one last chance. The other teen left, but he returned a week later. David Grunwald gave the teen a ride. So, you know, again, I, I think the father is trying something here.

• 33:51Speaker 01

  Right.

• 33:51Speaker 00

  Right? He doesn't want his son out doing bad things. He wants him home where he can keep an eye on him. It sounds like maybe the concession was, okay, I'll let this other guy live here as well, but you guys gotta follow the rules and you know, you can't be doing this and that.

• 34:11Speaker 01

  Do some of this alternative school stuff so that keep you out of trouble.

• 34:16Speaker 00

  Yeah. David's parents, Ben and Edith, said during a previous interview that they called Rod Allmendinger a few hours after David didn't come home. Rod said his son wasn't there and said something along the lines of, those kids are fucked.

• 34:34Speaker 01

  That would be an interesting, uh, response to get.

• 34:37Speaker 00

  Yeah. Now, obviously when this was reported by the Anchorage Daily News, they, they didn't use the, that word, but I'm going to use it because I think it's very descriptive. While not being descriptive at all, if that makes sense.

• 34:53Speaker 01

  Sure.

• 34:54Speaker 00

  It's impactful. And then you have to dissect, well, what does he mean when he says that?

• 35:00Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 35:00Speaker 00

  That he's given them chance after chance, or his son and whoever else is living there. They just can't walk the straight and narrow?

• 35:09Speaker 01

  Or does he know something?

• 35:11Speaker 00

  Well, it is being said in response to David having gone missing. It's, it is a, it's a strange response.

• 35:21Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 35:21Speaker 00

  To me, in that context, when the Anchorage Daily News asked about this, Rod explained he was worried Edith was calling the police and the teens would get in trouble for not being home. He didn't know what happened at the trailer. He assumed Eric and the other teen were watching TV in a downstairs bedroom. Until the teen said Eric wasn't there. But obviously there was something going on.

• 35:48Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 35:49Speaker 00

  To say that about, um, your son and another person or a group of people. That's not a good thing.

• 35:59Speaker 01

  No.

• 35:59Speaker 00

  When you say that.

• 36:00Speaker 01

  No. And saying something like that, things are messed up.

• 36:04Speaker 00

  Yeah. So back to your point, is it a general, you know, they're jacked up? Or does he know something more than what he's letting on? Rod said he didn't see David come back to his home or anyone else go in the trailer, which was normally locked. He didn't hear from Eric until 4:00 AM that night. At that point, David's parents were looking for him. And he said that Eric said, just everybody chill out. He's probably just hanging out with somebody else and being late.

• 36:40Speaker 01

  Easy thing to say.

• 36:41Speaker 00

  Well, it is. And I mean, if you're a parent, I mean, does that seem out of the ordinary?

• 36:47Speaker 01

  No.

• 36:48Speaker 00

  Doesn't, it doesn't raise any alarm bells, I don't think.

• 36:51Speaker 01

  Not at all.

• 36:52Speaker 00

  Rod looked inside the trailer once to see if David was hiding there. He said he didn't see any blood, but he also didn't look in the bathroom. He didn't realize the group of teens may have returned to the trailer on Thanksgiving weekend. And doused it in bleach and burned the carpet. He was on a trip and locked the door once he saw it had been opened. Eric told his dad he needed to get something from the trailer. So, you know, the other thing is when it's thought to have happened kind of on your property.

• 37:25Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 37:26Speaker 00

  Okay. People are going to be a little more upset at you about that.

• 37:31Speaker 01

  Yeah, I get that.

• 37:32Speaker 00

  Thinking, you know, who's in control here?

• 37:35Speaker 01

  Right.

• 37:36Speaker 00

  Who's watching over things?

• 37:38Speaker 01

  How, how didn't you know that since that trailer was on your property and it's your trailer?

• 37:44Speaker 00

  Yeah. In February 2017, Damian Peterson, the older brother of Devin, was indicted for second degree murder, manslaughter, criminally negligent homicide and assault for the death of 16-year-old Frankie Woodford.

• 38:01Speaker 01

  What is going on?

• 38:03Speaker 00

  Uh, in the Peterson household?

• 38:05Speaker 01

  Man.

