Kelsey Grammer speaks with alcohol and cocaine to face the murder of sister

In a new interview with PEOPLEGrammer spoke of the murder of his deceased sister, Karen, and how he turned to drugs and alcohol to face his tragic death – something he details in his new book, Karen: a brother remembers.

Karen was only 18 years old in 1975 when she was kidnapped, raped and brutally murdered in Colorado Springs. And while his killer, Freddie Glenn, was then condemned, the damage he caused to Grammer and their family was permanent.

In the wake of the death of Karen, Grammer fought with substances, and between 1988 and 1996, he faced several arrests for dui and possession of cocaine, and even registered in the Betty Ford Center.

“I always had something at the back of my head saying:” Okay. It’s enough now. Cut it. You know why you are doing this “, he told the point of sale. “But there was the other part of me who wanted to go there and say,” Let him spoil you a little. That it hurts. “”

This is something he addressed in a separate interview on Hello AmericaAdding that he is “remarkable” that he survived during the period of his life, telling Diane Sawyer, he was often drunk or high during his work.

Even at its lower, Grammer appeared to take place, playing Dr. Frasier Crane, first on Acclamations from 1984 to 1993 and later Sinkwhich took place from 1993 to 2004.

“It seemed to make him more overwhelming in a way, but what do you know? I had to do it, so I’m fine,” said Grammer PEOPLE. “I learned that I am really a guy’s type ‘I don’t leave’. I can look at the past and see:” Oh, well, you have always done what you had to do. “”

The memory plunges into the dark details of Karen’s murder, but also celebrates the dynamic life it has experienced – something Grammer says that the world has never really been able to see.

By painting an image of Karen as a free and loving woman who took advantage of the maximum of every moment, said that Grammer said long after his death, sorrow was so consuming that he “could not access happiness”.

“The book helped me go to a new place with that,” he said at the point of sale. “I wanted to breathe life in her, to welcome her again in the world.”

Karen is not the actor’s only tragic loss and his family had been confronted. His father, Allen Grammer, was assassinated in 1968. Barely five years after the death of Karen, his half-brothers, Billy and Stephen, died in an alleged attack of sharks in the Virgin Islands.

“There is an inheritance of early death in my family,” said Grammer. “I pray to break this cycle.”

Elsewhere in the book, Grammer returns to Colorado Springs, where he retraced the last stages of his sister

“She had fallen behind the trailer door after hitting help,” he said about her last moments after the attack. “She was on her knees, crawling her way. Taking aid with her last ounce of life.”

“The Coroner noted that thanks to a gaping injury in his neck, he could see throughout Karen’s lung,” he wrote in the book. “I was right to say that he almost beheaded her. Freddie Glenn struck holes in my sister’s body with unimaginable brutality. There were defensive injuries on his hands.”

The return to Colorado Springs, however, helped him finally take a certain closure when he died. – Although it is a word he says he hates.

“I had to finish my farewells to her,” he noted. “I hate the word” closure “, but I was finally able to say all the things I have never said.”

“The mission is to heal, but the mission is also to help others,” added Grammer in his conversation with GMA. “And by presenting them to Karen, I hope they reintroduced themselves to the relatives they lost, in the same way.”

Karen: a brother remembers Hit the shelves on May 6 and is available for pre -order now.