Karen Read’s voicemails were played in court on Tuesday, May 6. The woman accused of murdering her boyfriend and Boston police officer, John O’Keefe, can be heard screaming into her phone, “John, I… hate you.”
Read, 45, stands trial for the murder of her boyfriend. She has been accused of backing into him with her SUV while drunk and enraged and leaving him to die in the snow. O’Keefe was found the following morning by Karen Read and two of their friends; he was cold to the touch and was determined to have died from hypothermia. The messages that were played in court on Tuesday dated back to the early morning leading up to the discovery of O’Keefe’s body.
Karen Read’s Voicemails
Entering the third week of testimony in the infamous Karen Read retrial, voicemails were played for the jurors. The prosecution showed the jury a call log between Karen Read and O’Keefe. All calls were made by Read from midnight the day he died until 6 a.m., the morning he was found. There were 52 missed calls from her, and amongst those were 8 voicemails. The voicemails ranged from accusing O’Keefe of cheating, calling him a loser and a pervert, to asking where he is.
The prosecution shared this evidence with the jurors in the hope of exposing Karen Read’s true nature and behavior from that night. Witnesses have already testified to her erratic behavior the morning after a heavy night of drinking. They also testified to her and O’Keefe fighting the day before he was found dead.
Her voicemails were filled with profanity, the first one around 12:30 a.m. being, “John, I f—ing hate you.” Later on, she finds her way back to O’Keefe’s home and leaves more nasty voicemails yelling, “John, I’m here with your f—ing kids and nobody knows where the f— you are, you f—ing pervert,” and “You’re f—ing another girl … you’re a f—ing loser. F— yourself.”
Crime Scene Investigation
Jurors also heard from investigators who arrived at the crime scene the day O’Keefe was found. They collected evidence using rakes, brooms, shovels, head lamps, and red Solo cups. Read’s defense attorneys argued that their means of investigation were incompetent.
Kevin O’Hara, a lieutenant with the Massachusetts State Police, arrived at the scene that morning. He coordinated the search and testified that his team carefully and methodically sifted through the snow. In less than 30 minutes, his team recovered a piece of a broken taillight, and later, an upside-down shoe filled with snow was found near the curb.
According to O’Hara, half a dozen pieces of taillight were found. After an hour, the search was ceased, and although they knew they likely did not find all the pieces to the taillight, they never returned to the scene. When cross-examined by Karen Read’s defense attorneys, he testified to the crime scene being unsecured for an unknown amount of time, but “with that being fresh, undisturbed snow, and with the man tracking we do, we would be able to determine if anyone had accessed that area.”
O’Hara testified to the number of officers that arrived on the scene, but admitted he was more focused on the search than who was present. He could not pinpoint exactly when others arrived, but they were in plain clothes. Besides officers, a man wearing a hoodie approached the scene, asking why they were there before retreating to a nearby residence.
Tune in to Watch
If you want to watch the Karen Read trial live, visit CourtTV to view the proceedings from Norfolk Superior Court in Dedham, Massachusetts. CourtTV has been following the murder case since the investigation started. Proceedings begin every weekday at 9 a.m. ET.
