Karen Read Recounts Devastating Moment of Learning About Boyfriend’s Death
In a new TV special airing Friday, Karen Read shared that she was overwhelmed with grief and did not want to live when she found out about the sudden death of her Boston cop boyfriend, John O’Keefe.
Read expressed confusion and disbelief at the circumstances surrounding O’Keefe’s death on Jan. 29, 2022, refuting claims by prosecutors that she intentionally ran him over with her SUV.
“I actually texted my father and I said, ‘I think John is dead,’” the financial analyst revealed in the “Dateline” special airing at 9 p.m. ET.
“And he — he called me, and I said, ‘Dad, I — I — I don’t want to be alive.’ Like ‘I don’t want to live.’ And I didn’t know what the hell — what the hell happened. How did — how did the night end up like this?”
Describing the moment she saw O’Keefe’s body, Read mentioned that she couldn’t see his face clearly but knew it was him.
“I knew it was something that didn’t belong on that lawn,” she shared with Dennis Murphy.
O’Keefe was later pronounced dead at the hospital, with injuries including two black eyes, skull fractures, cuts on his face, and claw-like marks on his arm.
Read, who had been in a relationship with the police officer since 2020, was arrested and faced charges of second-degree murder, manslaughter under the influence of alcohol, and leaving the scene of an accident.
During the trial, prosecutors alleged that Read intentionally struck O’Keefe with her Lexus SUV after dropping him off at a house party in Canton, Massachusetts, where he was with his police colleagues.
It was reported that the couple had been on a bar crawl earlier that night, with Read allegedly consuming seven drinks in just 90 minutes.
Read’s defense team countered the accusations by suggesting that she was framed by law enforcement following a deadly altercation involving O’Keefe and another officer at the party.
The trial ended in a mistrial on July 1 after the jury was unable to reach a verdict following five days of deliberation.
