There are two sides to every story — this includes the international spectacle of Massachusetts woman Karen Read's murder trial.
On one side, 45-year-old Ms Read got into a fight with her boyfriend, Boston police officer John O'Keefe shortly after midnight on January 29, 2022.
The pair had been out drinking. Ms Read drove Mr O'Keefe back to the home of another police officer in Canton, Massachusetts.
In this version of events, she drove off in a drunken rage and backed into him with her car, leaving him to die on the street.
But after her arrest, another version of the story arose.
In this one, Ms Read drove home without incident.
In this one, Mr O'Keefe entered the house party at 34 Fairview Road and was beaten, attacked by a dog, and dumped outside afterwards.
Ms Read, in this version of events, became the victim of a widespread cover-up by police and officials.
In both retellings, 46-year-old John O'Keefe froze to death in sub-zero temperatures, alone, in the dark.
The case made international headlines — resulting in documentaries, podcasts, the arrest of a "citizen journalist" and a jury unable to come to a conclusion.
Now it's heading back to court for a second time.
'There he is, there he is'
John O'Keefe was found unresponsive in the snow outside the home of retired police officer Brian Albert about 6am on January 29.
Mr O'Keefe's niece had called Mr Albert's sister-in-law, Jennifer McCabe, telling her O'Keefe had never come home and asking her to join Ms Read in searching for him.
Another woman, Kerry Roberts, was with them when they discovered the body.
[dashcam]She said as they approached the house, Ms Read began kicking the door and screaming.
"[She said] 'There he is, there he is, let me the [expletive] out of this car'," Ms Roberts told the court.
"I looked at Jen and said, 'She's crazy.' And I opened the door and sat back and watched as she ran over to a mound of snow."
Near him on the street outside, according to investigators, were pieces of broken red and clear plastic. A shoe was also found "completely buried" beneath the snow nearby.
Ms McCabe called 911 at 6:04am.
Her phone becomes one of the first points of contention in the case — at some point that morning, someone used it to Google search "hos (sic) long to die in cold".
Ms McCabe and the prosecution alleged the search was made as she and Ms Read waited for emergency services to arrive.
"She grabbed my hands and she said, 'Google hypothermia, Google how long it takes to die in the cold'," Ms McCabe testified.
Ms Read's defence team alleged the search was actually made at 2:27am, hours before O'Keefe was discovered.
[map]Ms McCabe has denied this.
Mr O'Keefe was pronounced dead at nearby Good Samaritan Hospital shortly before 8am.
An autopsy on January 31 showed he had suffered blunt force injuries and hypothermia, with a medical examiner ruling there were no "obvious signs" of a fight.
Karen Read was arrested and charged with manslaughter just days later.
The most debated evidence in the case
Both sides made it clear what they believed happened from the very first day of trial.
Both agreed the couple had met up with friends and gone to 34 Fairview Road for an after-party.
What happened next was where they disagreed.
Assistant District Attorney Adam Lally said the relationship had soured, leaving Ms Read angry that night.
"From all of those people within that house that evening, none of them at any point observed John O'Keefe come into that house," he said.
"They saw the vehicle pull away and they just assumed that [they] left and no-one was coming."
But defence attorney David Yannetti argued that if O'Keefe had been killed after Read dropped him off, people leaving the party would have seen "a 6'2, nearly 220 pounds, big man in dark clothing" sprawled on the lawn.
He told jurors: "Karen Read was framed for a murder she did not commit."
"At that address lived a well-known and well-connected law enforcement family in Canton," he said.
"Someone — not Karen Read — ambushed John O'Keefe.
"Somebody probably did not mean to kill him. But somebody went too far."
The tail-light
A forensic scientist testified Ms Read's SUV had a dent in the boot and scratches on the rear bumper, as well as a broken right tail-light.
Investigators said the pieces of red and clear plastic found at the scene were a match for the broken tail-light.
State Police forensic scientist Ashley Vallier said Mr O'Keefe's clothing also showed microscopic pieces of the same plastic.
According to the prosecution, the car was damaged when Mr O'Keefe was allegedly struck by the car.
Ms Read's lawyers have suggested the tail-light was damaged when Ms Read backed into Mr O'Keefe's car.
They said the damage occurred when she pulled out of his driveway on January 29 to search for him.
A crash reconstruction expert said the damage to the SUV was not consistent with striking someone's head or arm.
Daniel Wolfe, director of accident reconstruction at crash reconstruction firm ARCCA, said his company had been called in by the Department of Justice and the FBI.
"The entity that retained us in this asked us to evaluate whether or not the damage to the vehicle and the injuries to Mr O'Keefe were consistent with the interaction, or an interaction between the two," he said.
"From a damage standpoint, it was inconsistent [with striking O'Keefe's head]."
