A Body in the Snow: The Trial of Karen Read: Episode 1 and 2 Recap

A gripping new docuseries about Karen Read’s ongoing murder trial for the death of her boyfriend, Boston police officer John O’Keefe, took a deep dive into the case less than one month before her retrial is set to begin in April 2025.

The case has continued to spark debates as prosecutors said Karen struck John with her car and left him to freeze in the snow in January 2022. The defense, on the other hand, has argued that Karen was framed for John’s death, claiming his fellow officers may have been involved.

Episode 1 Explores What Happened at 34 Fairview Road Where John O’Keefe Died

The first episode was set in Boston, Massachusetts, where Karen was being interviewed and asked for her side of the story.

When asked if she struck John with her vehicle that fateful night, she gave a clear response. “I did not drive my car into John. I didn’t reverse it. Did not hit John with my car.”

“There is zero chance this was an accident,” Karen responded when asked if it was just a tragic mishap. “There was zero chance John was hit by a vehicle.”

Karen said she is not tired of answering the questions about what transpired, but feels scrutinized after being arrested and charged with second-degree murder in January 2022 for allegedly backing over her boyfriend while dropping him off after a night out in Canton, Massachusetts, and leaving him to die out in the cold.

Karen has pleaded not guilty, but said she is worried people are watching all of her facial expressions, especially after her 2024 trial ended with a hung jury and a declared mistrial.

“It just feels so fake, even though it’s true,” she continued. “I would rather like, explain everything else. I did not hit John with my car. I cannot make it sincere enough. I hate saying it.”

Inside Karen Read and John O’Keefe’s Backstory

Karen shared more about herself on the docuseries, revealing she has “never been married, no kids. I don’t envision myself having the white picket fence bulls–t.” Karen has lived most of her life in Massachusetts and worked at a financial services company for decades, and as a lecturer at Bentley University.

“I’ve always been a very reactionary, and a little maybe impetuous,” she said. “I’m private but I’m open. When I’m with people I’ll tell them anything.”

Karen’s mother, Janet Read, said her daughter was a very outgoing child. “She has a great personality. She really does.” Her father, William Read, was the Dean of Business at Bentley University “up until the time this event transpired.”

Karen and John, who was described as “loyal” and “relentlessly generous” by a childhood friend, dated “just shy of two years.” John was also known to be a “great cop.”

Nine years prior to John’s death, his sister Kristen passed away from a brain tumor. His brother-in-law died of a heart attack two months after, so John took both of her children in. Karen said that she did not aspire to have kids, “but I cared about John’s kids.”

“I met John in February of 2004 through a friend of his from high school,” Karen shared. “We maybe dated another couple of weeks after that. Then I went to work that spring in Ireland temporarily. Because of that I stopped seeing him. Just lost touch.”

Karen revealed they reconnected during the COVID-19 pandemic over Facebook. John’s friend noted, “from what I understand, he put out a Facebook message to several ex-girlfriends and she was the one to reply.”

A friend of John’s explained, “Prior to Johnny’s death, everyone in Johnny’s orbit liked Karen. There wasn’t a single person who said I don’t think he should be dating her.” They added, “The key to that is you don’t know what happens behind closed doors.”

A Heated Voicemail and Shocking Allegations Take the Case in a New Direction

As the docuseries continued, a voicemail was played of a clearly intoxicated Karen saying “John, I f–king hate you! You’re a f–king pervert.”

Karen was asked, “Why are you doing this now?” to which she replied, “This is my version of testifying.”

“I want to say what happened, exactly as it happened,” she doubled down.

Karen said that she and John argued that morning. She shared that John felt she spoiled the kids. Karen was frustrated and returned to her home in Canton before the weather took a turn.

Karen said that her father advised her to stay home during the snowstorm. “Dad, if I’d of listened to you none of this would have happened,” she said in hindsight.

Karen later met John at a bar at 9 p.m. and around 10:54 p.m., they went to a different bar next door and met cop Matthew McCabe and his wife, Jennifer McCabe, cop Brian Albert and his wife, Nicole Albert, as well as ATF agent Brian Higgins.

Brian Albert is a fellow Boston Police Officer while Brian Higgins is an ATF agent and friends with the Chief of Police of Canton.

After the bar outing, the Alberts invited them over to their home at 34 Fairview Road and Karen said she went because “John needed to blow off steam.”

“Everybody was some level of intoxication,” she continued.

Karen and John later arrived at 34 Fairview. Karen said the lights were off and she asked John to “make sure we’re welcome.” John ran in, and Karen waited two to three minutes before calling him and he did not answer.

Karen said she left after 10 minutes of John not coming outside, “and I was not happy.”

A voicemail from Karen to John was played, with her saying, “John you are f–king using me right now. You’re a f–king loser. F–k yourself.”

“Little did I know, John was not getting my phone calls,” Karen said. “And that was it. The last time I ever talked to him was when he got out of my car at Brian Albert’s house.”

John was tragically found face up in the snow the next morning.

