Karen Read murder trial: Niece reveals ‘frantic’ behavior on morning Boston officer was found dead

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Prosecution in Karen Read trial uses Read’s own words to dismantle defense’s theory

Karen Read’s 2024 interview with Investigation Discovery is played by the prosecution during her murder trial on Wednesday. (Pool) 

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Boston Police Officer John O’Keefe’s niece told jurors that his relationship with his suspected killer began to deteriorate in the weeks before his death. 

O’Keefe, 46, was found dead on Jan. 29, 2022. His then-girlfriend, 45-year-old Karen Read, is currently on trial in connection with his murder. 

The niece, whose name is not being disclosed because she is a juvenile, testified Wednesday morning after the prior day’s testimony was canceled abruptly minutes before it had been scheduled to start.

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Defendant Karen Read confers with defense lawyer Robert Alessi during a break in murder trial in Norfolk Superior Court in Dedham, Massachusetts, on Thursday. (AP Photo/Mark Stockwell, Pool)

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To protect the juvenile’s privacy, the judge also ordered news cameras not to record her testimony, but the court reserved space for 10 reporters inside the courtroom.

“This was someone who, to me, could not hide her animosity toward Karen,” said John DePetro, a New England radio host who was in court for the proceedings. “The things she said were significant — there was a lot of fighting in December and January, and the fighting seemed to increase.”

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Karen Read gives John O’Keefe a kiss on the side of his head in an undated photograph. (Courtesy of Karen Read)

That aligns with the timing of an argument Read allegedly picked with O’Keefe after a New Year’s trip to Aruba, where she accused him of cheating on her with a friend’s sister — something that O’Keefe denied, according to his niece. 

“On more than one occasion after they had fought, the niece said John had said to [Read], ‘Why don’t you just go home?'” he told Fox News Digital. “And she wouldn’t leave the house.”

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Officer John O’Keefe poses for his official headshot. O’Keefe’s girlfriend, Karen Reed, is currently on trial for murder after he was found dead outside a Massachusetts home in January 2022. (Boston Police Department)

Another key part of the niece’s testimony is from the morning Read and two other women found O’Keefe dead outside 34 Fairview Road in Canton, a suburb about 20 miles south of Boston.

She testified that a “frantic” Read woke her up between 4:30 and 5 a.m. on Jan. 29, 2022, according to Ted Daniel of WFXT-TV, who was also in the courtroom. Read wanted phone numbers for O’Keefe’s friends, Kerry Roberts and Jennifer McCabe, who were with Read at roughly 6 a.m. when they discovered O’Keefe unresponsive under a dusting of snow.

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The niece allegedly overheard her asking whether she could have “done something” or if O’Keefe may have been “hit by a plow.”

Peggy O’Keefe, center, diverts her eyes when the right arm of her son, Boston Police officer John O’Keefe, is projected during the murder retrial of Karen Read in Norfolk Superior Court in Dedham, Massachusetts, on Monday. (Pat Greenhouse/The Boston Globe via AP, Pool)

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“I don’t think it damaged the defense case, and I think some people were expecting she would be very harsh about Karen Read,” said Grace Edwards, a Massachusetts defense attorney who has been following the case.

“But it appears she told it like it was and was not biased against her. She testified to things already in the record with respect to their relationship — we already saw the text messages between them — and there was no evidence of any physical violence.”

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Read could face up to life in prison if convicted of the top charge, second-degree murder.

She has pleaded not guilty, and her defense denies her vehicle collided with O’Keefe at all.

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Fox News’ Julia Bonavita contributed to this report.