She tried to tell police that a stranger had broken into her father’s home in Canada and stabbed her teenage brother to death, even going so far as to sit down with a police sketch artist to draw an image of a suspect.
But Tristan Grosbeck’s story about how 17-year-old Wayne Grosbeck Jr., a promising Saunders secondary school basketball player, died at his Chippewas of the Thames First Nation home on June 27, 2021, just didn’t add up.
After a six-month police investigation, she was arrested and charged with second-degree murder. Later this fall, the mother of two will be sentenced after pleading guilty to a lesser charge of manslaughter for stabbing her kid brother to death with a knife and a pair of scissors.
All stemming from an argument over a missing Wendy’s hamburger.
What led to the unthinkable family tragedy is outlined in an agreed statement of fact that was filed as an exhibit before Superior Court of Justice Bruce Thomas last month when he accepted Tristan Grosbeck’s guilty plea.
The statement said Tristan Grosbeck and her two young children lived with her father Wayne Sr., her brother Wayne Jr. and his twin sister at a Switzer Drive home. On Saturday, June 26, 2021, the father was out visiting friends, while Tristan Grosbeck, her children and her sister were at the house.
Earlier that evening the family decided to pick up some fast food from a Wendy’s restaurant. Wayne Jr. was out with his own friends but had asked that his dad pick him up a burger. Efforts were made to deliver him his food, but he wasn’t answering his phone or messages.
So his father put the burger in the microwave in the kitchen.
At 5:20 a.m. the next morning, Wayne Jr. got a ride home with a friend. They’d been out drinking and the friend later told the police Wayne Jr. “seemed to have no worries in the world” when he dropped him off.
Wayne Jr. realized he was locked out of the house after his friend drove away. At 5:40 a.m., he called his father, who told him where to find a key. He called his father again eight minutes later to ask where his burger was after he didn’t find it in the microwave.
At 5:56 a.m., Tristan Grosbeck called her father complaining that Wayne Jr. “was making a big mess in the kitchen.” Wayne Sr. advised her not to argue with her brother. He heard a big bang and his son yelling at his sister. The father started driving home and called police on the way.
He was home eight minutes after his daughter’s call and found his son on the floor and his two screaming and hysterical daughters standing near him with blood on them. Tristan Grosbeck made 10 calls on her phone before her father came home. Her first call to 911 was two minutes after he arrived. She said “yes” when the dispatcher asked if the attacker was still there but added they were not in danger.
Wayne Jr. had been stabbed multiple times in the face, left shoulder and left and right chest, with more wounds on his hands and bruises on his torso, right arm and hand. Tristan Grosbeck had cuts to her left ring finger and her pinky finger required partial amputation.
His blood was found throughout the kitchen, including on a broken window. Also found there was a golf club with Wayne Jr.’s blood on the handle and the club head. More blood was on the exterior of the front door, while his sister’s blood was located on the inside and on the ceiling over where he was found.
A folding pocket knife was discovered in the bathroom with Wayne’s Jr.’s blood and tissue on the blade and Tristan Grosbeck’s blood on the handle. Scissors found in the living room had the same results, the statement said.
A Chippewas of the Thames police officer arrived to find Wayne Jr.’s father applying pressure to his son’s wounds. More police and paramedics arrived. Tristan Grosbeck first told them she didn’t know who stabbed her brother, then said it was a friend she wouldn’t identify, then said she was sleeping and didn’t know what happened, until she went to check a noise in the basement and saw her brother under attack.
Wayne Jr. was rushed to Strathroy hospital and died later that morning. Tristan Grosbeck was taken there too, and while there, used her phone to take screen shots of Bible verses and searched for topics including, “how much time do you get for murder,” “will god forgive me for murder,” “Murder and Manslaughter charges, Canada” and “what does god do when u murder after death.“
Forensic tests later found alcohol, cocaine and marijuana in Wayne Jr.’s blood sample. Tristan Grosbeck’s blood had no traces of alcohol.
She was interviewed by the OPP and told them a tall, white man with brown eyes and a moustache attacked her brother outside the house. She opened the door to find Wayne Jr. bloodied and stepped into the middle of a fight, causing her injuries.
Several weeks after her brother’s death, she met with an OPP forensic artist to produce a sketch of the suspect, but she had little recall and “was mostly responding to his words,” the statement said. However, she said the sketch likeness was a “nine out of 10.”
The police were concerned about inconsistencies in her story. On Dec. 7, 2021, Tristan Grosbeck was arrested and charged with second-degree murder.
In a police interview, she said Wayne Jr. had been drinking before he came home and they argued and fought “over the victim’s food being eaten,” the statement said.
She said her brother threw several items at her, including shoes and an organizer. She was scared and retrieved a knife from a bedroom. She said Wayne Jr. was able to grab the knife from her, but she still managed to stab him several times.
The statement said police believe Tristan Grosbeck attacked her brother with the knife and scissors, causing six sharp-force injuries. Wayne Jr. tried to get the knife away from her, injuring her hand.
The statement said their sister woke up and tried to intervene but was hit in the face by Tristan Grosbeck.
Wayne Jr. “suffered significant blood loss as a result of his injuries and eventually passed out on the floor” before succumbing to his wounds.
Sentencing submissions are set for Oct. 19.
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