Though he’s been retired 27 years, former homicide detective Joe Kenda still has nightmares. That’s part of the reason he agreed to host nine seasons of ID’s “Homicide Hunter: Lt. Joe Kenda.” It was a series that outlined most of the 356 cases he solved while he served with the Colorado Springs Police Department.
Deep into his 21st year in homicide, Kenda says, “I wasn’t thinking about retiring but it jumped up and smacked me in the face. I was more concerned about my emotional state than I was about how I could fix it, but it finally dawned on me it’s time to do something else. ... I miss the people; I don’t miss the violence. I don’t miss the work. I’d reached my emotional limit. When I retired everything around me was white noise.”
He was able to still that white noise with “Homicide Hunter” and is narrating the investigations of other detectives on “American Detective with Lt. Joe Kenda,” airing now on ID. But it’s the cases that Kenda and his team didn't solve that still keep him up at night. And the first of three specials premiering Aug. 17 on ID outlines three of those cases that have been resolved through scientific advances in DNA. The series is aptly titled “Homicide Hunter: Never Give Up.”
