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[Music] this is a case that captivated the nation last year but I never did like a
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proper crime junkie Deep dive because it was going to trial and I thought okay things are going to wrap up we're going
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to have a conclusion right I have never been so wrong the trial of Karen Reed for the murder of John o'keef was a six-
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week spectacle that had more twists and turns and theatrics than most legal dramas on TV and it all ended with a
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mistrial so it's happening again so I'm going to catch you up I want to tell you
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everything we know about the death of joh O'Keefe so that you are fully prepared for this second trial that's
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starting super soon but before we go back to court I'm going to present you the two versions of the same story that
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we heard last time and you get to decide which one is true these are the stories
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of the death of John O'Keefe here's what we know for sure about January 28th and 29th
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2022 on January 28th 41-year-old Karen Reed met up with her 46-year-old boyfriend of 2 years John O'Keefe they
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met at this bar in Canton Massachusetts called CF McCarthy's now surveillance video shows Ken walking in greeting John
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at 8:51 p.m. and they're drinking there for about 2 hours hours until they walk over to another nearby bar the waterfall
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where they meet up with a group of people that John knew some of whom Karen knows is but some of them were law
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enforcement just like John who is a Boston cop now everyone's having a good time like mingling talking know one
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person standing out more than another video from that night shows that Karen was throwing back drinks at one point in
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the night she actually seemed to be like ordering shots and then pouring them into her mixed drink I guess to like
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make them stronger actually I just watched the documentary that came out on HBO she says like it was a drink she
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didn't like and so she got a shot and was pouring it in there I don't know either way shots and drinks and listen
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it's not like everyone else is sober this is a group that can put a few back and no one's ready to call it quits
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around midnight when the bar is closing despite the fact that it's already snowing and New England is about to get
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walloped by a nor Easter John even still has a cocktail glass in his hand when he
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leaves the bar with Karen and they move the party over to a house about 5 minutes away at 34 Fair viiew
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Road becomes Infamous at some point now the house belongs to a couple in the group this other Boston cop and his wife
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so Brian and Nicole Albert now it was their son Brian Jr's 23rd birthday and I guess Brian and Nicole basically invited
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everyone back to their house to join whatever like party he was having now despite the copious amounts of alcohol
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that has been consumed Karen climbs behind the wheel of her Lexus JN in the passenger because she's going to drive
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them over now John didn't know Brian Albert super well but he did know someone else in the group well a woman
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named Jen mccab and she is actually sisters with Brian's wife Nicole so Nicole Albert who owns the house so John
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and Jen exchange calls and texts along the way it's now shortly after midnight January 29th at 12:4 John texts Jen
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McCabe where to and then less than a minute later she calls JN back and they have this like 44 second conversation
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presumably like giving getting directions 4 minutes after that at 12:18 JN calls Jen for 36 seconds likely he's
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like getting some clarifying directions or whatever because by this point everyone is starting to arrive at the
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house and like Jen is expecting JN and Karen too but they don't come rolling into the house after everyone so Jen
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goes to the window and looks out she actually sees a dark SUV that might be Karen so she texts John at 12:27 here
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when he hasn't replied 2 minutes later she calls him again John answers the call it's a quick 8 seconds and then he
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hangs up but he still hasn't come in at 12:31 Jen texts John hello at 12:40 she texts him again pull behind me at 12:41
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Jon gets two Miss calls from Jen and Jen texts where are you 12:43 JN gets a missed call from Jen 12:45 Jen text John
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hello 12:46 Miss call from Jen to John 12:47 missed call from Jen again 1250 missed call from Jen now no one but the
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people who lived this story knows what happened next but there are a few things that we do know for certain we know that
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Jon got out of Karen's car and Karen's car data shows that she put her car in reverse and backed up at some point then
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she drove off eventually ending up at John's place for the night and she drove off pissed yeah wasn't she leaving like
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really really angry voicemails like that whole night well not the whole night but
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like after she left like most certainly yeah and I actually want to play some of
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them for those who don't know what we're talking [Music] about John I'm going home I cannot leave
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you f your need I need to go home you you me another girl he sleeping next to me you're
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loser so she's mad she is also firing off texts at this point telling John that she's going back to her house in
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Mansfield she's leaving his niece and nephew Home Alone Now John's niece and nephew both actually live with him
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because he took them in after his sister and his brother-in-law both died in short succession of one another and
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listen she's not actually going to end up leaving them alone but this is what she's threatening to do
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so she stays at John's and eventually falls asleep on the couch until about 4:30 in the morning when she wakes up in
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a panic now it's Karen who alerts people in the morning that JN never came home like she first wakes up his niece asking
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her to call Jen McKay because Jon didn't come home she needs to find him but she
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doesn't have Jen's number and she's reported to have sound panicked and she was talking maybe about a fight that
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they'd gotten in and when she finally gets on the phone with Jen at 4:53 in the morning Jen says she doesn't know
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where Jon is but she will help Karen look for him so Karen is going to meet Jen at Jen's place and in the meantime
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she calls another friend Carrie Roberts Carrie wasn't in the group that went out
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the night before she's just a good friend of John's but Karen just wants more people to for more people helping
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and and trying to get figure this all out right so on the phone with Carrie she is so panicked that she's saying she
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thinks Jon is dead so while Carrie makes her way to meet up with Jen and Karen she is also calling like non-emergency
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police lines to ask if there's like been any snowplow accident she's calling local hospitals but no one has any intel
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on John O'Keefe now once all three women are back together they drive back to John's in that new documentary I told
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you I just watched Karen says it was actually Jen's idea for them to go back and look which didn't make sense to
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Karen she said but I don't know like they didn't fully look she said I was there he wasn't but like I think Jen's
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probably thinking like he could just be passing out somewhere right so they go back to his house they look around he's
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nowhere to be found so they head over to where Karen says she last saw him outside of the Albert's home now at this
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point it's around 6:00 a.m. snow is still coming down they've all had very little sleep and Karen is in a
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full-blown panic in the back seat presumably made even worse when Jen says they never saw Jon the night before and
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Karen starts going on about how drunk she was the night before and that she doesn't remember anything and that her
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tail light on her SUV is cracked and Jen and Carrie find themselves being asked by Karen could I have hit him did I hit
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him and when they near the Albert's house Karen begins literally like kicking at the door shouting there he is
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he's right there but Jen and Carrie can't see anything I mean they just see snow until Karen like launches herself
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out of the car and runs over to a spot in the Albert's lawn like near this flag pole they have where sure enough after
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like brushing away about 6 in of fresh snow they find John and Karen throws herself on top of him and is like
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lifting up their shirts to try and exchange body heat warming him up she makes a comment in the new documentary
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that she like pulls a piece of glass out of his face which like it's the first time she mentions this by the way but
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like pulls a piece of glass out and he's bleeding and she's just freaking out trying figure out what to do and this is
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when Jen calls 911 at 6:04 in the morning no pleas s line what is emergency um yes I need someone to come
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to 34 uh 34 Fe viiew Road and Canton Map There's a man pass out in the snow 34 Fair View yes there's a man unresponsive
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in the snow okay is he uh you yeah you've got to get here okay okay what's going on is he face
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down we we just flipped him over okay and who's that in the background is that someone related that's that's his his um
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girlfriend his name is John okay how old is he John is um 46 years old 46 how long has he been
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outside I don't know um I I don't know he got out of the car and a couple of hours is he carry is he
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I don't I um I I um I I don't I don't know if he's breathing there are two women trying to
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heat do his body heat and they're hysterical okay can you just try to asking I know it's tough but we already
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have the fire department going I just got to know if he's breathing is he breathing you guys no I doesn't seem to
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be breathing okay do they know how to do CPR do they want to attempt CPR you guys
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carry get can you guys do CPR no I guess he's gone okay they don't feel comfortable doing so no I think
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he's passed away okay okay all right we got the fire department and the police department on the way if everyone's to
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planing CPR then I can't I'll hang up with you and U if anything changes you can give us a call back where are you
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guys outside oh right out front you it's a car I know I know I'm on the phone with
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the ambulance I know I know I know I know honey I know Carrie you got to get off him honey
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Carrie you got to get off of him oh my God this is a you know if there was any uh alcohol or drugs involved
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stop he he he they had been out um they had been out they've been out yes I but I'm talking hours about
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maybe and I I said I don't know how long he's been in the snow okay is there any
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bleeding or anything maybe hit his head hit his head out yes possibly there seems to be bleeding in the face okay
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bleeding from the face all right yes and how big's the pool of blood if there is
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any um something's coming out of his not and one of the on is doing CPR okay one
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of woman is doing CPR yes they're both working on him all right if she's doing CPR just let me just give us a call back
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if he becomes response right but we're on the way okay thank you now I know that audio is a little
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hard to make out but Karen is obviously panicking in the background I mean to the point that the dispatcher actually
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asks who he can hear in the background while he's trying to get all the details of what's going on and Jen tells him
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it's John's girlfriend so we know it's Karen that's y in and Jen also tells the dispatcher that they don't think Jon is
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breathing and the dispatcher tells them to start CPR so Karen starts that until Canton Police and paramedics get there
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which is like a few minutes later and they're all probably shocked to find out that the man lying in the snow is one of
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their own now John isn't Canton PD like I said he is a 16-year veteran of the Boston Police Department but he lives in
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Canton and Canton is a small town where like most everyone knows each other so the pressure is on to try and save John
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they Rush him to the hospital and Karen is actually brought to the hospital too because she is threatening that she
