B (13:36)

I don't remember making any of those calls. So my assumption is I put my phone in my back pocket and that was it.

A (13:44)

After hearing this answer, people start speculating. Were those calls actually butt dials or could they have been attempts to locate John's phone? And when asked about a call Jen made to her sister Nicole Albert at 5.07am, an hour before the three women discovered the body, she claims the call was another butt dial. She's adamant that she never spoke to her sister that morning. But the call logs tell a different story. They show that the call was answered and lasted 38 seconds. And get this, when Jen was asked about the call in the retrial, she said that there was nothing nefarious about the call. An interesting choice of words. Another thing that people found curious was the fact that Jen never went inside to check on her sister when they discovered John's body on the lawn. Personally, if there was a man dead on my sister's front lawn and she's allegedly not answering her phone, the first thing I am doing is running inside and making sure she is okay. They also found it odd that she wouldn't go inside to grab her brother in law, Brian Albert, who's a first responder and the one person best fit to help in a situation like this. Another red flag people pointed out was the distancing language Jen used on the 911 call. She referred to John, who she claims to be one of her closest friends, as a man unresponsive in the snow and my friend's boyfriend and a guy but in my opinion, the most suspicious evidence of all is the group chat between Jen McCabe, Matt McCabe, Brian Albert and Nicole Albert. On February 1, the day after John's death, Brian Albert texted the group. Julie said Channel four is in D and E, which is a pizza and sandwich shop owned by his brother Chris Albert. Matthew McCabe responds, eating, I assume. Ask Chris to ask some questions. Tell them the guy never went into the house. Brian Albert replies, exactly. Later, in that same group chat, Jen types four texts in a row. Carrie is here going over timeline and we handed the phone to Carrie. She is telling him everything, all the stuff. Matt McCabe replies, Yep, if she pleads out, it will end. If she fights it, it will be an episode. Nicole likes the text. And then Matt says, brian sitting separate. Brian Albert responds, okay. And then Jen says, cops here again. Call us. After Matt chimes in, this girl could write a book nonstop. Jen says, I love it. She is telling them everything. And Nicole replies, good. When defense attorney Alan Jackson asks Jen McCabe who the guy is, she responds, john. Between referring to John as the guy and loving the fact that a woman who is not part of your family but who you just admittedly created a timeline with is telling them everything, things are seeming very sus. And those aren't the only texts that would raise suspicion. At 7:54pm on January 29, 2022, the day John passed, Jen texted her sister in law Nicole. Carrie talked to cops and kept simple. Nicole asks if there was any update and Jen replies we'll get more info. Tom don't want to text about it. But Jen McCabe isn't the only person who is making questionable moves or suspicious butt dials. Both Brian Albert and Brian Higgins disposed of their phones the day before they were served with subpoenas to preserve them. Yes, people upgrade their phones, but one day before Brian Albert exchanges his phone for a new one and conveniently that old phone is set back to factory settings and Higgins, he goes to a military base, separates his SIM from his phone and disposes of both of them. But before he gets rid of his phone, he he uses FBI resources to download a few things, which by the way is illegal. And when he is asked about this on the stand, the judge stops him and advises him to consult with his lawyer. These two characters also use the butt dial excuse for their late night calls. At 2:22 in the morning on January 29th bridge, Brian Albert called Brian Higgins. The call only lasted one second. Brian Albert testified that he was in an intimate situation with his wife and Must have accidentally butt dialed Higgins. I butt dial people often and make inadvertent calls. I could have hit a last call from him by accident, thus calling his phone. Higgins immediately calls Brian Albert back, and. And the call lasts 22 seconds. Higgins testifies that it was also a butt dial.

B (19:34)

You acknowledge that there's a 22 second.

A (19:36)

Phone call in your phone records, correct?

B (19:39)

That's what's reflected by the record.

A (19:41)

And 22 seconds is quite an amount of time, would you agree?

B (19:45)

It's 22 seconds.

