Massachusetts murder defendant Karen Read, in her first interview since a mistrial was declared in her first murder trial, insisted she found her mortally injured boyfriend on the side of the road and that true details of his death are being covered up.
Read, 44, has been accused of fatally hitting Boston police officer and boyfriend John O'Keefe with her SUV and then leaving him to die in a blizzard on Jan. 29, 2022.
In an interview with ABC’s "20/20" that will air in full on Friday night, Read recalled how she and two friends went looking for O’Keefe on that cold, dark night.
"As you come down Fairview (Road in Canton, Massachusetts), there’s, there’s a bit of a decline in it, and it curves to the left, and my eyes are peeled, and I said, ‘He’s right (expletive) there,’” Read said in a clip released on Thursday.
“I jumped out the passenger side, and I fell into the street. His eyes were shut, and he had spots of blood in different areas on his face, and he was still — not stiff, but still.”
Jurors failed to reach a verdict during Read's trial, prompting a judge to declare a mistrial in July. Prosecutors are retrying Read with the case set to begin again in January.
Read did not testify at her first trial.
“It was cold. I felt cold, but I didn’t feel dangerously cold and it was just an odd feeling to know that 'I’m OK. I’m not dying, but he’s here with me, and he’s dying, and I can’t warm him up,'” Read told "20/20," recalling her state of mind that night.
A spokesperson for the Norfolk County DA's Office declined to comment on Friday.
The DA has previously said O’Keefe's death came after an argument in the rocky relationship between he and Read.
While Read admits they had been arguing, she insists that authorities are covering up the true nature of his death. The defense says O'Keefe died in a fight with a fellow Boston police officer, who lived steps away from where his body was found.
When asked why there'd be a coverup of O'Keefe's death, Read said: “Because he’s dead."
