A Google search, a broken taillight, a disputed confession. Here are some of the pivotal issues in the Karen Read trial.

Boston Globe

01-05-2025

Advertisement
Read's
Did Read say 'I hit him' at the scene?
Prosecutors say Read returned to the Fairview Road home with two other women just after 6 a.m. and found O'Keefe's snow-covered body on the lawn, and that she repeatedly said 'I hit him' in the presence of emergency responders.
The defense maintains that Read wondered aloud, 'did I hit him?' or 'could I have hit him?' and that witnesses who testified to hearing her dramatic confession have changed their stories over time or been unduly influenced by investigators.
Advertisement
One such witness is
McCabe testified that she heard a frantic Read tell an emergency responder, 'I hit him, I hit him, I hit him,' at the scene.
''I hit him, I hit him, I hit him' is just as fresh today as it was three years ago,' McCabe said on the stand Wednesday.
She told Read attorney Alan Jackson during a tense cross-examination that a Canton police report saying she had indicated soon after O'Keefe's death that Read said something like 'I hope I didn't hit him' was inaccurate.
'I told [the officer] that she said 'I hit him,'' McCabe said.
Jackson also handed her a 227-page transcript of her previous grand jury testimony, and rhetorically asked her to point out where in the stack of papers she told the panel that Read said 'I hit him.'
'Did you tell that to the grand jurors?' Jackson said.
'I'm not sure,' McCabe said.
'Because you didn't, did you?' Jackson asked.
'Again, I'm not sure,' McCabe said.
Jennifer McCabe of Canton speaks on the witness stand as Judge Beverly Cannone listens in the background during the Karen Read murder trial in Norfolk Superior Court in Dedham, Mass., Wednesday, April 30, 2025. (Greg Derr/The Patriot Ledger via AP, Pool)
Greg Derr/Associated Press
When did McCabe Google 'hos [sic] long to die in cold'?
As with so much in this case, it depends who you ask.
Read's lawyers have noted repeatedly that the contested Google search was timestamped on McCabe's phone at 2:27 a.m. on Jan. 29, 2022.
If they can convince jurors of the timestamp's accuracy, it's extremely damaging to the government's case: prosecutors maintain that O'Keefe didn't move from the flagpole area of the lawn from around 12:30 a.m. until just after 6 a.m., when Read, McCabe, and a third woman found his body.
Advertisement
But prosecutors recently
digital forensic analyst with the company Cellebrite, who told jurors he believes the search and a second, similar inquiry were conducted on McCabe's phone shortly after 6:20 a.m.
That tracks with McCabe's testimony that Read asked her to Google the information after finding O'Keefe's body in the snow.
Whiffin told jurors the 2:27 a.m. timestamp marked when McCabe first opened the tab on her phone to look up a youth sports score, and that the timestamp didn't change when she used the same tab for the hypothermia searches. He conducted a live demonstration for jurors on an iPhone showing how that could transpire. In addition, Whiffin said he doesn't believe McCabe could have intentionally deleted the search, based on the forensic trail.
While cross-examining Whiffin, Read attorney Robert Alessi asked if Magnet Forensics, a competitor to Cellebrite, 'still shows' a 2:27 a.m. timestamp for the Google search. Whiffin said that was correct.
'And Magnet Forensics is a reliable forensic company, correct?' Alessi asked.
'As reliable as they come,' Whiffin said.
Ian Whiffin, a digital intelligence expert with Celebrite, testifies under cross-examination by the defense during Karen Read's murder retrial at Norfolk Superior Court in Dedham, Mass., on Tuesday, April 29, 2025. (Libby O'Neill/The Boston Herald via AP, Pool)
Libby O'Neill/Associated Press
Did the scratches on O'Keefe's right arm come from a dog?
As they did in the first trial, Read's lawyers at the retrial plan to call
Dr. Marie Russell testifies during Karen Read trial at Norfolk Superior Court on Tuesday, June 18, 2024 in Dedham, Mass. Read is accused of backing her SUV into her Boston Police officer boyfriend, John O'Keefe, and leaving him to die in a blizzard in Canton, in 2022. (Stuart Cahil/The Boston Herald via AP, Pool)
Stuart Cahill/Associated Press
The defense alleges that Chloe, a German Shepherd who lived in the Fairview home at the time, may have attacked O'Keefe during some kind of drunken fracas inside the residence.
Advertisement
The dog has since been rehomed to Vermont, according to prior testimony, and remains a frequent topic of discussion on Read-related social media.
Prosecutors at the retrial
'Seventy pounder,' Jackson said of the dog's imposing frame while questioning McCabe on Wednesday.
He also asked if McCabe was aware Chloe wasn't good with strangers.
McCabe said she knew Chloe wasn't good with other dogs, 'so I could never bring my dog over there.'
When, and how, did Read's taillight crack?
Another key piece of evidence in the case is the damaged right taillight on Read's SUV, which prosecutors say was cracked when she rammed into O'Keefe.
McCabe and
Read's lawyers maintain her taillight was initially damaged when her SUV grazed O'Keefe's vehicle as she backed out of his driveway in an effort to find him around 5 a.m., before she met up with the other women and returned to his residence with them.
The apparent impact with O'Keefe's vehicle was
Read's attorneys allege that law enforcement officials later tampered with the taillight when her vehicle was brought back to a Canton police garage for processing on the evening of Jan. 29, 2022.
Advertisement
Jackson told jurors in his opening statement that investigators found no taillight pieces at the crime scene before investigator Michael Proctor gained access to Read's vehicle at the garage. Authorities have said collecting evidence at the scene was difficult in the blizzard-like conditions at the time.
Proctor was later
after he was forced during the first trial to read a number of crude and misogynistic texts he had sent about Read to friends and co-workers in the early stages of the probe, which the defense seized on to argue that investigators were biased against her from the start.
Prosecutors also
The 'corrected' video shows that Proctor was 'standing feet away' from Read's vehicle and 'never touched' the right taillight, prosecutors
Were O'Keefe's injuries consistent with being hit by a car?
A crash reconstruction firm initially hired by the Justice Department says no.
The DOJ
(
Advertisement
The ARCCA analysts
Analyst Andrew Rentschler testified that if O'Keefe were hit by the SUV as it
as well as bruising and fractures beyond the superficial abrasions documented on O'Keefe's right arm.
Rentschler also said the head injury O'Keefe sustained, in the absence of other trauma, 'is not' consistent with being struck by a vehicle. O'Keefe had suffered a skull fracture and also had severe swelling around his eyes.
'If there's enough force to cause a skull fracture then there's going to certainly be enough force' to cause injuries elsewhere, including on the cervical spine, Rentschler said. Having just the skull fracture, he said, 'is inconsistent' with being struck by a taillight, as prosecutors have maintained.
The defense plans to call the ARCCA witnesses again. But prosecutors maintain the experts, rather than being the neutral fact finders the defense portrayed them as, actually
Weeks after the mistrial, records show, ARCCA billed the defense for roughly $23,000, although Read's lawyers claim they had no prior knowledge of the bill, which Robert Alessi said came 'out of the blue.'
Read's lawyers have since formally retained ARCCA, which conducted additional testing for the retrial. Prosecutors want Judge Beverly J. Cannone to restrict the analysts to testifying only about their findings contained in a February 2024 report that they submitted to the federal government and that was distributed to the prosecution and defense in Read's case.
Cannone has yet to rule.
Material from prior Globe stories was used in this report.
Travis Andersen can be reached at