True Crime All The Time - David Grunwald

Episode Date: August 6, 2026

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/truecrimeallthetimeVisit the show's website at truecrimeallthetime.com for contact, merchandise, and donation informationAn Emash Digital productionSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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. Give me, how are you? Hey man, I'm excited. We got 521. Okay. Like that? Five two one. Do I like it? You do I like what? I came up on the fly with your fingers. I ran out of the fly, man. Okay. Are you hoping that catches on like 6-7 or? Yeah, 6-7, 6-7. 6-7. Oh. I'll be glad when that goes away. Yeah, it should be going away soon, I hope. All right, buddy.

Are you ready to get into this episode of true crime all the time? Yeah, I'm ready. 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 uncover details about a horrific murder with seemingly no motive. Wow. And those are always ones that, you know, they're kind of hard to understand, right? No clear cut motive. What was the reason? But, you know, we'll get into it all.

David Benjamin Grunwall 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. How cool would it be to be born in Alaska, wilderness? Yeah, I mean, as a baby, are you taking advantage of the wilderness? I would say no. 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.

It 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. That's all impressive. It is. It really is. 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 used to be able to work on cars a little easier. True.

Before they became completely computerized. So in 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 two where it was kind of in vogue. And I think it still is to a large degree, but to build your own computer. Yeah. That was like a big deal. Right?

To buy the motherboard and the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, and all of that. and kind of put it together in a case. Yeah, my son-in-law just did that. But he's, you know, computer guy. Yeah. I mean, he works in that field. He does, yeah. Yeah, so he knows how to do that.

But I was also in an engineer club back in the day. Mm-hmm. I mean, like, a train engineer. I was going to say, it was like a train engineer, and you just did it to wear the hat. Well, the hat was pretty cool. The hat was cool. And you had a whistle.

Yep. 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. That's cool. I mean, I will say he seems like he was a really good kid. Yeah. 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 13th, 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.

I love it that he said, you know, hey, I'm headed out. Love you mom and dad. I think more kids should do that. Do you think kids don't do that? I don't. Okay. You know,

I just think more should do it. I don't know. My kids say it a lot. Do they? Yeah, but we are a very, I love you family. And some families just aren't like that. No, I know. But yeah, we almost always say it whenever we are going somewhere.

Because in my way of thinking, you just never know. You don't know. Especially when you research as much true crime as we do, it kind of becomes very obvious. 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. Okay, yeah, that's kind of weird. Your mom probably wants to hear that, I love you back, you know.

I get you. Yeah. Around 6.30 p.m., David called his mother, Edith to tell her he was going to miss his 9 p.m. curfew. She factored in the icy rooms and told him it was fine if he was home by 920. Yeah. Okay. So pretty conscientious of him to call.

and say, I know I got a 9 p.m. 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. That's right. Because I don't know if I should believe you or not. Right.

David dropped Victoria off at her dad's house in Palmer, Alaska, around 6.30 to 7 p.m. But David's parents got worried when he didn't come home by 920. They called his girlfriend around 940. p.m. She said David left an hour earlier, which would have been about 840. Yeah. 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 and Palmer to report their son missing around 1145 p.m. David's father said, it was totally unlike him to be almost three hours of. He was. He was almost three hours of late. 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. It is. And, you know, parents know their kids, right? You could have a kid who is so punctual, it's scary. Yeah. 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. Right. So by that, you kind of know when to start worrying and when maybe you don't need to worry as much. And I would tell my mom, hey, I'll be home a little, a 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. 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 14th, 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. Wow. 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.

Yeah, I'd be scared. I mean, what's going, what happened? And maybe scared is the best word. Yeah. I mean, this was not a small fire. No. They 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. It did. Several days later, Edith Grunwald told news outlet KTUUU 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 Kinnick River. Outside Palmer, a shell casing was found near the remains. And these remains were soon identified as David Grunball. So, I mean, worst possible news for the parents. But is it, I mean, it's terrible. No, absolutely terrible. I mean, you know he didn't die in the blaze, right, the fire. but he's still, he's dead.