The Google searches
The Google searches made using Jennifer McCabe's phone are key to Ms Read's legal defence — the alleged cover-up by officials.
The phone was used to search "hos (sic) long to die in cold" and "how long ti die in clkd (sic)" using the Safari app.
Prosecution experts testified the search was made about 6:20am.
The 2:27am time stamp, according to them, actually marks the time Ms McCabe first opened the Safari app.
Ms McCabe said she had actually been looking up information about a basketball team her daughter had been invited to join.
Asked whether she deleted the Google search, she denied knowing how to delete a search item.
"I did not delete that search," she said.
"I never made that search at [2:27am]. I never would have left John O'Keefe out in the cold to die. Because he was my friend that I love."
Ms Read's lawyers claimed the search was made at 2:27am, alleging she searched the same topic again "in order to overwrite the original search".
A phone data extraction report presented by the defence showed the search had been deleted.
The 'dog attack' scratches
John O'Keefe died of "blunt impact injuries of head and hypothermia", according to medical examiner Irini Scordi-Bello.
According to Dr Scordi-Bello, his internal organs showed signs of possible hypothermia, and he had suffered brain haemorrhages and skull fractures to the front and back of the head.
There were also a series of abrasions along one of his arms.
Dr Scordi-Bello testified she saw no major signs of "a significant altercation" when examining Mr O'Keefe's body.
"[The cuts are] superficial abrasions to the skin," she told jurors.
"They are not lethal, they are not contributory to the cause of death."
She said they were possibly caused by scratches from plastic, glass, or metal, and noted a lack of bruised knuckles or other injuries to his hands.
A Davis Veterinary Genetics Laboratory Forensic Unit testified that they found no signs of canine DNA on swabs of Mr O'Keefe's shirt.
The defence claimed Mr O'Keefe's injuries were consistent with a fight.
The cuts on his arm, they alleged, were caused by a dog attack — specifically the German shepherd mix who lived at 34 Fairview Road.
A retired forensic pathologist, Dr Frank Sheridan, said the injuries could be consistent with a fight or physical altercation.
A dog bite specialist said she believed the injuries to Mr O'Keefe's arm had been "inflicted by either teeth or claw marks".
Dr Scordi-Bello, when cross-examined, confirmed Mr O'Keefe had no major injuries below the neck.
She was asked whether that lack of injury was inconsistent with being struck by a car travelling 38 kilometres per hour.
"I would say it's likely and unlikely at the same time, depending on the position of the body and the vehicle in question," she said.
"I am not a reconstruction expert. I am not a biomechanics expert. I never personally inspected the car, so I can't offer an opinion on that."
Asked whether the injuries to his face, including a cut on his tongue, could have been caused by being punched, Dr Scordi-Bello said: "That is a possibility."
The SUV data
Ms Read's Lexus SUV was equipped with Techstream, software which monitors driving behaviour and is triggered by certain events.
The system logs data, including speed, braking and steering wheel movement.
State Police crash analyst Trooper Joseph Paul testified Ms Read's SUV shifted into reverse and accelerated up to 38.9kph.
Half a second later, it dropped down to 37.9 kph and the steering wheel jostled, Mr Paul said.
"There's a point in there where it appears to be consistent with a pedestrian strike," he told the jury.
Ms Read's defence team maintains the damage to her car was caused by her reversing into Mr O'Keefe's car later that morning.
They said this event was captured on security camera.
Ms Read's lawyers have also alleged authorities only began finding pieces of broken tail light in Mr Albert's yard later in the day, after the car had been seized by police.
Phone data
John O'Keefe's Apple Health data logged him taking 80 steps between 12.21am and 12.24am.
It also indicated he climbed up or down three flights of stairs at the same time.
His phone showed him taking 36 steps between 12.31am and 12.32am.
The prosecution said Mr O'Keefe never entered the home.
Massachusetts State Police Trooper Nicholas Guarino examined multiple devices connected to the case, including phones and computers.
He said phone location data never placed Mr O'Keefe "inside the home [or] the backyard of the home".
According to Guarino, when the Apple Health data logged him climbing up the stairs, Mr O'Keefe's phone GPS showed him still in the car and almost a kilometre away from the house.
The defence has claimed the phone data was consistent with Mr O'Keefe exiting the vehicle and entering the party at 34 Fairview Road.
Asked about the Apple Health data, defence expert Richard Green said the level of accuracy depended on the type of data.
"For example, steps are known to have an accuracy of around 98 per cent on the actual steps occurring," he told the jury.
The timing of the steps, if accurate, would mean O'Keefe was walking after Ms Read had dropped him off.
Defence lawyers also noted Trooper Guarino did not have a background in computer science, and that Trooper Michael Proctor had allegedly had O'Keefe's phone before it was handed over to be examined.
