Jennifer McCabe, who's the sister-in-law of the man who owned the home where John O'Keefe's body was found, is took the stand after cross-examination was completed with her husband, Matthew McCabe.
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By Munashe Kwangwari and Eli Rosenberg • Published May 17, 2024 • Updated on May 18, 2024 at 12:41 am
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Jennifer McCabe testifies
Around 12:15 p.m., Matthew McCabe's wife, Jennifer McCabe, took the stand. She was one of the three women, along with Read and Roberts, who found O'Keefe's body on the lawn of 34 Fairview Road on the morning of Jan. 29, 2022.
She testified about how she and her husband met her sister at the Waterfall around 9 p.m. on Jan. 28, 2022.
"He was my friend. I loved John. He was an amazing guy," McCabe said when asked what she thought about O'Keefe. She also detailed how O'Keefe told her that he was dating someone new, and he wanted McCabe to meet her.
McCabe said she met Read for the first time when they both came over to her house in July of 2020, and occasionally socialized with them at sporting events, birthday parties and other events.
"I enjoyed Ms. Read. I really liked her. I thought we connected from the beginning. She was very easy to talk to. She had MS, I have MS... It was nice to have someone who understood what I was going through. So we had that in common."
On the night before O'Keefe's death, McCabe said she left the Waterfall around midnight. As multiple previous witnesses have described, she said the mood at the bar that night was positive.
She also testified about a conversation with Read about how Read was frustrated that she and O'Keefe didn't have more time together, and that his family wasn't helping out more with raising his niece and nephew.
And she talked about how everyone left the Waterfall and how she gave O'Keefe directions back to Albert's home, where people were gathering after leaving the bar. But she said O'Keefe never came into the Albert house that evening.
McCabe testified that she saw a dark SUV outside of the Albert home that night and texted O'Keefe, "Here?"
Lally looked to have the text exchange between McCabe and O'Keefe entered into evidence, but the defense objected. The judge asked him to redact certain images from the text messages over the lunch break, and adjourned the trial until 2 p.m., when McCabe returned to the stand.
The text messages between McCabe and O'Keefe were entered into evidence after the lunch break, with Lally asking about the specifics of their exchange.
The first was at 12:14 a.m. on Jan. 29, 2022, from O'Keefe to McCabe, saying "Where to?"
At 12:27 a.m., McCabe sent O'Keefe a text, saying, "Here!?" She said she sent that text after seeing a dark SUV out front of the Albert home on Fairview Road. Four minutes later, she sent a text saying, "Pull behind me." She said she sent this message after seeing the SUV move, to tell O'Keefe to park behind her vehicle.
At 12:40 a.m., she sent another text to O'Keefe saying, "Hello." McCabe said she wasn't sure if the SUV was still there or if it had already left by that point.
At 12:42 a.m., she texted O'Keefe, "Where are you?" And then "Hello" at 12:45 a.m.
McCabe said she never received any response from O'Keefe.
The next text she sent to O'Keefe was at 4:59 a.m., when she said, "Please answer." She then added, "Karen is worried we need to find u" and followed with another text asking him again to answer so she would know that he was OK.
McCabe said the later texts were prompted by a phone call she received from O'Keefe's niece, who was with Karen Read. Similar to what her husband testified, McCabe said at 4:53 a.m., she was woken up by her phone. She said she could hear Read screaming her name in the background and that she eventually got on the phone.
McCabe said Read told her she had gotten in a fight with O'Keefe and he hadn't come home. McCabe described Read as hard to understand and "extremely irrational" during the call. McCabe also said Read kept asking "could I have hit him?" and that she mentioned she had a damaged tail light.
McCabe began trying to get in contact with other people to see if she could track down O'Keefe, and she said at this point her husband was awake and told her they had seen Read and O'Keefe outside of her sister's house.
McCabe said she wound up leaving the house to look for O'Keefe when Read showed up at her home, screaming. McCabe described Read as "hysterical" at this point. They were joined by Kerry Roberts and the three of them decided to go back to O'Keefe's home, McCabe driving Read's car.
“I saw missing pieces from the tail light," McCabe testified, saying that when they arrived at O'Keefe's driveway Read showed them the damage.
McCabe said they checked the house for O'Keefe and spoke with his niece before leaving again, this time heading over to Fairview. She said this time all three women were in one car, with Roberts driving, McCabe in the passenger seat and Read in the back. She said Read continued screaming their names and repeating certain phrases like "could I have hit him?"
As they drove back to Fairview, McCabe said between the weather and the darkness the conditions were bad and it was hard to see. As they approached the Albert home, McCabe said Read shouted "there he is" and started banging on the car door to be let out.
Roberts unlocked the door and McCabe said Read ran right to where O'Keefe was laying. McCabe said he was flat on his back and covered with snow.
“I saw Kerry wiping the snow off of John’s face and I could not believe that that was John laying there.”
McCabe called 911 and she said Roberts and Read began attempting CPR while they waited for first responders. She said Read continued to scream.
Police and EMTs arrived and began working on O'Keefe. McCabe testified that when an EMT asked them what happened, Read said "I hit him" three times.
"When she spoke to the paramedic it was crystal clear: 'I hit him,'” McCabe said.
McCabe said she and Roberts were placed in a car with Read, who kept asking, "is he dead?" and asked them to pray.
The defense has made a search on McCabe's phone of "hos [sic] long to die in cold" central to the argument of Read's innocence. Her attorneys say she made this search at 2:27 a.m., hours before 911 was called to report O'Keefe had been found in the snow.
Prosecutors have disputed this timing, arguing McCabe made the search after O'Keefe was found unresponsive.
McCabe testified Friday that she made the search at Read's request after they found O'Keefe.
"She grabbed my hands and she said, 'Google hypothermia, Google how long it takes to die in the cold," McCabe said on the witness stand. "I had my phone out, and it was cold, and my hands were frozen, and I have MS, and I took my phone out while she was screaming and shaking my arm, and I attempted to Google 'How long does it take to die in the cold.'"
She told the court, "my hands were shaking," as she tried to complete the search and that she may have looked it up multiple times, but doesn't think she actually got the answer.
“I was completely just in a state of shock and disbelief,” she said.
Read's defense team maintains that the search was made hours earlier.
"That Google search was at 2:27 in the morning. That's when the Google search happened, and you'll find out why we know that in short order," defense attorney Alan Jackson said outside court Friday.
McCabe said that at one point, a police officer asked her to go inside and wake her sister, which she did by walking into the Albert home and upstairs to her sister's bedroom. Nicole and Brian Albert were asleep, according to McCabe, who said at first they appeared confused as she tried to explain to them what was happening.
After a few minutes the Alberts got up and got dressed, McCabe testified, coming downstairs to Officer Lank, who was waiting to speak with them. McCabe said she knew Lank, both of them having grown up in Canton. She said Lank eventually left but returned later with another officer when she called him.
"He had told me if there’s anything you remember please give me a call," McCabe said, noting that she got Lank's phone number from Julie Albert, who also arrived at the home at some point that morning.
I told him about the comments and the remarks that Karen Read had been stating that morning," McCabe testified. "I said that she told one of the EMTs that she hit him," she added.
McCabe said throughout the hours she was at her sister's home that morning several other people arrived at different points, including her husband Matthew McCabe, who she said she called, Julie Albert, and Brian Higgins. Eventually she returned home with her husband, and said it was there she was interviewed by Massachusetts State Police - troopers - Michael Proctor and Yuri Bukhenik.
She noted that at one point she called Brian Albert because she "wanted his support." Albert was at the McCabe home during her state police interviews, McCabe said.
Court has wrapped up for the day Friday.
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