Yeah. And you know something happened to him. Yeah. 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 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. Yeah.

Now, the Kinnick River, I hope I'm saying that right. You and I did a serial killer case many, many years ago. Yeah. That involved this river. And about a thousand people told me how to say it. And I can't remember. So hopefully I got it right. That's the problem.

You know, we get a lot of people who call, leave a voicemail, more emails, right? saying, hey, this is, you mess 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 going to remember. I know. I've seen a message about the Honduras one we just did. How we said that name wrong. Oh, I'm sure.

Like one of the T's was silent or something. How would you know? Absolutely. It happens. Even more so. when we do cases in other countries, but we've messed plenty of U.S. cities and things like that. Arkansas,

wasn't that one that has a lot of weird names? Oklahoma does. That's what it was. Yeah, we've messed a lot up in Oklahoma. There are a lot of city names that I think are rooted in maybe Native American heritage, and they're pronounced different. differently than the way they look. But on December 3rd, Alaska State Troopers arrested 16-year-old Eric Olmending.

They soon announced that Eric was charged as an adult with first-degree murder and kidnapping. I mean, 16 years old. Young. Very young. You think back when you were 16 years old. Yep. Wearing your singlet, wrestling, other boys, getting sweat. It's not something I was into, but I know that that was a big part of your life.

Sweaty wrestling with other boys. But it's 16 years old. 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. They're fine. They don't want to drive. Yeah. 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 microphone the microphone but you're down at the the thing trying to get your test scheduled or whatever it is 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 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 and you had to go out on a date with the instructor. Well, you know, you do what you got to do. Sometimes you got to do what you got to do. But, you know, to be charged at 16 years old with not just a crime. Yeah. But first degree murder in kidnapping. Yeah. It's almost unbelievable. But, you know, you think about this 16 year old to be able to do those things. Yeah. If he did it. Yeah. I mean, he deserves it, right? If he did it, it's just tough to believe that that's something that 16-year-old. To be able to do those things. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, he deserves it. I mean, he deserves it. It's just, it's just tough to believe that that's something that 16-year-olds are

capable thinking about or yeah 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 okay so you can take that to mean this wasn't a loan act right by this Eric Olmendinger there were other people involved, state troopers had been visiting the Almondinger home almost daily because David's girlfriend told them he mentioned visiting air. 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.

Yeah. 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 then shoot him in the head. Almost like execution style. Yeah. It was an execution.

I think you could say that. A tip from another team. led troopers to David's body. In his interview with police, Eric Almondinger 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. Yeah. Because 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. I would say lying. Because data from his tablet indicated it was near David's SUV on the night it burned. I think a lot of people forget in this digital age. Yep. There's a lot of things being captured on all those devices from the smart watch from your smart phone to your smart tablet to your, I don't know. I mean, there's everything's so smart. Everything's so smart. Exactly. But I think you're right. You know, we've heard like the Fitbits 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 giving away their location. I don't know how many people maybe think about a tablet as much or like a fit bit or or things like that but a lot of things are tracking us nowadays.

I mean, your vehicles. Yeah. I mean, if you have something inserted in you, like a device, like a medical, something for your heart. Do you have something in this location here? No, yeah. Iron man? Not yet.

You know, if I do, I would like to have the Iron Man thing. Yeah, that'd be kind of cool. That'd be badass. It would, yeah. Folks, you know, August is the perfect time to hit the reset before the autumn rush begins and honestly, at least for me, I can't think of a better place to start than my closet. And that's why I love shopping at Quince. Quince is all about fewer better pieces. Their clothes are made with premium materials built to last and designed to become the ones you reach for every day.

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Get free shipping on your order and 365-day returns now available in Canada and the UK too. That's QI-N-C-E.com slash T-C-A-T-T. 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 going to get, you know, a little bit of attention. It is. 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. It is. 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. Absolutely. We're done. Bye. Not to mention the fact that I'm picking up the phone, I'm calling police. Yeah, I'd be like, what'd you do with the gun?