Mr Proctor, the lead investigator in the case, came under investigation by Massachusetts State Police.
Text messages sent by Mr Proctor labelled Ms Read a "whackjob", telling his sister: "Hopefully she kills herself."
Read's 'I hit him' comment
Prosecutors alleged while searching for Mr O'Keefe, Ms Read repeatedly asked whether she "could have" hit him with her car.
She allegedly said: "What if he's dead? What if a snowplough hit him? … I don't remember anything from last night, we drank so much I don't remember anything."
Several witnesses also testified hearing Ms Read say, "I hit him", after finding the body.
One of them, firefighter and paramedic Timothy Nuttall, said he remembered "very distinctly" hearing Ms Read repeat the phrase.
Multiple other emergency workers who were on scene, along with Jennifer McCabe, corroborate this.
Ms Read's lawyers have accused witnesses of changing their stories over time regarding her comments.
Ms Read said in an October 2024 interview with Dateline she didn't think she "'hit him', hit him".
"But could I have clipped him?" she said.
"Could I have tapped him in the knee as far as I could see. Or could I have done something that knocked him out and in his drunkenness and in the cold, [he] didn't come to again."
Kerry Roberts testified that while they were leaving Mr O'Keefe's home to look for him, Ms Read pointed out her broken tail light and asked her: "Do you think I hit him?"
"And I said, 'No, I think you probably hit something, but we should go look for him,'" Ms Roberts said.
Ms McCabe also testified she could hear Ms Read screaming in the background of the early morning phone call about Mr O'Keefe's disappearance.
She said Ms Read could be heard saying: "Did I hit him? Could I have hit him?"
Additional testimony pointed to a series of angry voicemails left by Ms Read to Mr O'Keefe's phone.
[tweet]Trooper Nicholas Guarino testified Ms Read called Mr O'Keefe dozens of times between midnight and 6am, leaving a total eight voicemails.
In one of them, left at 12.59am, she said: "John, I'm here with your f***ing kids and nobody knows where the f*** you are, you f***ing pervert."
In other calls, she accused him of "using" her and of being unfaithful.
There were also conflicting reports as to whether Mr O'Keefe was seen in the snow early on January 29.
A snowplough driver testified he didn't see anything on the lawn early that day.
But another witness, Julianna Nagel, claimed to have seen a "black blob" on the lawn before the snowplough passed.
A podcast phenomenon, a mistrial and 'Turtleboy'
After eight weeks of testimony and 68 witnesses, jury deliberation began.
After 25 hours of deliberation, the jury announced on July 1, 2024 that they could not come to a unanimous decision.
A note from the jury's foreman said different factions among the group held deep beliefs about the case which meant "to continue to deliberate would be futile".
A mistrial was declared.
[mistrial]Hours later, Massachusetts State Police announced lead investigator, Trooper Michael Proctor, had been relieved of duty.
They added an internal investigation into "serious misconduct" which had been revealed during the trial was ongoing.
An appeal to dismiss the charges and another appeal to drop two of the charges against Ms Read were both denied.
The long-running trial had garnered global attention by the time the mistrial was declared — spearheaded in part by local blogger Aiden "Turtleboy" Kearney.
Mr Kearney would go to court and confront witnesses in videos uploaded to his YouTube channel.
Partway through the trial, he was charged with multiple counts of witness intimidation, and has pleaded not guilty.
Netflix, Investigation Discovery, 20/20 and Dateline all released documentaries covering the case.
A podcast series, 34 Fairview Road, was released in October.
Ms Read's second trial began earlier this month.
Karen Read's second trial gets underway
Karen Read faces the same charges in her retrial, which is expected to garner significant public attention and divide the town of Canton once more.
She is also facing a wrongful death lawsuit filed by the O'Keefe family, which will not move forward until the criminal case is resolved.
Earlier this week, Prosecutor Hank Brennan pointed to text messages between Mr O'Keefe and Ms Read on January 28 — which he said would show how the relationship had soured.
He noted Ms Read's repeated statements to friends and emergency statements.
"She said, 'I hit him, I hit him, I hit him'," he said.
"And it was at that time … that she admitted what she had done that night, after she hit John O'Keefe.
"We are here today because John O'Keefe was killed by the actions and conduct of that defendant, Karen Read."
Ms Read's lawyers have again depicted her as a "convenient outsider" to a law enforcement conspiracy.
They maintain Mr O'Keefe was beaten, attacked by the dog, and dumped outside police officer Brian Albert's home.
Ms Read, according to her legal team, was "pre-selected" as the main suspect.
"You'll see from the evidence in this case that [it] carries a malignancy," defence attorney Alan Jackson told jurors.
"A cancer that cannot be cut out, a cancer that cannot be cured."
The trial is ongoing.