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might take her own life if Jon Dies but try as they might John can't be saved and by 7:50 in the morning authorities
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deliver the heartbreaking news that Jon has died and the investigation into his death officially kicks off with a man
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named Michael Proctor at the helm and boy would that turn out to be a mistake [Music]
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at the scene where Jon was found Canton police officers battle continued snowfall as they try and sift through
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the inches of white powder on the ground to look for and collect evidence now meanwhile state trooper Michael Proctor
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has already began talking to people and he's hearing bits and pieces of a fuzzy story but the outline is there
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everyone's been drinking it's a snowstorm people are drinking and driving in a snowstorm he's told that
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Karen dropped JN off but JN never made it in he needs to talk to Karen I mean lots of people are talking about Karen
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about what they say came out of Karen's mouth that morning but Michael needs to talk directly to Karen right because at
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one point she's not just asking if she hit him like she says she did hit him right so according to a paramedic yes
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they say they actually heard her say it three times I hit him I hit him I hit him but cops don't know that yet now by
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this point Karen has been released from the hospital and they did a blood test while she was in there and the results
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were that her BAC was 07 to like 8% which at that point is around the legal drinking limit and mind you this
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is hours after she reportedly stopped drinking but she's been released by this point she's at her parents' place like
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she had actually gone there after first going to Jon's house I mean that was basically her second home but Jon's
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family was all there and she said like when she got there she did not feel welcome so like Mom and Dad's house it
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is so that's where Michael Proctor finds her and her SUV which they seiz as part
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of their investigation she tells Proctor and another sergeant that he's with that
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she and John were fine now they did get into an argument that morning on the 28th over like what she gave his teenage
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niece for breakfast like one of those dumb fights that couples have and then that night she and John met up at the
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bars she dropped JN off at the Albert home made a 3o turn and then headed back home and then in the morning she spotted
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a broken tail light on her car but wasn't sure how it happened now we know that this first meeting with Karen fed
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into investigators Brewing theory about her culpability and the investigation Proctor leads over the next week or so
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only feeds the fire even more back at the scene other officers had begun finding physical evidence around the
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area where Jon's body had been when he was carded off he was missing one shoe but that got found nearby along with his
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hat a cocktail straw and pieces of glass that they believe came from that glass he was holding when he left the bar they
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also find pieces of red and clear plastic consistent with Karen's tail light on Brian Albert's lawn so 2 days
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later on January 31st an autopsy is performed on JN and the medical examiner finds that Jon suffered a lot of
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injuries now he's got several abrasions on his right forearm small cuts above his right eye and on the left side of
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his nose a 2-in laceration on the back of his head multiple skull fractures that caused brain bleeding and two black
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eyes now aside from the abrasions on his arm from the neck down he does not have
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a single broken bone or fracture But ultimately they find that he died of blunt force trauma and hypothermia so
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Proctor looks at all of this evidence that police found the tail light the autopsy results the way Jon was ejected
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from his shoe the same way he's seen so many cases of vehicular homicides before
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and it is his belief that all of it points right to Karen and the idea that she backed into John in her Lexus SUV
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and left him to die in the snow so on February 1st police arrest Karen at her home in Mansfield she is arraigned the
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next day on charges of manslaughter motor vehicle homicide in leaving the scene of a deadly crash when that
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happens Karen retains attorney David yannetti first and local press catch him coming out of the courthouse where he
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gives the public their first real insight into the case and what's to come Karen's going to fight he says she has
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no Criminal Intent and that she loved Jon and she is innocent Karen was let out on a $50,000 bail that day and yti
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started to prepare what at first felt like a pretty straightforward defense but then on February 2nd Yanti
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gets this very strange call from an anonymous tipster that takes this seemingly straightforward case and
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transforms it into one of the biggest conspiracy cases I have ever come [Music] across according to Boston Magazine on
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this call this Anonymous tipster says something to the effect of your client is innocent JN was beaten up up by Brian
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Albert and his nephew they broke his nose and when O'Keefe didn't come to Brian and a federal agent dumped his
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body on the front lawn who was the federal agent so the the federal agent is someone they were out with drinking
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at the bars that night someone that went back to their place too now to be fair we don't know for sure this is who the
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anonymous tipser was talking about but like the federal agent we know was at the house that night was Brian Higgins
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which I'm sure his the name you're familiar with but he's an ATF agent Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco firearms and
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explosives and he's going to become Central to this story that's why you know his name yeah and he's actually one
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of the only people who knew Karen really well in that group but back to this call
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so this tipster ends up recanting everything he said apparently police track him down and when they interview
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him he says like JK none of it's true but his tip has already gotten Karen's wheels turning she says in an interview
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with Nightline that after the tipster came forward she went on Facebook and started finding photos of the police who
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were investigating the case with people who were in The Albert's house that night now it's unclear what exact photos
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she is talking about in that interview but we know now that Michael Proctor is in multiple social media posts with
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members of the Albert family so she starts to wonder if all of these people are connected and if she's being framed
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in some sort of cover up for something they did and if that's the case she knows that she needs a topnotch defense
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team so in September she sends an email in which she says quote I am fighting for my life against a blue wall and that
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email goes to Alan Jackson not Alan Jackson the country singer to be very very clear was my first thought but this
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is a high-profile defense attorney from Los Angeles and this idea that she's putting forward this catches his
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attention now he has a couple of follow-up questions but it doesn't take much he's in and no one's been able to
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say why exactly this next thing happens for sure is it because Karen seemed to be gearing up for a fight and they were
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hoping to intimidate her push her into a deal or was it just because they continued digging and felt like the
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circumstances of the case had changed you tell me but by June 2022 a grand jury had indicted Karen on upgraded
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charges of second deegree murder manslaughter while operating under the influence of alcohol and leaving the
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scene of personal injury or death Karen again pleads not guilty and post bail again this time it's
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$100,000 and this is really when the madness begins not when this thing goes to trial no no no that is not happening
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for two more years at this point the pre-trial hearings and what played out on the internet was a spectacle on its
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own enough so that we all knew what each side's case was before even going to trial or before the first Witnesses ever
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even even took the stand I mean we already knew the prosecution side right though they do fill in the story a
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little more with details along the way basically they say that Jon and Karen's relationship was on its way out Jon's
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niece had even heard him say as much like his relationship with Karen had like run its course and the day they all
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went out JN seemed pretty fed up with her in one text he told her he was tired of arguing all the time but I mean we
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know they also met up at the bar and he was trying to convince her to stay over for the weekend so like talk about mixed
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signals yeah but it seems like Karen might have had one leg out the door too because she was texting another guy and
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not just any other guy that ATF agent Brian Higgins they had been pretty flirty over text even shared a kiss
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pretty recently at Jon's house when Karen walked Brian Higgins to the door and listen new fear unlocked when this
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thing does get to trial Brian has to take the St hand and read these texts out loud under the fluorescent lights of
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the courtroom streamed on court TV and I have never suffered from secondhand embarrassment the way I did watching
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that day of trial and I need everyone to know exactly what I mean the fendant responded you're
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hot I responded are you serious or messing with me the fender responded no I'm serious I
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responded failing is mutual is that bad when were you interested Defender responded I don't
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know you're just my type I responded you think you can handle me yeah that's the
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type of embarrassment that like wakes you up in the middle of the night 7 years later and you just continue to
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cringe yes so relationship status complicated for sure now even though everyone at the bar said that the couple
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seemed fine the theory is that they began fighting about something thing in the car so that by the time Jon gets out
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of Karen's SUV Karen is pissed exhibit a her voicemails is that the real reason she
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didn't get out and go with him I don't know it's hard for anyone to know why Karen didn't get out because Karen's own
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story about why she didn't get out has changed over time more proof to the prosecution that she's lying
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like at one point she says oh she didn't get out because she had a stomach ache and then at another Point she says it's
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because she didn't know if she and John were actually invited so she sent him in
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to kind of like sus out the vibe either way she doesn't go in instead the prosecution alleges that Jon got out of
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the car and when he did Karen intentionally backed up into him which they say is proven by a few things one I
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mean first and foremost everyone in the Albert home home says that John never came inside hard stop two there are no
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footprints in the snow leading from the Albert's house to Jon's body so it seems
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like no one from the house walked anywhere near where John was found but it was a blizzard like would we even
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expect there to be footprints in the snow yeah I don't think so it's just like pointed out so I felt like I had to
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throw it in here but like no I don't know number three we have the data from Karen's SUV so they have data from
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Karen's SUV that shows she backed up for 60 ft driving 24 mph that morning but the vehicle's data doesn't specify
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exactly what time now number four they've got surveillance video that shows Jon leaving the bar like I said
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earlier with a glass in his hand and they say that they find that glass shattered next to his body on the lawn
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so they think that he was holding it when she backed up into him and then of course number five which is like the
00:24:56
prosecutions Clincher you have her broken tail light found in the snow which they reconfigure back together to
00:25:03
show it was hers and the prosecution says that they even find pieces of plastic from the tail light like
00:25:08
somewhere within his clothing the sixth thing they point to is they've got a hair on the back of Karen's car that
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when tested is found to be consistent with Jon's DNA and then finally they have the autopsy he suffers blunt force
