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- [00:07]
Narrator/Host
This is Crime House.
- [00:10]
Investigator/Interviewer
This case was corrupted from the start. It was corrupted by biases and conflicts and personal loyalties that you heard about. And most fatally, it was corrupted by a lead investigator whose misconduct infected every single part of this case from the top to the bottom.
- [00:26]
Narrator/Host
No nudes so far?
- [00:28]
Investigator/Interviewer
No nudes so far.
- [00:30]
Katie Ring (True Crime Analyst and Host)
Correct?
- [00:31]
Narrator/Host
Correct.
- [00:32]
Investigator/Interviewer
Said that to your bosses?
- [00:34]
Narrator/Host
Yes, Sir.
- [00:35]
Investigator/Interviewer
Did John O' Keefe come into your house at 34 Fairview at any time on January 29, 2022?
- [00:45]
Narrator/Host
Absolutely not. I wish he had.
- [00:47]
Katie Ring (True Crime Analyst and Host)
From trial to mistrial, to retrial again, Karen Reed continues to fight for her innocence in court after her boyfriend's body is discovered in the snow in Canton, Massachusetts. A deeply flawed investigation, suspicious players, and shady connection could lead us to the answer. Who killed John o'? Keefe? Hi, I'm Katie Ring, a true crime analyst, self defense instructor, and a fierce advocate for victims. And this is Crime House Daily, your essential true crime companion. Every weekday, morning and night here at Crime House Daily, we will be taking an investigative approach to true crime. We stay on the cases and trials making headlines now where justice is still in motion, arrests are still being made, and where new evidence is still coming to light. Every morning we will make sure you're up to speed on today's biggest crimes with our first watch episodes. And every night, we go deeper with our night watch episodes. If you want to follow a case from the first 911 call to the final verdict, you're in the right place. Make sure to follow Crime House Daily wherever you get your podcasts. Leave a review. Hit five stars. And for ad free listening, subscribe to Crime House plus on Apple Podcasts. For video content, head to our YouTube channel, Rimehouse Daily. This episode discusses active criminal cases and breaking news. The information we share is based on what's publicly available at the time of recording and and may change as new evidence comes to light. We aim to inform, not to decide guilt or innocence. Everyone mentioned is presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. As we speak, Karen Reed is gearing up for yet another legal battle. A wrongful death lawsuit filed by the family of her late boyfriend, Boston police officer John o'. Keefe. But in part four of our five part series, we'll break down the events that led us to this pivotal moment of Karen's defense continues to unpack even more evidence that doesn't make sense. Cell phone data, manipulated footage and new testimonies will turn this entire case on its head.
- [03:19]
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- [03:22]
Narrator/Host
Whoa. When did I get here?
- [03:23]
Carvana Advertiser
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- [03:24]
Narrator/Host
I swear it was just moments ago that I accepted a great offer from Carvana online. I must have time traveled to the future.
- [03:30]
Carvana Advertiser
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- [03:34]
Narrator/Host
It is the future.
- [03:36]
Katie Ring (True Crime Analyst and Host)
It's.
- [03:37]
Carvana Advertiser
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- [03:41]
Narrator/Host
It's all good. Happens all the time.
- [03:43]
Katie Ring (True Crime Analyst and Host)
Sell your car the convenient way to Carvana, pick up. Times may vary and fees may apply. Okay, let's recap what we've covered so far. In episode one, we laid out the timeline of events leading up to and following John o' Keeffe's death and the call that Karen Reed's lawyer, David Iannetti received from an anonymous tipster. The tipster tells him that Karen is being framed and that John was actually killed by someone inside of the house. In episode two, we cover everything Karen and her team discover about the people that that were inside of 34 Fairview that night. As they work on their third party culprit defense. They discover sketchy group texts, rehome dogs, constantly changing testimonies, a childhood home sold undervalue in a hot market, phones that were discarded one day before a court order to preserve them, and late night visits to the police department and a whole lot of butt dials. In episode three, we start getting into the investigation to prove her innocence. Karen's team has to find every single flaw in the investigation. And they hit the jackpot when they receive the lead investigator Michael Proctor's phone records. Proctor never disclosed any conflict of interest and tries to claim he doesn't even really know the Alberts. But his phone and social media tell a different story. We go all over these details in the last episode, so if you haven't already, I highly recommend giving it a watch or listen. But long story short, it turns out that Proctor has a laundry list of conflicts of interest. Sixteen hours into the investigation, he has already decided that Karen is guilty and never once treats anyone other than Karen as a suspect, despite all of the suspicious things they have done. We go over his group chat with his buddies where he discloses privileged information and calls Karen the C word, among many other despicable remarks. We go over the group chat with his colleagues, his boss and his boss's boss, who all laugh at us text about how he was going through Karen's phone looking for nudes. By the way, not a single one of them reprimanded him, giving us a little bit of insight into the culture at the Massachusetts State Police. And lastly, we