‘Anybody’s kid’: Grunwald murder brings sense of urgency to reducing crime

Four days before what would have been her son David Grunwald’s 17th birthday, Edie Grunwald will be at the Menard Sports Center, attending the Public Safety Town Hall Meeting on Wednesday, Jan. 4.

Five teens have been charged in the murder of her son, who went missing Nov. 13. A weeks-long search by law enforcement, private investigators and hundreds of volunteers, ended when his body was found Dec. 2.

The Grunwald murder has brought a new sense of urgency to fighting crime in valley, along with long-standing problems such as opioid and meth addiction, teen homelessness and domestic violence.

A father of one of the teens charged in the murder told the Alaska Dispatch News in mid-December that his son was essentially homeless, spending time in trap houses, which are houses used for doing hard drugs.

Alaska Court View records show some of the accused’s fathers, have multiple domestic violence charges or convictions.

In a phone interview Friday, Edie Grunwald said she would like to see more focus on crime prevention, and an education outreach by law enforcement to parents about “red flags” they should look for, and ways to educate their children on potential dangers, and keep them safe.

“This could have been anybody’s kid,” she said of her son David, who would be celebrating his birthday with family and friends on Jan. 8, if he were still alive.

“I think that’s why the interest in David,” she said. “It hit us all to the core across the community.”

The Public Safety Town Hall, hosted by Alaska State House Representative Mark Neuman and Representative-Elect Collen Sullivan-Leonard, will also be attended by Alaska Dept. of Public Safety Commissioner Walt Monegan; Alaska State Troopers Sergeant and supervisor of statewide drug enforcement in the Mat-Su Valley Patrick Nelson; and representatives from Wasilla and Palmer Police Departments.

In an interview last week with the Frontiersman, Commissioner Monegan said he anticipates addressing the public’s questions on issues such as the opioid epidemic, the new crime reform bill SB91 that was signed into law in July, and impacts of state budget cuts to local law enforcement.

Monegan said that AST already struggles with responding to all of the calls it fields, and that he’s not sure how future budget cuts could impact AST.

He said fighting the opioid epidemic in the valley is going to take a lot of community involvement from different partners, and that he’d like to see a more “aggressive” push to combating it.

Serene Espinoza, vice president of REAL About Addiction and a board member of Fallen Up Ministries, said there are projects in the works to create treatment options for addicts, but no new treatment centers as of yet in the valley.

Both non-profit groups are part of a home-grown movement in Alaska over the last two years to bring people together from all sides of the opioid addiction epidemic, to share information and advocate for change.

As a former opioid user in long-term recovery herself, Espinoza said that the road to recovery is a long one, and that addicts need time to heal the physical damage that drugs have done to their brains.

Espinoza said she thinks people who commit crimes to support their addictions should be appropriately charged and jailed with those crimes, but that she’d like to see treatment centers in the valley in conjunction with a go-to-jail-or-treatment option offered to those who are charged with simple possession.

Those new treatment centers have yet to materialize. But Espinoza said there is some good news on the opioid epidemic front, with Fallen Up Ministries currently applying for a grant for its Lazarus project.

The pilot project would assist addicts going through withdrawals with a new medical device that attaches to the ear and stimulates the brain to reduce the pain of withdrawal.

Over the last few months, she said, it has also been participating in harm-reduction meetings under the Mat-Su Opioid Task Force to explore options.

Providing teens who are not safe at home, or who have been kicked out of their homes, a place to stay other than trap houses in the valley, Edie Grunwald said, is an important piece of the crime prevention puzzle.

She pointed to My House, a resource for homeless teens in the valley.

Grunwald said that in previous interviews with other news outlets, she and her husband, Ben, have discussed four main issues: fixing and strengthening juvenile justice, tough judges, consideration of a death penalty, and parent accountability.

“The death penalty became the main topic,” Grunwald said. “It wasn’t our main topic; they just ran with that maybe because it’s controversial, which is fine because Alaska does need to look at the death penalty as an option.”

Victoria Mokelke, who was David Grunwald’s girlfriend, submitted to the Frontiersman via email, a list of things she thinks parents can do to help keep their teens safe, and do their part to strengthen public safety in the valley:

1. Look through your kids social media friends list. Ask who they are if they look suspicious, and encourage only adding friends and family they know.

2. Add your kids on social media. If you see anything strange or have a bad feeling about one of their posts, ask them about it, especially if you feel it’s a sign of depression, drug use, bullying or suicide.

3. Before your child visits or stays the night with a friend, get to know some basic information on parents. Meet them, know where they live, make sure you have their parents’ cell phone number in case of emergency.

4. Other teenagers are considered strangers, encourage your kids not to give rides to any strangers or accept rides from any strangers.

5. If you see it, report it! If you hear of any neglect, abuse of your neighbors’ kids or someone you know, or one of your teen’s friends, report it!

The Public Safety Town Hall Meeting will be held on Wednesday, Jan. 4 from 6-8:30 p.m. at the Menard Sports Center in Wasilla. For more information about Fallen Up Ministries, which provides a support network for people with addiction, people in recovery, and their friends and family members, contact Terria Walters at 907-748-0316, or email fallenupministries@gmail.com, or find them on Facebook. The Mat-Su Valley Hope Line for people struggling with addiction, hosted by the non-profit Fiend 2 Clean, is 907-982-4673. For more information about My House, a resource in the valley for homeless youth, go to http://myhousematsuhomelessyouthcenter.com, or call 907-373-4357.