In today's episode of Pushing Up Lilies, we take a deep dive into the enigmatic case of Karen Read, accused of killing her boyfriend, Boston police officer John O'Keefe, hitting him with her SUV outside a house party in Canton on January 29, 2022. Join me as I walk you through the complex and puzzling details of this high-profile case which involves other police officers as potential suspects. From the initial investigation to the ongoing search for answers, we'll explore the evidence, the key players, and the unanswered questions that continue to surround this mysterious incident. With a forensic eye, I'll break down the elements of the case, shedding light on the investigation process and uncovering the truths hidden beneath the surface. Tune in as we navigate the twists and turns of the case of Karen Read and John O'Keefe, seeking justice and clarity in a story that has captivated the city of Boston and beyond. * Listener discretion is advised.
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0:06 Welcome to Pushing Up Lilies.
0:08 I'm your host, Julie Mattson.
0:10 Pushing Up Lilies is a weekly True Crime podcast with spine tingling, unusual and terrifyingly true stories from my perspective as a forensic death investigator and a sexual assault nurse examiner.
0:24 Do I have some stories for you?
0:26 Are you ready?
0:31 Hey, guys, it's another hot week in Texas, I think was 100 and one degrees yesterday.
0:38 It's, I want to say it's only June, but it's July now, which I can't believe time is going so fast before you know, it, it's going to be Christmas and they already have Christmas stuff out at Hobby Lobby kind of aggravates me because I want to be able to enjoy the holidays one at a time.
0:57 We have big plans for July 4th, and I hope you do as well and hope everyone is safe.
1:03 I know that we see a lot of drownings around July 4th holiday.
1:10 Hopefully everyone has their life jackets, and everyone is being safe when drinking and boating and water is involved.
1:20 But we have one of the most dangerous lakes in the state here around us and it seems like every year we have at least one drowning.
1:28 Anyway, that being said, I want to share something with y'all.
1:32 That is a first and I can say I've been in death investigation for, I guess 17 years, something like that.
1:43 I haven't done the math in a while, but I kind of had a first today.
1:48 Our dispatch always calls us with death calls, and they give us a phone number of the person that we need to call back to get the death report and all the information that we need.
2:01 Dispatch gave me an incorrect number, which is no big deal.
2:06 Sometimes when they get the call, it's hard to understand people and they have to go back and listen to the recording.
2:12 We don't know it's a wrong number until I try to call anyway.
2:15 I called the number, and it was incorrect and literally got chewed out because it was an hour later, wherever she was than where I was, it was almost six o'clock here.
2:31 It was almost seven o'clock there.
2:34 She literally chewed me out on the phone and then she called me back twice and hung up and then she started texting me.
2:44 It's really odd.
2:45 Apparently, I woke her up and really ticked her off.
2:49 But she said I was too eager to make phone calls at the crack of dawn and told me to do better.
2:58 So whoever you are, I'm so sorry.
3:01 I was given the wrong number, dialed it and it was a wrong number for god's sakes.
3:07 People are mean, I'm sorry, people are mean.
3:10 So I'm being bullied, I'm being bullied this morning y'all.
3:14 But that's how my day started.
3:16 It's not Monday anymore.
3:17 It's Tuesday.
3:19 I've been told to and I'm going to try to do better.
3:23 Yesterday was, you know, another Monday at the medical examiner's office.
3:28 There is so much work at the office.
3:32 We're not, you know, of course you'll know, not always on scenes many times we are in the office doing paperwork and making phone calls and doing follow ups and that kind of thing.
3:44 And I like to share kind of all the aspects of the job with you because I know many people think that we're out all the time doing the death investigations and we do that a lot, but there is a lot of follow up and paperwork involved.
3:59 I just want to mention the importance of accurate information when deaths are reported to us as the investigator.
4:09 You know, it's my job to investigate, but accurate information is so crucial when someone calls us to give us a death report.
4:20 Many times, you know, we'll get a call, and the hospital will be giving us information on someone who passed because of a motor vehicle crash.
4:31 And they don't know any information about the crash itself and don't know where it occurred.