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trauma after as the prosecution says being hit by Karen's car and then she drives away leaving leing him to get
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hypothermia and die because no one knows he's out there pretty cut and dry right
00:25:35
yeah if only I know so in one of the early pre-trial hearings Karen's defense attorney Alan Jackson announces how he's
00:25:45
going to defend Karen by exposing a cover up and a far-reaching conspiracy to frame Karen and just to be
00:25:54
clear when I say conspiracy I mean we are talking about the legal definition of of a conspiracy one or more people
00:26:00
conspiring with one another to carry out a criminal act and man whether it is truth or just a combination of very bad
00:26:09
police work and coincidence what comes out is [Music] mindblowing so I need to address the
00:26:20
turtle in the room H the turtle so there is this blogger who goes by the handle Turtle Boy real name a Carney and don't
00:26:29
worry if you don't like calling him turtle boy he has given an alternate option dubbing himself journalism Jesus
00:26:36
so do with that what you will but basically this guy covers what he calls anti-establishment news now he's from
00:26:43
the area so he hears about Karen's story and I didn't know at first like how he really like latches on to this but again
00:26:51
I just watched the doc this morning and I found out it was actually someone from
00:26:56
Karen's like family friends team what ever actually reached out to him they had like followed him liked what he did
00:27:01
and was like hey you should pay attention to this they are the ones that actually Point him in this direction and
00:27:06
he like fully leans in he is fully bought into the conspiracy and it basically becomes his whole personality
00:27:14
as seen from his website and for better or worse he is a really big reason why this case took off as much as it did
00:27:22
somehow this guy was coming out with a ton of Insider information on the case well turns out somehow sometimes it was
00:27:30
because Karen was leaking stuff to him like there was a state police affidavit that reveals that over the course of a
00:27:36
few months in 2023 Karen spent like 40 hours on the phone with him allegedly feeding him confidential information and
00:27:43
listen I'm all about independent journalism and alternatives to mainstream news but he did a lot of
00:27:49
things that rubbed a lot of people the wrong way which is why he has been such a polarizing presence in this case he
00:27:57
showed up at Jen McCabe's kids soccer game and recorded himself asking her inflammatory questions and his so-called
00:28:05
Turtle Riders did a rolling rally where they went house to house in a caravan of
00:28:11
cars using a bullhorn and shouting about their coverup allegations outside Witnesses homes which to be clear like
00:28:19
those people have never been charged and at this point they were all considered Witnesses in the case which is why he
00:28:25
ends up getting charged with witness intimidation down the line and this group's protests are popping up all over
00:28:33
even out of state but there is nowhere that they are more intense than right outside of the courthouse during trial I
00:28:40
mean it is wild turtleboy and his fans go in hard on the free Karen Reed movement they're wearing turtleboy
00:28:48
branded fkr merch and holding rallies outside the courthouse like to the point that the judge has to put up a 200t
00:28:56
buffer zone and on that document on HBO someone had said that like I don't know if this is true or not but they claimed
00:29:02
that the jurors could actually like hear them like chanting free Ken Reed while they were trying to deliberate like I
00:29:09
don't remember like even if you didn't watch every minute of trial like I did like this was all over the news it was a
00:29:17
mad house and our reporter spoke with one of John's closest friends and he told us that free care and Reed
00:29:22
protesters were actually calling people cop killers on their way into court and a bunch of officers and Jon's friends
00:29:30
had to escort Jon's mom into the courthouse like this guy were talking to is a marine veteran and he said the
00:29:36
scene outside the courthouse reminded him of being in a combat zone in Iraq and the chaos of all of this made
00:29:43
everything 10 times harder for John's grieving family and I was just trying to rewatch some footage to like really like
00:29:50
wrap my mind around what was happening like like a reminder almost cuz it does feel like forever ago at this point and
00:29:57
it was wild the way that you know you see this like we saw this with OJ the way that people like wrap themselves
00:30:04
around this and they get so like you forget why we're all here and how tragic like like a disconnection or
00:30:10
dissociation with reality tailgating this trial and people were outside on lawn chairs like watching it and
00:30:17
chanting and it has become something so much bigger than the reason we're here and the reason we're here is getting
00:30:24
lost so you can understand why state of offals don't give much Credence to this blogger and I say blogger I know he says
00:30:33
journalist but there is a difference between like anything he hears just goes up online like the vetting process
00:30:39
doesn't seem to be there and it's also no surprise really that the prosecution thinks that the defense's idea of a
00:30:46
conspiracy is Bonkers I mean the norfol da Michael morresy makes a bold move and
00:30:52
even issues a video statement saying that there's a reason people are tried in court and not on the internet which
00:30:59
is like that I agree with but he also uses this video as an opportunity to defend the one and only Michael Proctor
00:31:07
truper Proctor had no close personal relationship with any of the parties involved in the investigation and had no
00:31:16
conflict and he had no reason to step out of this investigation every suggestion to the contrary is a
00:31:23
lie well not so fast my guy Internal Affairs is isn't so confident in how he's handled this case they end up
00:31:32
opening an investigation in the Proctor's conduct and it turns out someone else is looking into his conduct
00:31:40
too while everyone is so busy saying the coverup theory is outlandish and some scheme cooked up by the not country
00:31:49
singer Alan Jackson incomes an unprecedented and I do not use that word lightly unprecedented bombshell
00:31:58
[Music] while attorneys are getting ready to call witnesses for the trial someone
00:32:05
else is reaching out to those same Witnesses the FBI that's right the feds are getting involved and they have their
00:32:14
own case that ends up kind of giving the defense a leg up because all of a sudden
00:32:21
they've got access to like 3,000 pages of documents that the feds have collected in their investigation about
00:32:28
this stuff and it's like almost every suspicion the defense has had gets confirmed and some and like I don't even
00:32:37
know where to start but like high level the defense's theory is that Karen and John drove to the Albert's House John
00:32:45
goes in Karen leaves there's some kind of altercation in the house specifically involving John Brian Higgins Brian
00:32:55
Albert and Brian Albert's nephew Colin Albert now they think there was some kind of altercation in the basement of
00:33:03
the home and then they put him out in the front lawn where he died and if you believe this Theory and everything
00:33:10
that's to come they knew he was going to die but let me really break it down so here is the defense for Karen Reed so
00:33:18
they say that even if Karen and John were fighting earlier that day they're fine by the time they get to the first
00:33:24
bar the people who were with them even testified that they seemed like they were getting along so Karen and John
00:33:30
meet up with everyone else at the waterfall they get invited back to the Albert's house now when they get there
00:33:34
by like the time of trial and stuff the defense is going with Karen's later story that she just didn't know if they
00:33:39
were really invited or welcome so she waits in the car while Jon goes in for a Vibe check she doesn't see him go in
00:33:46
like she doesn't actually watch him go in the door but he he gets out of the car she assumes he goes in right but
00:33:52
then he doesn't come back out and she gets pissed and leaves him there this is when Karen says she makes a three-point
00:34:00
turn to turn around and go home and the three-point turn I think is like her excuse for the date of the prosecution
00:34:06
has saying that she backed up this is also when and why they say she left those nasty voicemails and they think
00:34:13
it's actually more proof that he went [Music] inside John I'm going home I cannot be
00:34:24
you f in need I need to go home you you another girl he sleeping next to me you're
00:34:35
loser the voicemail sound to me like she thinks he's with another woman yeah like
00:34:41
she's clearly upset that he's not back upset that he never is like like isn't responding to her did she but she did
00:34:48
she like do that on purpose like right like you got both but there so many yeah I don't know but you can see where the
00:34:54
defense is coming from in this I've heard there's like a another woman who apparently like Liv near the Albert's
00:34:59
house that maybe John like knew or dated or something at some point and so I don't know if she had a fear that maybe
00:35:07
he like went there would have walked there and like again this maybe this is where the plow thing comes in like she
00:35:12
never says that explicitly but maybe or maybe she's just like super jealous and like thinks he's capable of anything and
00:35:21
that's why he's she's calling him a pervert over and over again yeah and so she thinks he's like out I don't know I
00:35:26
don't know I don't know right now before she makes those calls and pulls off though there's something I want to talk
00:35:31
about at about 12:23 a.m. a guy named Ryan Nagel pulls up outside the Albert's house with friends to pick up his sister
00:35:38
Julie Nagel and they get there right around the same time as Karen's SUV they actually pull up right behind it now
00:35:45
Ryan says in court that he didn't notice any obvious damage to the car mainly right we're thinking about the tail
00:35:52
light but he also notes that it's late he's been drinking now he says he's out there for for a few minutes and he
00:35:59
doesn't see anybody walking away from Karen's SUV toward the house and he also doesn't see anyone laying in the lawn so
00:36:07
Julie ends up coming out but for some reason she decides now that she's going to stay even though she called him to
00:36:13
pick her up and he made this big trip to like come get her but now she's going to
00:36:17
say whatever so Ryan and his friends leave and as they pull like alongside Karen's SUV Ryan clars that the interior
00:36:27
light is on and there is a woman in the driver's seat she is like looking ahead with her hands on the wheel and this is
00:36:33
the important part he says that she's alone and all that means is that according to what Ryan saw and what he
00:36:39
testified to in court at 12:23 John wasn't in Karen's car but he also wasn't dead on the lawn and from what he knows
00:36:49
Karen's tail light wasn't cracked at 12:36 a.m. that's when Karen's phone data shows that she connected to the
00:36:57
Wi-Fi in John's house and in one of the voicemails that she's leaving him like yelling at him specifically one at 12:42
00:37:04
a.m. you can hear her walking on hard floor so this puts her at his house 12:36 to 12:42 is and this is important
00:37:13
because Witnesses at the Alberts who saw a black SUV say that they saw it take off at around
00:37:19
12:45 and that's the time that the prosecution alleges she hit Jon but it's not possible if she's at John's house by
00:37:26
12:36 right and listen that doesn't mean that everyone's Recollections are perfect we're off by like 10 minutes
00:37:32
it's not huge but it is worth noting if this is the prosecution's case now initially everyone said they saw nothing
00:37:41
outside and I will say to be fair you've got this blizzard condition it is late everyone's been drinking where Jon is
00:37:49
found on the lawn is like over on the side of the yard towards the road and where everyone's driveway and where I
00:37:54
assume their cars would be are like in the driveway so I you know I'm like bundled up my coat face down when I'm
00:38:01
like going out in an Indiana winter I don't think they're looking for things but still no one says they saw anything
00:38:06
when they were leaving that morning and JN should be laying right there not yet covered in snow now eventually Julie
00:38:13
Nagel does say that she saw something she ended up like I said staying and then gets a ride back with actually Jen
00:38:20
mccab and their family and she says that she maybe saw a 5 to 6ot Long Black blob
00:38:28
near the flag Poole maybe maybe right but if she did see that blob she doesn't mention it to anyone she's in the car
00:38:35
with she doesn't mention it to Jen mcabe or her husband Matt McCabe who are in the car she just doesn't say anything
00:38:40
and speaking of Jen Jen's story was that she and her husband dropped them off and
00:38:46
went home and Jen says that she stayed up for a little bit she was like on her phone looking up a local basketball team
00:38:52
that her daughter might be joining and then she went to sleep in fact everyone was supposed to have been asleep until
00:38:58
Karen started waking people up to go look for John but the defense got their hands on everyone's phone records and it
00:39:06
gets really freaking weird so Jen mcab is the one communicating with John when they left the bar right right calls
00:39:14
texts directions directions all of that parked behind me so at 12:29 a.m. she called John and the call lasted 8
00:39:21
seconds and then after that point all of her calls to him go unanswered and she makes her last one to him at 1250 and
00:39:29
wasn't Karen calling John like a million times too during that time oh yeah she called him like 50 times that night but
00:39:35
anyways everyone has left the Albert house by like 2: a.m. most to go home to sleep but around 1:30 Brian Higgins
00:39:44
actually goes to the Canton Police Department remember he's not Canton PD he's ATF but he actually works out of an
00:39:50
office at Canton PD except he's not on duty that night still even though it's 1:30 in the morning and he's been
00:39:58
drinking he decides now is a good time that he's going to go like knock out some administrative work and or move his
00:40:05
cars that he's been asked to move so that the parking lot could be plowed he doesn't stay super long ends up going
00:40:10
home eating something going to bed so everyone should be home sleeping but that's not what phone records show at
00:40:19
2:22 a.m. on January 29th Brian Albert calls Brian Higgins and then 17 seconds later Brian Higgins calls Brian Albert
00:40:29
back and the call is answered that call lasts about 22 seconds now both men testified that they had been asleep at
00:40:37
this time so this is a problem right because it shows at least one of the calls was connected but both men under
00:40:44
oath claim that this was just a butt dial both men have iPhones by the way I have butt dialed plenty of time what I
00:40:53
haven't what I haven't seen is a butt dial that goes answered and then a butt dial that calls back and then that gets
00:41:01
butt answered while everyone is asleep the butt answer is the question mark I have while you're asleep you're not even
00:41:06
claim to be like moving around or walking it does not add up but they're not even the only ones whose phones I
00:41:14
will say are up and around and moving at this time at 2:25 a.m. two outbound texts are made from Jen mccabes phone
00:41:23
now it's not clear to who or what they say and is it weird that we don't know that information in 2022 and everything
00:41:29
is recorded on a cell phone well yes yes it is yeah I don't know why we don't have this but I do know for sure that
00:41:35
when police finally get her phone she has deleted a huge chunk of calls from the 29th which I think is super weird
00:41:44
and just calls not text right so that text is as far as I know that text is still there but she does delete
00:41:50
something else so at 2:26 she deletes two screenshots and then a minute later at 22 27 she does an internet search
00:42:00
which she later deletes the infamous internet search hos long to die in cold yep now everyone believes it's supposed
00:42:09
to be how long to die in cold but how got mistyped to hos and this goes on to be so heavily debated Jen says that she
00:42:20
didn't search that at 227 I mean she shouldn't be no one knows JN is out in the cold yet she's asleep
00:42:28
right well maybe not like this could be like as she's like winding down she basically says that when she went and
00:42:35
found JN the next morning with Karen Karen asked her to search how long does it take for hypothermia to set in or
00:42:43
like some version of that question and she goes to type that into a browser that she said she opened at 2:27 a.m.
