Joe Kenda

Joseph Perry Kenda (born August 28, 1946) is a former Colorado Springs Police Department detective who solved 387 homicides in his career.^[1] He is featured on the Investigation Discovery television show Homicide Hunter, where he recounts stories of homicides he solved.

Early life

Kenda grew up in the western Pennsylvania town of Herminie, Pennsylvania, about 30 miles from Pittsburgh. His uncle, father, and grandfather worked in the coal mines, with his grandfather dying in a coal mine accident in 1933. His mother was originally from Colorado Springs, Colorado. At a young age, Kenda was fascinated with crime, especially murder. He recalls a trip to the Pittsburgh Zoo as a child when he noticed a sign near the primate house that read, “Around this corner is the most dangerous animal on Earth.” Kenda turned the corner and was staring into a mirror.^[2]

He graduated from Greensburg Central Catholic High School in 1964.^[2] He attended the University of Pittsburgh, where he married his high school girlfriend Mary Kathleen "Kathy" Mohler in 1967.^[3][2] After graduating with a B.A. in political science the following year, Kenda earned a master's degree in international relations from The Ohio State University in 1970. He wanted to pursue a career in the Foreign Service, but abandoned this dream after he attended a classified briefing with the Central Intelligence Agency and was unimpressed.^[2] He worked for a time at his father's trucking business.^[4] In 1973, Kenda, his wife and two children moved to Colorado Springs, where he joined the police department.^[2]

Law enforcement career

With the Colorado Springs Police Department, Kenda eventually became a detective. He worked in homicides for over 19 years and eventually led the homicide department. “I loved the work,” he said. “My wife – not so much.”^[2] He solved 92 percent of assault cases, which he credited to being a student of human nature and being good at telling when people were lying.^[4] In 1990, he investigated the case of a woman named Dianne Hood who was murdered at a lupus support group meeting by an attacker who took her purse. According to Kenda, the case "met the standard for a Hollywood plot" and received a great deal of media attention, including a People magazine story and several books.^[3]

Near the end of his career, Kenda's wife became convinced that he would be murdered on the job. She confronted him about it one night after he came home late from work. His family moved to Falcon, Colorado in 1993 and he retired three years later. For the next several years, Kenda was unhappy with retirement and went through a withdrawal stage.^[2]

Television career

In 2008, Denver TV producer Patrick Bryant proposed creating a show about murders told from the perspective of a police officer. He attempted to recruit a Denver deputy, but the show never materialized. Bryant remembered Kenda’s 1994 appearance on the nationally televised program, “Turning Point,” with Diane Sawyer and opted to contact him.^[2] Bryant wrote two letters to Kenda, which Kenda ignored. In a third letter, Bryant prefaced his statement by saying he imagined his first two letters had been trashed. After Kenda showed the letter to his wife, she encouraged him to contact Bryant, which he eventually did.^[3]

Kenda surprised television producers when they asked him to read a script. He refused, stating, “I’m not an actor. I’m a policeman. If you want me to tell you about this case, I will. If you want me to read that, get somebody else.”^[2] He offered talking for 15 minutes without a script, and the producers were enthralled. Since then he has been working without a script. A six-minute pitch reel was shown to two networks: 20th Century Fox and Discovery. Discovery bought the show's rights and began airing the program, titled Homicide Hunter, on Investigation Discovery in 2011.^[2]

Kenda gave producers 30 of his past cases to read, and they picked the ten they believed were most suited for television audiences. Since the first episode, which was shot in Hollywood, all of the episodes have been filmed in Colorado Springs. A younger version of him is portrayed by the actor Carl Marino. Kenda admits he looks over the case files before shooting, but said his memory is "absolutely perfect".^[3] Each episode takes four hours to shoot. He has been humbled by the success of the show, which has been renewed for a sixth season ^[5] and has aired throughout the world.^[2]

References

External links

• Joe Kenda at the Internet Movie Database
• Homicide Hunter on Investigation Discovery