A highly anticipated witness took the stand Friday in the Karen Read murder trial.
It comes after a week of testimony from fellow partygoers, including various members of the Albert family.
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Jennifer McCabe, who's the sister-in-law of the man who owned the home where John O'Keefe's body was found, took the stand Friday afternoon, giving testimony about the Google search of "Ho[w] long to die in cold" that has been a contentious issue in the case for the last year.
She was called after cross-examination was completed with her husband, Matthew McCabe, who we first saw Thursday.
Watch the Karen Read trial live on nbcboston.com, NECN, NBC Boston streaming platforms (including Roku, Peacock and Samsung TV) and NBC10 Boston's YouTube page. Every night of the trial at 7 p.m., come back for analysis and more.
Email questions to canton.confidential@nbcuni.com.
He admitted to being with a large crowd that included his wife, Read and O'Keefe at Waterfall Bar and Grille — the night before O'Keefe was found dead.
Matthew McCabe said the plan was for the group to go Brian Albert's home on Fairview Road to keep the party going but Read and O'Keefe never arrived. He also said he saw a dark SUV at the Albert home.
Read is charged with second-degree murder in the death of O'Keefe, her boyfriend. He was found in the snow outside retired Brian Albert's home in Canton. Prosecutors say Read hit O'Keefe with her SUV, while Read says she has been framed in a wide-ranging coverup, claiming the Albert family and the state's lead investigator, a family friend, put the blame on Read.
Read has pleaded not guilty and is free on bond.
When it comes to Jennifer McCabe, an FBI analysis of her phone is expected to come to light, which is a pivotal piece of evidence for the defense.
Matthew McCabe returns to the stand
Matthew McCabe returned to the stand on Friday morning after beginning his testimony on Thursday.
Assistant District Attorney Adam Lally started by asking McCabe how he woke up on the morning of Jan. 29, 2022.
"I awoke to the screaming of 'Jen, Jen, Jen.' So when I woke up, I thought there was somebody in my bedroom."
When he woke up, he said he realized his wife Jennifer McCabe was actually on the phone.
"I asked my wife, 'What is going on?' and I could hear her saying, 'I'm on the phone with Karen -- she can't find John.'"
He said the phone conversation continued for a couple minutes, and then continued screaming from Read on the other end of the line.
"She didn't know where John was and the last time she saw him was at the Waterfall," McCabe said of what Read was saying to his wife.
He said his wife then started making phone calls to other people who had been at the Waterfall Bar & Grill the night before.
But Matthew McCabe said he remembered seeing Read's vehicle outside 34 Fairview Road that morning.
"I thought she was crazy," he said of Read. "Because I saw her vehicle... I saw the black SUV arrive to 34 Fairview that morning."
He said Jennifer McCabe told Read that, but she said she didn't remember going there.
Matthew McCabe said he also heard Read say something to the effect that she had "broken her taillight" on her vehicle.
"We were completely confused as to where John was... we knew that John had mentioned that he was potentially going to be meeting up with another person, so my wife called that individual to see if by chance... did John not go with her, did he get out of the car, did he go somewhere else?"
He said his wife made several phone calls, but no one answered.
Matthew McCabe said he tried texting and calling O'Keefe, saying "Where the hell are you? Now Karen and Jen are out looking for you," but never received any response.
He said his wife went downstairs and Matthew McCabe started getting dressed. They were planning to drive to the house of the man they thought O'Keefe might have met up with. He said he then heard yelling in his front yard, and realized it was Read.
"I told my wife, 'Peaase tell her to shut up. She's going to wake up the whole neighborhood,'" he said.
Matthew McCabe said he assumed O'Keefe was just sleeping on someone's couch.
He said his wife and Read then went out looking for O'Keefe, while he stayed home with their four kids. About an hour later, he said his wife called him and said they had found O'Keefe at 34 Fairview Road. He finished getting dressed and drove to Fairview to meet them.
He recalled seeing an ambulance, and said Kerry Roberts was also there. She said she was dropping Karen off and was going to go pick up O'Keefe's parents.
On cross-examination, defense attorney David Yannetti asked about Jan. 22, 2022, when Matthew McCabe and his wife went to the Hillside Pub in Canton and ran into O'Keefe and Read. They hung out with them for about an hour, along with Brian and Nicole Albert and several others.
