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Woman indicted on second-degree murder charge in death of boyfriend, BPD officer John O’Keefe
Karen Read, of Mansfield, was arrested Thursday.
A grand jury indicted a Mansfield woman Thursday on a second-degree murder charge in connection with the death of her boyfriend, Boston Police Officer John O’Keefe.
Karen Read was arrested and charged with second-degree murder, Motor Vehicle Manslaughter, and Leaving the Scene of a Collision causing death, according to a press release from Norfolk District Attorney Michael W. Morrissey’s office.
Read was taken into custody around 5 p.m. Thursday at her Mansfield residence. She is expected to be arraigned Friday in Dedham.
O’Keefe, a 16-year BPD veteran, was found unresponsive outside a Canton home in late January during a powerful snowstorm. He was off-duty at the time.
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O’Keefe and Read had been out drinking on the night of Jan. 28 at C.F. McCarthy’s bar in Canton with several friends, NBC 10 Boston reported. After finishing there, they went to Waterfall Bar & Grille around 11 p.m., and stayed for about an hour. The couple was then invited to a party at a home on Fairview Road. Read dropped O’Keefe at the house around midnight, and then went home because she was experiencing stomach issues.
The next morning, Read realized O’Keefe had not returned home. She texted and called her boyfriend, remembering little from the night before, The Boston Globe reported. Read told police that she found a broken taillight on her car and began fearing for O’Keefe’s safety.
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Read and two friends then returned to the Fairview Road home and found O’Keefe in the snow, face up and not breathing. Read laid on top of O’Keefe, in an attempt to warm up his body. She also tried to administer CPR treatment, the Globe reported.
“I hit him, I hit him, I hit him, I hit him,” Read told a paramedic at the scene, according to NBC 10.
She was arrested on Feb. 1 and charged with manslaughter, according to Morrissey’s office. Read pleaded not guilty and was freed on $50,000 cash bail.
In a statement after his death, O’Keefe’s family described him as a caring family man. O’Keefe welcomed the opportunity to raise his niece and nephew after his sister and her husband both died, according to the statement.
“People talk about someone who would give you the shirt off their back but that was truly who John was, and it is heartbreaking for us to suddenly be talking about him in the past tense,” the statement said.
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