State and local police investigators testified Tuesday about finding a broken cocktail glass, a sneaker, and taillight shards in the snow outside 34 Fairview Road.
Livestream via NBC10 Boston. Testimony continues in Karen Read‘s murder retrial Wednesday after jurors heard about the search for evidence outside 34 Fairview Road and listened to Read’s expletive-filled voicemails to John O’Keefe.
“John, I f***ing hate you!” Read screamed in one voicemail at 12:37 a.m. on Jan. 29, 2022 — the same morning O’Keefe was found unresponsive on a snowy lawn in Canton. In later messages, Read called her boyfriend of two years a “f***ing pervert” and alleged he was cheating on her with “another girl.”
Read, 45, is accused of ramming O’Keefe with her SUV in a drunken rage following a night of bar-hopping. Prosecutors allege she struck O’Keefe, a Boston police officer, and left him to die in a blizzard while dropping him off at 34 Fairview Road for an afterparty.
However, Read’s lawyers contend she was a “convenient outsider” framed in a vast law enforcement conspiracy to protect the friends and family of homeowner Brian Albert, a fellow Boston police officer. They’ve suggested O’Keefe was actually beaten inside 34 Fairview Road, attacked by the Alberts’ dog, and dumped outside in the snow.
Testifying Tuesday, retired Canton Police Lt. Paul Gallagher adamantly denied giving special treatment to Brian Albert during the early investigation into O’Keefe’s death. He also told jurors he didn’t see footprints, dog tracks, or visible signs to suggest anything had been dragged through the snow outside 34 Fairview Road.
Massachusetts State Police Lt. Kevin O’Hara similarly testified that he saw “fresh, undisturbed” snow in the search area when he first arrived at 4:56 p.m. on Jan. 29, hours after O’Keefe was found. He said the State Police Special Emergency Response Team (SERT) ultimately unearthed a sneaker “flush up against the curb” and “maybe six or seven pieces of taillight” from the deep snow. According to O’Hara, the SERT team commander, a couple of pieces of evidence found during that search were “at ground level, touching the asphalt.”
Defense attorney Alan Jackson highlighted the lack of crime scene security throughout much of the day Jan. 29, confirming O’Hara didn’t see crime scene tape, barricades, or a police presence when he arrived.
“So before you arrived at least, and before your presence was known, for some time before you got there, that scene could have been accessed by anyone, to your knowledge?” Jackson asked.
“Well, I think the weather played a good [role] helping us with the scene security, because 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 replied.
The ongoing trial is Read’s second, after her first murder trial ended with a hung jury last July. Karen Read talks with her attorneys Robert Alessi and David Yannetti during her trial at Norfolk Superior Court, Tuesday, May 6, 2025, in Dedham, Mass. – Matt Stone / The Boston Herald via AP, Pool
Abby Patkin is a general assignment news reporter whose work touches on public transit, crime, health, and everything in between. She has been covering the Karen Read murder case.
