Karen Read murder trial: 911 call reporting John O’Keefe unresponsive brings tears in courtroom

John O’Keefe’s mother broke out in tears as the 911 call reporting her son John O’Keefe as unresponsive in the snow in the early morning hours of Jan. 29, 2022, played in court on the fifth day of the Karen Read murder trial.

“He got out of the car and (unintelligible) a couple of hours. I don’t know if he’s breathing,” Jennifer McCabe said in the initial 911 call to Canton Police. “I think he’s passed away.”

Canton Police Officer Steven Saraf would shortly thereafter find McCabe, Read and Kerry Roberts surrounding the unresponsive body of O’Keefe, Read’s boyfriend of about two years and a 16-year Boston cop, on the front lawn of 34 Fairview Road.

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Karen Read murder trial: Day two, first responders testify

Saraf, the first on the scene, was dispatched by Canton PD Sgt. Sean Goode, who was the second person to take the stand on the fifth day of the Read murder trial in Norfolk Superior Court in Dedham.

Read, 44, of Mansfield, faces charges of second-degree murder, motor vehicle manslaughter and leaving the scene of a collision causing the death of O’Keefe, a 16-year Boston cop and her boyfriend of about two years at the time.

By the time court broke for lunch, Goode, the supervisor of the PD’s overnight patrol, had testified to two relevant emergency calls placed that morning. The first was from Roberts a little before 5 a.m., in which she reported concerns about O’Keefe not having come home.

“They were out having drinks and she left and he didn’t come home …,” Roberts said in the call, adding that the concern was shared with her by O’Keefe’s girlfriend, Read. “She’s nervous because she said that he hadn’t even called.”

But it was McCabe’s call around an hour later reporting O’Keefe unresponsive and cold and the chaotic scene that most affected those in the courtroom. During the call, O’Keefe’s mother, Peggy O’Keefe, could be seen wiping tears as others in the area O’Keefe’s family and close friends sit also displayed obvious emotion to the call.

His testimony continued when court resumed at 2 p.m. following a lunch break.

The morning had been consumed by the testimony of Canton Police Lt. Paul Gallagher, the senior officer on the scene after O’Keefe had already been transported to the hospital. He supervised police securing the scene, collecting evidence and interviewing witnesses.

Gallagher testified that he had never secured a crime scene in the snow during his 30-year career and that “Nothing about the scene was standard.”

He said that he used a leaf blower to gently remove the snow from the area other officers told him O’Keefe’s body had been. There he said he collected six samples of presumed blood from the area and located a shattered piece of a drinking glass.

He secured the blood in red Solo cups from a package provided by a neighbor, he said, handed it off to Canton PD Sgt. Micahel Lank and watched Lank leave to presumably put the evidence into temporary storage.

He entered the house with Lank to monitor Lank taking a statement with McCabe — the sister-in-law of homeowner Brian Albert — but did not take any photographs of the inside of the home or request permission to do so. The interview was not recorded.

This is a developing story.

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