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Unpacking the murder case against Karen Read, as told by prosecutors
DNA evidence implicates Karen Read in her boyfriend John O'Keefe's 2022 death, according to prosecutors.
As Boston police officer John O’Keefe lay dying outside a home in Canton, left mortally wounded in the rapidly accumulating snow, prosecutors say his girlfriend, Karen Read, sent him a series of telling messages.
“John, I f—ing hate you!” Read allegedly screamed in one voicemail. In others, she reportedly called her boyfriend of roughly two years a “pervert” and accused him of having an affair.
The couple’s relationship had been disintegrating in the weeks leading up to an ill fated night of drinking in January 2022, according to prosecutors. They bickered constantly, according to O’Keefe’s niece and nephew, who lived with their uncle. In one argument, O’Keefe reportedly told Read their relationship had run its course. And two weeks before O’Keefe died, Read allegedly kissed another man.
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When O’Keefe’s body was found in the snow on Jan. 29, 2022, it wasn’t long before authorities pointed the finger at Read. The Mansfield woman, they alleged, backed her SUV into O’Keefe while dropping him off at an afterparty and left him to die in a blizzard. Meanwhile, Read’s lawyers have alleged a widespread cover-up, suggesting that O’Keefe got into a fight with other afterparty guests and was attacked by the family’s dog.
More on Karen Read:
In a motion filed last week in Norfolk Superior Court, prosecutors laid out their case against Read, who has pleaded not guilty to charges of second-degree murder, motor vehicle manslaughter while driving under the influence, and leaving the scene of a collision causing injury and death.
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With the high profile murder trial tentatively slated to begin April 16 and two vastly different narratives on the table, here’s what to know about the murder case against Read, according to prosecutors’ Feb. 21 motion.
Boston.com has reached out to Read’s attorneys for comment.
How much did Karen Read drink?
Read and O’Keefe met up at C.F. McCarthy’s bar in Canton before joining friends at the Waterfall Bar & Grille on Jan. 28, 2022. He drank beer; she had vodka sodas, she’d later tell investigators.
When the Waterfall closed for the night, the group was invited to an afterparty at the home of Brian Albert, a fellow Boston police officer who reportedly told authorities he didn’t know Read or O’Keefe particularly well.
A witness who left the bar around the same time as the couple “described [Read] as fine and did not believe [Read] to be overly intoxicated,” according to prosecutors. By authorities’ count, Read allegedly consumed seven drinks in the span of a couple hours.
When O’Keefe didn’t return home from the afterparty, Read called around and went out searching for him with two other women. They found his body in the snow outside Albert’s home on Fairview Road and called 911 shortly after 6 a.m. on Jan. 29. One of the women who accompanied Read allegedly told investigators she believed Read was still drunk that morning.
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Read was taken to Good Samaritan Medical Center on Jan. 29 and had blood drawn. Prosecutors say a forensic toxicologist estimated Read’s blood alcohol content was around .07% to .08% shortly after 9 a.m. and would have been between .13% to .29% around 12:45 a.m., when she purportedly dropped O’Keefe off at the afterparty.
Read and O’Keefe’s relationship was strained, prosecutors say
According to prosecutors, Read’s relationship with O’Keefe had grown increasingly fraught in the weeks before his death, with Read allegedly accusing O’Keefe of kissing someone else during a family trip to Aruba over New Year’s.
O’Keefe’s niece allegedly told investigators she heard her uncle tell Read their relationship had run its course and turned unhealthy, but Read was reluctant to pull the plug.
The couple’s calls, voicemails, and texts — including Read’s messages from the night O’Keefe died — “detailed strains within their relationship, and [O’Keefe’s] desire to end their relationship and [Read’s] description of their relationship with them and the two children together as ‘toxic,’” according to prosecutors.
Read also allegedly had a “romantic entanglement” with another man who was at the Waterfall with the couple that night and attended the afterparty on Fairview Road. According to prosecutors, they kissed and exchanged romantic text messages in the weeks before O’Keefe died but didn’t have a sexual relationship.
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Another witness, Jennifer McCabe, told investigators Read and O’Keefe “appeared to be in a good mood and [she] did not observe any arguing between the two” at the bar on Jan. 28.
Yet McCabe, Brian Albert’s sister-in-law and one of the two women who joined the search for O’Keefe the next morning, also alleged that Read told her she’d gotten into an argument with O’Keefe the last time she saw him.
‘I hit him’
While searching for O’Keefe, prosecutors say Read asked McCabe, “Could I have hit him?” and “Did I hit him?” Read allegedly told another friend, “John’s dead. … I wonder if he’s dead. It’s snowing, he got hit by a plow.”
A Canton firefighter who responded to Fairview Road that morning alleged that Read stated repeatedly, “I hit him, I hit him, I hit him,” when asked how O’Keefe had been injured. Several other witnesses also testified that they’d heard Read say, “I hit him,” according to prosecutors.
DNA allegedly links O’Keefe to Read’s broken tail light
During their search for O’Keefe, Read also allegedly told McCabe about a cracked tail light on her SUV.
Prosecutors say Massachusetts State Police troopers found the car’s right tail light shattered and missing pieces of plastic. Read allegedly told investigators she first noticed the broken light that morning, though she didn’t know how she’d damaged it.
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Near the spot where O’Keefe’s body was found outside Albert’s home, investigators found pieces of red and clear plastic consistent with Read’s broken tail light, according to prosecutors. A few days later, after some of the snow had melted, investigators allegedly found more broken plastic outside the home.
Trace analysis and forensic testing identified O’Keefe’s DNA on the broken tail light and microscopic pieces of red and clear plastic on his clothing, according to prosecutors.
“Comparison testing was conducted, and the results demonstrate that the microscopic pieces of red and clear plastic are consistent with the broken pieces of plastic from [Read’s] right rear taillight,” prosecutors said.
In previous filings and court appearances, prosecutors have also said that DNA testing is underway on an apparent hair found on the rear quarter panel of Read’s SUV.
Some of Read’s supporters have argued that she could have broken her tail light bumping into another car while backing out of O’Keefe’s driveway, and prosecutors did acknowledge that home surveillance video shows Read’s SUV coming close to O’Keefe’s parked car. Yet officials did not find any pieces of Read’s tail light in O’Keefe’s driveway, according to the Feb. 21 motion.
Prosecutors also highlighted other evidence that allegedly ties Read’s car to the crime scene. For example, O’Keefe was seen leaving the Waterfall with a cocktail glass in his hand, and officials allegedly found pieces of a broken glass in the snow where his body was found, as well as shards of glass on Read’s rear bumper.
O’Keefe’s injuries don’t suggest a fight, according to medical examiner
Prosecutors say a doctor with the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner documented wounds on O’Keefe’s forearm, two swollen black eyes, cuts on his face and the back of his head, and multiple skull fractures that caused bleeding in his brain.
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The doctor determined that O’Keefe’s black eyes were linked to his skull fractures and the resulting bleeding, prosecutors said. His pancreas was reportedly dark red, indicating hypothermia contributed to his death, according to officials.
“The doctor opined that the extensive injuries to his head likely rendered Mr. O’Keefe incapacitated,” prosecutors said. “The doctor further opined that upon viewing Mr. O’Keefe’s injuries and her examination of the body, she observed no signs of Mr. O’Keefe being involved in any type of physical altercation or fight.”
Read is due back in court for a hearing on March 12.
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