00:42:51
and this turns into like a battle of the experts when it comes to trial because each side has experts who take the stand
00:43:00
and claim something different if you ask the defense that search itself was made
00:43:04
at 227 if you ask the prosecution that's just when Jen opened the tab I don't understand how we can't no like this
00:43:13
feels like the data should be solid right what am I not getting out of this it's so messy to me like the the defense
00:43:21
says that the prosecution whoever they were using to like analyze the data was like looking at the the wrong like
00:43:27
version of iOS or something and so like the way they see it they're like you're not wrong based on how you see it but
00:43:32
like you're analyzing it wrong or something to that effect and I don't think there is it does feel like it
00:43:37
should be black and white but I don't think it is because come this second trial the judge is going to allow both
00:43:43
sides to use their experts again so I don't think there is a definitive right answer yet the defense also says that
00:43:51
they have data to back up a claim that Jen deleted the search but Jen swear that she never deleted it so I don't
00:44:00
even know I don't even know what to think of that what we do know is that the defense expert who said the search
00:44:05
itself was made at 2:27 a.m. like I said is going to be allowed to testify in trial number two so the defense theory
00:44:12
has to be that this is evidence of them planning to put him out in the cold right cuz like they allege he's not even
00:44:19
out there based on luy testimony right ah lucky okay so as I've said a thousand times it's snowing hard in these early
00:44:28
morning hours the snow is basically like one of the leading ladies in this story
00:44:32
but because it's snowing so hard plow trucks are getting out there early like really early and the defense found the
00:44:39
plow driver who was on the Albert Street that morning now it doesn't seem like the cops went looking for him during
00:44:46
their investigation to confirm their Theory apparently they reached out to the town to see like who was plowing in
00:44:52
the area that night but they didn't go too far down that investigative Avenue so I mean this is again where people ask
00:44:58
like conspiracy or just like bad police work I don't know but what the defense finds by talking to Lucky is that
00:45:05
sometime between 2:30 and 3:00 a.m. Brian lucky lochran is on the Albert Street now he doesn't just know the
00:45:12
street he knows the Alberts though honestly everyone in Canton does but lucky went to school with Brian's
00:45:18
brother Chris and he used to deliver pizzas for Chris's restaurant so like knows them knows the street knows the
00:45:25
house and guess what he sees that [Music] morning lucky testifies that there was
00:45:34
nobody in the front lawn when he's out there which shouldn't be possible if the state is right and Karen hit John at
00:45:43
12:45 so my dad plowed snow like a lot of winters growing up and I feel like if you've never been in a snow plow it's
00:45:50
hard to describe you can hardly see like what's right in front of you let alone like or like the road like what's off in
00:45:58
a lawn next to you that's not anything you're troubled with so this is something that the prosecution actually
00:46:03
brought up and it gets argued like you're up high and it's not like he was in the road right like he's in the lawn
00:46:10
so they're like you just missed him but no no no no no lucky says because he's in a truck that is called the Franken
00:46:17
truck a reference to Frankenstein since it has a lot of different parts and he says that his seat was actually raised
00:46:25
up on the truck and that he had outfitted it so it would be like quote driving with a spotlight so he is
00:46:32
certain if there was a body there he would have seen it what he did see though he says was a vehicle parked
00:46:41
outside the Albert house lucky testifies there was no body in the front lawn when
00:46:47
he's out there which shouldn't be possible if the Commonwealth is right and Karen hit JN at 12:45 lucky says
00:46:55
that when he first passes the Albert's house at 2:45 a.m. there's no vehicle parked out front but then when he comes
00:47:02
back like 30 or 40 minutes later he sees a Ford Edge parked on the street right in front of where John's body was found
00:47:10
now this is relevant because the Albert say that no one else was at their house that night after everyone left the party
00:47:17
so if this is true whose car was that now there's a pretty quiet couple of hours between like 2:30 and 4:30 in the
00:47:26
morning morning where there's no phone activity 4:30 is when Karen wakes up John's niece she asks her to call Jen
00:47:33
cuz she didn't have her number and then she eventually calls Jen directly and that's made at 453 and after that Jen
00:47:39
does try to call Jon at least once at :4 and some of those calls after that were
00:47:46
part of the bunch that Jen deleted now why is Jen calling the simple explanation is that she just got news
00:47:54
that her friend is missing and she's trying to reach him right right but then why delete the calls right like looking
00:48:00
for your friend is a good thing yeah so the defense who believes that she searched how long to die in cold at 227
00:48:07
they think she knows exactly where her friend is and maybe she was doing it because she wanted to make it look like
00:48:13
she was concerned then again I ask like why delete the calls right and I know a big Theory online is that she was
00:48:19
calling to find John's phone so then they could like plant it outside near his body I heard that too but then like
00:48:26
why stop calling from 12:50 or like whatever her last call was till 5:00 a.m. like it doesn't totally add up for
00:48:33
me but like you'll see nothing in this story totally adds up right okay so Karen calls Jen again at 505 but doesn't
00:48:41
get through Jen calls her right back they talk for 43 seconds presumably making plans to meet up to look for John
00:48:48
both of those call logs are also deleted by Jen and apparently on that deleted call Jen and Karen agree that Karen will
00:48:55
go pick her up so Karen gets into her SUV which was parked in John's garage and his home security system catches her
00:49:03
on surveillance backing out at 50:07 a.m. now John's SUV is in the driveway and as she is backing out his car moves
00:49:15
ever so slightly I mean like you got to zoom don't blink but it's right as Karen's car would be getting close to
00:49:21
his and if Karen's car hit Jon's it would have been her right side tail light that hit it the same right side
00:49:29
tail light that police alleg she hit John with so hard that it was cracked and Left Behind the Albert's house was
00:49:36
it already cracked before she ever even pulled into the garage would love to tell you but there's no video footage
00:49:43
from Jon's ring camera showing Karen pulling in to Jon's garage that night why is there no video you may ask
00:49:51
because the footage is missing how how another tech question that somehow there is no answer to the prosecution has
00:50:00
insinuated that Karen deleted that part of the video from The Ring app sometime like the day of Jon's death though there
00:50:08
is no data backing this up they just like pose this hypothetically while the defense alleges that investigators
00:50:15
deleted it before handing the video over to them also no proof of that cool so whatever okay no problem there's
00:50:23
probably more footage right somewhere along her drive home home all we have to do is show the tailight is crack before
00:50:30
she gets to John's that morning and there is no debating this like case over well they found a camera on a local
00:50:38
library that would have been on the exact route she took to John's house it would have shown the right side tail
00:50:45
light and everything and police even collected it in time to get the footage from the time Karen would have been
00:50:52
driving by on the 29th but but when that footage was turned turned over to the defense it's missing a crucial 2-minute
00:51:01
window that would have shown Karen's car after leaving the Alberts now the prosecution says well that's just what
00:51:09
we got and we just turned it over how it was turned over to us and we're just supposed to like believe all that like
00:51:16
that twice the exact footage we need including one from a local library is just uh-oh missing sorry that's what
00:51:26
they're telling us so back to our timeline Karen pulls out at 5:07 to go looking for Dawn on her own for like 20
00:51:35
minutes before she like goes to meet with Jen and Cary and I think like there's even video of her car like going
00:51:39
in the direction of the waterfall bar which is like confusing to me because she leaves him not there not there like
00:51:48
what are you looking for there do you think he could have gone back there and it's really interesting because there is
00:51:52
this moment in the trial where the first trial where Jen McCabe is on the stand and she even says that in one of her
00:52:00
like first conversations with with Karen she's asking her like what happened or whatever and Karen's like oh I like I
00:52:07
left him at the waterfall bar and Jen's like no you didn't like you left together we saw you outside of my
00:52:12
sister's house so I don't know if that is like like what what Karen believed like like all her stories now are she
00:52:22
like reme remembers going remembers him going in there so like was she making up
00:52:27
a story did she not remember in the early days is everything a blur like is everyone drinking so much that
00:52:33
no one knows what's going on I don't know but she goes looking for 20 minutes at least like in the we've got her going
00:52:41
in the direction of the waterfall but then she like makes it back to Jen where they meet up Jen meanwhile in this time
00:52:49
tries calling John's phone a few more times 508 509 both deleted later from 514 to 5 32 there are a bunch of calls
00:52:58
between Karen's phone and Jen's phone and Jen to John's phone those all get deleted as well in Jen's call log and
00:53:05
Karen also tries to call John a few more times by 5:46 the three women are at Jon's house still trying to call his
00:53:13
cell with no luck and so they all head out at 552 they get to the Alberts and at 6:04 Jen makes the call to 911 now
00:53:22
First Responders get to the scene fast and this is when some of them say that they allegedly heard Karen say I hit him
00:53:28
I hit him I hit him or like some variation of that but interestingly the defense makes a big point in court to
00:53:35
show that nobody put any of this in their reports from that [Music] day not the police not the paramedics
00:53:47
this confession that everyone remembers so vividly only gets spoken about later which does feel odd that like nobody
00:53:57
mentions a confession of any kind they're not arresting her for admitting that she hit him well and if it's not in
00:54:03
any notes it's we're using this confession as that it actually happened not a misremembering of what she said or
00:54:12
what she could have said and they like pick at this at trial they're like this isn't like just like a a small detail
00:54:18
you have someone confessing to the crime how does that not make it into any report and they're just like I didn't
00:54:22
think it was relevant or or like there's a zillion reasons why they say they didn't put it in but like they're they
