Chances are, if you’re a breathing person, you’re at least somewhat familiar with the case against Karen Read. In February 2022, the equity analyst at Fidelity Investments, adjunct professor of finance at Bentley University, and Massachusetts-native was accused of killing her police officer boyfriend, John O’Keefe, after a night out with friends in Canton, Massachusetts. For the last three years, Read has railed against the accusations, claiming she didn’t kill O’Keefe, but was instead framed by members of local law enforcement, given that several off-duty officers were there the night O’Keefe died.
The case has fueled fierce protests, dominated national media, inspired a buzzy new docuseries streaming on Investigation Discovery and HBO Max, and it’s retrial kicked off in mid-April. Even the Supreme Court of the United States is involved—kind of. Read’s team asked SCOTUS to intervene, but on April 28, the court declined to hear the case.
While A Body in the Snow: The Trial of Karen Read is worth a binge given it’s technically the only public testimony Read has given since her arrest, the case takes more than a docuseries to know. So, here’s a guide—far from all-encompassing, given the breadth of details—as to WTF is currently happening:
What Happened on January 29, 2022?
On the evening of January 29, 2022, Read, O’Keefe, and a group of their friends met at the Waterfall Bar & Grill in Canton. At 12 a.m., when the bar closed, Nicole and Brian Albert (a retired Boston Police officer) invited the group back to their home at 34 Fairview Road. With O’Keefe in the car, Read drove to the Alberts’ home. Upon arrival, however, Read claimed she let O’Keefe enter the home alone because, as she stated in A Body in the Snow: The Trial of Karen Read, the house looked dark and she didn’t know the Alberts very well. Read said she watched O’Keefe reach the side door and enter—he was then supposed to confirm it was OK to come in. When he didn’t reply to her text messages, an already suspicious Read drove away frustrated and left multiple accusatory voicemails on O’Keefe’s cell phone.
“I’m drinking, I’m swearing—it’s horrible,” Read admitted in the docuseries. “I became convinced he’s sleeping with someone. And there were multiple women in the neighborhood of Fairview that John had been with.”
Read said she then went to sleep at O’Keefe’s home, but woke up around 4 a.m. after realizing he hadn’t returned. With the aid of O’Keefe’s friend, Kerry Roberts, and Albert’s sister-in-law, Jennifer McCabe, they started searching for him. By 6 a.m., the women found O’Keefe lying motionless in the snow outside the Alberts’ home and called 911.
Two days later, on January 31, an autopsy reportedly showed O’Keefe’s death was caused by “blunt impact injuries of head and hypothermia.” According to Dr. Irini Scordi-Bello, who performed the autopsy, a manner of death wasn’t determined. “The manner of death has to do with the circumstances under which Mr. O’Keefe sustained those injuries, and I did not have enough information to be able to determine whether those injuries were accidental or not,” Scordi-Bello testified in the first trial.
Despite a lack of conclusive evidence, Read became the state’s prime subject. On February 1, she was arrested on suspicion of hitting O’Keefe with her car and leaving him for dead. On February 2, she appeared in Stoughton District Court for the first time to plead not guilty to manslaughter, motor vehicle homicide, and leaving the scene of a motor vehicle collision causing death. By June, the charges were upgraded to second-degree murder, motor vehicle manslaughter, and leaving the scene of a collision causing death by a Norfolk County grand jury. Once again, Read pleaded not guilty. To this day, no one else connected to O’Keefe’s case has been charged.
What Happened During the First Trial?
As in any case, the prosecution and the defense presented vastly different stories about what happened to O’Keefe. The state claims that Read—intoxicated and enraged by the thought of O’Keefe cheating on her—intentionally struck and killed her boyfriend with her SUV. They allege Read backed the vehicle into O’Keefe while dropping him off at the Alberts’ home, causing his death. Read’s motive? Their relationship—which had become toxic.
A. A host of text messages exchanged between Read and O’Keefe in the days leading up to his death were shown in court. Many of them paint the picture that Read was desperate for clarity regarding the future of their relationship:
“I know your heart isn’t in this anymore. I’ve felt it for awhile and esp lately,” Read texted on one occasion. On another, she wrote: “Tell me if you are interested in someone else. Can’t think of any other reason you’ve been like this.”
O’Keefe’s niece and nephew (who he adopted after the death of his sister and brother-in-law in 2013) were also a contentious topic between the couple. In texts the day before O’Keefe’s death, he picked a fight with Read over what the kids ate for breakfast that morning.
“This has been an issue w me for 8 years,” he wrote to Read. “It physically hurts me to see EVERYONE else in their life do things for them and I’m forced to ALWAYS be the bad guy.”
“Most of the time I try to do what is healthy/smart for them,” Read replied. “More importantly, I try to support you in what you need. You just lashed out at me and said terrible things. I don’t know how you’ve gotten to this point with me, when I’m just trying my hardest. You made your point, and continue to beat me down. I have a lot going on too. Physically I am falling apart and trying to get answers and help.”
B. Read’s texts with Brian Higgins, a friend of the couple’s and an agent with the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF), were also shown in court. As the texts showed, Read had confided in Higgins about the relationship she had with O’Keefe as recently as January 2022. She wrote that “things are far from perfect” with O’Keefe, citing a “complicated” dynamic with the children and an instance in which she accused him of cheating on her while they were on a trip. Other texts were more flirtatious. At one point, Read told Higgins she thought he was “hot” and he reciprocated the sentiment. While on the stand, Higgins also alleged that Read kissed him after they watched a Patriots game with O’Keefe at his home.