• 38:06Speaker 00

  Or in all these kids' households? I don't know. Back in June 2016, troopers responded to a hole man was still for a report of an underage teen with a gunshot wound. The grand jury found that Frankie Woodford's gunshot wound was not self-inflicted. In January 2018, David's parents filed a civil lawsuit accusing several people of supplying the pistol used in the murder. The suit named two other teens who allegedly gave the murder weapon to four of the defendants in exchange for drugs. The teens' mothers and the owner of the gun were also named in the suit.

• 38:47Speaker 01

  I bet they were.

• 38:49Speaker 00

  Hey, you know, if you've got a gun, you have a really big responsibility.

• 38:55Speaker 01

  You sure do.

• 38:56Speaker 00

  To make sure that that gun doesn't fall into the hands of people who shouldn't have it.

• 39:02Speaker 01

  Yeah. Lock it up.

• 39:04Speaker 00

  On January 19th, 2018, Devin Peterson entered a change of plea agreement, admitting that he helped hide the pistol after the murder. He also admitted to providing gas cans to burn David's vehicle. He pleaded guilty to first degree tampering with physical evidence and hindering prosecution. On May 14th, 2018, Devin was sentenced to three years in federal prison and four years of supervised release for distribution of marijuana to minors. The federal sentence will be served consecutively to his state sentence.

• 39:47Speaker 01

  Yeah. I think it was probably a good move on his part.

• 39:50Speaker 00

  To plead?

• 39:51Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 39:51Speaker 00

  Yeah. And I don't know, you know, maybe they gave him a deal on that. But then at the same time, he's got three years in federal prison after that.

• 40:02Speaker 01

  Sure. Yeah.

• 40:03Speaker 00

  That he has to serve. So going back to what's going on in the Peterson household. I don't know. These two brothers, one was convicted of murder, the other one for tampering and hindering prosecution. And also for, you know, distribution of marijuana to minors. It's not good stuff.

• 40:25Speaker 01

  No.

• 40:26Speaker 00

  According to the US Attorney's Office for the District of Alaska, during a search of Peterson's home, Alaska State Troopers found a photograph of an underage girl performing a sex act on Peterson. In a subsequent search, they found a video showing the sexual assault of an incapacitated underage girl. The video was taken at a party attended by Peterson and others in July 2016. During the party, Devin gave the girl marijuana, contributing to her extreme intoxication and assault at night.

• 41:06Speaker 01

  These guys are real winners.

• 41:07Speaker 00

  It's just horrible stuff.

• 41:09Speaker 01

  It is.

• 41:09Speaker 00

  All the way around. On May 31st, 2018, Eric Allmendinger was found guilty of first degree murder, three counts of second degree murder, kidnapping, tampering with evidence, vehicle theft and arson.

• 41:25Speaker 01

  He got hit hard.

• 41:26Speaker 00

  They really stacked the charges on him.

• 41:29Speaker 01

  They did.

• 41:30Speaker 00

  And I'm cool with that.

• 41:31Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 41:31Speaker 00

  Because, you know, let's face it, a lot of times some charges get dropped, some get pled down. So, you know, they, they kind of have to stack them up. But it's not like he didn't do all these things. He did.

• 41:46Speaker 01

  Right, right.

• 41:47Speaker 00

  They're not making up charges. They just charged him with everything they could. The trial didn't establish who fired the fatal shot, but Eric was seen as complicit. And I think that's tough, right? You have multiple stories of who fired the shot. But I think a lot of times in the eyes of the law, you're all equally guilty.

• 42:10Speaker 01

  Yeah, it's true.

• 42:11Speaker 00

  You know, you gave the gun or you participated in the kidnapping. It's kind of just one big ball of wax.

• 42:20Speaker 01

  You can look at it that way, right? Like a person would, would still be alive if you didn't kidnap them. And if you didn't bring that gun to the party and you didn't pull the trigger. So all three of you have an equal share.

• 42:33Speaker 00

  Yeah. I mean, sometimes you just can't figure it out, but you know that everybody's involved. The jury heard from the medical examiner who testified that David had a small amount of marijuana in his system. He had injuries to his head and extremities, showing he went through a struggle and tried to defend himself with his arms and hands. He was beaten severely and shot once in the head, most likely while looking at the assailant. So this wasn't, somebody walked up behind him.

• 43:04Speaker 01

  Right.