00:54:27
swear on the stand it happened but the defense is like did it now the defense says Karen never said that at all when
00:54:36
Karen talks to 2020 she says it was preceded by did and was a question did I hit him but I'm like getting confused
00:54:45
about this to begin with because this seems like one of the things like she has admitted to like she admits on 2020
00:54:51
even in the beginning of this HBO doc like she talks about it but then towards the end of the doc like I got all
00:54:57
twisted or I think she's all twisted because she's like you know I wonder if if I even said that like it's been so
00:55:02
many people stories and I you know I so much was going on it was so chaotic like
00:55:07
maybe I just kind of I don't know if these words are her words exactly but like internalized it and made that my
00:55:12
story so I'm like wait we all agreed that's what like you asked did I hit him and now we're trying to say and now
00:55:17
we're deciding now we're talking about if the words even came out of your mouth at all yeah it was it's weird I don't
00:55:22
know you have to watch it I don't know what to make of it well and didn't she like really early on like tell Carrie on
00:55:28
the phone like I think he's dead like right off the bat she goes immediately to John is no longer alive maybe he even
00:55:35
got hit by a plow or something she suggests a plow which is like Ultra specific yeah to me like that's not
00:55:41
where my head would go I'd be like oh he passed out at the place that I left him
00:55:45
they've been drinking all night is he sleeping it off somewhere yeah she said like she says when she's asked about
00:55:50
this like she just knows that there's no world he would not come home to his niece and his nephew because she
00:55:55
specifically like made the threat I'm not coming home and she knows he's responsible and like wouldn't leave them
00:56:00
so she says like if you if he didn't come home it has to mean something terrible happen but she's also kind of
00:56:05
accusing him of maybe being with another woman in those like in those voicemails
00:56:09
right like it doesn't it doesn't sense it doesn't make sense but again back to our
00:56:16
timeline Jen makes some additional calls that like don't make a lot of sense with
00:56:20
the story we've been told and then she makes two searches at 623 how long does it take to digest food
00:56:29
which was like I think an autopop populated search as she's trying to type how long to die and then it like and
00:56:36
then she has one that's like how long TI die and kicked like again they're all typos it's freezing and she's trying to
00:56:42
type but the the question is the same but neither of those searches are hos long to die in
00:56:49
cold which is important here I think so so they're out on her sister's lawn with
00:56:56
her friend dead on the ground at this point it makes sense to notify the people inside the house right yeah so
00:57:04
she calls her sister Nicole Albert at 607 and 608 both calls are answered but only last a few seconds both are deleted
00:57:12
from Jen's phone log and this is interesting because Brian and Nicole never come out of the house like the
00:57:20
whole time ever and according to all their statements they were supposed to have been asleep until Jen came into
00:57:27
their room to wake them up at 6:35 a.m. so who's answering the calls at 6:07 and
00:57:33
6:08 Jen says it's just all wrong and those calls weren't answered wait they were or weren't Jen says they weren't
00:57:42
the data says they were pick your favorite okay I know even after they were awake though like I reiterate they
00:57:50
never came out they never came out even after we know they were awake right and like some say that they didn't want to
00:57:56
be in the way I mean Brian is an officer himself right like better to stay put let police come to you except they like
00:58:03
don't I mean it's Canton PD that is called to the scene that morning and Sergeant Michael Len is one of the first
00:58:10
guys there and he finally goes to talk to the Alberts after Jen McCabe wakes them up but like I don't even know if
00:58:16
you could call what he does an interview cuz he talks to them for a few minutes with Jen there he doesn't record any of
00:58:22
it and he doesn't like do any kind of search of the house of according to L's report he talks to Jen again at 9:00
00:58:29
a.m. when she calls him back and is like hey by the way I forgot to mention that
00:58:35
I heard Karen say she hopes she didn't hit JN if you asked Jen though she called him back over to say hey I
00:58:43
actually heard Karen say I hit him I hit him I hit him either way everyone's doing this at 9:00 a.m. either way how
00:58:48
does no one remember this the right way like this feels extra critical I know I know I mean and again I go back to
00:58:56
there's a lot going on it feels like something I would remember I have never been in this scenario true now fun fact
00:59:05
I haven't mentioned you might already know this a lot of people might know this but Brian Albert's brother Kevin
00:59:11
Albert is on the Canton PD Force but if that wasn't already a conflict of interest enough Len who is the first one
00:59:21
on the scene that day he has his own deep ties to the family in 2002 when he was off duty he allegedly got into a
00:59:27
fight with two other people that Brian's other brother Chris Albert was having problems with and Chris Albert by the
00:59:34
way is Colin Albert's dad so like these are all the same people we're talking about so like link knows this family but
00:59:42
they do eventually recognize there might be some conflict so they recuse themselves but also still help out and
00:59:50
this is when they call in the State Police so enter Michael Proctor who we covered at the top and he has his own
00:59:57
lengthy lists of conflicts of interests but like I said canton's still being a pal so even though the state police
01:00:03
barracks are closer when Karen's car gets seized that day it is actually taken to Canton PD sallyport apparently
01:00:10
police say there was like more room there it had heating whatever they have picks it all adds up nicely pieces of
01:00:17
the tail light missing from the SUV match pieces of the tailight in the snow by John it's remember the prosecution's
01:00:23
proof mhm but we also have the def saying that she hit her tail light in John's driveway and what Karen told
01:00:30
everyone was that she had a broken tail light not like a fully busted tail light
01:00:36
and all the video footage that could or should show that this is true doesn't exist it's gone oh darn well that's okay
01:00:43
police say we have a video of when we process the car in the sally port of Canton py you'll see that we never even
01:00:51
go close to the tail light so we didn't like break it and plant evidence which is fully the defense Theory by the way
01:00:58
that the tail light evidence wasn't found at the scene at the time of John's body they don't find it until like 5:30
01:01:04
or 6 that night when like an emergency response team comes to help with the search like there's a little bit of
01:01:10
conflicting reports on like what time they find the tail light but the first crime scene photos documenting pieces of
01:01:16
it in the snow show that it's clearly dark outside and this is like January New England so like it set the sun sets
01:01:22
around like 455 that day but it takes kind of a long time before pieces are found and they're found over the course
01:01:28
of like the next few days so the defense theorizes that the reason they didn't find it earlier is that they had to wait
01:01:35
until they had Karen's car in their possession to get the tail light pieces and then plant them so the defense has
01:01:41
always thought it was planted but again police are like oh my God you guys are being like so dramatic look for
01:01:47
yourselves they even play the video in court to show that no one ever goes near the right tail light except in the
01:01:56
actual most dramatic Oh My God moment I've ever seen in like a real life trial the defense team notices that the
01:02:06
writing on one of the cars in frame it's not even Karen's car it's like this one
01:02:10
that no one's paying attention to the writing is backwards which means that the entire video has been like flipped
01:02:19
oh like mirrored inverted yeah so when it appears that Proctor is seen standing behind Karen's left tail light it's
01:02:26
actually the right tail light it's the right tail light oh my God now the problem still is you can't see what he's
01:02:33
doing because the camera is on the other side and there is a camera that would show what he's doing over there don't
01:02:40
tell me the video is missing part of the video is missing of course it is of course it is but here's the thing why
01:02:49
would Michael Proctor frame someone sure he knows the Alberts but like he doesn't
01:02:54
know Karen that's a huge lead he wouldn't have anything against her H like he shouldn't have anything against
01:03:01
her yet that federal investigation found some legit terrible conduct on his behalf in relation to Karen and the
01:03:11
stuff that they found was like just the stuff he put in writing like he had texts with his sister talking about the
01:03:18
case very early on and in one he said that he hopes Karen would die by Suicide and he wasn't just talking to his family
01:03:27
here is Michael Proctor reading text that he sent about Karen and Brian Albert to a group chat that he had with
01:03:34
his high school buddies and he's reading it here on the stand yep so these came for me from all
01:03:41
accounts he didn't do anything wrong she's a whack job and here he is reading a text that
01:03:47
he sent to his bosses while supposedly searching Karen's phone for evidence uh no news so far no nudes so
01:03:58
far correct correct and you said that to your bosses yes sir Alan Jackson hammers
01:04:06
Proctor over these texts which were sent well before Karen's been charged by the
01:04:11
way and they are the worst this guy is the worst and I think we all should be making a big deal about these text
01:04:19
messages from a law enforcement official who has got the lives of people literally in his hands but for me me
01:04:26
personally I did have to roll my eyes a little bit for one reason in [Music] particular the person who was lecturing
01:04:38
Proctor about the way he viewed women the way he viewed Karen Reed was maybe not the right person to stand on that
01:04:46
Soap Box like I think maybe Alan Jackson should have like left that part to his co-counsel Yanti or even like there were
01:04:52
other like lawyers they working with them too because it was a little hard for me to really buy his outrage and
01:04:59
disgust when it wasn't all that long ago that Allan Jackson was defending Harvey
01:05:03
Weinstein right so like tip for trial number two maybe leave the grand standing to someone who hasn't been on
01:05:10
the wrong side of history when it comes to the me too movement I don't know what
01:05:13
do I know I'm a podcaster still Proctor defends his investigation he calls his text juvenile and regrettable which says
01:05:22
that they didn't have any impact on how he investigated John's death but Proctor's own texts implied that he
01:05:30
didn't really look at anything objectively I mean when a friend asked him if the homeowner meaning Brian
01:05:35
