There’s a simple reason Joe Kenda decided to end his Investigation Discovery series, “Homicide Hunter,” which returns for its 20-episode ninth season at 9 p.m. Aug. 28.
“It’s a question of not having enough cases to support season 10,” said Kenda, who grew up in Herminie near Irwin before attending the University of Pittsburgh. “The cases that remain are either too simple or too gruesome or involve dead children or babies and I won’t do those and ID won’t do them either so it’s time to call it an end.”
In his career with the Colorado Springs police department, Kenda worked 387 murder cases and cleared 356 of those by arrest. He estimates “Homicide Hunter” has re-created a couple of hundred cases with another 130 remaining that aren’t right for TV.
Kenda said he’d rather end the show than become the guy who hangs on too long. As it is, Kenda said his wife, Kathy, pushed him to do the show in the first place.
“My wife beat me up until I agreed to do it. They approached me, I didn’t approach them,” Kenda said, noting with good humor the pair celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary with family in Greensburg in December 2018. “We got married on the day after Christmas. Tried to get married on Christmas Day but the church was busy with something about the birth of a baby.”
Kenda said he agreed to make “Homicide Hunter” as a form of therapy.
“I had never discussed the cases at home,” Kenda said. “I’ve said more to that camera than I’ve ever said to my wife. … It was therapy for me to lessen the emotional load.
And I feel better nine years later than I’ve ever felt since I retired. By just talking about it, it helps. It doesn’t make it go away; it makes it less painful.”
Kenda said his wife and children, who were featured in an episode in season eight, will return for another episode in the final season.
As for the show’s impact in its recreations of murder cases, Kenda admits the reactions he gets from viewers are unlike his past experiences dealing with the press and the public while he was on the job.
“People either hated me or they were afraid of me or both and now they want to be my friends,” he said. It’s very gratifying to me that I provided some level of education in this program.”
‘Homicide Hunter: Lt. Joe Kenda’
When: 9 p.m. Aug. 28, Investigation Discovery.
Starring: Joe Kenda.
He points to two young women in different parts of the country who both wrote to him about a year apart to describe how they came to realize they were in abusive relationships from watching “Homicide Hunter.”
“I was sitting watching the show and I realized I had [an abusive male personality] sitting next to me and I left him and you saved my life,” wrote the correspondent in one letter, as Kenda recalled. “I thought, OK, that’s two [people the show helped]. Better than none.”
While “Homicide Hunter” may be ending, Kenda and ID aren’t done yet.
“There’s gonna be a new series come the fall of 2020 starring me and that’s about all I know,” Kenda said. “I can’t discuss details — I’m not even sure what they are at the moment — but we’re gonna get underway with that after the first of the year.”
TV writer Rob Owen: rowen@post-gazette.com or 412-263-2582. Follow RobOwenTV on Twitter or Facebook for breaking TV news.
First Published: August 21, 2019, 12:00 p.m.