• 43:05Speaker 00

  And shot him. There was a, a fight. He was beaten and somebody pulled out a gun and, and shot him. What sounds to be face to face. The jury viewed Eric's interrogation video where he initially admitted he was present during the crime. But he said he wasn't the killer. His story changed several times as we talked about. He admitted he was there for the beating, shooting and evidence tampering. Said there were five people in the car, including himself. He claimed Dominic Johnson was driving and was the one who took David through the woods and shot him. However, earlier at trial, the defense claimed Austin Barrett was the shooter.

• 43:49Speaker 00

  In his police interview, Eric said he was scared. He would be killed if he didn't go along with everything. He said that Devon Peterson was the one who said they should burn the vehicle. He was on board with this, but it wasn't fully his idea. Okay. I mean, what do you make, right? Some of this is some CYA, I feel like. You're trying to diminish your role.

• 44:13Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 44:14Speaker 00

  And put as much as you can onto the other people.

• 44:20Speaker 01

  Deflect it, deflect it.

• 44:22Speaker 00

  So it does make it tough, right? To get to the bottom of exactly who did what. And the one thing that he couldn't do, or he didn't do, was give an answer as to motive.

• 44:36Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 44:36Speaker 00

  Right. What was the motive?

• 44:38Speaker 01

  Why did you do it?

• 44:39Speaker 00

  For these people, these kids to want to kill David Grunwald. On August 20th, 2018, Devon Peterson was sentenced to six years in state prison for evidence tampering and hindering prosecution. And let's not forget, right? He's got another three years.

• 44:58Speaker 01

  Right.

• 44:59Speaker 00

  For the marijuana charge. I don't know if he then later got charged with some of the child abuse sexual material.

• 45:10Speaker 01

  Oh, yeah. Right.

• 45:11Speaker 00

  I didn't see anything about that. I can't imagine he wasn't, maybe that added to it. I don't know. On October 4th, 2018, Damian Peterson was sentenced to 18 years with five years suspended and five years of parole for the shooting of Frankie Woodford. I mean, if you're like the Peterson family, I hate to say it, but if you're their parents, you gotta be like, where did we go wrong?

• 45:38Speaker 01

  Yeah. Where do, where do we fail these kids?

• 45:41Speaker 00

  And we don't know much about their family or their childhood or their lives or whatever. But I mean, to have two brothers involved in two different murders.

• 45:51Speaker 01

  Right.

• 45:52Speaker 00

  That's rough.

• 45:53Speaker 01

  And all the other crimes.

• 45:55Speaker 00

  Oh, and yeah, on top of all the other stuff. According to the Matsu Valley frontiersmen, the events that transpired were unclear. It was also unclear why no one knew sooner that Frankie did not shoot himself. Right? So this goes to the Damian Peterson crime.

• 46:14Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 46:15Speaker 00

  There was a period of time where they thought maybe he shot himself. A group of young men, including Damian and Devon Peterson and Austin Barrett, were at the house where an adult was present, but there was no supervision. Damian was manipulating a stolen Glock pistol by taking bullets out of the magazine and putting them back in. Frankie left another room of the house to join his friends because he was being bullied. The room he walked into was the same room where Peterson was playing with the pistol. According to Austin Barrett, Damian was pointing the gun at people and pulling the trigger.

• 46:58Speaker 00

  It was assumed he was doing it to scare Frankie and instead fatally shot him. And this is exactly why you don't play around with guns.

• 47:08Speaker 01

  You don't.

• 47:09Speaker 00

  You just absolutely do not. And you have to abide by that kind of overarching rule, which is you have to treat every gun as though it's loaded.

• 47:22Speaker 01

  You have to. Yeah.

• 47:23Speaker 00

  You absolutely have to. Damian claimed he didn't know the gun was loaded, even though he was the one manipulating it.

• 47:32Speaker 01

  Yeah, he knew.

• 47:33Speaker 00

  When the gun went off, everyone fled the room screaming that Frankie shot himself. He told first responders on the scene that he didn't shoot himself. Frankie was airlifted to the hospital where he was pronounced dead. And very interesting that he was alive long enough to tell first responders that, no, I didn't shoot myself. So I'm not really sure why there was a thought in the beginning that he did. Alaska State Troopers investigated, but found no one to charge until Austin Barrett told troopers about the incident during the investigation of the murder of David Grunwald.

• 48:16Speaker 01

  Yeah, they were able to kind of drag that out of him.

• 48:20Speaker 00

  Well, and how interesting is that, right? If this case never happens, does Frankie's murder ever get solved?

