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Campfire Kahuna
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Bet they are "rehabilitated" and back on the street in no time...


Mark Begich, Joaquin Jackson, and Heller resistance... Three huge reasons to worry about the NRA.
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And now the father says he is shocked!?!?! Reads like a YGBFKM...



'No clue': Family of teen charged in Grunwald killing say they share public's shock
Author: Zaz Hollander Updated: 6 hours ago Published 13 hours ago

Rod Almandinger holds a photo of his son Erick, taken during his middle-school years. Erick Almandinger is one of five Mat-Su teens charged in association with the murder of David Grunwald. (Zaz Hollander / Alaska Dispatch News)

PALMER — Erick Almandinger's father and grandmother know an outraged public won't believe them.

Almandinger was the first of five teens charged in the death of 16-year-old David Grunwald, a killing that's attracted national attention and exposed a teen underworld in the Valley.

Rod and Myler Almandinger say they had no idea Grunwald's slaying may have started with a savage pistol-whipping in a camper-trailer next to Myler's Palmer home.

They also say their 16-year-old son and grandson deserves to pay for whatever he may have done, even though they're shocked it happened at all.

"We already know that nobody is going to accept what we're going to say," Rod said during an interview at the house on the edge of Palmer Monday. "We're just trying to tell you, we're just as devastated as the rest of you. We're just as angry as the rest of you."

Both say they feel terrible for the Grunwald family and haunted by what happened.

Rod says he still cries every night, not only for his son but for David.

"This whole situation is all so unreal. Every day I wake up thinking it's not really true," he said. "I'm just stuck inside a dream somewhere over and over."

'This kind of hell'

The case began with Grunwald's disappearance Nov. 13 — a Sunday night — and ended with the discovery of his body, beaten and shot once, near the Knik River on Dec. 2.

Alaska State Troopers immediately started visiting the Almandinger home almost daily because Grunwald's girlfriend told them he mentioned visiting Erick before he went missing.

Alaska State Troopers previously issued a bulletin asking for the public’s help locating David Grunwald and anyone who had seen him or his 1995 Ford Bronco.
Alaska State Troopers previously issued a bulletin asking for the public’s help locating David Grunwald and anyone who had seen him or his 1995 Ford Bronco.
His family says Almandinger spent more than two weeks lying to troopers and to them before Grunwald's body was found. Several of his friends, later charged in the crime, spent a night at the house afterward, they said.

Meanwhile, Rod and Myler joined hundreds of people looking for Grunwald and posting photos of the missing teen on social media.

Like the rest of the public, they say, they didn't know any more about David's disappearance until Almandinger was arrested on Dec. 3. The other four weren't arrested until this past weekend.

"Who would ever know this kind of hell went on?" Myler said.

Disbelief

Almandinger's interrogation at the Alaska State Troopers post in Palmer provided the first grim details of what may have happened to Grunwald after weeks of fruitless searches and speculation.

His father and grandmother sat with him through the six-hour interview.

Almandinger said that the night of the killing began when Grunwald came by to drink and smoke marijuana in the trailer, according to an initial charging document filed in the case. One teen asked Almandinger to bring out a pistol from the house and the teen bludgeoned Grunwald with it, the charges say. Then they forced Grunwald into his own Ford Bronco and drove him to the Knik, where he was shot, the court documents go on. The teens drove the Bronco across the Valley to the rough road leading up Bald Mountain Ridge where they set it on fire, according to the charges.

Asked about the killer's motive, Erick told an investigator that maybe it was because Grunwald "had smoked all his weed," the charges said.

Rod said he broke down crying in the hallway of the trooper post after he heard his son's story.

"I can't believe he did it," he said. "I can't believe they all did it."

Under attack

The savage death of Grunwald, a handsome teenager from a well-respected military family, triggered a wave of anger and outrage toward the Almandingers last week.

16-year-old David Grunwald was reported missing on Nov. 13, 2016, after he didn’t return home. (Photo courtesy of Edith Grunwald)
16-year-old David Grunwald was reported missing on Nov. 13, 2016, after he didn’t return home. (Photo courtesy of Edith Grunwald)
The father of Grunwald's girlfriend called for a new state law to make parents liable in court for the "heinous" criminal acts of their children.

