Joe Kenda

Joseph Patrick Kenda (born August 28, 1946) is a retired Colorado Springs Police Department detective lieutenant who was involved in 387 homicide cases over a 23-year career, solving 356, a closure rate of 92%. He is featured on the Investigation Discovery television show "Homicide Hunter", where he recounts stories of cases he has solved.
Early life.
Kenda was born and raised in Herminie, Pennsylvania, about 30 miles (48 km) southeast of Pittsburgh. His paternal grandparents immigrated in 1913 from Čezsoča in what is now Slovenia; his grandfather Josef, for whom he was named, was killed in a coal mining accident in 1933. His father, William, served as an intelligence officer in the United States Army during World War II, and later ran a trucking business. His mother, Virginia (née Morrissey), was originally from Colorado Springs. At a young age, Kenda was fascinated with crime, especially murder. He recalls a childhood trip to the Pittsburgh Zoo, where a sign near the primate house declared, "Around this corner is the most dangerous animal on Earth"; turning a corner Kenda found himself staring into a mirror.
He graduated from Greensburg Central Catholic High School in 1964. He attended the University of Pittsburgh, and he married his high school girlfriend Mary Kathleen "Kathy" Mohler in 1967. After graduating with a B.A. in political science, Kenda earned a master's degree in international relations from The Ohio State University in 1970. He abandoned plans for a career with the Foreign Service after a classified briefing with the Central Intelligence Agency left him unimpressed. He worked for a time at his father's trucking business. In 1973, Kenda, his wife and two children moved to Colorado Springs, where he joined the police department.
Law enforcement career.
With the Colorado Springs Police Department (CSPD), Kenda eventually became a homicide detective. He worked in the CSPD homicide unit for over 19 years and eventually led the homicide department. "I loved the work," he said. "My wife – not so much." He investigated 387 homicide cases, solving 356, a closure rate of 92%. He credited his ability to close cases to being a student of human nature, and being good at telling when people were lying. 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.
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 Kenda retired three years later. Kenda later explained in his book and in an interview in 2018 that his decision to retire was motivated by an incident in August 1996, involving a 74-year-old man who had sexually assaulted his five-year-old grandson; as there were no open interrogation rooms that day, Kenda had the man brought to his office. When the man justified his abuse by saying the boy "came onto him", Kenda recalled that he "wanted to just kill this guy", and put his hands on him before fellow officers intervened and Kenda ordered the man taken out of his office. He then sat down at his typewriter and typed out his letter of resignation, effective September 1, 1996.
For the next several years, Kenda was unhappy with retirement and went through a withdrawal stage. He then worked as a special needs school bus operator for a decade starting in 1998. Both his resignation from the CSPD and period as a bus driver are shown in The End, the final episode of "Homicide Hunter".
Television career.
By 2008, Denver television series editor Patrick Bryant had worked as a freelancer for several production companies for over ten years, having edited over two hundred episodes of various series on networks including Discovery Channel, Animal Planet, HGTV, Food Channel and TLC. He also edited sizzle reels for development departments of production companies, helping with their efforts to sell new series to TV networks. In 2009 Bryant decided to try his hand at independently creating his own series as a producer. Unscripted reenactment American crime series were extremely popular at the time, a logical choice for Bryant's first effort. Years prior Bryant had lived in Colorado Springs and worked at a local TV station when Kenda was in charge of the Major Crimes Unit. Bryant had interviewed Kenda as part of a TV special about the local drug trade tied to a rising homicide rate. Kenda left a lasting impression on Bryant as a great interview subject. In 2009 Bryant contacted Kenda to discuss the possibility of developing a TV series built around his career as a homicide detective. Kenda was slow to respond, but eventually struck an agreement to pursue the development of the series with Bryant. A 5-minute sizzle reel created by Bryant and Kenda was shown to FOX21 Studios in Los Angeles, who shopped the series to multiple TV networks. It was acquired by Investigation Discovery in 2010, and went into production in February 2011.
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." He spoke off the cuff for 15 minutes without a script, and the producers were enthralled. He worked without a script for the rest of the series. The series was titled "Homicide Hunter: Lt Joe Kenda", first aired in September 2011 on the Investigation Discovery network, becoming a top viewer ratings performer. Kenda was noted for his unerringly smooth, matter-of-fact deadpan delivery of the often grisly details of the crimes he's investigated, and repeatedly stating "Well, my my my...", which quickly became his catchphrase.
Kenda gave producers 30 of his past cases to read, and they picked the ten they believed were most suited for television audiences. The first season was shot in Hollywood, but all re-enactments since were filmed in Knoxville, Tennessee and the surrounding area. Casting calls for actors were periodically held in the Knoxville area. The younger Kenda was portrayed by actor Carl Marino, a former deputy sheriff in Monroe County, New York. Kenda admitted he looked over the case files before shooting, but said his memory is "absolutely perfect". Each episode took four hours to shoot. He has been humbled by the success of the show, which ran for nine seasons and has aired throughout the world. Kenda announced in May 2019 that the ninth season of "Homicide Hunter" would be the last, believing that the number of cases remaining are insufficient to sustain another season, as they were either "too simple or simply too disgusting to be on television", and preferring to end the series "at the top of my game". The series finale, appropriately titled "The End", aired on January 29, 2020.
However, he would still appear in other Investigation Discovery programs. In early 2020, Kenda told an interviewer that he was filming a new series but was not ready to provide specifics. In December 2020, the new series was announced as "American Detective with Lt. Joe Kenda", with each episode featuring Kenda discussing the cases of different homicide detectives in the United States. It premiered on January 4, 2021, with the launch of the new Discovery+ streaming service.
Personal life.
Kenda married his high school girlfriend, Mary Kathleen "Kathy" Mohler, on December 26, 1967. They have two children - Dan, a retired United States Navy commander, and Kris, a retired United States Air Force major. They all appeared on the "Homicide Hunter" episode "Married to the Job", which aired on February 6, 2019, and in the series finale "The End" on January 29, 2020.
In 2017, he was residing in the Tidewater region of Virginia; his role in the series is filmed in Colorado Springs.