• 48:28Speaker 01

  Yeah, at least you get them on something.

• 48:30Speaker 00

  Maybe not. On December 27th, 2018, Dominic Johnson was found guilty on all charges, including first degree murder, kidnapping, second degree murder, intending serious injury, and second degree murder with extreme indifference, felony murder, evidence tampering, assault, vehicle theft, and three counts of arson.

• 48:54Speaker 01

  Oh, man. Heavy hit.

• 48:56Speaker 00

  Um, yeah, these are, uh, you know, young people who are having the book thrown at them. But to me, it's very well deserved.

• 49:05Speaker 01

  Absolutely.

• 49:06Speaker 00

  What they did was absolutely heinous. Prosecutors presented a Snapchat video showing Johnson talking about hitting someone in the head as hard as he could. Also, I'm starting to think some of these kids might not have been that bright.

• 49:22Speaker 01

  No.

• 49:23Speaker 00

  Why are you on Snapchat talking about hurting people?

• 49:27Speaker 01

  Because they think they can do that video and it will disappear and nobody will ever see it or talk about it. They forget all this computer forensic stuff where they can get a lot of that information still.

• 49:39Speaker 00

  Is Snapchat the one that disappears?

• 49:41Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 49:42Speaker 00

  Okay. I've never used Snapchats. I don't really know how it works, but you're right. You might think it disappears, but doesn't mean there's not a way to get to it.

• 49:51Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 49:52Speaker 00

  Or that somebody maybe somehow screenshot something or.

• 49:57Speaker 01

  Saved it somehow.

• 49:58Speaker 00

  Yeah, saved it. The defense argued that cell data showed Johnson was elsewhere when the murder occurred, but prosecutors countered that data is not always accurate to the exact location. Prosecutors argued the notion that Johnson, who reportedly instigated the beating, removing himself from the situation was implausible. And I get what they're saying, right? If he starts beating David.

• 50:24Speaker 01

  Right.

• 50:25Speaker 00

  Then what? He just leaves the area before the shooting occurs? Is it out of the question? No, but I get why they're trying to paint it as implausible.

• 50:37Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 50:38Speaker 00

  He's there.

• 50:39Speaker 01

  He's there.

• 50:39Speaker 00

  He just all of a sudden gets up and leaves by the time the shooting occurs? Bradley Renfro went to trial in September, 2019. He testified in his own defense. He was asked if he assisted with the murder and he answered by saying not willingly.

• 50:56Speaker 01

  Not willingly. Okay. Someone forced you to do it.

• 51:01Speaker 00

  Now, he did admit to lying to state troopers and that he was intoxicated on marijuana and alcohol at the time of the murder. He had no problems with David and David had never done anything wrong to him, but he admitted he didn't really know him. Bradley testified that during the attack, he was fearful and didn't do anything when Dominic let David out of a bathroom. He had been locked in and pistol whipped. He believed Dominic hit David seven to 10 times. Dominic said he only meant to knock David out, but the severity of the situation started to set in and it all just happened so fast.

• 51:42Speaker 01

  They always say that. It all just happened so fast.

• 51:45Speaker 00

  Yeah. Well, you went from what? At least according to them, thinking you were going to hit this guy a couple of times. We still don't know why.

• 51:55Speaker 01

  Right.

• 51:56Speaker 00

  Maybe it was because he smoked all the weed. I don't know.

• 52:00Speaker 01

  Could have been. Seems stupid.

• 52:02Speaker 00

  But he hits him more times than he thought he did. And now he's really, really hurt, much more so than what they were aiming to do. So they decided they had to kill him? I mean, I think that's what they're trying to say.

• 52:18Speaker 01

  So too.

• 52:19Speaker 00

  Austin Barrett was allegedly holding another pistol and quote, standing guard.

• 52:24Speaker 01

  Standing guard.

• 52:25Speaker 00

  He said something to the effect of, we're going to get in the truck and go for a ride now. He demanded that Bradley pick David up off the floor. At this point, he was starting to get scared. After the shooting, they took David's vehicle to try to get rid of it. Bradley was trying to find a way out of the situation, but his friends wouldn't let him. Now, right? This is all his testimony. They made him buy the gas to burn the Bronco. According to Bradley is quoted by Alaska news source. Dominic said that I had to do it because he said I hadn't participated in this. And he made me go get the gas because I looked like I didn't want to be part of it.