go over his text thread with his sister and the most shocking message he sent was that he wished Karen would just kill herself. Karen's team has laid the foundation to point out how this case was compromised from the very beginning. The bias, the misconduct and the motive to protect their own. In this episode, we will dive back into the evidence and the investigation. Some people argue that Karen is guilty because there is no way so many people could be involved in a cover up. But many who support Karen argue that although there were a lot of people involved, only a few were corrupt and the rest were merely incompetent. After reviewing the insane details of this investigation, I have to admit that's not hard to rule out. So let's start with the fact that the location of the body was never marked or photographed before John O' Keefe was moved by the EMTs. Which means no one from the investigative team actually knows John's exact location. Next, they used leaf blowers to clear the snow, red solo cups to collect blood evidence and stop and shop bags to store the evidence. They didn't store or log any of this evidence properly. They didn't write reports or mark where evidence was found and collected. They use regular cell phones to photograph the evidence. They didn't have body cameras on while handling the evidence. They didn't record proper chain of custody reports for evidence. Evidence was not immediately brought to the crime lab. In fact, some evidence was in Trooper Proctor's possession for weeks before it was turned over. Next, the crime scene was not secured. In fact, it was left behind unattended from 8am to 5.30pm they did not separate witnesses or conduct interviews at the police station. And despite Canton police recusing themselves from the investigation for a huge conflict of interest, the brother of the homeowner where John was found dead is a Canton police officer. They towed Karen's car back to Canton Sally Port instead of the Dighton station which was the jurisdiction and would have been a much faster and easier ride in a blizzard. There were some other very odd things that showed up during this investigation. The most incriminating pieces of evidence against Karen Reed are the taillight pieces found at the scene. After hearing this, some are convinced she's guilty, but not so fast. Despite using leaf blowers to get down all the way to the grass and the first team did not uncover a single piece of taillight at the scene. I personally find that very curious. Another curious fact was that Trooper Proctor continued to find pieces of taillight days and even Weeks after John's death. The first pieces were found by the CERT team on January 29th. He then found more pieces on February 8th, February 11th and February 18th, almost two weeks after the first pieces were discovered. And the Canton police chief, Ken Berkowitz, also says he just happened to be driving by 34 Fairview and also spotted a piece from his car. Prosecution is claiming that Karen's taillight broke when she allegedly hit John. But the defense team presents a video proving Karen's right rear tail light made contact with John's car that morning when she was leaving. They argue that this is when Karen actually cracked her tail light. Everyone who testified referred to the damage to Karen's taillight that morning as a crack. But if you look at the pictures, no one would say that is just a crack. Terms I would use to describe the state of her taillight after it was in possession of the Canton police would maybe be shattered, obliterated, busted, but not cracked. Next, the Dighton police officer that showed up to tow Karen's car that morning, Sgt. Nicholas Barros, testified that the damage was just the size of a dollar bill. It is also clear from all of the surveillance footage that the damage is not as extreme as what is shown after the car is in the possession of the Canton police. Once again, it's all very suspect. Then something even more insane happens.
- [11:31]
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- [11:39]
Katie Ring (True Crime Analyst and Host)
How did I not know Rack has Adidas?
- [11:41]
Narrator/Host
Cause there's always something new.
- [11:42]
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- [12:02]
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- [12:31]
Katie Ring (True Crime Analyst and Host)
During direct examination, prosecutor Adam Lally plays footage from the Canton Sally port and asks trooper Yuri Buchenik what he sees. As a reminder, the Sally port is the garage at the Canton police station where they stored Karen's car. In this video, you see Karen's car and you also see a Man standing behind her left rear taillight. They use this footage to prove there is absolutely no way anyone could have tampered with her taillight. It seems pretty innocuous, but when Alan Jackson steps up to the podium the next day, he replays the footage and points something out that makes the entire courtroom gasp. For the people listening, it's available to watch on our YouTube channel at crime House Daily. But let's take a look at it. At first, a lot of people didn't see it either, but Alan Jackson points it out. If you look at the word police on the police car next to Karen's car, you'll notice that it's actually backwards, which means that the original footage is flipped. This is significant because it means that the man was actually on the right side of the car, the side of the car with the now busted taillight. There's no denying that this looks bad for prosecution, but they argue that it wasn't anything suspicious. And this is just how the footage always is. But the defense isn't buying it, because on top of all of that, there are several minutes missing from the Sally Port footage, as well as a jump in time where a man magically appears. If you're listening, we are showing the footage