The Bronco turned up about 21 miles and 33 minutes from the house on Smith Road where David dropped his girlfriend, according to a route search by Ben Grunwald and a buddy. Also, at least one cellphone "ping" from David's phone was tracked to a tower near Palmer in the hours after he went missing.
David called his mother around 6:30 p.m. to say he was dropping off his girlfriend, Victoria, and might be late. His mother factored in the icy roads and said 9:20 p.m. was good.
Adam Mokelke, Victoria's father, has said that David dropped her off around 6:30 or 7 p.m. that night at the house on Smith Road.
The Grunwalds started to worry when David wasn't home at 9:20. Edie [David's mother] called Victoria around 9:40 p.m. and apparently woke her up, she said. Victoria said David had left about an hour earlier. That would have been 8:40, Ben Grunwald said.
So the couple got into the car and drove up and down Smith Road. They thought maybe David had rolled his car or gotten into some kind of trouble on the way out.
They drove the road twice. Then they drove to the troopers post in Palmer and reported their son missing.
Victoria, not long after the first conversation, remembered David had said he might go to see a friend in Palmer.
He never showed up there, Edie Grunwald said.
David "talked smack" sometimes, bragging, as his mother put it. But he also checked in often and followed routines.
Maybe David got into trouble with a friend of a friend of a friend — the second or third circle away from the familiar group they already know, his parents wonder. Maybe somebody targeted him for money or the Bronco.
he Bronco was abandoned down a road with just one way in. It's unlikely whoever dumped it walked out alone. That makes at least two people, maybe, who know something, Ben [David's father] said.
https://www.adn.com/alaska-news/mat...of-missing-palmer-teen-desperate-for-answers/