Do you still have it on you? You're getting all the information ahead of time so that you can give to police? I'll make sure he doesn't have that gun on him still. Well, that's true. Before you say no to him? Yeah. 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. I wonder how difficult that had to be for the parent and grandparent. 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. Yeah.

I can't. I can't even imagine it. The thoughts that would be going through my mind. And obviously, you want to protect your kids as much as you can. but how much can you protect them if they killed somebody? That's true. I guess all I can do is bring that attorney in right away. Yeah, that's all you can do.

At first, he said he didn't know anything about David's death, but 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 40-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 brunko,

drove him to the river, and made David walk into the woods, and shot him. So he first beat David with the gun. This DJ. DJ did. Yep. Okay. A quarrying dare.

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. Yeah. To me, that's the takeaway, right? From this interview is he's putting himself there. Yeah. But he's essentially laying all of this on DJ.

However, in a second recounting of the incident, Eric blamed the shooting on another 16-year-old named A-B. Okay, well, that's a problem now. Stories changing. Stories 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, were there when it all happened, but you didn't do any of it. Besides, give the gun to this DJ guy. Yeah. Now, DJ is nowhere to be found. It's a guy named A.B. who killed him. But now you've said,

I burned his bronco. Yeah. I then took a cab, went back to the camper, cleaned up all the blood, all of that. As the father and grandmother sitting there, I mean, I, I, I'd be like, what the heck did we do wrong in raising this kid to think that that was okay? Well, and the other thing is, as a parent, a lot of times you know when your kid is lying. Oh, yeah. Now, police are good at it, but a parent has spent this person's whole life with them, right? They've seen them their whole life. I know when my kids are lying.

Yeah. I do. I mean, even if they got past the police. interview, as soon as you got out to your truck, you'd be like, all right. Yeah. Tell me what really happened, because I know what you told them is not true. Let's cut the, you know what. Yeah.

The only motive in best gears could get from Eric was that David had smoked all of his wheat. Is that really why you would kill somebody, you know? You smoked all my weed, damn it. I won't kill you. I mean, even if it's true, the weed is already gone. Yeah. What good is killing this individual going to do?

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. Let's just say it wouldn't be good. Yeah.

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. I mean, I did take two bags home with me last week that you didn't know about. I don't think you knew. Maybe you did. I just doctor. your pay. It was said that Eric showed very little remorse. On December 9th, 2016, four more teenagers were charged in connection with David's murder. Wow. And let's talk about

remorse a little bit. Sure. I get it. You have basically said two different people killed David. Yeah. But could you not at least show some remorse just for the fact that a 16 year old is dead and you were there and witnessed yeah according to his account 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

but that's easy for us to say because we have that in us right you know some of these people they just don't have it man don't and it's a scary thing really is a Palmer grand jury charged Dominic Johnson and Bradley Renfro both 16 with

first and second degree murder and evidence tampering, they were charged as adults. And I know that's a kind of a sticky subject for some people. Yeah. My take is, you know, if you're 16, 17 years old and you kill someone in this type of way, right. Meaning you purposefully did it is essentially like you said in execution, I have no issues. with you being charged as an adult? Yeah, I'm good with it too.

You know, you made that decision. You had the capability of understanding right from wrong. Yeah. 19-year-old Austin Barrett was charged with first and second-degree murder and kidnapping. 18-year-old Devin Peterson was charged with three counts of tampering and first-degree hindering prosecution. So according to prosecutors, the DJ, in Eric Olmendinger'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. The teens drove to Devin Peterson's house for advice after the fact.

Devin admitted to state truth. 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, 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, he didn't do anything with it. He didn't do anything with it. and they really put him in a terrible position. Yeah. He just should have done something with the information he had. Right. Makes you wonder why they showed up to his house for advice.