on our YouTube page at crime House Daily. But this isn't the only footage now missing in this case. In the first episode, I told you to remember two things. The library footage of Karen's car and John's Ring footage. Well, it turns out that both of those are now missing at the exact time Karen would be returning from 34 Fairview. Many people pointed the finger at Karen, claiming that she erased the footage. But the report from Ring shows that Karen never accessed that footage. But guess who did. If you guessed Proctor, you are correct. The ring footage was accessed through John's phone while it was in possession of Michael Proctor. So now we have three separate instances, instances of missing footage that could potentially exonerate Karen Reed. But there is a fourth, because it turns out that Brian Albert's neighbor across the street has a Ring camera. But he says nothing useful was caught on the camera, and so he just erased it before authorities even asked for it. And yes, if you're wondering, he is also a cop. Like everything else so far in this case, very suspicious. But it doesn't end there. The next pieces of evidence that investigators point to are the pieces of glass that are found on the bumper of Karen's car, a strand of John's hair found on the back of Karen's car, and touch DNA from John on the taillight housing. Once again, I find this evidence more odd than incriminating because you're telling me I'm supposed to believe that a few pieces of glass and a single hair stayed perfectly perched on a bumper through a 31 mile tow in the middle of a blizzard. We also find out in the second trial that there wasn't a single piece of glass on that bumper that matched the cup found during the first search at the original scene. The prosecution's theory is that the glass got there because Karen hit John with her car while he was holding the glass. But none of the glass matches the cup he was holding. Next is the touch DNA. But I don't think anyone is shocked that a boyfriend would have touched his girlfriend's car at some point in their relationship. What is interesting, however, is the fact that there was not a single single piece of DNA, blood or flesh found on the actual cracked part of the tail light. Again, you're telling me I'm supposed to believe that this cracked tail light, the one they claim ripped deep lacerations into John's arm, doesn't have a single drop of blood or skin on it? One piece of evidence I saw a lot of people claim proves Karen's guilt is the microscopic pieces of taillight found in John's clothing. Sounds really bad for Karen, right? Well, it does until we find out that Proctor didn't turn over John's clothes for six weeks after they were first recovered. And there isn't any record of whether or not they were stored with other evidence. Those microscopic pieces also didn't have any blood or DNA on them. And finally, we have the car data, John's Apple health data, and the WAZE data from his phone to prove Karen backed up and killed her boyfriend, John o'. Keefe. Prosecutors use a set of car data points called triggering events. But there is a huge problem here because the triggering events do not have any dates or times associated with them. This means that they cannot prove what time or even date any of these events happened. Internet sleuths point out that the timeline for these triggering events isn't exactly lining up and that there's even a possibility that this backing event prosecutors chose as the exact moment Karen hit and killed John could have actually occurred while the vehicle was in the possession of the Massachusetts State Police. Not too far fetched when you consider they are claiming that Karen backed up 80ft at 24 mph in a snowstorm and hit John without going onto the curb or grass or spinning out. Another thing that does not help the prosecution is the fact that none of the car data shows there was even a collision in the first episode. I told you to keep 12:45am in mind because this is when prosecutors originally claimed Karen hit John. This estimate was based on Jen McCabe's testimony that she saw a car drive off after she received a text at 12:45am but we find out that Karen's car connected to John's wi fi at 12:36am which makes that theory impossible. So mid trial, the prosecution actually changes their time of collision. Doesn't really give you too much confidence in this case. In the second trial, the alleged time of collision from beginning to end also changes. Once again, the defense proves that after John sustained his injuries, he would have been immediately incapacitated. But John's Apple health data records him taking 36 steps, covering a distance of 86ft after the alleged collision. So once again, the prosecution's timeline doesn't fit. By the way, if you're curious, yes, this is the distance from the sidewalk to the door of 34 Fairview. Next, Proctor conveniently misses a key witness, the plow driver, Brian Lucky Loughren. But when the defense team brings Lucky up to the stand, it becomes clear why he was overlooked. According to Lucky, the body was not there during his first pass around 2:30am however, when he returned to plow the road again around 3:30am he saw a dark SUV parked where the body was later discovered. He says that he specifically remembers this because plow drivers are supposed to report cars parked on the road during a snowstorm. But he decided to make an exception since he knew the Albert family and knew that Brian Albert was a first responder. Curious that there were all these butt dials and butt answers at 2:22am and there was no body. But at 3:30am there is a car parked directly in front of where John's body was found. So when you add this all up, it's clear that the investigation wasn't handled very well. But it still doesn't answer the question at the root of everything. What happened to John o'? Keefe?
