After graduating with a B.A. in political science from the University of Pittsburgh in 1968, he earned a master's degree in international relations from Ohio State University in 1970. He then worked with his father's trucking business, then joined the Colorado Springs Police Department in 1973. He retired after 23 years in 1996 as a Lieutenant, then started working as a school bus operator. In 1995, a year before his retirement, Kenda's success as a homicide investigator got him an interview with ABC's
Diane Sawyer for a primetime special on homicide investigations. In 2008, a TV producer remembered Kenda's interview and asked him to be part of a new show in development for the Investigation Discovery Channel.