• 53:09Speaker 01

  So he's kind of treating it as some of these gangs do, like everybody's got to take a part in it. That way we're all guilty. So no one will talk about it.

• 53:18Speaker 00

  Yeah, that's a good point. Now, I think if I'm a juror, I'm viewing this as Bradley trying to worm his way out of it.

• 53:26Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 53:27Speaker 00

  And make an excuse that he unwillingly had to do some of these things. Because these other people wouldn't let him leave. On October 8th, 2019, Bradley Renfro was found guilty of murder, kidnapping and vehicle theft. On February 7th, 2020, Austin Barrett pleaded guilty to second degree murder. At a January hearing, Austin's murder indictment was thrown out after a judge ruled that the troopers who interviewed him failed to acknowledge his right to remain silent. When he pleaded the fifth at the beginning of the interview.

• 54:10Speaker 01

  How do you mess up like that?

• 54:11Speaker 00

  I don't know. I don't know. You know, I watch a lot of body cam videos and there's a lot of gray area, even in those of when they do the Miranda rights. They don't really need to do them unless they're going to be asking questions about the crime.

• 54:30Speaker 01

  So police body cam videos.

• 54:31Speaker 00

  What'd I say?

• 54:32Speaker 01

  Just body cam video.

• 54:35Speaker 00

  Oh, I just assumed people knew what I was talking about. Your mind is going to go somewhere else. I know that, but yes, police body cam videos. Seven indictment charges were dismissed because they relied so heavily on the interview. Prosecutors listed numerous factors that helped the state come to a plea agreement, including Austin's remorse and being a witness in the shooting of 16 year old Frankie Woodford. And again, it's fascinating how these two different cases became intertwined.

• 55:08Speaker 01

  Right. With different individuals.

• 55:10Speaker 00

  Yeah, they really had nothing to do with each other. But I don't think, or I'm not sure Frankie's case would have been solved had it not been for the murder of David Grunwald.

• 55:21Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 55:22Speaker 00

  Prosecutors agreed that without Austin's statement and the fact that he did not have a cell phone with him at the time of the murder, the case would be a gamble to take to trial. So I think he had some things going in his favor, right? Sometimes luck is on your side. On November 20th, 2020, Austin Barrett was the first of four sentenced for his role in the murder. He received a 45 year sentence with 10 years of probation.

• 55:50Speaker 01

  Wow, that's a healthy.

• 55:52Speaker 00

  It's healthy. And that's after having some of his indictments thrown out.

• 55:59Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 56:00Speaker 00

  Austin will be eligible for discretionary parole after serving 15 years of his sentence. With credit for time served, it may only be about 11 additional years before he can apply for parole. So he, I mean, he was in jail for like four years before

• 56:17Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 56:18Speaker 00

  he was even convicted. Seems like.

• 56:20Speaker 01

  It does.

• 56:21Speaker 00

  Yeah, I get it.

• 56:22Speaker 01

  But I mean, it was, he might not get out then either.

• 56:24Speaker 00

  He might not. And again, I don't want to lose sight of the fact that, you know, some of these individuals were like 16 years old.

• 56:32Speaker 01

  That's true.

• 56:33Speaker 00

  At the hearing, Austin's defense attorney presented a theory that David imprinted on Eric Allmendinger, leading to his introduction to a different world than the one he was raised in. And it's an interesting theory. The, the term imprinted is not something that you hear a lot in the world of true crime. You hear it a lot like on nature shows or, you know, things like that. But we talked about David's background. I think he was a good kid.

• 57:09Speaker 01

  Seemed like it.

• 57:11Speaker 00

  But I think he might've got involved with some people who maybe weren't as good, right? Warren is on the up and up and weren't on a great path. On May 5th, 2021, Dominic Johnson received a 99 year sentence for assault, kidnapping, evidence tampering and murder. The judge suspended 20 years and said Johnson would be eligible for parole in 36 years.

• 57:39Speaker 01

  Pretty good.

• 57:39Speaker 00

  It's healthy.

• 57:40Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 57:41Speaker 00

  I mean, that's, uh, that's no joke to do a minimum of 36 years in prison.

• 57:48Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 57:48Speaker 00

  Now he could still get out and be like my age. But that's a large chunk of your life that you're forfeiting.

• 57:56Speaker 01

  It is. I don't know if he has any other charges from anything else can, could be added on to it down the road.