4:39 And there's been no law enforcement at the hospital.
4:43 No one really has a lot of information sometimes this is after the person has been hospitalized for a week.
4:51 I don't know about y'all, but I'm nosy.
4:53 And so when I was a nurse in the hospital, I got the scoop on all my patients.
4:59 I mean, if they were in a motor vehicle crash, I knew where it happened, who was involved.
5:04 I feel like sometimes even to give good patient care, it's important to know those aspects was another family member in the crash.
5:15 Were they injured or killed?
5:17 That would kind of help you get a feel for the demeanor of the family or maybe why the family is not visiting.
5:24 But anyway, I'm a nosy nurse.
5:26 I always knew the dates.
5:29 I mean, I got the tea on everybody when I get a call, and no one really knows any details at all.
5:39 It's difficult for me to know which law enforcement agency to contact, to get the information if we don't know who investigated, you know, especially in terms of an accident.
5:52 But many times I'll get a call from law enforcement and, you know, they'll tell me they're not on any medications.
5:59 In reality, they just haven't been in the house to look.
6:02 I'm struggling to know this person's medical history and whether or not they even have one and the entire time there's a cabinet full of medications with doctors, names on them in the house.
6:16 There are so many things that people that report death to us could do better true.
6:25 We are the investigators.
6:27 It's relatively easy for us to get the information we need, but we do rely on the people that report to us to kind of be our eyes and ears.
6:38 This is a little rant this morning.
6:40 I'm still a little upset about, about being bullied, but just saying I'll be fine, I'll be fine.
6:47 I have a little story about a case where they declared a mistrial just yesterday.
6:55 It was the murder trial of Karen Read and I don't know if y'all have heard this story, but she is a Massachusetts woman accused of killing her boyfriend in 2022.
7:05 It's a very new story, but this happened after five days of deliberations and a nine-week trial just outside of Boston where Read's lawyers described her boyfriend John O’Keefe's killing as a cover up carried out by law enforcement officers.
7:26 Karen Read is 44 reportedly had a troubled relationship with John O’Keefe who was a police officer in Boston.
7:36 She was a financial analyst, and the story is that she backed her Lexus SUV into him and left him for dead on January 29th of 2022.
7:50 These are the accusations Read was charged with second degree murder, motor vehicle, manslaughter while driving under the influence and leaving the scene of an accident that caused death.
8:04 The six men and six women jury panel was deadlocked.
8:08 Now, some believe that the evidence was obvious against Read and others felt that the prosecutors really didn't have enough evidence against her.
8:19 They just truly could not make a decision.
8:22 Now, John O’Keefe was found unresponsive the morning that this happened, and the manner was ruled homicide, the cause was ruled blunt force trauma to the head and also hypothermia contributed.
8:35 And we see that a lot where, you know, people are outside, and the temperature is super low.
8:42 Read's lawyers say that she was framed by officers who tried to conceal a beating.
8:48That O’Keefe suffered during a gathering at the home of one of his friends and coworkers where his body was found.
8:57 The defense accused State Trooper Michael Proctor of manipulating evidence and they said that he failed to properly investigate.
9:10 He also apparently sent a series of vulgar messages about Karen Read to his family, friends and supervisors.
9:19 The assistant DA said that the text had no bearing on the investigation and did not want it to tarnish the integrity of the investigating agency.
9:31 However, I think that that is important too because we do have phones that are issued to us by the county.
9:40 Everything on our phones is submissive in court and can be obtained with a subpoena.
9:47 And so this is what happened, it looks like with him.
9:50 He probably used his work phone to send some vulgar messages to some of the supervisors and friends at work because he thought something was funny and never really thought that it would come back to bite him anyway.
10:02 It did.
10:03 Read told first responders that she hit O’Keefe, she made the statement data on her vehicle, showed her reversing her S U V for 62 ft at 24 miles an hour near the home of Officer Brian Albert just after midnight on January 29th.
10:26 And that's when this happened.
10:28 So, wow, I didn't even know my vehicle saved the data as far as how far I backed and what my speed was.
