Theoretical ab initio investigation of strong field dissociative ionization of the D-2(+) molecule in the multiphoton regime is reported. The dynamics is initiated by ultrashort laser pulses for fixed molecular axis orientations. Nuclear wave packet calculations are performed to provide the joint energy spectra (JES): ionization-dissociation probability density via electron (E-e) and nuclear (E-n) kinetic energy. Analyzing the time-dependent nuclear wave packet densities we have successfully identified the exact path followed by the D-2(+) target for each multiphoton peak. (C) 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.