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“Living in a Nightmare”: Karen Read Speaks Out on Being Accused of Killing Her Boston Cop Boyfriend
Boston police officer John O'Keefe was found dead lying in the snow after a night of heavy drinking. His girlfriend at the time is accused of murder and reversing her car into him.
After a brutal storm rolled through Canton, Massachusetts, a Boston police officer was found dead, lying in the snow outside another officer’s home in a mysterious case that has captivated the nation.
Officer John O’Keefe’s girlfriend Karen Read was thrust into the spotlight after she became the prime suspect in his death, leading to a sensational trial that ended earlier this year with a hung jury.
Now facing a second trial, Read and her high-profile attorney Alan Jackson are opening up about the controversial case in a two-hour Dateline, debuting Friday, October 18 at 9/8c p.m. on NBC, sharing details about Read's life with O'Keefe and how she felt about being implicated in his death.
“I felt like I was living in a nightmare,” Read says in the Dateline episode titled “The Night of the Nor'easter," as seen in a preview.
The night John O’Keefe died
After dropping O’Keefe off at the home of a friend and fellow police officer in the early morning hours of January 29, 2022, Read came back with others later that morning to discover her boyfriend lying dead in the yard.
“I couldn’t see his face or his hair, but I knew it was him,” she told Dateline, according to a news release promoting the new episode. “I knew it was something that didn’t belong on the lawn.”
Read said she doesn't know what happened in O'Keefe's final moments.
“I didn’t know what the hell happened,” she told Dateline. “How did the night end up like this?”
Authorities launched an investigation into the mysterious death and later concluded that O’Keefe died after Read allegedly backed her car into him as she was leaving the house following a heavy night of drinking.
Read, who has continued to maintain her innocence, was later charged with second-degree murder, motor vehicle manslaughter and leaving the scene of a collision.
As the high-stakes court proceedings got underway, crowds of Read’s supporters gathered outside the courthouse chanting “Free Karen Read” in what Dateline correspondent Andrea Canning described as a “spectacle."
“Viewers should take away from this episode the power of social media and how it can affect a case,” she told NBC Insider. “In this case, it became a big part of what was happening at the courthouse.”
For O’Keefe’s family, the intense media attention and the harassment they endured from protesters outside the courthouse only served to draw attention away from their loved one's death.
“It was somehow lost that the reason we were there was because John was killed,” Beth, a member of his extended family whose last name was withheld by Dateline to protect her privacy, told the newsmagazine.
“The Night of the Nor'easter" episode will explore the toll the trial took on O’Keefe’s family and friends as they struggled to come to terms with their loss in the intense glare of the spotlight.
“The most challenging aspect to this case was seeing the pain being felt by John O’Keefe’s family,” Canning told NBC Insider. “They not only had to deal with his death, but the intense media coverage.”
Read's lawyer claims she was framed by cops
As Read's trial got underway, her defense attorney Alan Jackson pulled out all the stops to deliver a powerful defense, alleging in court that Read had been framed by police.
“If you’re charged with murder, you’re going to do everything you can,” Boston-based news commentator Sue O’Connell told Dateline of the defense's efforts.
As Canning and fellow Dateline correspondent Dennis Murphy reported on the high-profile case, Jackson — who described the frenzy around the trial as “next level” — provided the newsmagazine with an exclusive, behind-the-scenes look of the defense team’s strategy meetings.
“The most surprising moment is when Karen Read and her defense team said that she was being framed for a murder she didn’t commit,” Canning shared with NBC Insider.
O’Keefe’s family, however, is still convinced that Read is responsible for his death.
“She’s put my family through hell to save herself,” Beth told Dateline. “Take accountability and do the right thing.”
What's going on with Karen Read's murder trial?
The first jury tasked with determining Read’s fate was unable to reach a decision, resulting in a mistrial earlier this year. Read is expected to face trial again soon and has entered a not guilty plea.
To learn more about what Read has to say about the allegations against her, watch Dateline Friday, October 18 at 9/8c p.m. on NBC or stream the episode the next day on Peacock.
And for even more Dateline, sign up for the show's official newsletter and check out its podcast.