10:38 That's kind of crazy.
10:39 But evidence that she struck him was found such as a broken taillight and O’Keefe's hair and DNA was found on the rear of the vehicle.
10:50 Now that's substantial, that's substantial evidence right there.
10:54 Hard to say that you didn't hit somebody when their DNA and hair is found on your vehicle.
11:02 But no one at the party where he was at.
11:06 Brian Albert's house recalled even seeing O’Keefe at the party.
11:13 Little bit of a back story how this all started was on January 28th, 2022.
11:22 O’Keefe and Read boyfriend, girlfriend, visited two bars out, not on the town at the second bar.
11:30 They met up with several acquaintances including Officer Brian Albert again.
11:35 He was a coworker in Boston, coworker of John O’Keefe.
11:39 Both police officers, Brian Albert reportedly invited the couple back to his house.
11:46 They drove to the home in Read's SUV and she dropped O’Keefe off and then left because she wasn't feeling well, a snowstorm hit in the early morning of January 29th when Read woke up, she realized that O’Keefe wasn't home now, after he didn't respond to calls or texts again.
12:10 This is her story.
12:11 He didn't respond to calls or texts. She contacted a couple of friends to help look for him, Jennifer McCabe and Carrie Roberts.
12:21 She had two friends with her.
12:23 They returned to Fairview Road, which is where Brian Albert home is, in Kerrie Roberts vehicle, and they saw O’Keefe unresponsive on the ground outside in the snow.
12:37 Read exited.
12:39 The vehicle began CPR at 604 in the morning.
12:43 They called 911 and E M SS responded.
12:47 Now, John O’Keefe was sent to Good Samaritan in Brockton where he was later pronounced, he had abrasions to his right arm, several lacerations on his face, two black eyes and skull fractures.
13:02 Hypothermia was also a contributing cause.
13:05 His body temperature was low because it was snowing, and he was outside for who knows how long Read believes that O’Keefe was beaten in the house by acquaintances or other officers or friends and then left outside.
13:23 But 11 witnesses at the get together, I don't want to call it a party because I don't know what was going on.
13:29 But they say O’Keefe never entered the home that they never saw him there.
13:34 Police say that pieces of a broken cocktail glass and blood were found next to O’Keefe, as well as a piece of a broken taillight that matched Read's car.
13:45 She was arrested on February 1st Read's attorney implicated Brian Albert.
13:54 He felt like Brian Albert had something to do with this.
13:59 He's the one who owned the home and his sister-in-law who was McCabe had been drinking with him the previous night and she was one of the ones who helped Read find the body.
14:11 Albert after this all happened, sold his home and got rid of his dog after the incident.
14:16 And Jennifer McCabe had googled on her phone.
14:20 How long does it take to die in the cold?
14:23 That was like at 2:30ish in the morning.
14:27 Apparently, you know, he didn't come home, she got these two friends to help her look for him and then they found him outside of Albert's home in the snow.
14:36 There was security video from O’Keefe's home showing her back in her SUV into his vehicle when she left to find him.
14:49 Her defense, I guess is stating that the taillight was broken before this incident.
15:00 I don't know when that was, I don't have any information on when that security video was found, but O’Keefe's phone showed data that his phone could have possibly been in the basement at Albert's home.
15:14 There's also an agent, I guess with the bureau of alcohol, tobacco, firearms and explosives who sent flirtatious text to read.
15:23 It's kind of confusing.
15:24 But anyway, it was also suspicious, but the agent Brian Higgins was angry after Read ignored him at a bar before the gathering at Albert's house.
15:35 There's a lot of people that they are suspecting because Brian Higgins, they could have had a fight over read, resulting in ok, falling and hitting his head and then being placed outside in the cold.
15:52 They don't really know what happened.
15:55 But Higgins said that he never saw O’Keefe inside the home and was not upset about Read ignoring him after he sent flirtatious text messages.
16:07 How many friends or acquaintances start sending other friends and acquaintances, girlfriends, flirtatious text messages.
16:17 It's all messed up.