• 58:01Speaker 00

  Yeah. Yeah, we don't know. The judge noted, per the Anchorage Daily News, who actually led David in the woods? Who pulled the trigger? We'll never really know.

• 58:12Speaker 01

  No, we know it's going to be one of X amount of people.

• 58:16Speaker 00

  Yes. ADA Melissa Winninger Howard said the crime was 100% a group effort. And I think they had to treat the prosecution that, like that, right? Had to kind of go after everybody as, as a whole, because they didn't know who exactly pulled the trigger. The prosecution noted that in Snapchat messages, videos and other digital data, Johnson's own words indicated he was a willing participant and an active insider of violence. Although Johnson led police to the body, his assistance was outweighed by his participation, which is how it should be.

• 58:57Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 58:58Speaker 00

  It's great that you decide to assist the police. In very few times is it going to let you get off scot free.

• 59:09Speaker 01

  Oh, yeah.

• 59:10Speaker 00

  You might get a reduced sentence, but I don't think you should get off scot free at all. On August 8th, 2022, Eric Allmendinger was sentenced to 99 years in prison. Prosecutors noted that Eric was the only one in the group who actually knew David. They attended high school together. A jailhouse phone call between Austin Barrett and his grandmother was played during the hearing in which Barrett said he fired the fatal shot. Okay. Not a phone call you should be having.

• 59:42Speaker 01

  Not at all.

• 59:43Speaker 00

  Again, why do people not know that these phone calls are recorded? It literally says it right by the phone.

• 59:49Speaker 01

  I know. So if you ever go to prison,

• 59:54Speaker 01

  careful what you say on the phone.

• 59:55Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 59:55Speaker 01

  And on the, uh, you know, if you go to one of the older ones where you're sitting across from the glass aisle, you know, from each other.

• 1:00:03Speaker 00

  The glass aisle?

• 1:00:04Speaker 01

  You know, the.

• 1:00:06Speaker 00

  The partition?

• 1:00:07Speaker 01

  Partition.

• 1:00:07Speaker 00

  Okay.

• 1:00:08Speaker 01

  Plexiglass.

• 1:00:09Speaker 00

  Definitely not glass.

• 1:00:10Speaker 01

  Yeah, yeah.

• 1:00:11Speaker 00

  That would be a bad move.

• 1:00:13Speaker 01

  Just, you know, when you pick that little phone up there, be careful what you say.

• 1:00:16Speaker 00

  Yeah, you definitely should. Eric said he wasn't asking for leniency and he didn't claim the excuses that came up in his defense, such as expert testimony about brain development in young people. And there's always that, right? 16 years old, your brain's not fully developed. We know that it doesn't fully develop, I think, until you're about 25 years old.

• 1:00:39Speaker 01

  65. I'm still working on mine.

• 1:00:41Speaker 00

  For you, 65, but for most people, I think right around 25 is what I've always heard. The Anchorage Daily News quoted him as saying, I claimed full responsibility for Dave dying. He was my friend. He was a good kid and I killed my friend. That's what happened. I killed somebody's nephew. I killed somebody's son. I destroyed somebody's family. He apologized to David's family. He said, I'm sure the words coming out of my mouth are irrelevant to them. But if it means anything, I'm sorry. I'm sorry for what I did and I'm sorry for what I didn't do. And it's kind of refreshing. Again, you don't know how much of this is real, but he doesn't have to say these things.

• 1:01:26Speaker 01

  He doesn't.

• 1:01:27Speaker 00

  Now, the, the I'm sorries, I don't always buy those, but he is saying, I killed David.

• 1:01:35Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:01:35Speaker 00

  I killed my friend. He's admitting to all of this stuff. Now he's been convicted, so.

• 1:01:41Speaker 01

  Sure. Yeah.

• 1:01:41Speaker 00

  Why not? But even still, people don't do that a lot of the time. Prosecutor Melissa Howard noted that Eric repeatedly violated jail rules, including being caught with a homemade knife and fighting with another inmate. In 2019, he assaulted a CO. Yet I don't know that a lot of these people were good kids.

• 1:02:05Speaker 01

  I don't think they were.

• 1:02:07Speaker 00

  The judge left room for discretionary parole and noted that Eric will be a little over 50 at the time of his first possible parole hearing if he becomes eligible.

• 1:02:19Speaker 01

  Your age.