Posts on social media faulted the Almandinger family and asked how such a brutal beating could go on so close to the house without them knowing. Myler said she left Facebook after receiving hate-filled comments. People verbally attacked another family member who lives outside the Mat-Su. Rod answers his phone carefully and thinks he's been followed.

They don't know what happened to turn a "regular kid" like Erick into the monster the public believes he is now.

Better days

Almandinger attended Shaw Elementary, Teeland Middle School and Colony High School until this year.

He loved animals and moved spiders instead of killing them, his grandmother said. He loved to play basketball. He and his brother entered prize-winning arts and crafts and cookies at the Alaska State Fair. He helped raise chickens.

Erick lived with his mother near Wasilla. His father has visitation rights on weekends. His mother couldn't be reached for comment.

Rod described Erick as a bit of a wild child but generally respectful. He went to church in the past.

He was getting good grades, his grandmother said, until he made a new friend named Devin Peterson in the summer of 2015.

New friends

Peterson is also charged in Grunwald's murder for his role destroying evidence by torching the Bronco and getting rid of the guns involved, according to the grand jury indictment in the case.

Rod said he eventually banned Peterson from visiting because he thought he was a bad influence on his son. Erick stopped coming by very much at that point.

By this summer, Erick wasn't staying with his mother anymore, Rod said. He was basically homeless, moving through "trap houses" that serve as drug-dealing bases in Wasilla, he said. The other teens arrested over the weekend were part of the same group, the Almandingers said.

Sometimes the group would come by to eat and talk. They always wore backpacks.

By late October, Myler and Rod agreed to let Erick stay at the house again. They had to agree to let another teen stay with him.

Rod said he enrolled them at Valley Pathways alternative school and tried to keep them home. When the teens sneaked out to get drunk, he gave them one last chance. The other teen left.

A week later, that teen came back.

David Grunwald gave him a ride over, the Almandingers say.

Turning a blind eye?

Many observers, including some involved in the case, say there's no way somebody at the Almandinger home didn't know something.

Grunwald's parents, Ben and Edie, said during a previous interview that they called Rod a few hours after David didn't come home. He did say his own son wasn't there. He also said something along the lines of, "Those kids are f—-ed."

Asked about that Monday after the interview, Rod said he was worried Edie Grunwald was calling the police and the teens would get in trouble for not being home. He repeated his assertion that he didn't know what had happened at the trailer.

"We had no clue that he left the house," he said.

The night of Nov. 13, Rod said, he assumed Erick and the other teen staying at the house were watching TV in a downstairs bedroom until the teen said Erick wasn't there.

He said he didn't see Grunwald come back or anyone else go to the trailer, which is usually kept locked. He kept trying to reach Erick and finally heard from him at 4 a.m.

Rod said the Grunwalds were worried and looking for David.

"He just said for everybody to just chill," his father recalled. "He's probably just hanging out with somebody else and being late."

Rod said he looked in the trailer once a few days after Grunwald went missing to see if he was hiding there. He poked some sleeping bags but didn't see anything amiss. He didn't see the bloody bathroom where troopers say the pistol-whipping happened.

It was dark in there, he said: "I wasn't looking in the bathroom."

Rod said he also didn't realize the teens on Thanksgiving weekend may have returned to the trailer and doused it in bleach before burning the carpet, as described in court documents. He was away on a trip. He said he locked the door when he saw it had been opened. Erick told him he needed to "get something out" of the trailer. Rod said he assumed that meant some movies and games inside.

The troopers hauled off the trailer as evidence a few days later.

Erick has a court hearing Tuesday. Rod didn't think he'd attend, though he's been visiting his son at Mat-Su Pretrial Facility every other day.

A trooper has told the Almandingers that Erick could be transferred to a prison in the Lower 48 if he's convicted and gets a life sentence. They plan to move closer to him if so.

"He's still our family, even if he's done something horrible," Myler said.

Zaz Hollander


Mark Begich, Joaquin Jackson, and Heller resistance... Three huge reasons to worry about the NRA.
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Mark Begich, Joaquin Jackson, and Heller resistance... Three huge reasons to worry about the NRA.
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This a horrible crime, but no one will spend much time in jail given their ages. the shooter should die, but he won't. This is a heartless, premeditated murder. True punishment, read justice, is a thing of the past. So sad.

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And to learn one thing, if other kids read this, there IS a negative side of even marijuana, even if you aren't from the dark side to start with...

