Karen Grammer’s Killer Denied Parole

On July 1, 1975 eighteen-year-old Karen Grammer, Kelsey Grammer’s sister, was abducted outside a Red Lobster restaurant after an attempted robbery when she was later raped and murdered by Freddie Glenn.

The parole hearing was held today in Colorado Springs for Glenn, 52, who is serving a life sentence for first-degree murder.  Kelsey Grammer was supposed to attend, but due to weather conditions he was unable to make the hearing so he sent a letter instead.

The letter was sent to Robert Russel, the retired El Paso and Teller County Colorado District Attorney, who successfully prosecuted Glenn over the murder of his sister, and was read at todays hearing where the convicted killer was denied parole and will not be eligible for parole again until 2014.

Some of Grammer’s letter read as follows:

“arsForgiveness allows me to live my life. It allows me to love my children and my wife and the days I have left with them. But I can never escape the horror of what happened to my sister.  I can never accept the notion that he can pay for that nightmare with anything less than his life. We all make choices. He made his. Surely a man who has killed so many must never take a single breath as a free man.”

“I am saddened that I missed this opportunity to be at the hearing.  You know the circumstances: rain delays at Kennedy that made it impossible for me to be in Colorado Springs in time to attend. It is no fault of the airlines; things just turned out against me in this regard and I only hope that it does not result in turning things against my sister or the families of the victims in this case.”

“She had so much to live for. I loved my sister, Karen. I miss her. I miss her in my bones. I was her big brother. I was supposed to protect her — I could not. I have never gotten over it. I was supposed to save her.  I could not. It very nearly destroyed me. I knew it destroyed my Grandmother, who spoke very little after Karen’s death and died three years later. My Mother was broken by it. She continues to live her life with a grief that colored her remaining years.”