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The actor has spoken about the time his sister was brutally killed in 1975
Warning: This article contains discussion of rape which some readers may find distressing.
Kelsey Grammer has opened up about the brutal murder of his sister 50 years ago.
The 70-year-old has spoken out about the tragic loss of his sister, Karen, in his new book where he reveals how her death left a lasting impact on his family.
The Frasier star was just 20 at the time when his family in Florida were told by police that a body had been found in Colorado Springs that they believed to be Grammer’s 18-year-old sister.
Grammer and his family flew to Colorado the next day and confirmed the Jane Doe was Karen.
Kelsey Grammer in 1990 (Alice S. Hall/NBCU Photo Bank)
It was then that they learned she had been brutally raped and stabbed 42 times on July 1, just two weeks before her 19th birthday.
It was later revealed she had died at the hands of Freddie Glenn and his accomplices, who had been on a killing spree across the state in 1975.
In his novel, Karen: A Brother Remembers, Grammer touches upon the horrifying details of his sister’s final moments and the toll it has taken on his life for the past five decades.
Grammer last spoke to Karen on June 30, where the pair made plans to meet in the Sunshine State after the Fourth of July, but his sister never made it.
When he didn’t hear from her again, Grammer called the cops.
The Golden Globe winner later discovered just hours after their phone call, Karen went to work at Red Lobster and was waiting outside when she encountered Glenn and two others.
Grammer says the incident changed his life (Bruce Glikas/Getty Images)
They had initially planned to rob the restaurant but pulled a gun on Karen and told her to come with them.
According to police notes, she responded: “For what?”, which Grammer says was her characteristically sassy approach.
The robbery was then called off as Glenn tied Karen up and drove her to an apartment where each of the men took turns raping her.
In an alleyway, Glen then stabbed her dozens of times and almost decapitated her before leaving her for dead.
In her final moments, Karen tried to crawl for help some 400 feet from where she was stabbed, but died in the doorway of a home.
Speaking to PEOPLE, Grammer said: “For a long time, the grief was so dominant that I couldn’t access happiness. The book helped me get to a new place with that.”
Grammer grappled over whether to include the graphic details of his sister’s murder (Mathew Tsang/Getty Images)
But the actor wrestled with the idea of including the ‘graphic’ details of Karen’s death before deciding that while it is ‘not pleasant or comforting’, it serves as ‘ammunition to keep Freddie Glenn in jail’.
The serial murderer and rapist is serving a life sentence behind bars, with his next hearing due in 2027.
Grammer says he also grappled with forgiveness for a long time after her death, telling the news outlet: “You don’t want to eat yourself to pieces because you can’t forgive somebody. But it’s hard to forgive a person who consciously decided they wanted to murder somebody you love.
“I can give you forgiveness, but you’re not going to get out of paying for it.”
Aside from the harrowing murder, Grammer wrote the book to ‘breathe life’ into Karen, describing her as a free-spirit.
“We were Kelsey and Karen, brother and sister,” he added.
Grammer also details how his life has been marred by other tragedies, from the 1968 shooting of his father, Allen, to a shark attack in 1980 that claimed the lives of his half-brothers, Billy and Stephen.
Karen: A Brother Remembers comes out May 6.