Albert will quote receive some Proctor responded nope homeowner is a Boston cop too and only 17 hours into his
01:05:45
investigation when one of Proctor's friends text him she's right he replied correct but Proctor testifies that he
01:05:53
meant the quote over overwhelming amount of evidence end quote already showed by
01:05:58
then that Karen hit John Proctor's texts weren't the only thing Jackson called into question Proctor had testified
01:06:05
under oath that he didn't know any members of the Albert or McCabe families but when Jackson asked him directly
01:06:11
Proctor admits that the Alberts have been over to his parents house before and that he's even been at his parents
01:06:18
house when the Alberts were there oh and just fun fact Colin Albert was once the
01:06:22
ring bearer in Proctor's sister's wedding oh yeah and again like it goes deep Proctor even asked Brian Albert's
01:06:30
sister-in-law Julie to babysit his son as recently as 10 days before JN died so like they are clearly more than just
01:06:37
even acquaintances like you're trusting with your kids they're kind of like just
01:06:40
in the same Circle I know and even after that Julie and the Proctors like keep talking so like it gets kind of weird 3
01:06:48
days after JN died there are texts between Proctor and his wife in which his wife says that she just ran into
01:06:55
Julie and she writes quote Julie said when all this is over she wants to give you a thank you gift she want and like
01:07:03
it's like she wants to give you dot dot dot a thank you gift and apparently Proctor responded that the gift should
01:07:09
be sent to his wife and not him so that is who is doing the investigation and the people who collected all the
01:07:18
evidence that they wanted to use to like prove this case that this investigator is making honestly they didn't do much
01:07:25
better this part is less conspiracy and more just sloppy to get to Jon and all the
01:07:31
evidence they used a leaf blower I'm sorry what yeah they used it to like blow off all the fresh snow and get down
01:07:39
to like like the layer like they presumed it was all on like the ground I don't know where John died which like
01:07:45
yes I get it but no I don't and it's on the ground where they find all those like clear pieces of glass which they
01:07:52
later assume is from that cocktail glass that he walked out of the bar hold they also find some like blood in the
01:07:57
snow obviously they want to collect all of this as evidence right like oh no they don't have any evidence bags so for
01:08:04
some reason they go knocking on a neighbor's door not even the door of the homeowner whose lawn they are on who let
01:08:12
me remind you is a cop no they just go knocking on some random neighbor door and apparently they ask if they have
01:08:18
anything they can use to collect evidence and that neighbor gives them a like sealed package of red Solo cups
01:08:24
that they start using to like scoop everything up in like red Solo cups like beer pong cups fully but like don't
01:08:31
worry once the evidence is in those cups they store the cups super securely because they put them inside a brown
01:08:37
paper grocery bag from a Stop and Shop wonderful yeah I know and so while we're on the topic though of evidence let's
01:08:44
talk the autopsy so just a reminder from earlier so the medical examiner found that John suffered a lot of injuries we
01:08:51
have several abrasions on his right forearm cuts to the left side of his nose and above his right eye 2in
01:08:56
laceration on the back of his head multiple skull fractures that caused bleeding in his brain two black eyes now
01:09:04
he has those injuries on his arm but he doesn't have any broken bones or fractures from the neck down and the
01:09:10
ruling was that he died of blunt impact injuries to his head and hypothermia this is what I could never like wrap my
01:09:16
head around like how are all the injuries so high up if she hit him assuming he's standing like with her car
01:09:25
well at the time the prosecution or at least in the first try was like I think arguing that Karen hit him this sent him
01:09:32
like flying back and he maybe hit his head on the ground like that is what would cause the gash on the back of his
01:09:38
head in the documentary I've seen some other people not the prosecution specifically but other people saying
01:09:44
like another theory could be that like she hit him the tail light breaks and like that caused like abrasion in his
01:09:50
arm and then he's like disoriented and moves around and then Falls so I don't know what we're going to hear in the
01:09:55
second trial if that's going to play into it or if they're going to stick with what they did the first time but
01:10:00
the defense says that the reason it doesn't look like other cases where a person was hit by a vehicle was because
01:10:07
he wasn't hit by a vehicle some of their last witnesses that the defense calls are crash reconstruction experts who
01:10:14
will honestly become a very hot topic down the road here these experts had been part of the federal investigation
01:10:21
and they were presented at the time as impartial Witnesses in this case meaning they said on the stand that they weren't
01:10:27
paid by the defense for their testimony it was completely like unbiased right so
01:10:32
these experts testify that Jon's injuries were not consistent with being hit by a vehicle the defense argues that
01:10:39
Jon's head injury and black eyes come from some sort of fight and that the marks on his arm weren't caused by being
01:10:47
hit by a car at all dog bites the dog bites yes according to another of their witnesses an expert in emergency trauma
01:10:55
the injuries on Jon's arm they say are likely teeth or claw marks in their opinion Jon had likely been mauled by an
01:11:03
animal possibly a large dog which the Alberts had a German Shepherd mix right Chloe so Jackson argues that at some
01:11:12
point that night before during or after whatever altercation happened at the Albert's house Chloe the dog attacked
01:11:20
him and I feel like that's what like has fed into the conspiracy stuff is like they got rid of the dog I mean as a dog
01:11:28
person that's impossible to understand I know so the Albert say that they didn't
01:11:33
rehome Khloe until four months after all of this though and not because of anything related to John they say they
01:11:38
said that they sent Khloe to live in Vermont because she had gone after like another neighborhood dog or or multiple
01:11:45
neighborhood dogs and I think it's worth noting that like apparently labex did not find any can9 DNA on swabs from J's
01:11:53
sweatshirt with like which had tears through it in the spots like the same spots as the arm which like you know if
01:11:59
like a dog is like coming at you there slobbery is all get out right so that doesn't really help the dog by argument
01:12:07
but they did find Pig DNA so experts who testify a trial say that that could have come from a food
01:12:15
product like maybe a pork-based dog treat okay on aside you or another friend like messed up a doggy DNA test
01:12:24
for the reason like it came back like completely Bine oh that wasn't me yeah someone did like a dog DNA test and the
01:12:31
test came back as like not dog because they had to give their dog a treat to do the swap no way mhm oh interesting yeah
01:12:38
so like that like in my mind like Bears some Credence but also the Alberts sold their home around the same time too
01:12:46
which like the combination of the two things the defense I think finds pretty suspicious yeah Nicole says Nicole
01:12:53
Albert says that they had planned to move before John's death and they had reached out to a realtor in like
01:12:58
2021 and then the sale was finalized in 23 so again like weird coincidence they say and I don't know what to make of
01:13:06
that there but there's there's a lot of things I don't know what to make of right so like the federal investigation
01:13:11
and I think that we can like label this like area of episode stuff I think is weird but didn't know where to fit in
01:13:17
the episode question marks so there's just like little bits of things I want to hit on at a high level and I'll just
01:13:23
give you like the bullet points cuz we got got a trial to get two people and I don't want to keep you here till
01:13:27
tomorrow so here are some fast facts one the feds found out that Brian Albert destroyed his cell phone a day before he
01:13:36
received a protective order to preserve that phone and its contents now he says this is just a coincidence he was due
01:13:44
for an upgrade so he traded it in okay fine been there Brian Higgins the phone stuff is harder for me to digest so he
01:13:53
apparently asked another federal agent for advice on extracting phone data and then months later drove to a military
01:14:02
base disposed of his phone and destroyed his SIM card he claims this was because
01:14:09
the target of an unrelated investigation had his contact info seems like you could maybe just like change your number
01:14:17
not destroy your phone on a military base that state officials couldn't get access to but like whatever yeah
01:14:24
obviously at some point they had all stopped texting and like calling each other constantly but the defense alleges
01:14:30
that this group of conspirators was still in communication in the early days to coordinate and quote get their story
01:14:37
straight and they use one example in particular so on the stand Jen reiterates the big beats of the case
01:14:46
that we've talked about already but during her cross- examination something new comes out Jen says that on January
01:14:52
30th so this is the day after JN died she was with Carrie Roberts who reminder she's the third woman who was there when
01:14:59
John was found Carrie and Jen go to drop car's daughter off at a friend's house a
01:15:04
friend whose father is Canton py Sergeant Michael link who testified about evidence collection at the scene
01:15:11
and apparently when Carrie and Jen go to the house L's wife came out to talk to Carrie and she got into the car with
01:15:17
them and stayed in the car for an hour talking to them about Jon's death so this isn't like a quick little chat no
01:15:25
not at all and Jackson points to that like he says this is something that Jen never even mentioned until a pre-trial
01:15:32
meeting in the DA's office now Jen claims that this is just a situation where two friends Carrie and Len's wife
01:15:38
were talking about a traumatic event that just occurred but the defense views this as another example of conversations
01:15:44
that Jen and others were having in the aftermath of Jon's death where they might have all been trying to like get
01:15:50
on the same page and I want you to remember the defense doesn't have to prove what happened right like the
01:15:56
burden of proof is fully on the Commonwealth but I think that Karen and her team knew that they needed to put
01:16:04
forward an alternate Theory because her hitting JN feels like the obvious answer
01:16:09
to most people so their Theory as I told you before revolves around the allegation that some sort of fight
01:16:16
ensued between Brian Albert Brian Higgins and Colin Albert and at first nobody says that Colin Albert was even
01:16:24
at the house house that night and there's no phone data putting him there at the house that night though that
01:16:30
might be because investigators never collected his phone data but eventually he tells police that he was there
01:16:37
