A 41-year-old man has been sentenced to life in prison for mutilating and fatally stabbing four members of his family in their Townsend-area home in late 2021.
But despite relatives of Donald Grier Jr. wanting an explanation for his actions that winter day, none were given — other than to say he had battled years of mental illness and was delusional the afternoon he snapped.
“How could you do that?” Michael Santucci Sr. asked moments before a judge sentenced Grier. “Don, they loved you. They took care of you.”
On the afternoon of Dec. 3, 2021, Grier went on a savage rampage fatally wounding his father, 68-year-old Donald Grier Sr., his 71-year-old mother, Alicia Grier; his step-sister, 53-year-old Linda Santucci; and his nephew, 19-year-old Michael Santucci Jr.
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Two mental health experts interviewed him while he was in custody and determined that despite having fentanyl and methadone in his system, Grier suffered from mental illness.
His attorney, Patrick Collins, said Grier wanted to spare the rest of his family suffering and that’s why on May 3 he pleaded guilty but mentally ill to one count of first-degree murder and a weapons charge. In exchange for his plea, prosecutors dropped the other charges including three counts of first-degree murder.
“This case is just tragic, no doubt, on so many levels,” Superior Court Judge Paul R. Wallace said before passing his sentence.
Grier, who was sentenced to an additional 25 years for the weapons charge, will spend the rest of his life in prison or the Delaware Psychiatric Center when he needs mental health treatment.
“It’s just an act that we don’t understand,” Wallace added.
‘I’m sorry dad’
Grier had been ranting throughout Dec. 3, 2021, about killing a woman he knew, according to court documents obtained by Delaware Online/The News Journal. The ranting was “not uncommon.”
Needing to run errands, Donald Sr. and his wife left the house. On the way out, they saw Grier raking leaves outside their Camerton Lane home in the community of Camerton Townhouses.
The couple returned sometime later, parked in front of their three-story house and entered their home.
Alicia Grier walked up the stairs with Donald Sr. “a little ways behind” her.
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That’s when the elder Grier heard a thud followed by his wife screaming: “I’m dying. I’m dead.”
As the elder Grier made it to the top of the stairs, he immediately saw a large knife coming from “around the corner of the wall.”
The Bowie hunting knife’s 14-inch serrated blade was plunged into his chest.
“I’m sorry dad,” the son told his father, who managed to grab the knife and brake its blade.
Grier kicked his father down the stairs, attacking the older man with a boxcutter at the bottom of the staircase.
As the father pleaded for his son to stop, court records say Grier continued cutting and stabbing his father.
Grier eventually stopped and ran up the stairs, allowing his father to crawl out the front door and into the yard screaming for help.
As the elder Grier was screaming for help, his son came back down the stairs.
“I’m done with you. I’m gonna kill her now,” Grier said before rifling through his father’s pockets and removing his pickup keys. The elder man thought his son was referring to the woman he’d been ranting about killing throughout the day.
Grier then got into his father’s pickup truck and fled.
A search of the house
Arriving police found the elder Grier outside his front door. He told an officer that his son had stabbed him, adding his wife and daughter were inside the house.
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Police entered the building, where they found Alicia near the door to the second-floor back porch. Her left fingers were cut off, and her right hand was severed, according to court documents. She was taken to a hospital in Pennsylvania where she died later that night.
A search of the top floor, where the bedrooms were located, found the bodies of Linda Santucci and her son Michael in her bedroom.
Michael was lying in bed and had cuts on his face and forearm. Linda was facedown on the ground with her stomach sliced open. Both were declared dead on the scene.
Donald Sr. was taken to an area hospital where he died just after midnight on Dec. 16 — living 13 days more than the other victims.
The police chase
After learning of the stolen pickup, officers on scene radioed for all police to be on the lookout for a red 1997 Dodge Ram pickup truck.
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Police who spotted the truck tried to pull it over, but Grier refused and a chase on Summit Bridge Road ensued.
At one point, Grier swerved across traffic and the median and slammed his car into a police vehicle. He also hit two other cars not driven by police, including a head-on collision with a Pontiac G6. This crash disabled both vehicles, allowing officers to arrest Grier.
No one involved in the collisions was fatally injured, according to police.
Contact Esteban Parra at (302) 324-2299 or eparra@delawareonline.com.
