The dense snow and blizzard-like conditions outside the Massachusetts home are gone. But the mystery of who may have killed Boston Police Officer John O’Keefe on a frigid night in Canton lingers as jurors visited the house near where his body was found.
O’Keefe’s girlfriend, Karen Read, was back in court Friday for her second murder trial, accused of killing O’Keefe with her Lexus SUV.
Read has pleaded not guilty to second-degree murder, vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated and leaving the scene of a collision resulting in death. Her first murder trial ended in a mistrial last year after the jury said it could not reach a unanimous verdict.
Around midday Friday, jurors boarded a bus from the courtroom in Dedham and made the roughly 20-minute journey to the house in Canton, about 20 miles south of Boston.
That’s where O’Keefe’s body was found in the snow blanketing the front of the house in the predawn hours of January 29, 2022. Shards of glass and splotches of blood were found nearby.
Before traveling to the house Friday, Judge Beverly Cannone told jurors that she and attorneys on both sides of the case would join them.
“I have to make something very clear: The purpose of this view is to help you better understand the evidence you will hear at trial and help you appreciate the location and surroundings,” Cannone told the jury.
“The observations that you make while on the view may be used and considered by you in your deliberations in reaching a verdict,” the judge said. “Also, while you are on the view, you are not to take any notes or photographs. You are not to conduct any investigation in this case. You really are simply to stop and look.”
The prosecution and defense each told the jury what they believed jurors should pay attention to at the scene.
When jurors arrived at the home, Read’s black Lexus LX 570 was parked outside – but in a different spot from where jurors from Read’s first murder trial saw it when they visited the house last year, CNN affiliate WCVB reported Friday.
Instead of being near the end of the driveway, the SUV was parked near the flagpole where O’Keefe’s body was found, WCVB said.
Prosecutors say Read struck O’Keefe with her SUV after dropping him off at a party and returned hours later to find him dead. Defense attorneys say Read was a victim of a conspiracy involving the police.
What we know about the house and the couple’s last night
The night before O’Keefe was found dead, he and Read went out drinking at two bars with friends.
Shortly after midnight, the couple climbed into Read’s SUV and drove to the Canton home of O’Keefe’s colleague for an after-party. There, O’Keefe got out of the vehicle, and Read later drove home.
Early the next morning, Read and two friends drove around in a snowstorm looking for O’Keefe and found his body in the front yard of the Canton house, according to court documents.
Prosecutors say Read’s SUV had a broken taillight, and pieces of it were found outside the Canton home.
But in Read’s first trial, the defense theorized O’Keefe was beaten in the home and mauled by the homeowners’ German shepherd, Chloe, and then tossed out in the snow to die. The police then conspired to fabricate evidence and lie under oath to protect their own, the defense alleged.
A medical examiner determined O’Keefe suffered multiple skull fractures consistent with blunt-force trauma that led to bleeding in the brain.
He also had two swollen black eyes and several abrasions and scrapes on his right arm, the autopsy found. Hypothermia was a contributing factor in his death, the autopsy said.
What both sides of the case say
During opening statements this week, special prosecutor Hank Brennan said the state’s case will rely on “facts, science and data” and told jurors they will hear Read’s own public statements about the case in recent media interviews.
Brennan described comments from a Canton firefighter and paramedic who responded to the scene and found O’Keefe’s body. After the paramedic asked Read what happened, the prosecutor told jurors, “You’ll hear her words … ‘I hit him, I hit him, I hit him.’”
Defense attorney Alan Jackson said the trial will show O’Keefe wasn’t hit by a vehicle.
Jackson accused Massachusetts State Police Trooper Michael Proctor, the lead investigator who has since been fired, of lying and fabricating evidence. Jackson told jurors that during the first search of the house, police didn’t find any pieces of taillight around O’Keefe. However, Jackson said, after Proctor took possession of the vehicle, about 46 pieces of “bright red taillight” started “magically showing up” in places already searched by officers.
This story has been updated with additional information.
CNN’s Elise Hammond, Eric Levenson, Braden Walker, Dakin Andone and Faith Karimi contributed to this report.