Condolences to the family and friends again, to hell with the perps. Literally.


We can keep Larry Root and all his idiotic blabber and user names on here, but we can't get Ralph back..... Whiskey Tango Foxtrot, over....
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But it looks like the perps are also meth heads and the father of the prime suspect has multiple DV cases in his legal history...


Mark Begich, Joaquin Jackson, and Heller resistance... Three huge reasons to worry about the NRA.
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Oh, I never said the perps were quality citizens. Just a comment about peer pressure and the friends you keep...

Hell hang out wiht the wrong beer crowd years ago almost got me in trouble a time or two...


We can keep Larry Root and all his idiotic blabber and user names on here, but we can't get Ralph back..... Whiskey Tango Foxtrot, over....
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Agreed


Mark Begich, Joaquin Jackson, and Heller resistance... Three huge reasons to worry about the NRA.
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If you got some time to kill and are in the mood to be sickened and saddened, check out Devin Peterson's facebook page and some of the posts. This is a bunch of sick people, some of whom are still supporting these murderers. I think there is alot to this story that hasnt come out yet.

This schit just makes me sad, and question if I really even want to raise my kids here. Way too much of this murder and drug crime garbage in Alaska.

Just a snippet of what I picked up from there:

Devin Peterson sold them the gun that was used to kill David.
Many of them knew about the crime long before David's body was found.
Apparently, they cut up David's body.

Some sad schitt, for sure....


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Son of a liberal: " What did you do in the War On Terror, Daddy?"

Liberal father: " I fought the Americans, along with all the other liberals."

MOLON LABE





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Originally Posted by Pittu
If you got some time to kill and are in the mood to be sickened and saddened, check out Devin Peterson's facebook page and some of the posts. This is a bunch of sick people, some of whom are still supporting these murderers. I think there is alot to this story that hasnt come out yet.

This schit just makes me sad, and question if I really even want to raise my kids here. Way too much of this murder and drug crime garbage in Alaska.

Just a snippet of what I picked up from there:

Devin Peterson sold them the gun that was used to kill David.
Many of them knew about the crime long before David's body was found.
Apparently, they cut up David's body.

Some sad schitt, for sure....


That's some barbaric [bleep] and very sad that his parents had to see their son like that. Like you I believe their is a lot more to this story and one of those kids is going to start singing like a canary my money is on the renfro kid

Last edited by 79S; 12/13/16.

Originally Posted by Bricktop
Then STFU. The rest of your statement is superflous bullshit with no real bearing on this discussion other than to massage your own ego.

Suckin' on my titties like you wanted me.
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Kids already on the edge, left to roam without responsible supervision usually end up on Page One. Parents here are highly culpable for their ambivalence.


My home is the "sanctuary residence" for my firearms.
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...teenage gangsters on meth, gone wild.


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Obit for David... seems like a fairly good kid...

http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/adn/obituary.aspx?n=david-grunwald&pid=183036362


David Grunwald (2000 - 2016)
Obituary
Guest Book
"Please remember that the Lord is close to the..."
- Deb G
View Sign

David Benjamin Grunwald, 16, passed away in Palmer, Alaska, on Nov. 13, 2016. David was born on Jan 8, 2000 at Elmendorf Air Force Base in Alaska to Benjamin J. Grunwald and Edith M. Grunwald.
A private funeral service will be held with Pastor Michael Hull officiating. David will be laid to rest at Ft. Richardson National Cemetery on Friday, Dec. 16, 2016.
His family wrote: "David was a loving son and a faithful companion. He was truthful, loyal and reverent. He had an intelligent sense of humor, loved life and looked forward to his future. David was comfortable around adults and confident. He was always able to look ahead when building his complex Legos, flying his RC airplane and gaming. David was free and genuine telling his mom and dad, 'I love you.' He adored his mom: 'You're the best mom ever.' He wrote an essay in school about some of his favorite memories with his father and looking forward to making more. He accepted Jesus as his Savior."
David attended 11th grade at Mat-Su Career and Tech High School, 9th and 10th grade at Colony High School, 7th and 8th grade at Academy Charter, and Anchorage Christian School and Home School for elementary school. David also spent the 1st grade at Alabama Christian Academy while his mom was at Air War College.
David attended Bible study at Valley Baptist Tabernacle in Palmer. He attended Aviation and Space Camp each summer, ending with Mach III, 2016. David attended Solid Rock Bible Camp each summer, ending with Wake Boarding, 2016.
David enjoyed engineering, computers, downhill skiing, airplanes, God, family, Victoria, friends, RC airplanes and cars/trucks, took 1st flight lesson in a Cessna 172, fishing and his education.
David was survived by his parents, Benjamin J. Grunwald and Edith M. Grunwald; brother, Donald; and his sister, Patricia.
Memorial bequests: Donate in memory of David Grunwald to Victims for Justice, http://www.victimsforjustice.net/ or Victims for Justice, 1057 West Fireweed Lane, Suite 101, Anchorage, AK 99503.
Arrangements are with Janssen's Mat-Su Funeral Home.
- See more at: http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/ad...d&pid=183036362#sthash.WVKESSgQ.dpuf