earlier in the night but he says that he never saw John and here's another weird
01:16:42
little diddy like I told you from the get Prosecutor's theory is that Jon never entered the house right like
01:16:47
that's been everyone's consistent story right no one saw him after he left Karen's car so here's this weird thing
01:16:52
so apparently when Brian Higgins testified before the Federal grand jury he said that he might have seen a tall
01:17:01
darkhaired man come into the Albert's house and johon O'Keefe was a tall dark-haired man so a lot of people think
01:17:09
that Higgins was describing seeing John in the house that night like just in case it comes up that he was there so he
01:17:15
didn't like lie in front of a grand jury but later when Higgins gets grilled about this on the stand he says that he
01:17:21
could have been talking about maybe the brother of somebody at the party when he
01:17:25
said that but anyways back to Colin at the time of John's death Colin was still in high school by the time it goes to
01:17:32
trial he's in college and he comes to court to testify and says that he had gone to his uncle Bran's house that
01:17:38
night at around 10:30 or 11: to celebrate his cousin's birthday he had a few beers again like we're at a cop's
01:17:45
house he's in high school like not awesome but whatever he said he listened to some music hung out and then he
01:17:50
texted a friend for a ride home and he left around 12:30 a.m. that friend who picked him up was Jen McCabe's daughter
01:17:58
Ali McCabe Ally says that she picked Colin up before any of the adults got back from the bar and that she was home
01:18:05
from dropping him off by 12:30 but Karen's lawyers have pulled data from the app Life 360 which I don't
01:18:14
know if you use that for your kids but like I'm very familiar with it yeah like every crime Jun knows Life 360 right you
01:18:19
should anyways it basically like track it's a tracking app for teens or whatever and this app shows that Ally
01:18:26
was driving around until like 1:30 now in court she just offers like well maybe her excuse is like the data
01:18:34
is off she's like I wasn't connected to Wi-Fi at the time but that can't be the excuse for everything the data isn't
01:18:40
wrong those calls weren't answered the data is wrong like I wasn't driving around like the data is like know that's
01:18:47
just a blank an excuse at this point I know this is what I'm saying about this case like you can make sense of like one
01:18:55
or two things that are like wonky or like weird but like all the footage can't be missing all the data can't be
01:19:02
wrong and it like all at the same time well and I can't figure out why like I still don't get the motive and I I don't
01:19:12
know I think it's because there isn't a strong one I mean they bring up those texts between Karen and Brian Higgins
01:19:18
they kind of suggest that maybe Brian Higgins might have felt like Karen was blowing him off that night it got under
01:19:23
his skin like they they've been having this like flirtation over text they even kissed like it felt like all of this was
01:19:28
building to something but then Karen shows up at the bar he's at with his friends with John and then she doesn't
01:19:35
pay much attention to Brian though I mean worth noting on the stand when they ask Brian about all this he's like
01:19:40
whatever like yeah we texted but like no hard feelings it wasn't serious like I don't know so maybe feelings are just
01:19:46
like bubbling under the surface more than anything and again I don't even think they're like thinking this is
01:19:51
motive like he was going after John I think they're just trying to show some like animosity like why would he maybe
01:19:55
jump into something else that happened though they don't say that explicitly they focus mostly on Colin as the
01:20:03
possible like Catalyst to all of this and it's important to note that Colin had reportedly had issues with Jon in
01:20:11
the past Colin's family lived near Jon and in the spring of 2020 Jon's security alarm went off and when he woke up and
01:20:19
he went downstairs he found Colin and several other teenagers in his front yard and Colin yelled at JN and like
01:20:26
apparently had some Choice words for him now JN never called the police but Karen
01:20:31
says that there was bad blood between Colin and John after that now Colin says that they never had any beef but it's
01:20:38
the defense's position that Colin had a history of being a hotthead and was part
01:20:42
of an assault on John that happened inside the Albert house and that the Brian then after this brought
01:20:52
JN out into the snow and to like try and like form this picture Jackson actually
01:21:00
pulls up what he insinuates is proof that Colin threw some punches that night he binds a photo of Colin out with his
01:21:08
friends like weeks after Jon's murder in which you can see that his knuckles are
01:21:12
like red and raw now Colin says that he had slipped on ice which like everyone's
01:21:20
like at the time I remember when this like came up in trial everyone's like how do you when you fall like you fall
01:21:26
down I've never fallen Knuckles first right doesn't make sense to me I don't know and I have a
01:21:34
problem with this like alternative Theory like we know that part of what contributed to Jon's death was
01:21:41
hypothermia and I know like a ton of people aren't on board with what I'm about to say but like I have a hard time
01:21:47
believing that a group of people who were either friends with or like barely knew a guy would like take him out to
01:21:56
the snow to let him die if something else happened but I also like don't get me wrong that I'm saying like everything
01:22:04
I like I totally believe everything that they're saying because like I think it's
01:22:09
very clear that people are lying so then the question to me more than anything is
01:22:15
like what are you lying about well and didn't they make like a big deal about the Apple Health Data during the trial
01:22:23
like John's specifically like where he moved and when he moved and all of that yes I I mean I think everything
01:22:32
they put forward about that like a lot of stuff in this case could go either way because what the data shows is that
01:22:39
after 1220 around the time Karen says that she dropped him off it says that Jon took 80 steps which is like half a
01:22:47
football fields distance and then either went like up or down three floors and that could be because he entered the
01:22:53
house the problem with that is GPS data from his phone apparently shows that he was in the car a half mile away from the
01:23:01
Albert's house when that movement was actually logged honestly like I probably should have known this already but like
01:23:07
I feel like Tech isn't nearly as reliable as I thought it was for tracking stuff like this like this case
01:23:13
has made it like scary to me and it's like almost like a beware ye future jurors not just on this case but like
01:23:18
any well and I was thinking when you were saying like this the steps and how long it was like my devices think that I
01:23:25
am running a marathon because we're doing this and talking when I'm knitting because my hands and wrists are moving
01:23:32
and it's like yeah oh wow you're getting your steps in and I was like oh dear I know I am not oh one of the other pieces
01:23:40
that I think is worth mentioning because like it it's huge when it comes to the prosecution's case it one of the things
01:23:45
I brought up in evidence that they point to is the hair that they found on Karen's car that they said links to John
01:23:52
right like this is proof that she hit John with her car right well a lot of people are wondering like Is that real
01:24:00
or is this more proof that evidence was planted because it is a singular hair attached to like not even like on top of
01:24:09
the bumper but like the side like back of her car and everyone's like okay she hits him she drives to his house in a
01:24:19
blizzard then drives like all over looking for him and then to also still in a blizzard also still in a blizzard
01:24:25
and then she's driving to Jen's house and then she's back at his house and then she's there and then she's at her
01:24:28
parents house and then they tow her car to the sallyport and in that time yes maybe the hair froze on but then they
01:24:34
also bring it to the heated sallyport garage so everything can melt off and that's the picture they have of the hair
01:24:39
is like it's on the car and so that's the one thing that didn't melt off like it just seems so unlikely it seems like
01:24:47
magic it's not impossible clearly but like but is it I don't know is like what does the data mean how does it all come
01:24:55
together how does this puzzle fit if it does yeah because like I've spiraled every which way I can about this case
01:25:03
like did he go into the house and something happened call it a fight call it an accident whatever and then maybe
01:25:09
like did they tell him to like get out of here not realizing how bad off he was and then he collapsed in the snow but
01:25:15
like that doesn't explain all of it did Karen really hit him accidentally or otherwise and then the investigation was
01:25:23
super sloppy Maybe even corrupt Proctor trying to make like an easy win and then
01:25:28
everything else was about covering up the nonsense but that also doesn't really explain everything nothing
01:25:35
explains all of it so if I were a juror I don't know what happened in the we morning hours of January
01:25:42
29th but the way this has unfolded has left so much room for reasonable doubt if an investigating agency can do
01:25:52
everything I just talked to about and secure a conviction honestly that's the scariest freaking idea to me it's scary
01:26:00
to let someone get away with killing someone too don't get me wrong but like my God we have to set some kind of
01:26:07
standard right like yeah so many jobs have a like bare minimum requirement like if you are going to put someone on
01:26:15
trial and take their entire life away you should have to at least do your job the right way like am I am I am I crazy
01:26:22
no like it's it seems like of an easy ask but but I don't but I don't think I don't know that everyone
01:26:29
agrees I want to say some people might but not everyone because a jury didn't fully agree with me so after receiving a
01:26:37
fire hose of information for nearly two months the jury ends up telling the judge that they cannot reach a verdict
01:26:45
they send a note to judge Beverly kenon saying that they are deadlocked after 3 days she doesn't accept the first one
01:26:52
she's like this is 3 days we've been here for 6 weeks get in there and try it again they send a few other notes they
01:26:58
send one asking a question and then on July 1st 2024 after deliberating for less than a week they send a final note
01:27:06
to the judge that says despite our rigorous efforts we continue to find ourselves at an impass and kenon quickly
01:27:14
declares a mistrial citing a hung jury so prosecutors say that they fully plan to go after Karen again I mean
01:27:24
clearly there were some people on the jury who saw what they saw we'll see you back in court basically but after this
01:27:31
some people from the jury were like whoa whoa whoa that's not the whole story in
01:27:36
the weeks after the trial Jackson says that at least five jurors approached him indicating that the jury wasn't hung on
01:27:44