A (19:47)

The crazy thing about this whole situation is that there could have been such a simple explanation for these butt dials. Like, hey, it was blizzarding outside and I wanted to make sure my friend made it home safely. But instead, they want us to believe that Albert butt dialed Higgins while getting it on with his wife. Higgins butt dialed him back. Albert butt answered. And they butt stayed on the phone for 22 seconds. And then both butt hung up. Brian Albert also raised suspicion when he sold his childhood home nearly 50k under asking when real estate was in high demand. And when he rehomed his German shepherd, Chloe, that he had owned for seven years, a dog that many had speculated caused the lacerations on John O. Keefe's arm. During Higgins testimony, we also find out some interesting information about him and the defendant, Karen Reed. They had been exchanging flirtatious texts, and in one of the cringiest moments in court history, Higgins had to read them all out loud. Let's listen. I said.

B (21:02)

You suck in your double trouble. Defendant responded, you're hot.

A (21:09)

The prosecution pointed to these texts to make Karen out to be a bad person who was cheating on her boyfriend. But the defense had another theory. After an incident in Aruba where Karen thought John cheated on her, she needed a little confidence boost, and she reached out to Higgins to fill that void, but that she didn't actually have plans to pursue anything real. But from the text, it's clear that Higgins got excited and he wanted more. But he would get frustrated with Karen when she was being vague or nonchalant about what she wanted on the stand. Alan Jackson grills Higgins on whether or not he was mad that Karen hadn't texted him for a week before John's death. He asked him, did she ghost you? He goes, well, she didn't ghost me, but she ghosted him. And that night on the 28th, Karen completely ignored him the entire time at the bar. Higgins ended up texting her well, and when she didn't respond, he reached out to John and said, are you coming here? Question mark. Question Mark question Mark Jackson questions Higgins again. Did he want to get John out of the way and have Karen all to himself? Or maybe he wanted to confront John and tell him what was happening. And lastly, we have colin Albert, the 17 year old hot headed nephew of Brian Albert that the tipster mentioned in his call. At this point in the trial, the defense is building a pretty good case that the people inside could have had the motives and the means to cover this up. But convincing a jury and the public that these people would be involved in a conspiracy this, this big is a tall order. And this brings us to the piece of evidence that sows the most. The autopsy. Even people who hate Karen Reed have a hard time explaining how John Okeefe's injuries, or should I say lack of injuries, could have been caused by a car. Other than the lacerations on John's arm, he did not have a single single injury below the neck. He had cuts on his face, long scratches on his arm, a gash on his head, a small laceration above his right eye, a small laceration on his nose, and his eyes were black and blue. The medical examiner confirmed that John's cause of death was blunt force trauma to the head and hypothermia. Meaning he hit his head hard enough to cause skull fractures of bleeding and serious brain damage. And the freezing temps finished the job. The medical examiner also revealed a bombshell in court. When asked if John's injuries were consistent with being hit by a car, she testified that she couldn't find any evidence of an impact site on John's body. She ruled John o' Keeffe's manner of death as undetermined. As an aside, cause of death refers to the injury or injuries that caused the victim's death. But manner of death is the way in which the victim dies. There are five determinations for manner of death. And this is homicide, suicide, accident, natural and undetermined. This is yet another odd thing about this case. Because when manner of death is undetermined, it the case rarely, if ever, goes to trial. Because if your own medical examiner isn't confident enough to say that the victim was murdered, it's extremely difficult to prove your case beyond a reasonable doubt. If Karen really did hit John with her car, especially at the speed they claim you would expect severe injuries to the trunk of his body and to his legs. But besides some of the scratches on his arm, he didn't have any injuries below the neck, not even a bruise. So if he wasn't hit by Karen's car, how do you explain his Injuries or lack thereof. The defense points to a theory that is more sinister than an accident. When John O' Keefe was discovered the morning of January 29, 2022, he had already suffered fatal injuries. The prosecution says his girlfriend Karen Reed hit and killed him with her car. But the defense disagrees. They believe John got into a physical altercation with someone inside side of the home and that the lacerations on his arm were from a dog. And guess whose family had a dog of seven years that was conveniently rehomed shortly after John's death. If you guessed the Alberts, you are correct. As I mentioned earlier in a third party culprit argument, the defense doesn't have to prove who actually did it. The key is to simply present other suggestions that provide the jury with reasonable doubt. So what did the defense suggest actually happened? They say that Karen and John didn't know the people in the house all that well. So John went in first to get a temperature check and see if they were actually welcomed before they committed to going in. Karen says she saw John go into the house but that he never came back out to get her and was not replying to any of her calls or texts. Karen thought John had ditched her and was pissed and she was also having stomach issues so she just left and went home. The defense suggests the real reason John wasn't answering the phone is is because he was confronted when he walked into the house. An altercation ensued and at some point the family dog Chloe jumped in to protect someone. John was struck, he fell, he hit his head on a ridge surface and the injuries were too extreme for him to recover. They believe whoever did this didn't mean to kill John. But since this was a house full of law enforcement officers, they realize that intention doesn't matter. Someone was going to jail if they didn't cover this up. Defense hasn't presented an exact suspect and they don't need to. But they have hinted at a few people. Could it be Brian Albert, the homeowner mentioned by the tipster who is known for being a tough guy and and who was caught on surveillance footage at the bar earlier roughhousing with his friend Brian Higgins? Could it be Brian Higgins, the star crossed lover who wants to confront John about Karen? Or could it be Colin Albert, the hot headed nephew with a history of being a troublemaker and getting violent? When Colin takes the stand and Alan Jackson is cross examining him, it becomes clear that he is the front runner. Jackson asks if Colin has ever been in a fight and Colin says other than my Brothers. No. Which we find out is a lie. And he is, in fact, caught on video fighting. Jackson then proceeds to play two clips of Colin threatening multiple people. He then asks Colin what he meant in those videos. And. And Colin confirmed that he was making threats. Combining Colin's violent tendencies and John's traumatic injuries, the defense suggests that Colin was involved. They bring out another piece of evidence, a photo of Colin from February 26, 2022, less than a month after John died. In the photo, Colin is standing between two friends at a restaurant in Boston. And if you zoom in on his right hand, you can see that his knuckles are red and scabbed over. Injuries that look consistent with being in a fight. On the stand, Colin explains where the injuries came from. Let's listen.