McCabe said during that time, O'Keefe and Read appeared to be enjoying each other's company.
Yannetti then moved to the Waterfall on Jan. 28, 2022, asking what the mood was like and if O'Keefe and Read were getting along.
"Everything was good," McCabe said. "There were no arguments that I saw."
Yannetti also asked McCabe about Brian Albert and Brian Higgins, who were both at the Waterfall on Jan. 28, 2022, and whether he saw them practicing fighting.
"I recall them grabbing each other, I don't recall them squaring up like they were fighting each other," he said. "They were playing grab-ass with each other."
Asked what he meant by "grab-ass," he said it was a "figure of speech."
"Like a bear hug or something. I thought I recalled them doing a bear hug. That's what's in my memory."
McCabe also confirmed that Albert and Higgins were two of the people who went back to Brian Albert's home on Fairview Road. He acknowledged that others in the group, including O'Keefe and Higgins, were also invited to the Albert home.
McCabe said he was one of the last people to leave the Waterfall that night. His wife was already in their car in the parking lot, and he met her there and they drove to the Albert home on Fairview Road.
He said they parked in the driveway, and there were "at least two" other vehicles already parked there.
When he arrived, he said there was also a Jeep with a plow parked at the end of the driveway, in front of the mailbox. He later found out the Jeep belonged to Higgins.
McCabe also confirmed he saw a black SUV parked in front of the Albert home at some point that night, and Higgins' Jeep was still parked in front of the mailbox at that time. Yannetti also questioned McCabe about several inconsistencies between Friday's testimony and his previous testimony about the location of the black SUV.
During his previous testimony, he had said he only saw the black SUV in two different spots, but on Friday he said he saw it in three locations. But McCabe denied Friday that he had contradicted himself.
At one point, Yanetti asked McCabe, "Is this funny?" after he noticed that McCabe was smiling in response to his questions.
"It's not funny, sir. It's been two years of misery," McCabe replied.
Yannetti then returned to a phone conversation Jennifer McCabe had with O'Keefe as the McCabes were driving to the Albert home on Jan. 28, 2022. O'Keefe had texted Jennifer McCabe asking for directions to the Albert home, and she called O'Keefe to tell give him specific directions.
Matthew McCabe said he assumed that O'Keefe and Read would be arriving at the Albert home.
McCabe also testified Friday that he never saw O'Keefe inside the black SUV, never heard any yelling, crash noises or screams of pain coming from outside the Albert house.
"There was music playing in the house, so I didn't hear anything," he said.
McCabe said when he left the Albert house that night, he left with his wife and Karen Levinson and Julie Nagel, previous witnesses in the case who the McCabes were giving a ride home. The black SUV was no longer there, and he said he didn't see anyone or anything on the lawn.
McCabe also testified that he never heard Nagel say "What was that?" or anything about the "black blob" she testfied earlier this week she saw on the lawn as they left.
Yannetti also asked McCabe about a group text exchange he was part of in the days after Jan. 29, 2022 with his wife, Brian Albert and Nicole Albert. On Feb. 1, three days after O'Keefe's death, he asked McCabe if he was at or near the Albert home on 34 Fairview Road, watching what investigators were doing in that area.
"I was not monitoring anything that the troopers were doing," McCabe said. "If I had driven down the street dropping somebody off or picking somebody up and saw the troopers, I saw the troopers."
Yannetti then showed McCabe a text McCabe reportedly sent to the group text saying that state police troopers were out in front of the Albert home, close to one of the next-door neighbor's home.
Brian Albert responded with a question, "Right now?" and Matthew McCabe said yes.
McCabe then texted the group that he was trying to get a picture of what he was seeing.
"I said I was going to try to take a photo," he said. "I just happened to be driving through the neighborhood... I was not monitoring what was going on, I just happened to drive by at that moment."
Court took a break shortly after 11 a.m., returning just before 11:30 a.m. with Matthew McCabe back on the stand.
Yannetti then displayed images from the group text exchange mentioned before the morning break.
"Troopers back out front... And looks like more has been dug up there or at least looks like it" Matthew McCabe said in one text message sent to the group.
Brian Albert replied, "Right now" and McCabe responded, "Yes."
Albert then responded again, saying, "Ok."
McCabe then texted the group, "I had to pick up a car. So drove through."
He then texted. "Trying to get picture."