Like, why would they go to him for advice? 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. Devin was accused of suppressing or concealing a 9mm pistol and a 40 caliber pistol used in the

crime and was allegedly involved in burning David's vehicle. Sources also reported that Devin and Bradley Renfro were arrested back in June 2016 for kidnapping, but it was unclear if they faced charge. What's going on with this kidnapping stuff? I don't know. Also, this seems like a bad group of kids. Yeah. 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 Olmendinger family and asked how such a violent crime could go on so close to the house without adults knowing. I understand, but today's world the way kids are, I think they can do a lot of things without the parents knowing. Yeah, but you say today's world, you and I did a lot of things that our parents never knew about. Absolutely. They still don't know about it.

They were never know about it. Yeah, so I don't know that this is a new thing. I don't know that it's directly tied into today's world. 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 family of a murderer or accused murderer, they're going to catch some flag.

Yeah. 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. I think it is too. With the way kids hide stuff from their parents. Rod and Myler Olmendinger.

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. Maybe they were a special type of brownie. Yeah, I don't think so. I don't think you usually win prize. 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 Devin Peterson in the summer of 2015. Rod banned Devin from visiting because he thought he was a bad influence.

Eric stopped visiting his father regularly at that point. By the summer of 2016, Eric wasn't living with his mother. anymore. He was essentially homeless and moving around to houses that served as drug dealing bases. All right. Well, that's where things start going bad then. Yeah. I mean, this kid took a nosedive. Yeah. Right. And 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 Devin Peterson. Yeah. So, I mean, at that point maybe there's some things that the parents probably knew but what can they control of that now here's the thing though when you're 16 years old you can't essentially be homeless not technically

right right you can't make that decision yeah 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 because 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 hang on them. He hung out with a group of teens who occasionally came by Rod's house to eat and talk. Hey, folks, August is National Dog Poop Month. I bet you didn't know there was a month for that, but there really is a holiday for everything. And if anyone gets being this, invested in the quality of their dog's poop, it's Ali. They deliver fresh human-grade food that is

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something here. Right. 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 got to follow the rules and, you know, you can't be doing this and that. Do some of this alternative school stuff so that keep you out of trouble. Yeah. David's parents, Ben and Edith, said during a previous interview that they called Rod Almondinger. 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. That would be an interesting response to get. Yeah. Now, obviously when this was reported by the Anchorage Daily News, they they didn't use 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.

Sure. It's impactful and then you have to dissect. Well, what does he mean when he says that? Yeah. That he's given them chance after chance or his son and whoever else is living there. They just can't walk to straight and narrow. Or does he know something? Well, it is being said in response to David having gone missing. It's a strange response 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 team were watching TV in a downstairs bedroom until the teen said Eric wasn't there. But obviously there was something going on to say that about your son and another person or a group of people. That's not a good thing. No, when you say that. No. And saying something like that, things are messed up. 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 a.m. 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. Easy thing to say. Well, it is. And I mean, if you're a parent, I mean, does that seem out of the ordinary? No. It doesn't raise any alarm bells, I don't think. Not at all. 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 burn 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. Yeah. Okay.

People are going to be a little more upset at you about that. Yeah, I get that. Thinking, you know, who's in control here? Right. who's watching over things. How didn't you know that since that trailer was on your property and it's your trailer? 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. What is going on? In the Peterson household? man, are in all these kids' households? I don't know. Back in June 2016, troopers responded to a Holman Wassil 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 teen's mothers and the owner of the gun were also named in the suit. I bet they were. Hey, you know, if you've got a gun, you have a really big responsibility. You sure do. To make sure that that gun doesn't fall into the hands of people who shouldn't have it. Yeah. Lock it up. On January 19, 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. I think it was probably a good move on his part.

To plead. Yeah. 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. Sure. Yeah.

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. No. According to the U.S. 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 underaged girl.

