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http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/local/article/0,1299,DRMN_15_5690588,00.html 'Frasier' star vows to face sister's killerBy Rosa Ramirez, Rocky Mountain News
September 5, 2007
The man who killed actor Kelsey Grammer's younger sister in Colorado Springs in 1975 is scheduled for a parole hearing in January.
Grammer, best-known for his Emmy-winning "Frasier" role, vows to be at the hearing if his sister Karen's killer seeks his release.
Freddie Lee Glenn became eligible for parole in October 2006, but he waived the hearing, said Katherine Sanguinetti, a spokeswoman for the Colorado Department of Corrections.
"He chose not to go before a parole board and ask for parole," she said.
Glenn, 50, has until December to waive or pursue the January hearing, Sanguinetti said.
Glenn is incarcerated at the Bent County Correctional Facility in Las Animas, serving three life sentences with the possibility for parole, for a string of murders committed more than 30 years ago.
Sanguinetti said Grammer, who is registered as a victim in his sister's case, "has a right to go before the parole board and give his side of the story ... give his feelings on it, what he thinks."
"Recently, I got news that the man who did this to Karen is now eligible for parole," Grammer, 52, told Parade magazine. "There is a hearing sometime later this year that I will attend. I am angry about him. I never had the opportunity to speak for my sister before. I will now."
Lou Smit, a retired homicide investigator from the Colorado Springs Police who broke the case, said Glenn should never see the streets.
"From my standpoint, I believe sometimes people can be rehabilitated....One is rehabilitation and the other is punishment. When you're there for the death of people, the person should never get out of jail. There's just too many victims," Smit said.
In 1976, Glenn was convicted of murder, second-degree kidnapping and armed robbery for the slaying of 18-year-old Karen Grammer.
Police said Glenn and two other men kidnapped her after she walked into the Red Lobster restaurant after they attempted to rob the restaurant.
Police said Karen Grammer was waiting in the parking lot of the restaurant, where she also worked, for a friend to finish a work shift.
Larry Dunn, one of the three men, who gave testimony to police in exchange for immunity, told police Karen Grammer's presence spoiled their robbery plans.
So Glenn and the others took her with them.
Glenn was a U.S. Army civilian employee at Fort Carson, police said. He drove Karen Grammer to the apartment that he shared with one of his accomplices, a soldier.
The three men held Karen Grammer for four hours and took turns raping her, according to Court TV's Crime Library Criminal Minds and Methods' Web site.
Dunn told authorities they took her into the car and blindfolded her. The men then drove her around the block from the apartment building and into a narrow alley.
Glenn, who was 18 at the time, slit her throat.
Police said Karen Grammer crawled from the alley about a block and onto the porch of a vacant trailer where she died. She left a trail of blood from the alley and a bloody handprint on the trailer's wall, inches from the doorbell.
Grammer's brother, then a 20-year-old aspiring actor who went on to stardom, arrived in Colorado to identify her body.
In 1976, Glenn was sentenced to die in the Colorado State Penitentiary's gas chamber for the rape-murder charges. He became the first person to receive the death penalty in El Paso County after Colorado voters voted to reinstate capital punishment during the 1974 general election.
His death sentence was later commuted to a life sentence due to changes in laws.
Bob Russel, an El Paso District Attorney at the time, said he'll testify against the release of Glenn.
"The detail of how he killed Karen Grammer is terrible. If the parole board hears that he'll never get a chance."
Karen Grammer's body is buried in Florida.
Copyright 2007, Rocky Mountain News. All Rights Reserved.