- [22:04]
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- [22:23]
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- [22:25]
Katie Ring (True Crime Analyst and Host)
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- [22:28]
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- [22:34]
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- [23:00]
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- [23:06]
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- [23:09]
Katie Ring (True Crime Analyst and Host)
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- [23:14]
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- [23:15]
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- [23:22]
Katie Ring (True Crime Analyst and Host)
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- [23:25]
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- [23:32]
Katie Ring (True Crime Analyst and Host)
Unfortunately, because this investigation was so botched, I don't think we will ever know what happened to John o'. Keefe. But there is one thing I thought from the very beginning. The injuries to John, or should I say lack thereof, simply do not match up. How can you get hit by a six thousand pound car and not sustain a single injury below your neck? Not even a single bruise? I will wake up with random bruises on my shins all the time from God knows what. But a six thousand pound car hits you and you don't get a single bruise? I don't believe that's possible. And neither do the crash Daddies. If you're not familiar with this case, Crash daddies is a nickname people gave two of the expert witnesses in this case. When the FBI investigated the investigation into John o' Keefe's death, they hired a crash reconstruction company called arca. This company is the best in their field and they work with a variety of clients, including the FBI, the NHL, the military and insurance companies. There is a lot of evidence they present, but in the end they conclude that John's injuries were not consistent with a collision, suspicions confirmed. And that the damage to the car is not consistent with hitting a pedestrian. Unfortunately, Judge Beverly Kanoni, or as the Internet nicknamed her, Auntie Bev, does not allow the defense to mention the fact that they were hired by the FBI. So despite ARCA being originally hired by an outside agency with no skin, in this particular game, jurors are left thinking that these are just regular paid expert witnesses. The jury for the first trial is hung for days and finally they say that they cannot come to an agreement and the judge rules it a mistrial. Shortly after the verdict, the DA Michael Morrissey announces that they will retry Karen Reed on all counts. Jury selection for the second trial started on April 1, 2025. But this time the defense is going with a different strategy. In pre trial hearings, Auntie Bev says that in this trial the defense is not allowed to use their third party corporate defense and specifically that they were not allowed to point the finger at at Colin Albert. So the defense ends up going with a Bowden defense which argues that the police investigation was substandard or flawed, making the collected evidence unreliable. The second trial and the first trial are pretty similar, but there are now some new characters added and some others missing. The biggest addition to the prosecution was special prosecutor Hank Brennan, who led the team this time around and was paid almost 500 grand by the government, something taxpayers who support Karen Reed were not very happy about. There was also a big addition to the defense team with a New York based attorney named Robert Alessi. And if you followed this case, you know he is a fan favorite with the Karen Reed team. We had a few new experts as well. The prosecution hired a company called Aperture who were also paid around 500 grand. But I call them the Blue Man Group because one of the experts did a singular test to prove Karen hit John. And this test was really advanced. They bought a Lexus, painted the taillight blue, and the expert held his arm out as the car backed into him at the 2 miles per hour. Remember, the prosecution is claiming that Karen backed up 80ft at 24 miles per hour. So a test at 2 miles per hour isn't going to tell you very much. The second aperture expert, Shannon Burgess, also made waves when the defense called him out for lying on his resume and claiming he was still pursuing his degree after 17 years. A new witness, Kelly Dever, was also introduced and she went viral for how combative and off putting she was on the stand. Dever was a former Canton police officer who told the FBI that she saw ATF agent Brian Higgins and former Canton Police Chief Kenneth Bradley Berkowitz inside the Sally Port garage for a wildly long time. When Karen's car was stored there, the most obvious missing character was disgraced former trooper Michael Proctor, who wasn't called to the stand by either side, by the way, a huge mistake on the prosecution side because he just became this boogeyman that made them look very bad. A few other characters missing were Brian Higgins, Brian Albert, and most of the people inside the house. And I'm guessing they were not called because the defense was not allowed to pursue the third party culprit defense. And one of the final differences is that the prosecution was allowed to use clips from Karen's interviews, which admittedly did not make her look great. It didn't matter because if you paid attention to this episode and the incompetence shown in this investigation, you will probably not be surprised that on June 18, Karen Reed was found not guilty of second degree murder, not guilty of manslaughter while operating under the influence, and not guilty of leaving the scene of a collision resulting in death. She was, however, found guilty of a lesser charge of operating under the influe influence, or what's called an oui, which she only got one year probation for. As the foreman responds not guilty to all of those major charges, you could literally hear Karen's supporters cheering outside of the courtroom. You see the look of relief on Karen's face. And as the camera pans to David Yanetti, the lawyer who was with her from the very beginning, tears streamed down his face. After seeing this, I myself got pretty emotional watching it all unfold. And after two trials and years of fighting, Karen Reed is finally a free woman. Tomorrow we uncovered the aftermath of Karen Reed's retrial verdict. What will she do with her newfound freedom? And how will John O. Keefes family fight for justice? Find out in this final episode of our special Night Watch Karen Reid series. What do you think of today's case? Drop all of your theories in the comments. Follow us rimehouse247 on TikTok and Instagram and subscribe on YouTube crimehouse daily for ad free listening join crime house plus on Apple podcasts. You stay curious and I'll stay on the case. See you tomorrow.
- [31:30]
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- [31:48]
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- [31:51]
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