The video was taken at a party attended by Peterson and others in July 2000. During the party, Devin gave the girl marijuana contributing to her extreme intoxication and assault at night. These guys are real winners. It's just horrible stuff. It is. All the way around. On May 31st, 2018, Eric Olmendinger was found guilty of first degree murder, three counts of second degree murder, kidnapping, tampering with evidence, vehicle theft, and arson. You got hit hard.

They really stacked the charges on him. He did. And I'm cool with that. Yeah. Because, you know, let's face it, a lot of times some charges get dropped, some get pled down. So, you know, they kind of have to stack them up. But it's not like he didn't do all these things. He did.

Right, right. 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.

Yeah, it's true. You know, you gave the gun or you participated in the kidnapping. It's kind of just one big ball of wax. You can look at it that way, right? Like, a person 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. 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 assailants. So this wasn't somebody walked up behind him. Right. And shot him. There was a fight. He was beaten and somebody pulled out a gun 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. In his police interview, Eric said he was scared. He would be killed.

if he didn't go along with everything. He said that Devin 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. Yeah. And put as much as you can onto the other people. Deflect it. Deflect it. 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.

Yeah. Right. What was the motive? Why did you do it? For these people, these kids to want to kill David Grunwell. On August 20th, 2018, Devin Peterson was sentenced to six years in state prison for evidence tampering and hindering private. And let's not forget, right, he's got another three years for the marijuana charge. I don't know if he then later got charged with some of the child abuse sexual material. Oh, yeah, right. 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, Damien Peterson was sentenced to 18 years with three. 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've got to be like, where do we go wrong? Yeah, where do we fail these kids? 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, that's rough. and all the other crimes.

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 Damien Peterson crime. Yeah. There was a period of time where they thought maybe he shot himself.

A group of young men, including Damien and Devin Peterson and Austin Berry were at the house where an adult was present, but there was no supervision. Damien 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, Damien was pointing the gun at people and pulling the trigger. 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. You don't. 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. You have to.

You absolutely have to. Damien claimed he didn't know the gun was loaded, even though he was the one manipulating it. Yeah, he knew. 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 death. 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. Hey, can we talk about banks for a minute? You know, when I was young and I'm talking 19, 20, 21 years old, I felt like my bank was hitting me with fees from every angle. And, you know, let's be honest, at that age, you don't make a lot

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slash T-CATT. Sign up now. It only takes a few minutes. Chime is a fintech, not a bank, banking services and chime card provided by Chime's bank partners, qualified. direct deposits required. Terms and limits apply. Go to chime.com slash disclosures for details. 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 Grunwold.

Yeah. They were able to kind of drag that out of him. Well, and how interesting is that, right? if this case never happens, does Frankie's murder ever get solved? Yeah, at least you get them on something. Maybe not. On December 27, 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. Oh, man. Heavy hit. 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. Absolutely.

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. No. Why are you on Snapchat talking about hurting people? 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.

Is Snapchat the one that disappears? Yes. Okay. I've never used Snapchat. So I don't really know how it works. But you're right. You might think it disappears, but it doesn't mean there's not a way to get to it. or that somebody maybe somehow screenshot something or saved it somehow.

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, 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. Yeah. He's there. He's there. 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. Not willingly. Okay. So someone forced you to do it. 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 him. He believed Dominic hit David seven to ten 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. They always say that. It all just happened so fast. 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. Right. Maybe it was because he smoked all the weed. I don't know. Could have been. Seems stupid. 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. So too. Austin Barrett was allegedly holding another pistol and quote standing guard. Standing guard.

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 picked 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. Right? This is all his testimony. Sure. 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. So he's kind of treating it as some of these gangs do. Like everybody's got to take a part of it. That way we're all guilty so no one will talk. about it. Yeah, that's a good point. Now, I think if I'm a juror, I'm viewing this as Bradley trying to warm his way out of it. Yeah. 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 8, 2019,

Bradley Renfrew was found guilty of murder, kidnapping, and vehicle theft. On February 7, 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. How do you mess up like that? I don't know. I don't know. You know, I watch a lot of body cam videos and there's a lot of great. 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. So police body cam videos. What I say? Just body cam video. Oh, I just assume 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. Right, with different individuals. 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.

