Live video, updates: Key witness Jennifer McCabe takes stand in Karen Read’s retrial

DEDHAM, Mass. — Jennifer McCabe, who infamously Googled “hos long to die in cold,” on the morning of John O’Keefe’s death, took the stand Tuesday afternoon on Day 6 of witness testimony in Karen Read’s retrial.

Read’s lawyers have said that McCabe’s search happened hours before O’Keefe was discovered, which could implicate her rather than Read. McCabe has said she made the search later at Read’s insistence after they found O’Keefe.

NOW ON THE STAND: Jennifer McCabe, a key witness and friend of Karen Read and John O’Keefe, and Brian Albert’s sister-in-law.

Read is accused of striking John O’Keefe, her Boston police officer boyfriend, with her SUV and leaving him to die alone in a blizzard outside of a house party at the home of fellow officer Albert following a night of drinking.

McCabe was with Read when she found O’Keefe dead in the snow on the morning of Jan. 29, 2022, outside Albert’s home at 34 Fairview Road in Canton.

Follow along with Ted Daniel’s live court updates:

Before McCabe took the stand, Ian Whiffin, a product manager at digital forensics firm Cellbrite, faced hours of questioning by both the defense and prosecution.

Whiffin testified that O’Keefe’s Waze app placed him “very close” to a flagpole outside Albert’s home, where his body was ultimately discovered.

Whiffin testified that he also examined the location and healthcare data, battery temperature, and pocket state of O’Keefe’s phone.

Whiffin told the court that he believes O’Keefe’s cellphone stayed in the area of the flagpole outside 34 Fairview Road from 12:32 a.m. onward, indicating that O’Keefe never entered Albert’s home.

Special Prosecutor Hank Brennan asked Whiffin, “Are all these dots and all these readings of the high frequency data that you compiled for that night, are they all consistent with Mr. O’Keefe’s phone being near the flagpole and not moving that night?”

Whiffin responded, “I think that’s a reasonable assumption.”

Three flights of stairs were climbed, according to O’Keefe’s phone, but Whiffin says the location data shows he was in the car at that time and believes that’s likely from driving up inclines. Whiffin testified that O’Keefe’s phone recorded no steps or flights climbed between 12:32 a.m. and 6:04 a.m.

He also told the court that the battery temperature of O’Keefe’s phone dropped from 72 degrees at 12:37 a.m. to 37 degrees at 6:14 a.m.

Whiffin was also grilled about McCabe’s Google searches on the morning that O’Keefe’s body was found.

“I went into the data, looked at the various different, databases, different files that were in use, tested it across many different devices to make sure that my understanding and analysis of it was correct,” Whiffin said.

Whiffin was asked about what he uncovered on McCabe’s “Hos long to die in cold” search, which had a timestamp of 2:27 a.m. on Jan. 29, 2022, hours before O’Keefe was found dead.

Whiffin told the court that both a state trooper and private forensics examiner Richard Green, a witness for the defense, reached out to him about McCabe’s search.

During Read’s first trial, Green testified that the search occurred at 2:27 a.m., but the prosecution claims he misinterpreted the cellphone data and was wrong on science.

Whiffin said the web search was not made at 2:27 a.m., before O’Keefe’s body was found, like the defense has alleged.

“I was able to take test devices, recreate test data to find out exactly what this timestamp meant, and discovered that it was actually the time stamp that the tab within the browser was brought into focus, and has no relevance to when the actual web query had been made,” Whiffin explained.

Jurors were sent home for the day shortly before 1 p.m. An evidentiary hearing featuring ARCCA experts Dr. Daniel Wolfe and Dr. Andrew Rentschler then started just after 2 p.m.

A mistrial was declared last year after jurors said they were at an impasse and deliberating further would be futile.

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Prosecutors allege Read intentionally backed into O’Keefe after she dropped him off at a house party and returned hours later to find him dead. The defense has claimed that she was a victim of a vast police conspiracy and that O’Keefe was fatally beaten by another law enforcement officer at the party.

Read has pleaded not guilty to charges of second-degree murder, manslaughter while operating under the influence, and leaving the scene of a crash resulting in death.

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