Kelsey Grammer Opens Up About Sister’s Heartbreaking Final Moments

Veteran actor Kelsey Grammer has opened his heart in a deeply personal memoir titled Karen: A Brother Remembers, detailing the devastating final moments of his sister Karen, who was raped and murdered in 1975 at just 18 years old.

Karen Grammer had recently moved to Colorado Springs to be closer to her boyfriend after completing a semester in Georgia. On the night of July 1, 1975, she had gone to a local Red Lobster, where she worked, to wait for a friend. Tragically, she was abducted by Freddie Glenn and his accomplices, who were planning to rob the restaurant.

Karen was taken to an apartment where she was brutally assaulted, then driven to a remote alley where Glenn stabbed her 42 times — nearly decapitating her. Grammer recalls that she managed to crawl 400 feet in search of help, leaving behind bloody fingerprints as a silent testimony of her struggle. She collapsed at the doorstep of a trailer, where a man later found her but failed to help, choosing instead to call the police and walk away.

Grammer painfully describes in the book how her final moments were filled with desperation and hope, recounting how her body was found — eyes open, head on the ground, one hand clenched, a finger pointing into the unknown.

Despite the unimaginable grief, Grammer shares that writing the book helped him find some peace. While he says he has tried to forgive Glenn, who is serving a life sentence, he still grapples with the enormity of the crime. “Forgiveness is possible,” he told People, “but it doesn’t erase the debt.”

Karen: A Brother Remembers is scheduled for release on May 6 and delves not only into Karen’s tragic story but also the series of personal losses Grammer has endured — including the murder of his father and the deaths of his half-brothers.