‘We’ll probably never know’: Murdered Palmer teen’s parents no closer to motive

PALMER — Nearly a year later, David Grunwald's parents still don't know why he was killed.

But Ben and Edie Grunwald say they know their son suffered before he died that mid-November night, beaten almost unconscious for 30 minutes after he emerged from a trailer bathroom and then forced to beg for his life on the 30-minute drive to his execution near the Knik River.

"If I did that to a POW, I'd be in Leavenworth," Ben Grunwald, a retired Air Force flight engineer, said in an interview Wednesday. Edie Grunwald is a retired Alaska Air National Guard colonel.

If convictions result from their son's murder case, the couple said, they want what they consider torture punished with a 99-year mandatory sentence and only one chance for parole halfway into that term.

Four defendants are charged in the murder, all of them teens when it happened: Erick Almandinger, 17, who Alaska State Troopers say lived at the house where the beating occurred; Austin Barrett, 20, who troopers say was at the scene of another teen's murder months earlier; Dominic Johnson, 17, accused of leading the pistol-whipping; and Bradley Renfro, 17, the youngest of the group.

One other teen charged in the case, 18-year-old Devin Peterson, faces felony evidence tampering charges but was not directly linked to the murder.

Palmer Superior Court Judge Greg Heath heard oral arguments Wednesday afternoon in the state's motion to apply a torture sentencing "aggravator" in Almandinger's case but issued no rulings.

[Accused killer of Palmer teen to stand trial alone]

Troopers say Grunwald was pistol-whipped in a camper behind Almandinger's Palmer home, then driven in his own Ford Bronco to a remote spot along the Knik River where he was shot in the head and killed Nov. 13.

The Bronco, torched and abandoned at the base of the Talkeetna Mountains outside Wasilla, was discovered the next morning.

Grunwald's body wasn't found until Dec. 2, ending a frantic search by hundreds of friends, family members and strangers.

Edie Grunwald on Monday visited the spot where her son died to place a marker with a Bible verse and David's image.

"None of this should have happened to him," she said Wednesday.

The bloody beating and murder of the handsome teen from a military family galvanized national headlines and community horror over the seamy underworld of Valley teens it revealed.

[Documents shed new light on slain Palmer teen's final moments]

The Grunwald murder trial — and perhaps more information about why David Grunwald was killed — is still months away.

Ben Grunwald said a trooper told them that "we'll probably never know" what the motive really was.

But he has a theory: teens emboldened by prior crimes trying to establish "street cred" with one another.

Peterson's older brother, Damien, has been charged with the June 2016 murder of 16-year-old Frankie Woodford, a death that investigators say Barrett witnessed.

[In June, a teen died from a gunshot wound in Wasilla. Now the once-closed case is getting another look.]

Anchorage police and troopers had also arrested Barrett and both Petersons following a separate incident June 16, 2016, involving the kidnapping, robbery and assault of an Eagle River man, but no charges were filed. Prosecutors said there were issues with the witness.

Ben Grunwald said Wednesday that Peterson was "out walking around" for five months before he was arrested for his possible role in Frankie Woodford's death.

"'Well, he got away with it, we'll get away with it,'" he said of his theory. "And they got away with it for 19 days."

Barrett, Johnson and Renfro sat separated in the Palmer courtroom during an appearance Wednesday morning at which they were scheduled for December pretrial conferences. Almandinger, being tried separately from the others, was the subject of an afternoon hearing.

None made any public statement. Almandinger sat and even walked with his eyes down.

The only clue to any possible motive in charging documents is a comment Almandinger made to investigators that Grunwald came over to drink and smoke marijuana and "had smoked all his weed."

A number of the defendants attended Colony High School at some point with Grunwald, though it's not clear how many knew him personally besides Almandinger.

Almandinger's father, Rodney, has said he saw Grunwald at his Palmer home a few times before the murder.

['No clue': Family of teen charged in Grunwald killing say they share public's shock]

Grunwald came to Almandinger's twice the day he was murdered, his parents say, once to drop off another teen and again in the hours before his death.

Rodney Almandinger attended his son's hearing Wednesday.

Almandinger said later that he sat with his son during the December interview with troopers when Erick made the "weed" comment.

His son was talking about something Johnson said about Grunwald, not something he said himself.

"He told everyone why he was after David," Almandinger said in a message, referring to Johnson.

Johnson's attorney, Lyle Stohler with the Office of Public Advocacy, couldn't immediately be reached for comment.

Barrett told troopers that Erick Almandinger told the others he planned to rob Grunwald and then helped pistol-whip him, court documents show.

Along with a debit card, his father said, Grunwald carried a credit card with $25,000 limit.

Rodney Almandinger said Wednesday that the teens never used Grunwald's card and didn't take out any money, so no robbery happened.

Rodney Almandinger said he, too, has heard nothing as to why Grunwald was murdered.

"From what I have found out … we may never know the truth," he wrote.

He said he comes to hearings amid a sea of Grunwald supporters because "no matter what your kid has done, and how bad it is, and how disgusted you may feel, you HAVE to be there for them. To help make them become a better person, and accept responsibility for their actions."