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I would venture to say that the reason for David's murder was mainly jealousy. People with low self esteem, especially young people, can hold a mighty grudge against peers who are high achievers. Drugs of course are just a symptom of the low self esteem and probably enable someone to perform a heinous act that they wouldn't have had the stomach for otherwise.

Let 'em rot. All of them.


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David made the simple mistake of having anything to do with Valley Trash...


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https://www.adn.com/alaska-news/cri...ld-case-add-assault-and-arson-to-murder/

New charges in Grunwald case add assault and arson to murder
Author: Zaz Hollander Updated: 14 hours ago Published 19 hours ago


PALMER — New charges filed in the murder of David Grunwald indicate four teenagers participated in the pistol-whipping that preceded the Palmer teenager's death.

A grand jury on Thursday handed up three additional charges in the murder case that's drawn national attention and revealed a sordid side of teenage life in the Valley. Alaska State Troopers arrested five people age 19 or younger for their roles in the murder the weekend of Dec. 9.

Grunwald went missing Nov. 13 after he didn't come home from dropping off his girlfriend in Butte. Troopers the next day found his Ford Bronco, burned down to its frame, on the rough road leading up Bald Mountain Ridge near Wasilla.

Hundreds embarked on fruitless searches for the teen until his remains were found Dec. 2 based on a tip from one of the teens now accused in the crime.

Four of the five teenagers arrested for their roles in Grunwald's death received new charges.

Austin Barrett, 19; Erick Almandinger, 17; Dominic Johnson and Bradley Renfro, both 16, "recklessly caused serious physical injury" to Grunwald with a pistol either as principals or accomplices, the grand jury indictment states. The grand jury also added new felony charges of first-degree vehicle theft for the four accused of stealing the Bronco.

Johnson, Almandinger and Renfro were also charged with arson for "starting a fire or causing an explosion" while Grunwald's Bronco was parked on municipal or state land, the document states.

Only 18-year-old Devin Peterson, the defendant charged with helping cover up the crime, but not participating in it, received no new charges in the indictment.

All five remained jailed at the Mat-Su Pretrial Facility in Palmer, Goose Creek Correctional Center on Point MacKenzie and Cook Inlet Pretrial in Anchorage, according to an inmate tracking database. All but Peterson are being held without bail. Peterson's bail was set at $100,000 and release to a third-party custodian.

The four named in the new charges are scheduled to be indicted on Tuesday morning in Palmer Superior Court.

Grunwald's parents, Ben and Edie, said in a statement Friday afternoon the additional charges sound right.

"We expected these and a few more to cover everything they did to David," they wrote. "It's a step in the right direction to mitigate the juvenile criminal activity that runs rampant in Palmer and Wasilla."

The Grunwalds and their supporters are calling for changes to Alaska's juvenile justice laws "so that those under 18 can expect real consequences," read the statement. "This is so very serious!"

According to charging documents in the murder case, Grunwald came to a trailer next to Almandinger's Palmer home to drink and smoke marijuana. He was bludgeoned with a pistol before being loaded into his own Ford Bronco and driven to the Knik River, where he was shot and killed.

The teens torched the Bronco and left it on a road at the base of the Talkeetna Mountains, where it was found the next day, according to the charges.

The only motive Almandinger provided during a police interview during which he alternately said Johnson or Barrett shot the teen was that Grunwald "had smoked all his weed," according to a sworn affidavit filed with charging documents.


About this author

Zaz Hollander


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Some sick minds there. I need to go back to the Campfire section and listen to that little girl sing again.


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