Yannetti then produced three more pages of text messages to McCabe, which McCabe confirmed were from the same group chat mentioned earlier.
One of the texts included McCabe talking about the ongoing investigation into O'Keefe's death.
In that exchange, Albert wrote at one point, "Hope they don't think she's making it up after the fact for some reason," referring to an interview Massachusetts State Police Trooper Michael Proctor had conducted with Kerry Roberts, who was one of the three women, along with Read and Jennifer McCabe, who found O'Keefe's body. Albert added in a text moments later, "but if they barely interviewed her, that's on them."
Yannetti also asked about several other texts, including one on Feb. 1, 2022, at 12:51 p.m., in which McCabe said "Ask Chris to ask some questions," referring to Chris Albert, Brian's older brother. He then texted, "Tell them the guy never went in the house," which he said was in reference to O'Keefe.
Brian Abert's response in the text chain was, "Exactly"
Yannetti asked McCabe if the text chain was everyone trying to get their stories straight that O'Keefe never went inside the Albert house.
"John never went in the house. It's not a story, it's a fact," McCabe said. "I was saying, 'We don't know what happened. He never came in the house.'"
Jennifer McCabe testifies
Around 12:15 p.m., Matthew McCabe's wife, Jennifer McCabe, took the stand. She was one of the three women, along with Read and Roberts, who found O'Keefe's body on the lawn of 34 Fairview Road on the morning of Jan. 29, 2022.
She testified about how she and her husband met her sister at the Waterfall around 9 p.m. on Jan. 28, 2022.
"He was my friend. I loved John. He was an amazing guy," McCabe said when asked what she thought about O'Keefe. She also detailed how O'Keefe told her that he was dating someone new, and he wanted McCabe to meet her.
McCabe said she met Read for the first time when they both came over to her house in July of 2020, and occasionally socialized with them at sporting events, birthday parties and other events.
"I enjoyed Ms. Read. I really liked her. I thought we connected from the beginning. She was very easy to talk to. She had MS, I have MS... It was nice to have someone who understood what I was going through. So we had that in common."
On the night before O'Keefe's death, McCabe said she left the Waterfall around midnight. As multiple previous witnesses have described, she said the mood at the bar that night was positive.
She also testified about a conversation with Read about how Read was frustrated that she and O'Keefe didn't have more time together, and that his family wasn't helping out more with raising his niece and nephew.
And she talked about how everyone left the Waterfall and how she gave O'Keefe directions back to Albert's home, where people were gathering after leaving the bar. But she said O'Keefe never came into the Albert house that evening.
McCabe testified that she saw a dark SUV outside of the Albert home that night and texted O'Keefe, "Here?"
Lally looked to have the text exchange between McCabe and O'Keefe entered into evidence, but the defense objected. The judge asked him to redact certain images from the text messages over the lunch break, and adjourned the trial until 2 p.m., when McCabe returned to the stand.
The text messages between McCabe and O'Keefe were entered into evidence after the lunch break, with Lally asking about the specifics of their exchange.
The first was at 12:14 a.m. on Jan. 29, 2022, from O'Keefe to McCabe, saying "Where to?"
At 12:27 a.m., McCabe sent O'Keefe a text, saying, "Here!?" She said she sent that text after seeing a dark SUV out front of the Albert home on Fairview Road. Four minutes later, she sent a text saying, "Pull behind me." She said she sent this message after seeing the SUV move, to tell O'Keefe to park behind her vehicle.
At 12:40 a.m., she sent another text to O'Keefe saying, "Hello." McCabe said she wasn't sure if the SUV was still there or if it had already left by that point.
At 12:42 a.m., she texted O'Keefe, "Where are you?" And then "Hello" at 12:45 a.m.
McCabe said she never received any response from O'Keefe.
The next text she sent to O'Keefe was at 4:59 a.m., when she said, "Please answer." She then added, "Karen is worried we need to find u" and followed with another text asking him again to answer so she would know that he was OK.
McCabe said the later texts were prompted by a phone call she received from O'Keefe's niece, who was with Karen Read. Similar to what her husband testified, McCabe said at 4:53 a.m., she was woken up by her phone. She said she could hear Read screaming her name in the background and that she eventually got on the phone.