C. Multiple witnesses called by the prosecution also claimed that Read frantically asked, “Did I hit him?” before O’Keefe was found, and, after his body was discovered in the snow, she allegedly said, “I hit him.” The prosecution further claimed that glass from Read’s broken taillight was found on the Alberts’ property, presenting both the fragments and her behavior after O’Keefe was found, as damning evidence that Read had, in fact, hit O’Keefe.
As for the defense, Read’s attorneys allege that Read is a victim of a framing by O’Keefe’s friends and fellow police officers. O’Keefe, they claim, was actually killed during an altercation at the Alberts’ home before his body was left outside. The investigation, too, became a central part of the defense’s argument that Read had been framed. Michael Proctor, the lead investigator of O’Keefe’s case, was accused by the defense of not only manipulating evidence but conducting a prejudiced investigation. Notably, Proctor never pursued any other leads in the investigation, and was caught texting cruel and misogynistic things about Read to friends, relatives, and even supervisors. Proctor told other troopers that he hadn’t found any “nudes” or explicit photos of Read while he was searching her cellphone, used slurs and expletives (“wack-job cunt”) when describing her, and sent a text to his sister days after O’Keefe’s death expressing hope that Read would take her own life.
Throughout the trial, Read’s team presented a series of shocking testimony and items that make a compelling case for conspiracy:
A. A now-infamous Google search from Jennifer McCabe—who was among the group that went to the Alberts’ home—after Waterfall Bar & Grill became a key piece of the defense. According to Read’s attorneys, McCabe (who is also Nicole Albert’s sister) searched: “
hos [w] long to die in cold” at 2:27 a.m. on the morning O’Keefe died. Experts called by the prosecution
disputed the accuracy of the timestamp.
B. What could’ve been crucial evidence was discarded of during the investigation. Brian Higgins, for instance,
admitted to disposing of his phone—and potentially the SIM card—in a dumpster at a military base without consulting anyone. In the first trial, Higgins testified: “I didn’t know whether I removed the SIM card when I got rid of my phone, but if I did do so, I either cut the SIM card or broke it.” Higgins further testified that he didn’t transfer anything from his old phone to his new one, including photos, videos, and text messages.
C. After O’Keefe’s death, Brian and Nicole Albert sold their home and rehomed their dog, a German Shepherd named Chloe. Among O’Keefe’s injuries were
several abrasions on his arm, which the defense speculated could be from the dog.
What’s Happened During the Retrial So Far?
Jury selection for Read’s retrial began on April 1 and continued until April 15. This time, protesters have been banned from outside the courthouse to avoid a public spectacle and influence over the jurors.
In opening statements on April 22, the prosecution (this time led by Hank Brennan) and the defense both asserted the evidence is on their respective side. Brennan relied particularly on Read’s broken taillight and her interviews since the retrial, even playing one clip from a 2024 episode of Dateline.
“I didn’t think I hit him, hit him, but could I have clipped him, could I have tagged him in the knee and incapacitated him,” Read said in the clip. “He didn’t look mortally wounded, as far as I could see—but could I have done something that knocked him out and in drunkenness and in the cold, he didn’t come to again.” Meanwhile, Read’s defense refuted the claim that O’Keefe could’ve died by hypothermia and focused on Proctor’s alleged mishandling of the case, referring to him as a “cancer.”
“You’ll see from the evidence in this case that this case carries a malignancy…a cancer that cannot be cut out, a cancer that cannot be cured,” Alan Jackson, Read’s lead attorney, said. “And that cancer has a name. His name is Michael Proctor.” He further claimed that Proctor was “alone with all of the critical evidence in this case” and that he “secured and reported evidence without any reasonable oversight.”
Jackson added that Proctor “intentionally lied and fabricated evidence” including when he obtained access to Read’s car, and the tailight fragments that were allegedly found at the scene after it had already been searched: “He lied because he did not want it revealed that he had access to that vehicle and he had access to that taillight before any taillight fragments were found at 34 Fairview.”
So far, the jury has heard testimony from the paramedic who was the first professional to examine O’Keefe; O’Keefe’s friend, Kerry Roberts; O’Keefe’s mother, Peggy, and McCabe, who’s a key witness. McCabe’s testimony was similar to the first trial, however, Jackson grilled her on one inconsistency: whether she actually heard Read say “I hit him” repeatedly after discovering O’Keefe’s body. In the Grand Jury trial in 2022, McCabe testified that Read posed the statement as a question (“Could I have hit him? Did I hit him?”) as opposed to a declarative statement. Now, she insists that Read said “I hit him” three times.
What Happened to Aiden “Turtleboy” Kearney?
Aiden Kearney (known to the terminally online by the moniker “Turtleboy”) became a mainstay during Read’s first trial. The self-described anti-establishment “investigative journalist” and “Journalism Jesus” has long posted in support of Read to his 120,000 followers on Twitter. He is also credited with creating the Free Karen Read movement, in which legions of people who believe in her freedom became an unrelenting presence outside the courthouse during Read’s first trial. But Kearny got himself into his own legal trouble after he was accused of intimidating witnesses (namely, McCabe) and encouraging his followers to do the same. As a result, Kearny was barred from certain testimony in the first trial and charged with intimidation and conspiracy. He also faces charges in a separate case involving his ex-girlfriend.
And What’s Happening Next?
The retrial is expected to last up to eight weeks, meaning it could conclude by June. The Alberts, Proctor, and Higgins, and a myriad of forensic and technology experts have yet to testify, as they did in the first trial. It’s unclear if Read will take the stand.
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