What happened to Kelsey Grammer’s sister Karen Grammer? Actor recalls late sister’s violent death

Kelsey Grammer, who is best known for his role as Doctor Frasier Crane in Cheers and Frasier, is one of TV's great success stories despite enduring several personal tragedies, which includes the murder of his younger sister, Karen Grammer, in 1975.

Karen Grammer was abducted and killed at the age of 18 in Colorado Springs. According to People, at the time she had just graduated from high school and was working at a Red Lobster outlet.

Karen had been sitting and waiting for her boyfriend to get off work when Michael Corbett, Freddie Glenn, and one of their friends kidnapped her in the middle of the night on July 1, 1975, Initially the trio had planned to rob the restaurant, but ended up abducting Karen, who was in the restaurant at that time.

Over the next few hours, Karen Grammer suffered physical violence. She was s*xually assaulted before being stabbed multiple times, and left to die near a mobile home park.

She is said to be the third victim in a series of murders committed by Glenn and Corbett. Days earlier, they had killed a cook and a soldier. Corbett later confessed to one of the murders, saying he did it to “know what it felt like” to kill someone with a knife.

Corbett and Glenn were sentenced to death, but a 1979 Supreme Court decision commuted their sentences to life in prison. Corbett died in prison of natural causes in 2019 and Glenn is still serving his time.

More about Kelsey Grammer's struggles related to his sister's death, and his new memoir

At the time of Karen's death, Kelsey Grammer was 20 and a student at Juilliard in New York. He was devastated and emotionally scarred by the loss. Over the years, the Emmy-winning actor has spoken about the lasting effect of the loss, both professionally and personally, including his struggles with substance abuse.

His daughter Spencer Grammer, talked about her fathers emotional struggles in an interview with People magazine, where she said:

"When you lose somebody that you're close to, especially to something that's completely out of your control, we can't make sense of it."

In Kelsey Grammer's upcoming memoir, Karen: A Brother Remembers, he delves into the pain and love of his memories of his sister. He has stated that the book is not just a reflection on grief, but a celebration of Karen’s life.

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"Karen is a vibrant, visceral, saturated, honest, ecstatic recounting of my sister’s days until her final desecration. It is not a Grief book. It is a Life book, a celebration of Karen’s life," he said.

Kelsey Grammer has suffered several other sudden and tragic losses in his life. When Grammer was 13, his father was shot in St. Thomas by an armed intruder who had broken into the family’s property.

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