Accused Murderer Says She's 'America's Happiest Murder Defendant'

As John O'Keefe's death approaches its third anniversary, his accused murderer Karen Read says she is “America's luckiest murder defendant” and points to her innocence and the support she has received.

Read also accuses O'Keefe's family of hitting her boyfriend, with whom she was a Boston police officer of two years, with her car and leaving him to die in a heavy snowstorm in Canton, without having any evidence to support him I was mistreated during my lifetime.

In an explosive second article in its two-part series on the case, Vanity Fair explained how Read and the O'Keefes have severed their ties since the fateful early morning of January 29, 2022, responding to criticism from the family.

O'Keefe, a 16-year Boston police veteran, died that morning at age 46, shortly after Read found his bloody, snow-covered body on the lawn in front of 34 Fairview Rd. in Canton – a property owned by BPD colleague Brian Albert owned at the time.

Her defense attorneys counter that outside actors killed O'Keefe and conspired with state and local police to frame her for the murder.

“I've mourned and cried for John O'Keefe, but it's not productive now,” Read told a magazine reporter who spent three days with her in August. “I don't feel the acute sadness…We weren't married. The public is now hearing a lot for the first time, but they need to realize that I went through these stages of grief.”

“I've gotten to the point where I – John, if you can hear me – have done everything I can,” Read added. “I don’t think your family can be saved. You want me locked up for the rest of my life, even though you never saw any evidence that I mistreated you while you were alive.”

Read also responded to a Daily Mail headline that called her “America's luckiest murder defendant.”

“If my innocence, joy of support and refusal to settle day after day, month after month, year after year makes me America's happiest murder defendant,” she said, “then I am America's happiest murder defendant.”

Paul O'Keefe, in an interview with WBZ-TV days after Read's first trial in July resulted in a mistrial, highlighted how his brother and Read had been arguing and that the two were “nearing the end of their relationship.”

Read admitted to Vanity Fair that she and John O'Keefe had argued, but defended that she was never abusive and neglectful.

In a statement to Vanity Fair, the family said they believed Read was “responsible for John O'Keefe's death.” Unlike most people who are charged with murder and wrongful death, Karen Read has embraced her celebrity in an outsized way.”

Read responded to the claim: “Firstly, I don’t want to be here. …if you think for one second that anyone has fought harder than me to find out the truth about what happened to John and to educate everyone about what happened to John, then you are wrong.”

Vanity Fair also revealed more details about Read's spending as the case progressed. She owes more than $5 million in deferred legal fees ahead of an expected second trial in late January.

Read put her defense team – lawyers David Yannetti, Alan Jackson and Elizabeth Little – in the same hotel during the nine-week trial and “negotiated rates with two Uber drivers to transport the team to and from court.”

“She paid $1.2 million in bail before and during the trial; Accommodation, food and transportation for three lawyers; and hiring private investigators and experts,” the magazine reported. “She did this using her savings, approximately $500,000 from her now depleted legal fund and $400,000 donated by friends and family.”

Originally published: October 30, 2024 at 5:31 pm EDT