16:19 But a department of Justice engineer said that the injuries would have been more severe if he had been struck by a vehicle going over 20 miles an hour.
16:29 They didn't believe that his injuries were indicative of him being struck by a car.
16:37 Now O’Keefe was a Boston police officer and again had reportedly been dropped off the night before at this party hosted by Albert and Jennifer McCabe.
16:51 They believe that Read hit him and then left the scene anyway.
16:56 I mean, they're saying that they're going to have a retrial, but there's a lot of skewed evidence in this story.
17:05 John O’Keefe was born December 8th of 75 graduated from Braintree High School and Northeastern University and he received his master’s degree in criminal justice.
17:19 He lived in Canton, and he was raising his niece.
17:22 This says a lot about this guy, y'all.
17:23 He was raising his niece and nephew after his sister and brother-in-law passed away.
17:28 He worked for Boston PD for 16 years.
17:31 He was not a rookie.
17:32 He had been there for a long time.
17:35 His brother, Paul was captain and quarterback of this Stonehill college football team, which included one of the Lieutenants at the department and who was also a supervisor of a Lieutenant, I believe at the department.
17:55 Anyway, there's a lot of people who knew each other and had known each other for a long time with ties that go all the way back to high school and college.
18:06 Now, Karen Read, she was born in 79.
18:09 She graduated from a private Catholic school and got her master’s in finance.
18:14 She worked for Fidelity Investments as a financial analyst, and she'd been there since 07.
18:20 She lived in Mansfield and now these two guys started dating back in 2019.
18:26 What really happened?
18:27 Like we don't know, we know that Read apparently dropped him off.
18:33 What happened after that?
18:34 Who knows?
18:35 She believes that the police were covering up his death, that he was beat up and left in the cold.
18:43 And then all the officers are saying that Read struck him with his vehicle and went home.
18:49 Who really knows what happened?
18:51 I would love to have heard this trial.
18:55 I miss the days where you could watch Court TV and watch like the entire trial.
19:00 I remember watching the Phil Specter trial and the OJ Simpson trial.
19:04 I just thought it was so cool to just follow along and hear the whole story.
19:10 The first trial was scheduled for March of 2024 and then it was rescheduled for April and then it started on April 16th and the jury was selected on the 24th.
19:24 The case rested on the 21st after 68 witness testimonies.
19:30 It was pretty long-drawn-out trial.
19:32 And then just the first of July, which was just yesterday, a mistrial was declared they still don't know really what happened.
19:46 Officers did say that after this happened, Read was visibly upset but she did make a statement that saying this is my fault.
19:55 The original police report did not include her statement, paramedics testified that Read said I hit him and there were also reportedly ties between Canton firefighter Katie McLaughlin and the family whose home this happened in front of.
20:13 And when Katie was asked about her relationship with that family, she said they went to high school together and we were only acquaintances, but there were pictures of them together going back to 2021.
20:26 They felt like she was lying about knowing the family and how long she'd known them, but she was just a paramedic, you know, that showed up on the scene.
20:36 I don't know what that was indicative of.
20:37 Maybe they think that she wasn't, I don't know y'all, there's a lot can and Lieutenant Paul Gallagher, who was in charge of the crime scene apparently used a leaf blower to remove the snow.
20:51 Ok.
20:52 Lieutenant, this is a crime scene.
20:55 You don't use a leaf blower to get rid of the snow so you can see what's under it.
21:00 I mean, obviously, come on.
21:02 I mean, I don't know if that's true or not.
21:04 This is just what it says, but he used a leaf blower to remove the snow and then found solo cups on the ground around the body and put them in a brown paper bag as evidence.
21:18 Sergeant Sean Goude observed four inches of snow and some blood.
21:25 Apparently, they looked for evidence and did not find the broken taillight, but it was later found.
21:33 That's kind of suspicious that it wasn't initially found.
21:36 Of course, you know, the detectives got the leaf blower out there blowing all the evidence away.
21:43 Ok.
21:44 We all know that that's not ok.
21:46 I mean, you don't have to be a seasoned death investigator to know that when there's a homicide.