all three charges in fact they had agreed to equit Karen on two of the three murder and leaving the scene with
01:27:52
injury or death it was just the manslaughter while operating under the influence of alcohol charge that they
01:27:58
couldn't agree on so after they come forward to Jackson and the media Karen's lawyers moved to have those charges the
01:28:05
ones that they agreed on thrown out claiming that like the jury had unanimously agreed on those to acquit
01:28:10
her specifically of those charges and trying her again would constitute Double Jeopardy obviously that's not cool with
01:28:17
the prosecution and this fight goes to the state's highest court but the ruling is the same no matter how far far up
01:28:24
they go the issue is that the jury never wrote that down and submitted that as a
01:28:29
verdict so it wasn't an official it didn't count right so judge Beverly kon's ruling stands AKA anti bevs
01:28:39
Because by the way we haven't even gotten into that potential conflict of interest that atie Bev might have in the
01:28:45
case there's been a lot of talk alleging that she's also cozied up to the Albert
01:28:51
and mcabe families and listen there are some maybe receipts here so first off according to the Vanity Fair
01:28:59
article on Reed's case Bev's brother represented Brian Albert's brother when he went to trial for a motor vehicle
01:29:06
homicide case and then he went to jail for like 6 months and then there are these screenshots of a text combo
01:29:13
between turtle boy he's back again and who he says was Jen McCabe's brother-in-law Shawn McCabe apparently
01:29:21
turtleboy asked Shawn if the mccabes had direct line to the judge and Shawn allegedly responded by saying quote atie
01:29:29
Bev who cite Cottage do you think we're going to bury your corpse under later end quote now the alleged conflicts run
01:29:36
so deep that the defense actually asked anti Bev or judge kenon to recuse herself from the case altogether but she
01:29:44
wouldn't step aside she says that she did not know Shawn and that she had never socialized with any of the
01:29:51
Witnesses in this case so there was no lack of impartiality this is so much it is but in the end she declared a
01:30:00
mistrial right so here we go again and even in this new trial judge kenon will be the judge again and here's the thing
01:30:10
post this last trial and pre this new one stuff has been just as wild as the last time around as of this recording
01:30:18
Karen's lawyers are still trying to argue the double jeopardy claim in federal court Karen
01:30:24
also been busy she has been meeting with supporters across the country she's hoping to raise money for blood and DNA
01:30:30
testing to be done on carpeting that was thrown out of the Albert's home after it
01:30:34
was sold and her defense team has found themselves in the hot seat as well judge
01:30:41
kenon expressed what she called grave concern over the fact that prosecutors say they found evidence that two what we
01:30:50
were told were impartial Witnesses the one who said that Jon's injuries weren't consistent with being struck by a car
01:30:55
well they were actually paid around $23,000 by the defense even though one of them who people online are calling
01:31:03
crash Daddy he said on the stand that the defense hadn't paid him anything now technicality maybe because I guess he
01:31:12
was paid a month after he testified to that but he was paid nonetheless so like I'm side eyeing everyone in this case
01:31:21
you guys including Michael morisy the da bringing the charges against Karen it's
01:31:26
worth noting that this isn't the only case that his office has handled that people are questioning he and his office
01:31:32
are getting a lot of heat for how they handled the death of Sandra burchmore and I could go on for hours about her
01:31:39
case but like quick Cliff Notes Sandra was part of the police explorers program oh mhm what you're going to hear me
01:31:49
mention if you come on tour and in this program she met a cop who allegedly groomed her when she was a kid had a
01:31:57
sexual relationship with her when she was under 16 well he is now accused of killing her while she was pregnant with
01:32:04
his child and the accusation is that he staged her death to look like a suicide Morris's office ruled that it was a
01:32:11
suicide but Federal authorities stepped in years later and indicted the officer on charges that he killed Sandra so her
01:32:18
case is one of like the most egregious examples of abuse connected to the police explorer programs like this will
01:32:24
be I'm like like vowing this will be an episode one day but like I continue to look into it but anyway morisy has been
01:32:31
under pressure from all angles as both of these cases unfold in Canon for Karen's retrial the prosecution has
01:32:38
brought in someone new Hank Brennan is coming in to lead the team now this guy represented Infamous Boston mob boss
01:32:46
Whitey buer during his federal trial so to say that he's a heavy hitter is an understatement and it's clear that they
01:32:53
plan to to come out swinging in October prosecutors requested records from Karen's Dad's cell from around the time
01:33:02
of John's death which they say shows alleged proof of her calling her dad at around 1:30 in the morning the night
01:33:10
that John died now police had gotten a search warrant for Karen's phone earlier but investigators were working on
01:33:16
removing I guess like privileged like conversation she was having with her lawyer before handing the records over
01:33:21
to the prosecution so that's why this is just coming up now and while we were finalizing this episode prosecutors
01:33:27
dropped the list of who they plan to call to the stand in trial number two and Karen's dad is now on the list this
01:33:34
time so it seems like they might zero in on those calls now the federal investigation into Jon's death and the
01:33:41
handling of the case was closed as of March 4th 2025 the federal investigation loomed over Karen's case for more than a
01:33:49
year but it did not result in any charges which I think might be something for the prosecution to use however the
01:33:57
internal affairs investigation into Michael Proctor wrapped in January and then he went in front of the
01:34:02
Massachusetts State Police trial board three times and in March while they waited on the trial board's decision his
01:34:11
family like broke their silence they really had not been talking this whole time but his wife Elizabeth Proctor and
01:34:17
Michael sister Courtney Proctor released a statement saying that even though his
01:34:22
texts were regrettable same word that he used he was just venting to friends like
01:34:27
during a stressful situation they say that their family has been tormented and harassed since those texts went public
01:34:35
and they think the attention on Proctor has been the defense's attempt to distract from the person who's actually
01:34:41
on trial and that's Karen Reed in the end I don't think the statement helped because on March 19th Proctor was fired
01:34:50
State Police said that the trial board recommended that they fire him and then the state police agreed citing those
01:34:56
very texts about Karen and drinking on the job his family said that by firing Proctor the trial board was unfairly
01:35:03
exploiting and scapegoating one of their own and I think like no we probably should just hold people accountable just
01:35:11
a thought now we reached out to a whole lot of people in this case like scrolling through our reporter Taylor's
01:35:18
call log it looks like scrolling through a Boston area phone book but the only one who responded was Greg
01:35:24
who is representing Brian and Nicole Albert and their kids he said that he would send us a statement and he did so
01:35:31
Bren I'm going to have you read it the Alberts identified a real estate agent and prepared to sell their home
01:35:39
months before the death of Jon O'Keefe this information along with the location and history of their dog was provided to
01:35:46
and investigated by law enforcement including the US attorney's office the Alberts had nothing to do with the death
01:35:52
of Jon O'Keefe there's no conspiracy any suggestion otherwise is fabricated now we've told you a lot
01:36:03
about the case against Karen Reed in this episode but I do want to make sure that John's name isn't forgotten like
01:36:11
this is becoming about Karen so much and about the police department as a whole but at the center of all of this where
01:36:18
this all started was with Jon's death and no matter who killed Jon or how he died there is a loving family that
01:36:26
misses him and that actually is one like beautiful part of the documentary early
01:36:31
on in episode one they play home videos of him and like I feel like I got to see
01:36:37
who he was in like a completely different way than this like 2D version we've gotten of him so far so before we
01:36:44
wrap up I want to tell you a little bit more about John so John known as Johnny or JJ by
01:36:50
his family and friends grew up in brain tree massach assetts he's one of three children in a middle class Italian and
01:36:57
Irish family in a middle class Italian and Irish town just outside of Boston he graduated from Northeastern University
01:37:04
in Boston and then he went on to earn his master's degree in criminal justice from UMass and he was the kind of guy
01:37:10
who never missed opening day at Fenway Park John had been a Boston police officer for 16 years and was loyal to
01:37:18
his fellow officers and he especially loved being an uncle to his niece and nephew and he became their guard
01:37:23
Guardian after his sister died of brain cancer and then their father died of a heart attack John's niece and nephew
01:37:29
have been left to mourn another parent figure and they're now being raised by John's parents who after the mistrial
01:37:38
filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Karen they also filed it against the waterfall bar and CF McCarthy's seeking
01:37:45
$50,000 in Damages for pain suffering an emotional distress but a judge has put all of that on hold until Karen's
01:37:53
Criminal trial is over at its core this is a case that presents the question of whether a crack in an SUV tail light is
01:38:00
cut and dry evidence of murder or if it exposed a crack in the system A system that was ripe for a coverup that spanned
01:38:09
agencies across Massachusetts now I've talked a lot about the details in this case and how those details have been
01:38:14
interpreted by a million different people a million different ways I know there's a lot to process I mean even the
01:38:20
actual jury on this case couldn't see a clear path for forward and listen I know
01:38:25
crime junkies always love to go a layer deeper and I want us to be like locked in together on this retrial which is set
01:38:32
to begin on April 1st so to do that I want to do something new over on YouTube we've set up a new page crime junkie
01:38:41
jury we are going to be streaming the trial and discussing what's going on every day with you so we've got Brandy
01:38:48
Churchwell like I said she's almost become an expert in this case don't feel like you have to know the ins and outs
01:38:53
to like step in this is the whole idea she'll like walk you through it help you know who you're supposed to know help
01:38:58
you know the backstory and this is one you're going to want to follow because I have a feeling we are in for another
01:39:05
long ride [Music]