It only took a few hours for David Grunwald’s life to take a wrong turn. He went from a leisurely Sunday with family to a sudden, inexplicable disappearance, all in the span of two and a half hours. The only link between these events is his girlfriend, Victoria Mokelke. She is the tenuous through-thread of memory that binds things together. The following timeline shows how quickly things deteriorated on the evening of November 13, 2016.
Sunday, November 13, 2016
David Grunwald spends the day dining out and shopping with his family and girlfriend, Victoria Mokelke. It is, by all accounts, a typical Sunday. The plan is to wrap things up early, because the following day is a school day.
5:40 p.m.: David and Victoria leave his parent’s house, bound for her mother’s house.
5:53 p.m.: David and Victoria pick up his friend David Evans at Pioneer Pizza in Palmer; Evans needs a ride to Erick Almandinger’s house, a request which David is more than happy to fulfill. Erick’s father grows marijuana and Erick seems happy to share it with his friends.
Approximately 6:00 p.m.: After dropping Victoria at her mother’s, Grunwald takes David Evans to the Almandinger’s house, which is close by. David returns to Victoria’s mother’s house, picks up Victoria and her sister, Crystal, then drives them to their father’s house, about 20 minutes away.
6:12 p.m.: David Grunwald stops at a Carrs grocery store to get water; the in-store video captures him entering and leaving the store.
Approximately 6:20 p.m.: David drops off Victoria and Crystal at their father’s house near the Butte. He tells Victoria he might return to the Almandinger’s and “hang out.”
David Grunwald & Victoria Mokelke
6:30 p.m.: David calls his mother to get his 9:20 curfew extended. His mother readily agrees: David Grunwald bears all the earmarks of his Christian education — he is polite, considerate and invariably follows the rules set down by his parents. They know he will act responsibly.
6:40 p.m.: David arrives at the Almendinger’s residence on Esty Drive in Palmer.
7:07 p.m.: David shares an Instagram conversation with his friend of one week, Angela Dicus. After an mandatory exchange of greetings, Angela asks David a question:
Angela: Whatchu doin?
David: Smoking a J.
Angela: Damn I wish I was too.
David asks to switch to Snapchat, a precaution no doubt encouraged by the sensitive nature of their conversation and that service’s automatic message delete feature.
8:09 p.m: David sends Angela a Snapchat message, but she is sleeping and doesn’t pick it up until the next day. She never hears from him again.
8:35 p.m.: David Grunwald’s cell phone connects to the network for the last time.
9:40 p.m.: When David hasn’t returned home at the appointed hour, his parents call Victoria Mokelke, awakening her. Victoria says she thinks David left her house an hour earlier. Fearing he may have rolled his car, Edie and Ben Grunwald twice drive Smith Road near the Mokelke residence without any luck. They then drive to the Palmer Post of the Alaska State Troopers to report David missing. Victoria later remembers that David said something about going to the Almandinger’s residence.
Approximately 10:49 p.m.: Edie Grunwald contacts Rodney Almandinger, Erick’s father, and asks if he has seen her son David, whom he knows from David’s past visits to the residence. Rodney tells her he hasn’t.
Sources: Anchorage Daily News, KTVA-11, KTUU, Alaska Public Media, The Frontiersman
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