On this day, July 1, in 1975, Karen Grammer, the younger sister of then-aspiring actor Kelsey Grammer, was murdered in Colorado.
Drug-crazed soldiers from a nearby U.S. Army base abducted the 18-year-old girl from outside a Red Lobster restaurant in Colorado Springs. The men raped her, drove her to an alley and slit her throat.
Kelsey Grammer, then 20, had to travel to Colorado to identify his sister’s body.
The investigation led to Florida and New Orleans, and resulted in the men’s capture and conviction. Police said the men committed at least half-a-dozen murders.
Kelsey went on to become an Emmy-winning TV star as Frasier Crane in “Cheers” and “Frasier.”
Tragedy had struck the Grammer family before. Kelsey Grammer’s father was murdered outside his home in the U.S. Virgin Islands in 1968.
Scott McCabe