B (30:04)

I was at a party, my house party, my senior year, and it was. I remember it being ICO'd, and I was. It was like a. It was kind of like a steep hill of a driveway. And I was walking up the driveway and I slipped down the driveway and I tried to catch myself, but I had something in my left hand, so I had tried to brace myself with my right hand and I ended up sliding a little bit down the driveway.

A (30:26)

Karen's team argues that it is highly unlikely that someone would brace themselves during a fall by placing their hand knuckles down. But since they can't prove this theory any further, they hope the jury believes it's weird, too. But one of the most curious things about Colin Albert is the fact that the lead investigator, Michael Proctor, left Colin Albert off of the witness list. He did this because Colin had left before Karen and John even arrived. But when screenshots between Jen McCabe's daughter, Ally McCabe and Colin Albert were pulled up to prove what time she picked him up, there was a curious anomaly in the text thread that led people to believe the messages had been edited. Ally McCabe and Colin Albert are very close. And in fact, they're basically cousins. Well, their cousins are their cousins. But their text chain curiously stops. And they didn't text each other for 22 days, which the defense finds very odd. So why does it seem like everyone is trying to protect this kid? But more importantly, why would the lead investigator of the case leave him off one of the most important documents, the witness list? He was out the house when John died, and he should be questioned like everyone else, especially when we're still left wondering who killed John o'. Keefe. Tomorrow we head back to Dedham, Massachusetts, for Karen Reed's retrial. New witnesses are stepping up and old witnesses are coming back. What they have to say could shake the timeline to its core. We'll dive deeper into the botched investigation and sketchy police behavior that could point to a new culprit. What do you guys think? Did Karen Reid do it, or is the defense's third party theory more convincing? The trial clearly left the jury divided, which goes to show that just how messy the truth can be. Part 3 of 5 is coming out tomorrow, so tune in to see what new testimony reveals. In the meantime, make sure to drop your facts, theories, or anything you have in the comments. I want to hear it all. And what should we cover next? Tell us rimehouse247 on TikTok and Instagram and subscribe to our YouTube rimehouse daily for ad free listening and more. Join Crime House plus on Apple Podcasts. Until then, you stay curious and I'll stay on the case. We'll see you tomorrow.

B (33:29)

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