David Grunwald, a 16 year old from Alaska, has been brutally murdered with the help of his friend
In mourning 16-year-old David Grunwald, One of his teachers said, the boy’s desk chair is being kept empty in tribute to the funny and eager student, who dreamed of being a pilot.
“We all miss him,” Zack Lanphier, David’s former high school teacher at Mat-Su Career & Tech," tells reporters “And as an honor to him we are going to leave his chair open until the end of the semester.”
Lanphier, who taught David in his seventh-period government studies class, says he came up with the idea from his years serving as a Marine.
“It’s one thing I can do in my classroom as a tribute and an honor to his life, the impact he had in our classroom and the impact this has had on our community,” says Lanphier, a Purple Heart recipient. “It’s just one thing I can do.”
Although David joined the school in August as junior, he was quick to make friends. Hundreds are reportedly expected to attend a Friday vigil for him.
“I’m going to miss his sense of humor, kindness, positivity and overall irreplaceableness,” classmate Erika Naulty tells reporters. “I’m really glad I got to meet him.”
David loved studying government especially the national debt Lanphier says. When he wasn’t creating conversations by asking off-topic questions during class (“Can you unplant and replant a fully-grown tree?”), friends say, David was planning his future as a pilot.
“He could almost always get me to laugh each day we had together,” student Megan Barnes says. “He was always excited to talk in class when he had the chance.”
‘We Were Waiting for Him to Come Back’
David was last seen alive on Nov. 13 after he reportedly dropped his girlfriend off at her home. Later that night when he didn’t come home, his father, worried, called Alaska State Troopers. The next day, his car was found torched on a local trail in Wasilla, Alaska, according to a police statement.
“ chair has been empty for two and half weeks,” Lanphier says. “We were waiting for him to come back.”
On Dec. 2, Alaska authorities recovered David’s remains in Palmer, Alaska, after Erick Almandinger, also 16, allegedly confessed to involvement in his friend’s killing, according to an affidavit obtained by reporters
During questioning, Erick allegedly revealed David was killed by another teen, who has not been identified, after David pleaded for his life.
The only motive investigators say Erick offered was that David had smoked all of his weed.
Court records allege David and Erick were drinking alcohol and smoking marijuana in a 1971 camper trailer with a third, unnamed teen on Nov. 13. The third teen, identified only as “D.J.,” allegedly asked Erick to fetch a .40-caliber semi-automatic handgun from inside his house. He did, according to court records, bringing the firearm back to the trailer, where all three teens inspected and handled it.
At some point in the trailer, “D.J. bludgeoned with the pistol,” the affidavit alleges. The injured boy was then driven to nearby Butte, Alaska.
Only partially conscious, David asked to be taken to his girlfriend’s home, according to the affidavit, and once the group arrived at the woods, he asked not to be killed. While Erick allegedly first told investigators it was D.J. who shot David, he later said it was another teenager, identified as “A.B.,” who fired the fatal round.
Court records claim Erick also told a friend that he had killed David, recounting how he beat and then shot the teen.
So far, only he has been charged with murder.
“David was a great kid with a big personality and a way to make anyone laugh,” one friend tells reporters, adding that it’s “heartbreaking” to hear someone her age could do such a thing.
“He will be missed,” she says.
Erick has been charged as an adult and has not entered a plea. He will appear in court for a preliminary hearing on Dec. 13, Palmer County Court officials tell reporters. He remains in custody and has not yet retained an attorney.
Neither his family nor David’s family could be reached, though residents at Erick’s home previously declined to speak when contacted in person by local reporters.
Describing his death as “devastating,” David’s parents previously said in an email to the Alaska Dispatch News that “the kidnapping and murder of our son was unnecessary, weak minded, cowardice and shameful.”
“David was a sweet, caring and respecting boy,” they wrote. “He was viciously attacked and murdered.”