Yeah. 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. Wow, it's healthy.

It's healthy. And that's after having some of his indictments thrown out. Yeah. 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 he was even convicted. Seems light.

It does. Yeah, I get it. But I mean, he might not get out then either. He might not. And again, I don't want to lose side of the fact that, you know, some of these individuals were like 16 years old. That's true. At the hearing, Austin's defense attorney presented a theory that David imprinted on Eric Olmendinger, leading to his introduction to a different world than the one he was raised in. And it's an interesting theory.

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. Seemed like it. But I think he might have. 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.

Pretty good. It's healthy. Yeah. I mean, that's uh that's no joke to do a minimum of 36 years in prison yeah now he could still get out and be like my age but that's a large chunk of your life that you're forfeiting it is i don't know if he has any other charges from anything else can it could be added on to it down the road yeah 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 no. No. We know it's going to be one of X amount of people. Yes. ADA, Melissa, Winninger, Howard said the crime was 100% a group effort. And I think they had to treat the prosecution like that, right? Had to kind of go after everybody 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. Yeah. It's great that you decide to assist the police.

In very few times, is it going to let you get off Scott free? Oh, yeah. You might get a reduced sentence, but I don't think you should get off Scott Free at all. On August 8, 2022, Eric Olmendinger 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. Not at all. Again, why do people not know that these phone calls are recorded? It literally says it right by the phone. I know. So if you ever go to prison, careful what you say on the phone. Yeah.

And on the, 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. The glass aisle? You know, the partition?

The plexiglass. Definitely not glass. Yeah, yeah. That would be a bad mood. Just, you know, when you pick that little phone up there, but careful what you say. 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. 65. I'm still working on my. 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 claim 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 word 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. He doesn't. Now, the I'm sorrys,

I don't always buy those, but he is saying, I killed David. Yeah. I killed my friend. He's admitting to all of this stuff. Now he's been convicted, so... Sure, yeah. 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. I don't know that a lot of these people were good kids. I don't think they were. The judge left room for discretion.

parole and noted that Eric will be a little over 50 at the time of his first possible parole hearing if he becomes eligible. Your age. Yeah. It'll 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. Pretty important time frame. It is. And that is, you're spending it with a bunch of dudes who may or may not shower. True. 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. Yeah, probably not going to be fun. It's just, to me, all of this stuff is so senseless. I just don't get it. Why are you even doing this stuff? where are you even taking the chance of losing that much of your life. On August 17, 2022, Bradley Rimferro 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-wipped David. He offered suggestions on where the murder should take place and afterwards planned to destroy evidence and bought gasoline to burn the vehicle. 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.

I think that's exactly what it is. 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 boys. 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 who seemed to be inciting and encouraging violence in each other. Yeah. 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. And it gives those people confidence. Maybe. Or now they're like, okay, if you think it's a good idea, I'm in or whatever it is. Confirmation. Confirmation that maybe it's okay.

I just, you know, okay, did he smoke the last of the weed? Maybe. Is that a reason to kill somebody? Absolutely not. I would not think so either. Not that there's a lot of great reasons, but that would be. at the bottom of the list. Yeah.

I mean, I get it. You really liked your weed, but we'll get some more, you know, if that's what you want. You might have to wait a week until you get paid, whatever. And then the other thing that always strikes me is when you have this many people involved in a murder. Yeah.

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. Yeah, what scare tactics were used to make that happen. Yeah, I just, I don't understand it at all. But that's it for our episode on David Grunwell. If you love the show, make sure you hit that

subscribe button. If you're on YouTube, if you're listening, keep listening. Tell people about us. Tell your friends and family. Yeah, we don't say it all the time, but, you know, word of mouth about the podcast really helps us out. It does. But that's it for another episode of true crime all the time. So for Mike and Gibby, stay safe and keep your own time ticking.