• 1:02:20Speaker 00

  Yeah, it'd be my age. And think about what happens or what has happened with us, right? Between the ages of 16 and let's say 54, 53, 54, right? I'm 53 years old. Everything in my life has happened between those two ages.

• 1:02:39Speaker 01

  Pretty important timeframe.

• 1:02:40Speaker 00

  It is. And that is, you're spending it with a bunch of dudes who may or may not shower.

• 1:02:48Speaker 01

  True.

• 1:02:49Speaker 00

  You're not going to have any dates, or if you are, they're probably not going to be the kind that you would like to have.

• 1:02:55Speaker 01

  Yeah, probably not going to be fun.

• 1:02:56Speaker 00

  It just, to me, all of this stuff is so senseless. I just don't get it. Why are you even doing this stuff? Why are you even taking the chance of losing that much of your life? On August 17, 2022, Bradley Rempharo was sentenced to 105 years in prison for murder, kidnapping, and evidence tampering. He was the last defendant to be sentenced. Court proceedings indicated that Bradley arrived at the property when three friends pistol-whipped David. He offered suggestions on where the murder should take place and afterwards planned to destroy evidence and bought gasoline to burn the vehicle.

• 1:03:38Speaker 00

  During sentencing, Judge Gregory Heath remarked on the crime, saying, "I can't see why they did this, other than they have no value for life." And I think that's pretty apparent.

• 1:03:49Speaker 01

  I think so. I think that's exactly what it is.

• 1:03:51Speaker 00

  Heath found that David was driven for nearly half an hour to the woods and was emotionally tortured. Heath remarked, "To walk someone in the woods and execute them, it takes a darkness in these woods." Although Bradley's total sentence added up to 105 years, he'll be eligible for parole at age 51, after serving 35 years. Nearly 10 years later, the murder of David Grunwald still has no clear motive. And who exactly pulled the trigger is unconfirmed. Like I said, right? It was a senseless horrific crime committed by a group of teenagers

• 1:04:32Speaker 00

  who seemed to be inciting and encouraging violence in each other.

• 1:04:38Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:04:39Speaker 00

  And, you know, I think some of it is this group think, right? This group mentality, you know, would any of these people have done it on their own? I don't know. I don't know. Maybe, but I think when you get a bunch of people together, that group thing can kind of lead to some bad things sometimes.

• 1:05:02Speaker 01

  And it gives those people confidence.

• 1:05:05Speaker 00

  Maybe. Or now they're like, okay, if you think it's a good idea, I'm in, or whatever it is, but...

• 1:05:13Speaker 01

  Confirmation.

• 1:05:14Speaker 00

  Confirmation that, that maybe it's okay. I, I just, you know, okay, did he smoke the last of the weed? Maybe. Is that a reason to kill somebody? Absolutely not.

• 1:05:27Speaker 01

  I would not think so either.

• 1:05:29Speaker 00

  Not that there's a lot of great reasons, but that would be at the bottom of the list.

• 1:05:33Speaker 01

  Yeah. I mean, I get it. You really liked your weed, but get some more, you know? If that's what you want. You might have to wait a week till you get paid, whatever.

• 1:05:44Speaker 00

  And then the other thing that always strikes me is when you have this many people involved in a murder.

• 1:05:50Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:05:50Speaker 00

  Number one, it's very hard for people to keep their mouths shut, which people didn't do in this one either. But also, and more importantly for me, is how do you get X number of people to all go along with something that they know is wrong, right? They know it's not the right thing to do, but yet everybody kind of falls in line and says, "Yeah, this is what we're going to do."

• 1:06:15Speaker 01

  Yeah, what scare tactics were used to make that happen?

• 1:06:18Speaker 00

  Yeah, I just, I don't understand it at all. But that's it for our episode on David Grunwald. If you love the show, make sure you hit that subscribe button if you're on YouTube. If you're listening, keep listening.

• 1:06:32Speaker 01

  Tell people about us. Tell your friends and family and...

• 1:06:35Speaker 00

  Yeah, we don't say it all the time, but you know, word of mouth about the podcast really helps us out.

• 1:06:39Speaker 01

  It does.

• 1:06:40Speaker 00

  But that's it for another episode of True Crime All the Time. So for Mike...

• 1:06:44Speaker 01

  And Gibby.

• 1:06:44Speaker 00

  Stay safe and keep your own time ticking.