21:52 Like, yeah, don't get out the leaf blower also.
21:56 No officers guarded the crime scene for up to two hours.
22:00 You know, after this happened, there's a lot of discrepancies in this story.
22:07 I'm really anxious to follow it again.
22:11 Look it up.
22:12 It's John O’Keefe and Karen Read.
22:14 I'm sure that there will be a retrial.
22:18 I'm anxious to see a little bit more details on the case.
22:22 Like I said, it's fairly new and I like covering newer cases just because I like following them and especially cases like this where it could go so many different ways and so many people are involved.
22:34 There's just a lot, a lot of information, we will continue to follow that story and see what happens.
22:41 But I am excited again.
22:44 We're still working on getting the Patreon account up and running.
22:48 We still have our murder Merch store working on the subscription boxes.
22:54 So excited to get those up and coming soon and again, be sure and email me Julie at pushing up Lilies if you would like to be a part of that first box that goes out.
23:07 I don't know the pricing yet.
23:09 I'll have to see exactly what items that we're putting in there.
23:13 But I would love to get ideas from that group of people who get that initial box.
23:21 I hope this week gets better than it has been y'all.
23:24 I do not like starting my day off getting chewed out by a random stranger who I accidentally called.
23:32 I mean, it was an honest mistake.
23:35 I am not one to, I mean, it was definitely not a prank call.
23:38 I'm not a teenager getting up at five in the morning just calling people for fun.
23:44 And when she called me back, you know I answered the phone and she's like, surely there is not an investigation important enough for me to be woken up at six in the morning.
23:58 And I'm like, ma'am, I'm so sorry.
24:00 This is a death investigation.
24:02 So it is actually very important.
24:05 And yeah, and then she kept calling me back and so I didn't answer and then she texted me people y'all.
24:13 Gosh, I mean, it was an accident.
24:16 But anyway, that got me going, that woke me up and it was a heck of a way to start my day.
24:23 Let's just hope that today gets better.
24:25 I hope it's a great day for everybody.
24:27 It's not going to cool off anytime soon.
24:30 I have to say I'm a little bit worried about this summer and the heat related deaths and the drownings and, you know, just all the things that the death investigation world is going to experience during the summer again.
24:45 I appreciate y'all.
24:46 Anyone who went online to best of Denton dot com and voted for my med spa.
24:53 I very much appreciate that.
24:55 If you haven't done that, please do.
24:58 We're under several different categories, but for the last few years, we've won Best in Denton in specialty services.
25:07 And I think this year we're also up for Med Spa boutique and several other things I can't remember exactly.
25:13 But if you'll go on Best of Denton dot com and vote for us, I would greatly appreciate it.
25:18 We do strive to be the best of Denton and that is our goal.
25:22 I appreciate y'all very much.
25:25 I hope again that my stomach is growing.
25:27 I hope y'all can't hear that, but I appreciate all the new followers.
25:33 I very much appreciate all.
25:34 I've been getting a ton of Facebook messages of people wanting me to look into cases and people asking me to call them and just know I will do that.
25:45 I am in the process of trying to get a hold of everybody that reaches out.
25:49 I do have a lot of people that have reached out.
25:51 I have people that want me to travel to their location and do interviews.
25:56 This is exciting for me because this is exactly what I want to do is to help.
26:02 But it's also hard because I'm in grad school and have a podcast and two jobs, I'm juggling, I'm juggling and I'm doing my best.
26:12 If I haven't reached out to you or returned your call or message, please know that I will.
26:18 There's a lot of messages coming in.
26:20 I'm just trying to keep up because it's just me.
26:22 But anyway, I appreciate y'all so much and have an amazing week and I look forward to talking to you next week.
26:29 Bye.
26:31 Thank you so much for joining me today on Pushing Up Lilies.
26:34 If you like this podcast and would like to share with others, please do me a quick favor and leave a review on Apple podcast.
26:42 This helps to make the podcast more visible to the public.
26:45 Thanks again for spending your time with me and be sure to visit me at PushingUpLilies.com for merchandise and past episodes.