Friends were initially told Karen hit him with her car, and Jennifer Coffindaffer, a retired FBI special agent, said in the docuseries, “wounds that he suffered were commiserate with what EMT was being hit by a blunt object, a vehicle.”

Karen was arrested and charged with vehicular manslaughter days later. “I wasn’t hearing about anyone else being a suspect. I knew they were coming for me.”

David Yannetti, Karen’s attorney, claimed that “even if prosecutors had a case they thought they couldn’t prove, they weren’t going to let this one go.”

Due to being confused and bewildered after the tragedy, “I thought, could I have run him over?” Karen said. “Did he try to me as I was leaving and I didn’t know it?”

Karen said her lawyer told her she would have some element of culpability if she accidentally hit him. Karen was ordered to stay away from any member of John’s family following her arraignment. Because of this, she did not go to John’s funeral or grave site.

After being charged with vehicular manslaughter, prosecution took the case to a state grand jury, and presented second-degree murder charges.

“They wanted a pound of flesh from me,” she said. Police later arrested her for second-degree murder.

One of Karen’s attorney’s said a break in the case came when they got a call from someone named “Mike” who said “perhaps someone else caused the death of John O’Keefe” and to “look into the folks at 34 Fairview.”

This shocking call led to a new defense for Karen, in which they suggested there was a conspiracy by those in the house. As a result, Karen’s attorney hired a computer extraction team to look through Jennifer’s data records.

He informed the defense that there was allegedly a Google search for “hos(sic) long to die in the cold” three and half hours before John’s body was discovered.

In Touch should note that the Alberts, including Brian and his family, have denied any wrongdoing.

Episode 2 Delves Into the Case Sparking Conspiracy Rumors

Karen said the extracted search for “hos long to die in the cold” was deleted, following which her attorney stated, “We would have preferred the media shine a spotlight here.”

A blogger named “Turtle Boy” began shining a light on the case amid that development and said that he believed the entire case was a conspiracy. According to the prosecution, the defense was leaking “selective information” for Turtle Boy.

Karen explained that she was told by her lawyers that she can share anything she wanted with Turtle Boy, but it must go through a third party and she cannot share directly.

Karen, however, was concerned about sharing with a third party, and eventually began sharing it directly with him.

Retired FBI agent Jennifer Coffindaffer argued that Turtle Boy “crossed the boundary of jury selection and tainting the jury pool.”

Protestors, meanwhile, had heard Karen’s favorite color was pink, so they began wearing that in support during her legal battle. Karen said of her trial, “I’m emotionally prepared, I’m not emotionally looking forward to it.”

“It’s become a circus; it’s not about justice for John it’s about the Karen Read case.”

“I think a lot of people are going to be shocked when they see the truth,” she added.

The docuseries captured the chaos which unfolded during her trial. Her attorney spoke about their client being framed and further claimed, “the police did no real investigation of this case.”

Karen’s attorneys also said they believe Jennifer [McCabe] would be an essential witness, after which she took the stand. “He was my friend. I loved John; he was an amazing guy,” she said under oath.

Jennifer was asked to describe what happened leading up to John’s death, claiming “Karen shared a little bit of frustration that morning.” She described it as “girlfriend to girlfriend kind of venting,” but she said the issue was about raising the kids.

Jennifer was the one to invite the group to her brother-in-law, Brian Albert’s house. Jennifer said that texted John to pull behind her car, but he never responded. She thought “they decided not to come in or maybe they had an argument.”

It was noted that Karen returned to John’s home and began calling him and left the voicemails swearing at him. In the voicemails, Karen said, “nobody knows where you are.”

Meanwhile, Karen was “convinced” John was cheating on her. Karen said she fell asleep from 1:30 a.m. to 4:30 a.m., and slept on the couch because she wanted to know when he came in. She called Jennifer at 4:53 a.m. looking for John. Jennifer recalled her asking “could I have hit him?” and said Karen had a cracked taillight.

Around that time, Karen called another one of John’s friends named Carrie to help find John. Carrie, on the stand, said Karen told her “John’s dead.” Karen claimed, “I may have said I’m worried John is dead or something.”

After looking for John, they returned to Alberts’ address. When they arrived, Karen saw John’s body right on the edge of the property.

Carrie testified that you could not see “eight feet off the street” — which left her wondering how did she know?

Karen described John’s body as being cut up, and him wearing thin clothes. She said he had a purple eye, and a split one. She also described him having a piece of glass lodged in his face.

Later on, several EMT and fire department members recalled Karen being in a panic. Karen explained that she had six drinks in three hours, adding, “I had drank, that led me to question could I have hit him? Did I run over his foot or hit him in the knee?”

She was also heard making suicidal comments at the scene.

Karen called her father, who also recalled being concerned she would harm herself. She was hospitalized until Karen’s father came to pick her up and informed her that John was dead.

After leaving the hospital, Karen went to John’s home to see the kids. She hugged John’s father and niece. She asked his brother what he looked like and his brother said, “My brother looks like he went five rounds with Tyson.”

His mother said, “[John] looked like he got hit by a car.”

John’s brother later received a call, and gave Karen a look like she was guilty.