Was Karen Read falsely accused for her boyfriend's death? Details explored from ID's A Body in the Snow: The Trial of Karen Read

ID's newest docu-series, A Body in the Snow: The Trial of Karen Read, will re-investigate the harrowing incident of January 2022, where Karen Read was arrested in the murder of her boyfriend, John O'Keefe, who was a cop with the Boston Police.

On January 30, 2022, Read found her boyfriend's dead body outside Brian Albert's house on Fairview Road, Canton. Albert was also John's fellow cop, whom he had visited the previous night.

O'Keefe's autopsy revealed that he suffered blunt force trauma and eventually died of hypothermia because of the snow blizzard. The investigators concluded that Read hit John with her SUV and fled the scene, leaving him to freeze to death in the snow.

Karen Read's first case was dismissed as a mistrial, where her defense presented strong points on how she was falsely accused of O'Keefe's murder to cover up Albert's involvement. Nothing can be said as of now since the case is ongoing, and Read will face another trial in April 2025.

Here's how Read's defense presented evidence for her accusations, as shown on ID's The Trial of Karen Read.

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The Trial of Karen Read: Karen's defense got an anonymous tip that could prove her innocence

The notion that Karen was innocent and O'Keefe was likely murdered by his fellow Boston cops arose after an anonymous tip came in, as shown in The Trial of Karen Read.

On ID's The Trial of Karen Read, defense attorney Alan Jackson talks about an anonymous tip from 'Mike,' who shifted their focus of investigation:

“You need to look at the folks inside the Albert House. You need to look at the occupants of the house. Something is more than meets the eye,”

Read's attorney, David Yannetty, adds:

“He wasn’t a witness. But that tip was invaluable. It sent us in a different direction very early on in this investigation,”

While the focus of their investigation and case was to build on how Read was not responsible for her boyfriend's murder, this new tip gave the case a new shift. They were urged to look at the Fairview Road house, which belonged to Brian Albert, and explore the possibility that maybe O'Keefe was murdered inside the house and not where his body was discovered.

The tip sowed the seeds of Read's false accusations among the defense.

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The Trial of Karen Read: The defense also blamed Trooper Michael Proctor for false allegations

While the tip gave them a new direction, Read's defense team further accused Massachusetts State Police Trooper Michael Proctor, who was the lead investigator in O'Keefe's murder.

One of the primary pieces of evidence against Read, which confirmed to the investigators that she was involved in her boyfriend's murder, was pieces of her car's broken taillight on the crime scene.

The investigators found shards of Read's SUV's taillight all around O'Keefe's body, which confirmed that firstly, she hit her with her car and then left him to die in the snow blizzard. But Read's defense attorney claimed that after the incident, Trooper Proctor claimed Read's phone and SUV and deliberately planted shards of her taillight at the crime scene.

In The Trial of Karen Read, Attorney Jackson established Proctor's friendship with Brian Albert and how he planted evidence to save his buddy:

“We believe it’s not just a sloppy investigation. There’s active planting of evidence. Why? Because inside that house, there’s a Boston police officer, Brian Albert. And Proctor knows this family and has known them for decades. The entire policing culture there is deeply, deeply connected to each other. And we believe that leads to ‘let’s look the other way, let’s call it a favor, let’s do a solid for a buddy.’”

As per CBS, Proctor also sent defaming text messages to Read, which led to his eventual suspension. One of the texts read:

"wh*ckjob [expletive]", while also adding in another message, "hopefully she kills herself."

Karen Read's second criminal trial is scheduled for April 1, 2025.

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