McCabe said Read told her she had gotten in a fight with O'Keefe and he hadn't come home. McCabe described Read as hard to understand and "extremely irrational" during the call. McCabe also said Read kept asking "could I have hit him?" and that she mentioned she had a damaged tail light.
McCabe began trying to get in contact with other people to see if she could track down O'Keefe, and she said at this point her husband was awake and told her they had seen Read and O'Keefe outside of her sister's house.
McCabe said she wound up leaving the house to look for O'Keefe when Read showed up at her home, screaming. McCabe described Read as "hysterical" at this point. They were joined by Kerry Roberts and the three of them decided to go back to O'Keefe's home, McCabe driving Read's car.
“I saw missing pieces from the tail light," McCabe testified, saying that when they arrived at O'Keefe's driveway Read showed them the damage.
McCabe said they checked the house for O'Keefe and spoke with his niece before leaving again, this time heading over to Fairview. She said this time all three women were in one car, with Roberts driving, McCabe in the passenger seat and Read in the back. She said Read continued screaming their names and repeating certain phrases like "could I have hit him?"
As they drove back to Fairview, McCabe said between the weather and the darkness the conditions were bad and it was hard to see. As they approached the Albert home, McCabe said Read shouted "there he is" and started banging on the car door to be let out.
Roberts unlocked the door and McCabe said Read ran right to where O'Keefe was laying. McCabe said he was flat on his back and covered with snow.
“I saw Kerry wiping the snow off of John’s face and I could not believe that that was John laying there.”
McCabe called 911 and she said Roberts and Read began attempting CPR while they waited for first responders. She said Read continued to scream.
Police and EMTs arrived and began working on O'Keefe. McCabe testified that when an EMT asked them what happened, Read said "I hit him" three times.
"When she spoke to the paramedic it was crystal clear: 'I hit him,'” McCabe said.
McCabe said she and Roberts were placed in a car with Read, who kept asking, "is he dead?" and asked them to pray.
The defense has made a search on McCabe's phone of "hos [sic] long to die in cold" central to the argument of Read's innocence. Her attorneys say she made this search at 2:27 a.m., hours before 911 was called to report O'Keefe had been found in the snow.
Prosecutors have disputed this timing, arguing McCabe made the search after O'Keefe was found unresponsive.
McCabe testified Friday that she made the search at Read's request after they found O'Keefe.
"She grabbed my hands and she said, 'Google hypothermia, Google how long it takes to die in the cold," McCabe said on the witness stand. "I had my phone out, and it was cold, and my hands were frozen, and I have MS, and I took my phone out while she was screaming and shaking my arm, and I attempted to Google 'How long does it take to die in the cold.'"
She told the court, "my hands were shaking," as she tried to complete the search and that she may have looked it up multiple times, but doesn't think she actually got the answer.
“I was completely just in a state of shock and disbelief,” she said.
Read's defense team maintains that the search was made hours earlier.
"That Google search was at 2:27 in the morning. That's when the Google search happened, and you'll find out why we know that in short order," defense attorney Alan Jackson said outside court Friday.
McCabe said that at one point, a police officer asked her to go inside and wake her sister, which she did by walking into the Albert home and upstairs to her sister's bedroom. Nicole and Brian Albert were asleep, according to McCabe, who said at first they appeared confused as she tried to explain to them what was happening.
After a few minutes the Alberts got up and got dressed, McCabe testified, coming downstairs to Officer Lank, who was waiting to speak with them. McCabe said she knew Lank, both of them having grown up in Canton. She said Lank eventually left but returned later with another officer when she called him.
"He had told me if there’s anything you remember please give me a call," McCabe said, noting that she got Lank's phone number from Julie Albert, who also arrived at the home at some point that morning.
I told him about the comments and the remarks that Karen Read had been stating that morning," McCabe testified. "I said that she told one of the EMTs that she hit him," she added.
McCabe said throughout the hours she was at her sister's home that morning several other people arrived at different points, including her husband Matthew McCabe, who she said she called, Julie Albert, and Brian Higgins. Eventually she returned home with her husband, and said it was there she was interviewed by Massachusetts State Police - troopers - Michael Proctor and Yuri Bukhenik.
She noted that at one point she called Brian Albert because she "wanted his support." Albert was at the McCabe home during her state police interviews, McCabe said.
Court has wrapped up for the day Friday.
For a look back at Thursday's testimony, watch last night's "Canton Confidential" special below:
