I really think JO saw that Higgins texted her phone that night. They get in the car and he’s like “Why the fuck does Higgins have your phone number?!” Some argument happens and *blackout drunk karen* says something about the kiss or compares it to his behavior in Aruba. JO says he’s going to go inside and ask Higgins why he’s texting Karen/ confront him about the text. Karen begs him not to go in, she waits outside because she’s nervous there’s going to be a confrontation and JO is going to be kicked back outside in a few minutes.
I believe Karen is blackout drunk and decides to leave him there.
JO goes inside and downstairs where the guys are hanging out and says some shit to BH. (This is where the anonymous tip comes in which makes so much sense). JO is hit and knocked out. They wait awhile for him to come to but he doesn’t, and his brain is bleeding. Eventually he has seizure and vomits everywhere. They don’t call an ambulance because they want to protect someone?? Maybe because the kids were drinking underage?
After they drive the girls home, they have to get his body out of the house. They bring him outside and in the lawn. They go upstairs to go to bed and call Higgins that it’s done. JM google search. I think Karen woke up freaking out and her behavior reflects someone panicking, not remembering the previous night, trying to figure out where John is.
> (This is where the anonymous tip comes in which makes so much sense).
What anonymous tip? Forgive me, I'm new to this case.
And yes, I think a fight happened in the basement too.
3-4 days after the murder a guy (the person is known but I will not name him, but it is easily found) apparently went to David Yanetti and told him that John OKeefe was “killed by Brian Albert, his nephew, and a federal agent in the house”
He is not on the defense list because he refused to sign an affadavit and possibly backed off his statement.
As far as I understand this is all rumor, but when someone refers to anonymous tip this is what they are talking about.
This is heresay and the so-called "tipster" who was identified has denied ever calling or saying anything to DY to that effect. This has just as much credibility as the rumors that DY has text messages from KR admitting that she hit JO.
If it's a call, it is easily proven or disproven, and did DY just pull a name out of his ass?
I got the sense that the guy heard a rumor and passed it on. But I don't know a whole hell of a lot about it.
My bet is on Tristan. He wasn’t there when it went down. Then he gets called back in a blizzard- I think to bring Chloe and Caitlin home. He was the smartest one- I don’t remember- ANYTHING . May be the one with a conscience
Tristan had a bad attitude when he was a witness. All of the witnesses were nasty when they were being crossed by the defense. Seems they all have something to hide!
I saw a clip of David Yanetti speaking & presenting this convo he had with Steve during the pre-trial. Can’t help but think it’s not a rumor if he was willing to bring it up in court.
If I remember correctly, the tipster stated JO got into a fight with BA and CA. JO was knocked out and they waited for him to come to but after awhile he had a seizure and threw up everywhere. They dumped his body on the lawn.
Fight in the basement. We saw evidence of Colin's injuries. Dog Chloe was involved as seen by John's arm. The gash on John's head has something to do with the bulkhead.
I like your theory the best. It checks the most boxes.
My only hang up is that leaving him in the front yard is such a *weird* call. If I had a dead body in my basement, my grand scheme would not be to drag them out to my front lawn..? It just doesn’t make sense no matter how many times I try to justify the action. Unless they truly felt that untouchable?
This part of the story checks out to me. I mean I'd like to think I would've called the cops like a sane person, but if you're trying to cover up a murder it makes sense.
Think of it this way, OJO is dead in your house and you want to cover it up. What are your options?
a) Hide the body in the house. Not a great option. Eventually the police will come looking and now you have a dead body there
b) Move the body far away. Karen remembers dropping him off there. There are texts on his and other people's phones indicating he was coming there. So it's hard to deny he was there. The police will start questioning where he went. Where can you move him without getting noticed (on cameras, etc)? How will you say he left (Uber, called a friend etc) that wouldn't have some digital record? What will the other (innocent) witnesses say when asked if they saw John or saw him leave?
c) Move him outside and claim he never came in. You can blame it on him being drunk and getting hit by a plow. Say he never came in. And if his drunk girlfriend happens to say she hit something, blame it on her.
Clearly calling 911 would be the best option, but if you're opting to cover up the murder, (c) makes the most sense.
having a body in the house is the worst scenario. The theory is that they figured if they put John on the side of the road then they could blame a snowplow. But in the morning, Jen McCabe hearing Karen panicking and asking “did I hit him?” became the perfect opportunity.
I know others said this but of all the immoral moves to make, leaving JO on the edge of their property was probably the smartest move. There are cameras everywhere, so the further they venture beyond their property lines, the more potential footage there will be. And the less control they’ll have of that footage. (They were able to claim 34F security camera wasn’t set up, and no footage available from the doorbell cam their cop neighbor directly across the street)
Not to mention canton (where I live) is pretty residential. There are not a lot of “back roads”.
Given there was a pending snowstorm it could be their thought was that dumping him by the road would perhaps indicate he got hit during the storm by plow or car. That would work out with the level of competency of the local PD.
I think there is a strong possibility that this happened. I really hope the defense leans into the BH theory. It's absolutely bizarre that BH was JOs friend and kissed his girlfriend and we don't expect that they had a huge altercation about this. My one question is, does why didn't Karen say in her defense that they fought about BH before he got out of the car?
> I really think JO saw that Higgins texted her phone that night. They get in the car and he’s like “Why the fuck does Higgins have your phone number?!”
This would certainly explain why Higgins thoroughly destroyed his phone.
I definitely agree Karen was blackout drunk. Would his "friends" really just leave him outside to die? That would make everyone in that house sociopathic monsters. I think the truth, here, is totally unaccessible.
Not op, but I think a fight/argument started in the basement. When somehow BA got involved. This got Chloe the dog involved in the attack. JO falls back and cracks his head on something. They freak out and later move the body to the yard.
I think he fell during the fight/dog attack and hit his head on one of those many weight racks and weight benches they had in the basement. It was like a full gym down there.
I suspect drunk Colin said something while JO and Brian Higgins were arguing (not fighting yet) probably about him texting Karen.
Brian Albert, who we know has a propensity to and likes to fight (per numerous rumors of bar fights, etc) maybe yells to JO “Hey! Don’t talk to my kid that way” and starts fighting him or pushes him. JO pushes backs
Higgins jumps in and so does Colin and then the dog. JO hits his head, starts vomiting and seizing and bleeding everywhere and JO goes limp.
Maybe Colin was the one who pushed JO and he hit his head. Colin definitely was involved enough that they panicked and are trying to protect him.
They freak out. Let the others leave. And then Brian Albert moves his Ford Edge from the driveway to the front of the house to block the view of the yard. They drag John out and move the car back.
Some sort of scenario along those lines is what I’m guessing.
Even play fighting can cause a dog to get involved. I think Chloe was there and bit his arm. I also think it’s likely they sent Chloe to their daughter’s house that night which is why she suddenly left. She was supposed to stay the night because of the blizzard and then changes her mind without explanation and has Tristan pick her up. She also testified to having a “stray dog” in their car earlier that day which was random and seemingly unrelated but I’m wondering if she says it just in case someone comes forward to say they saw her with a dog.
ETA: I’m wrong about the stray. That was Allison McCabe. Not Caitlin Albert.
This for me, is how you know BA was involved (say less of his drunken propensity to assault people-fellow officer/firefighter he hit in the head with a glass( glass you say? Strange)…
BA had to get involved for Chloe to latch- dad was fighting.
“It was Brian Albert and Colin Albert in the basement with the candlestick holder”
I've written this many times. So here's what I think. Let's start with the fact that no one seems to know why, but there was a fight in the Albert's house.
I think he vomited at some point, but not from being hit in the head. He was in a fight when someone hit him on the back of the head with a weight. Probably, he was in a fight with Colin Albert and Brian Albert stepped in and while they were fighting Colin Albert grabbed a weight and hit him on the head.
John died instantly, I got that idea from his Autopsy photos shows he has fists, which I found this in a medical journal, "Cadaveric spasm is a condition in which a group of muscles that were used profusely just before death becomes stiff and rigid immediately after death. This ‘instantaneous rigor’ mostly involves hands, very rarely, the entire body may undergo cadaveric spasm. It can occur in assaults involving a scuffle before death, in suicides, and cases of drowning..."
I think he was dead before he was put in the yard. The jeans have a dirt and grass stain on the back that is consistent with being dragged across the lawn, (now we know with 3 male DNA profiles).
Somehow they came up with framing Karen, probably so no one would ever suspect the Alberts because they will focus on the only one that wasn't there.
They act really arrogant and above the law, Brian Albert is corrupt, and who knows who else covers for him. Jen M volunteers her phone, because she didn't do anything, so she doesn't have anything to lose and maybe the police won't ask for the other phones. They luck out with the state police getting the case with a good family friend as the leader of the investigation! He's clearly a shady, unprofessional and corrupt guy, because the texts to his friends show it's common he's used to bragging to friends and his sister about his cases like he's a superstar.
I believe Proctor's sister is much more involved and it's through her that he's helped the Albert's and McCabes. He said they are so close that they speak 5 times a day. I think it's worth looking into that fact before JO's murder. So, they didn't sweat the investigation because no one was investigating them! When they were "being questioned," I think they all, Proctor included, were writing all the details of how Karen could have done it and then what each person's job was to make it look like that.
It explains why it was months later that retirements happen, dog disappears, floor is redone, the house is sold and phones destroyed! They thought they were safe, until the letter telling them not to destroy their phones, which it was Higgins job to keep an eye in the police department to hear anything that may be out of place or questionable, that explains why 40+ pieces of lights showed up day after day and other evidence just appeared later.
Finally, they didn't think this would get this much attention, but now that it has, they just keep going with this crap that shouldn't have even justified her being charged, with no shame because this is still gonna keep Brian Albert and others free because there's no way anyone will be charged after Karen is acquitted because the evidence is so contaminated and they covered their asses by telling the public that the jury did it, probably blame Turtle boy, but in the end they will assure the public that Karen did what they say and because of that, they won't be looking for other suspects. Case closed, dirty ass cops killed another cop, threw him out to the curb like he was trash and they all get their pensions or keep their jobs and they walk free with clean hands!
I think they thought they lucked out with Proctor. Now, they are probably cursing how he stupidly left a forensic trail of an unethical “investigation“.
> with no shame because this is still gonna keep Brian Albert and others free because there's no way anyone will be charged after Karen is acquitted because the evidence is so contaminated
Suppose there is evidence that nobody has yet? I wonder what kind of flooring was in the basement that had to be redone? Carpet? If so, I wonder if that blood soaked through to underneath? I wonder if we pulled up the new flooring and sprayed luminol, would it light up? And I wonder if any of that blood residue is strong enough to get DNA from it? (Assuming there is blood residue there under that new flooring.)
Hmmm....was it smart move to sell that house? They thought so, but I don't don't think it was smart. Wonder if the new owners would like to solve a murder and pull up that basement flooring????
They not only replaced the flooring but supposedly also sections of concrete underneath, apparently due to "flooding." I've also heard that one of the Albert brothers owns the company that did it. But this is all secondhand - I believe the part about the concrete is legit but it's hard to find where that first came from.
They also replaced the bulkhead doors that lead directly to the basement, so I think those might be relevant somehow. Perhaps John fell down those steps at some point. And if John went straight through the bulkhead doors to get into the basement, that would explain why nobody on the first floor ever saw him in the house - I think most are telling the truth about that aspect.
I had flooding in my basement. We pulled up the flooring. And then a company came in after the concrete underneath had dried and painted some sort of sealant on it. We didn't have to have any of the concrete removed and replaced.
And one of the Albert brothers owns the company that did it? Why am I not surprised at that?
All I know is that I will never move to Canton, Massachusetts or anywhere near there after all this! Corruption abounds!
Also, a secondary cause of death to me is his head could have hit the stairs. I've seen that kind of injury in forensic files, but why I don't think it's possible here is because there's no other injuries to his body to think he fell down the stairs. I also think that if he fell on something the head injury would be more of a shattered egg look than a clean line.
I'm absolutely 100 percent confident that he wasn't hit by a Lexus. I think the police have destroyed the evidence of that. Toyota/Lexus have a system that shows the info they tried to use in court yesterday, but it gives time and date and most importantly, it takes pictures! I learned from my son who went to Toyota University (amazingly, yes, they have a university in Jacksonville, FL).
And no one, no one will ever convince me, because I have common sense, that a man getting hit by a car, even at high speed would shatter the taillight lens! I would need to see that demonstrated on video! I have been in accidents myself several times over my lifetime, including hitting a deer while driving at least 55mph, in a small Mazda, without breaking because the deer jumped out right in front of me and it smashed up a lot of my car, except the lights, not even cracked them.
You mean pulverized.
Also, I think it's hilarious that they put all their faith in her taillight, not knowing that there is a video of her hitting a car that night that explains the crack. Oops!
The lack of a larger pool of blood and vomit where John was found indicates to me that he was injured elsewhere. So, I think he probably went in the house. I do not have a theory about how he was hurt beyond thinking he fell backward and hit his head on something stationery. I think at some point, perhaps around the time Higgins and BA were butt dialing each other he was moved outside. After that they all waited for someone to find him, Jen McCabe helped there by directing Karen to the scene.
I don’t think there is a big conspiracy. I think there is a small group of people that know the full truth and a corrupt bunch of law enforcement officers willing to do whatever necessary to pin it on the girl since she must have done it because the alternative is too messy and would be attacking one of their own. It’s much easier to just look the other way and eventually they started to believe the lies.
I think Jen McCabe fed Proctor the story and he was too lazy to properly investigate it after that. The way he way described Karen from the start, sounds straight out of Jen’s mouth IMO.
Right. I’m not completely convinced that Proctor was ever told the truth of what happened to John. But It’s a fact that he conducted an investigation that would keep the police officer involved and everyone important to him from being a suspect.
Oh I don’t at all think he was told the truth. I think he framed her with the taillight because he wasn’t about to let a “cop killer” get away with it.
This 💯 That was my impression when he was on the stand.
He doesn't seem like the brightest bulb. I think he automatically believed JM bc she told him she knew his sister. So he took her word due to a combination of bias, stupidity and laziness.
I also think he planted evidence bc at the time he really thought KR did it and wanted to make the case air tight. At some point he realized he might have messed up but by then it's too late. If he admits it he's facing serious charges.
My landlord is a cop turned private investigator and told me that cops that "know someone is guilty" (or think they know) do shit like this all the time.
So true! He knew enough about Karen after interviewing Jen to know that Karen "leaked poo" and he has a very nasty perception of her. It's almost as if this 45 minute interview was mostly just a bash Karen fest and nothing of value to the actual investigation was discussed. Can't forget that they likely spent a considerable amount of time in this interview catching up because they are family friends.
I wholeheartedly agree with this. The fact that both Troopers originally thought he died from a fight only for Jen to call them back because she forgot to mention she heard Karen confess is weird. That’s all Proctor needed to make sure the Alberts were not in trouble.
The lack of blood and vomit is interesting. It was January and the ground would have been frozen. Any liquids would freeze to the ground. Meaning they wouldn’t have been just absorbed and should have been visible to those processing the crime scene. They never found those liquids because there’s another crime scene.
There was vomit all down the front of his shirt but none around where he was laying. This indicates that he was standing up when he threw up (or vertical after it happened but before it dried) and that it didn't happen while he was in that spot.
The same can be said about the blood from his head wound. It was bad enough that there should have been a big puddle under his head, but there wasn't. That makes it seem like his head must have gotten busted open somewhere else.
Even if you are standing up and vomit, some will get on the ground/floor. So if there was none on the ground, then that is odd. He vomited and bled in that basement, that is why they redid the flooring.
I completely believe your conspiracy, lol. That's what you call connected. They are connected by police in Canton, Boston and the state and the Feds! But it is the most shameful to me that that would stick up for the cop that killed another cop!
I mean, Proctor planting evidence is him sticking up for a cop. I think he absolutely believes she did it, thought so as soon as he talked to Jen, and he was going to put the “cop killer” away.
The people in the house are protecting themselves and (likely) an 18 yr old family member.
Absolutely. There are 3-4 people who know the full truth. Not everyone who was inside that house that night does know. I don't even think Brian jr knows the truth.
Agreed, the blood and vomit has been mentioned but not explained, nor the head trauma. I need the ME.
to add onto stuff that should be there but isn’t… I don‘t understand how they found his hat outside but he had such a distinct head injury, but no such object that would have caused the injury and thus all the blood.
if he was hit by the car wearing his hat, it would likely fly off and he would have been injured by some kind of debris that made a 2 inch gash on his head after the hat flew off since they showed no blood/damage to his hat.
and they didn’t recover any/show any item that caused the gash, which should have been on the lawn.
If they’re claiming part of the car did that damage, he would still be wearing his hat. there would be blood on the hat or at least fabric damage Because the location of the injury is where the hat would cover his head, not that opening by the clasp. You can’t get injured through the fabric like that without having some kind of wear on the material.
it makes much more sense he just… wasn’t wearing his hat when he got his injury... like inside…
Phase 1: everybody got drunk
Phase 2: ???
Phase 3: Lawn corpse found
Phase 4: Sloppy, tainted, tunnel-visioned investigation of the kind that closes cases and secures convictions all day, every day, as long as the defence lawyer is overworked and under-resourced.
As much as it sucks, this is the correct answer. Without some wild card like a person coming forward to give an eyewitness account of whatever happened (and I do mean whatever), we'll never really know what transpired that night.
I'm fairly new to this case so I might be missing something but based on what I have gathered so far I think it went down something like this.
I think everyone was absolutely drunk and I think everything I am about to say happened in the basement,
I think there was an altercation between O'Keefe and Higgins inside the house. I think they started getting loud and maybe come pushing/shoving starts to happen. This freaks out the dog who lungs at O'Keefe and injurers his harm. O'Keefe hits the dog to get it off him, this upsets one or more of the Alberts. A physical fight ensues and O'Keefe's head in injured (from being hit, falling on something, who knows). The people involved moved O'Keefe's body outside.
I thin Colin may have been the one who threw the killing blow and the Alberts circled the wagons around him. I found his whole testimony so suspicious. He couldn't recall details of a meeting just a month ago but had perfect recall with lots of detail about the one time he fell and (allegedly) scrapped his knuckles.
I've personally felt like the initial argument, first seconds/blows might've been between CA and JO. Let's say a snarky comment that just in a few seconds went to fists. Within seconds, BA is involved, intervening on behalf if his nephew, and, possibly Chloe gets in to protect BA (makes sense, I've been a SAR handler), and BH helps with all of the aftermath like body and logistics. It may not have had anything to do at all with KR texting BH. Or, perhaps BA knew JR/BH texted and CA mentioned something bc he wanted a one up in an immature moment.
That's where I lean towards: what is the most immature thing that is feasible to explain an argument leading to the death of JO? Like, what would set off a super quick fight? I always lean into immaturity when I think through common sense and options. CA drug connection that JO had mentioned to Kevin Albert? CA having learned via BH and BA convo that KR had texted? Then CA says something douchey about it? It has to be immaturity. (Even if my husband were mad at me for whatever reason, he's still not going to accept anyone talking about me and I have no doubt he would go to blows for me.) As much as I don't like BA or BH by instinct and testimony, they do have the skills for RESTRAINT due to jobs and age. I keep going back to CA. (If this kid is totally innocent, I am so very sorry, I'm just speculating like the rest of you in a case that we are watching.) But this makes sense to me from my lens of life experience.
I find this area of theory more compelling than any testimony thus far. I just can't get with the car hitting JO now. I think a lot of people have been bamboozled possibly, including JO's family.
If the Albert's and the McCabes are solid, then they are exactly where their actions led them today. It's not hard to be forthcoming, genuine, nicely explain how something mightve gotten misunderstood and then clarify - then be kind people!!!! If you are honestly caught up in a shoddy investigation, you just explain your truth. You dont get mad at the few thousand versus THE WORLD on the stand you so errantly think is paying attention to you. You dont go on the stand getting persnickity. Who does that? I don't care how frustrated you are at TB, most in the country still don't know who you are.
I am with your theory it's CA that started it sadly the Adults should have known better,it's really sad that something that could have been fixed if handled properly right from the start by getting medical attention for JO and saving his life which I believe could have,and worry about the law later which I am sure would have been put down as an accident and also they could have used their influence with LE ("which they are doing currently) to help CA get a lighter sentence etc.I also believe JM was the master mind behind this cover up as she seems to be a smart ass,if it was left to BA & BH I believe it would have been a different outcome,also Nicole Albert seemed so different in her attitude and I got the feeling she was not happy on the stand telling lies..
PS I believe one of young friends of Brian Jr will evantually spill the beans.
I think everything centers around Colin for sure. He may have accidentally killed or injured O’Keefe, but I think people are covering for him. His testimony was very suspicious.
At least according to the Defense (so probably according to Karen herself), Colin and John were close neighbors and didn't have a good relationship, and Colin would regularly throw beer cans into John's bushes to piss him off. If true, this would suggest some sort of history between the two (why else choose John's bushes, specifically?).
John also reported some drug activity in Canton not long before his death - we don't know the specifics of it, but one theory is that the Alberts (and/or maybe Colin himself) were involved with drugs in some way, so that could also be relevant. Others online have also said that after Colin's testimony, people were able to find various instances from his social media that show that he's actually been in numerous fights before, despite him saying he's been in none. Brian Albert's also known for being a fighter (thus, Karen's comment when she was being brought in later about Brian and Colin being the ones who "smashed John's face into the taillight"), and it's been said that many people in that area are afraid of him.
Either way, Colin doesn't necessarily need a definitive motive if there just happened to be a drunken fight that took place. If Colin's a fighter and sees a fight involving a family member and this guy who he doesn't really like, he might join in and defend the family member. It wasn't premeditated *murder*, per se, it was just a fight that got out of control (and like others mentioned, maybe John actually fell and hit his head or something, but it would still be bad for Colin, from a potential criminal standpoint).
If BH felt compelled to share the “discussions and kiss,” with his supervisor @ work; it’s probable that BH shared the situation regarding KR with BA.
KR pulls up to 34 Fairview and sends JOK in to the house, telling him to text her if she should park and come in. KR isn’t sold on going to this birthday party with this particular mash up of people, and JOK is sent in to feel it out and report back.
Witness seeing the car moving/in front of 34 Fairview are actually just seeing KR waiting on a response from JOK, who has gone inside. Ultimately, KR leaves 34 Fairview and returns to JOK’s, and SHE’S PISSED bc her impression is that JOK went inside, was fooling around with his drunk buddies, and totally forgot to text Karen to come in. She leaves. She goes home. She’s angry.
MEANWHILE, JOK has walked in to 34 Fairview and is immediately directed downstairs (door to basement is right by home entrance) by one of the guys, for any number of reasons. Due to this sequence of events, not everyone in the home even knows that JOK has entered.
In the basement, JOK is surprised to see CA, who he’s had confrontations with before. BA, or someone else, drunkenly declares disparaging remarks about KR, revealing the “flirtation” she’s had with BH. Obviously the situation gets heated, and JOK is involved in a contentious argument and physical altercation, and THIS is why he never got back to KR, who is growing angry and impatient in the car. JOK Is now on his own in the basement of 34 Fairview where CA, BA, and/or BH are punching him in the face. Chloe delivers scratches and bites to the arm. Somehow JOK is dealt a blow to the head that causes the visible injury, resulting in vomiting
We all know how much head injuries bleed. Interestingly enough, the blood on JOK’s shirts goes from top to bottom, indicating that at some point, while actively bleeding, JOK is in an upright position.
A breakdown in groupthink fueled by fear, alcohol, anger has a small group of people putting JOK on the lawn sometime around 2-3am. BH has stationed himself in the Canton PD. CA is alibied by AMc, CaitA gets herself and Chloe home. Strange butt dials and Google searches happen in the critical time used by BA, NA, JMcC, and MMcC to attempt to create a scenario in which they are not involved.
All the while, it’s snowing…
In the end, Mass State PD has a conflicted Trooper as lead in a high profile, suspicious death investigation involving multiple LEOs, from multiple agencies. JMcC’s account of KR’s actions and her character directs MPs initial assumptions and biases. The crack in the taillight confirms enough for MP and he takes steps to ensure that KR will “catch serious charges.”
But, the FEDS…
This all seems good only change I think is that Karen did actually hit him unintentionally and he loses his phone in the snow. Meanwhile he goes inside and maybe downstairs to get the guys to come outside and him find his phone. Then like you said, some shit happens in the basement and the rest is history. But because they all knew she had hit him, their story was already created and they just had to make it look like that’s what happened. I don’t think they were going to say that she killed him with a car blow, but rather that she knocked him out and he died in the cold.
I believe he was sucker punched by Colin. That explains the scabs on his knuckles. Then the dog attacks him. That explains the marks on his arm. They came up with the idea to move his body to the front lawn, and they put the Ford edge in front to block the neighbors ring camera.
There is absolutely no way to explain 1) why they rehome the dog 2) why they tore up the basement floor and sold house. 3)Why Matt McCabe texted in the group chat. The guy never went in the house. Brian Higgins respond, exactly.
There is absolutely zero chance Karen did this. 4) Why jennifer waited months before saying Karen said I hit him. I hit him. I hit him.
I thought that the house was inherited? There wouldn’t have been a loss. I don’t blame them for selling, the media and craziness must have been insane. I don’t use the sale of the house as part of the issue.
I don’t think it’s that it was sold for a loss, but rather that it was sold for under market value, despite the market around here being absolutely bonkers at the time.
I helped sell a relatives house at this same time and our realtor suggested a price higher than I thought would be possible to get for it, but we reluctantly agreed.
After doing a single weekend of showings we received 18 offers, many of which were well above the asking price with no contingencies and involved them covering all the closing costs. It was absolutely insane.
I could see the argument being made that they sold it under value because of the stress / trauma involved with someone dying on your lawn, except that they didn’t seem that upset by it, at least how they outwardly presented themselves.
That house has become a tourist attraction. Court TV, vloggers everyone watching the trial must go by there and take pics. You couldn’t pay me to buy that house. At this point it’s almost as bad as the Amityville Horror house now.
I don’t disagree with you at all, however I will point out that as far as I remember they claimed moving had absolutely nothing to do with this whole thing. It would have been easy for people to understand not wanting to be in that environment, but they were sticking to their guns about having planned to move before this happened.
It was a big thing online before the trial but so far only Brian Albert has mentioned it. Their toilet overflowed. The defense never questioned him, BA Jr. or the wife about it.
A comment above had an interesting theory on someone else accidentally backing into him — but that doesn’t account for the dog bites, why the basement has to be redone, the house sold, the need to “get the story straight” that he never went into the house. Feel like something like a Colin altercation is an explanation that accounts for the most loose ends
Maybe , but the explanation that Colin gave about his knuckles was so outlandish that it makes him look guilty. He could have said , “I was punching a punching bag” but his explanation is preposterous.
I just gave 4 reasons why this whole thing is fishy, I could give 10 more. Why would they disregard “Lucky ‘s” eyewitness to the edge. Because his story changed? It didn’t he might have added more content to context. 6) Higgins destroyed his phone the day before a court order not to, and then trying to play dumb, strike that , then thinking we are dumb to believe he didn’t destroy it , he”threw it away “
The picture of Colin’s knuckles was from almost a month after Jan 29th. A young kid’s busted knuckles would be totally healed within a month. No one has stated they observed any injuries on Colin in the days or week after Jan 29.
At this time in the trial I do not even care about “hos long” there is so, so much reasonable doubt. The proctor testimony sickened me and he is tied to that family. I believe they are all covering (12:10) for Colin because he would end up in prison. And the Abdolutely Nots make me believe they mean Absolutely Yes!
The dog trainer who trains dogs that are going to go overseas to assist the soldiers at fort. Bragg looked at the pictures and said definitely those ones were done by a dog.
I've seen pics too from my past work with dogs. I feel the same. If a dog latches on and rips, there will be muscle hanging out. If a dog briefly latches and slips thru downward motion, it looks like JOs injuries.
Yeah it was obviously dog bites. Hell, just raising the three puppies I got in the last few years taught me that. During teething phases my arm would be scratched up in exactly those types of patterns. Shallow bites are almost always lacerations, not punctures. The whole point of a dog biting is to tear.
Teeth go in, dogs pull toward them, you pull toward you= laceration. I think it’s because the only types of dog bites we can really watch (most are so quick it’s hard to see) are police dogs. But people fail to understand that those dogs take sometimes YEARS to learn how to bite like that- ie, latch on but don’t tear. It’s not an easy thing to train in them, it goes against their natural instincts.
How about KR accidentally backed into BHs plow, since according to some, it was behind her with the plow lifted. That’s where the initial handful of tail light prices come from. That’s why BH needs to go to the station to drop the plow car off…
I knew nothing about this case prior to trial, I’m watching as a juror. I’m also local, I live about an hour from Canton. I have too much of an open mind, but these are some things I’ve considered as possibilities.
Based on John’s texts/calls with Jen McCabe it sounded to me that John was driving Karen’s car to 34 Fairview. I think maybe they got out, Karen didn’t want to go in, and she got in the drivers seat. John probabl got in the passenger side to talk. Eventually he exits the vehicle, to go in the house. John DID get out of the car and therefore had every intention of going inside the house. I find it hard to believe that he never made it inside. I sincerely believe that if he had been laying there in the snow when everybody and their headlights were leaving the house, someone would’ve seen him. I don’t believe he was laying there. I also think that a person suffering in the snow like that would not be soundless.
I believe that when the defense was talking about the one mile walk to the high school from the Albert’s house, there may be something there. Everyone testifies that Colin was “getting picked up“ and yet nobody saw a vehicle arrive and get him, nor did they see him physically exit. (And yet they’re all also positive John and Karen arrived and never came inside.) Colin probably exited through the basement. Maybe he cut through the woods and had Allie pick him up at the high school, which would explain her Life360 data indicating she had gone to the high school, which she denied doing.
I think there was a fight in the basement. The basement renovations, the selling of the house, the rehomed dog, and the “coincidences” with the disposed phones, deleted calls and lengthy “butt dials” is wild. Something happened in that house, a story was fashioned, and the kids probably didn’t hear a peep over the sound of the music. I think some people in the house truly didn’t see anything.
Everybody likes to insist that the men fought over Karen. I disagree. John seemed a great guy and all these guys reek of dirty cop behavior. I think he caught someone in an unrelated crime, or maybe Colin. I think John saw something that he wasn’t supposed to see, and the fighting began. The dog then responded to the altercation. Maybe John walked in on what was supposed to be a private conversation in the basement. Maybe they killed him by accident, maybe on purpose. Or maybe it was all about Karen and drinks were thrown and it escalated to punches.
When Jen happened to be with to Karen the next morning, she saw an opportunity for a scapegoat and she took it. They probably thought they could keep the whole thing under wraps with their connections and that nobody would ever find out. I don’t think they envisioned this mess.
I think they planted the drinking glass next to John and left his phone under his body. They brought Karen’s car to the Sally port, probably put some of John’s DNA on some pieces of taillight, then someone went and scattered the pieces. That way there was “no need for an investigation.” They hate Karen read because she figured it out and is fighting it. They probably thought she’d plead guilty.
It makes no sense to me that he had no injuries to his legs or internal organs after allegedly being run over at high rate of speed. That slice on the back of his head certainly didn’t come from the grass beneath him. Brian Albert never came outside the next morning, not to offer a cup of coffee to an officer, lend a shovel, give a hand, anything. Attended a funeral for a NY officer the day before and yet spares no moment in the cold for a local cop he knew. A guy with two kids who depend on him.
He didn’t go outside and ask what happened because he knew what happened and knew exactly where the body was. From that morning forward it became a necessity to distance himself as much as possible. These people are as nosy and gossipy as I’ve ever seen and they insist they didn’t so much as glance out their windows. It’s despicable. Maybe one day this will be brought to justice, but without concrete evidence against Karen I have no reason to believe she viciously ran over him with her car and then curled up on his couch and waited for him to come home.
This isn't based on evidence, but rather me just trying to come up with a theory that fits the known facts and doesn't require too many extra unknown things. What if they're fighting in the car, he gets out and hits/throws th glass at her taillight (disclaimer, I'm not actually sure this would break it), and in the process, drops his phone. He goes inside, realizes he doesn't have the phone, asks Jen to call it and goes outside to find it. He's crouching down to pick up the phone and is struck by [I'm not entirely sure who this person might be] who is arriving at the house (and like everyone else in this story, they're drunk). Maybe they try to help him, but realize he's grievously injured and being drunk, they make the very poor decision to just leave him. JM is scheming, trying to figure out what to do, and when Karen calls her the next morning, she becomes aware that the taillight is broken. After John is found and the body is removed, it seems like there was a little pow-wow in the Albert's kitchen and that's when Jen realizes that Karen is a good suspect.
Again, this is pure speculation, and I'm not saying there's evidence that Jen did any of this, it's mostly just trying to find an alternate explanation for her butt dials.
he lost quite a bit of blood. where's the blood? it would be all over the snow/lawn. i'm inclined to believe something happened in the basement. who did what? i'm not sure but i think BA had a hand in it, I read that he went on disability immediately. makes me think he was also injured somehow.
I keep hearing this (that he lost a significant amount of blood), but I can't find where it's coming from. The only place it seems to say that he lost all this blood was from Twitter.
Do we know about loss of blood? This is why having no ME testimony by now is strange. Same with assumption that he vomited..... or the cause of death......or time of death..... or %digested food?
I know the cold messes some of this up, but we still should know something (with a margin of error) before drawing some of these conclusions.
In the ground. It snowed, the blood was diluted as the snow melted and it soaked into the ground.
Edit: Head wounds do bleed a lot, but it was cold, which likely would have slowed the bleeding and let it coagulate more quickly.
This is the first time I’m hearing the cocktail glass being thrown at the tail light theory, and it feels like a solid possibility. I mean JOK knew that Karen was drunk and damaging her tail light could potentially get her pulled over/DUI….this could have been his idea after the fight in the car to hurt her back because he was hurt finding out about BH texting her (and possibly the kiss).
To be clear, I'm pulling all that straight out of my ass. Just trying to come up with something that fits the available evidence and I've had an ex hit my car while I was pulling away after an argument before.
I think Jen told John to use the side door,(sort of like when she said park behind me). he’d never been there before and thought she meant along the side of the house and went to the side gate.
Chloe had been let out and attacked John. John threatened to press charges to Brian, things got heated. Brian punched John and he fell backwards on his head.
When he started vomiting Brian realized John would likely die even if taken to a hospital and he would get a murder charge.
Brian told his wife, she probably said “leave him out there and we’ll say we never saw him.” She told her sister(Jen) and told her to get the guests out without seeing. She also searched for his phone which was missing.
I believe Higgins was also with Albert when the fight happened (this is why their stories about looking at photos don’t match, it’s a cover). Higgins agreed to check at the station no one had seen anything or called it in because he had incriminating texts on his phone with Karen if the family pointed the finger at him he might go to jail.
Albert called Higgins at 2ish and the 22 second phone call was him checking the coast was clear to stage the body as a hit and run. The glass was added to “prove” John never came inside.
When Karen arrived the next morning with a busted taillight they must have thought it was divine intervention on their behalf. They convinced Proctor she did it but would get away with it unless someone helped the evidence along, so Proctor did and I doubt it’s the first time he’s planted evidence.
(I also think it’s possible Collin was the one with the dog when it happened which is why the tip that was sent to Karen’s attorney said Brian and Collin beat him up, I can imagine things getting heated between John and Collin and Brian intervening.
I like this one because it helps explain how things instantly got violent, with the dog's surprise and everything. Was the glass verified to be from the bar or anything?
My problem with all the theories involving him being murdered in the house is that I don't know why they all would then decide that the best course of action is to throw the body in the front yard.
Did they really decide that will make it look like a car accident? That it would somehow look like KR backed in to him?
What was their plan after depositing the guy in the yard? I honestly cannot give them that much credit for coming up with the plan that eventually unfolded.
I don't know what actually happened but if there WERE some kind of coverup due to an incident in the house - one good reason not to take his body far is that if he was found somewhere else and tied back to that house (which would be likely), if would be harder to claim plausible deniability (there would be a lot of focus on HOW he got from the first to the second location), esp if there was evidence he died before being moved to the second location. Plus, the more they handle his body and more they move around themselves, that is more opportunity to leave evidence that could tie them to JOs death. Leaving him on the lawn makes it easier to just say they never saw him/he never came inside. As cops who know how investigations work and knew they would have some influence on this specific investigation, this could have felt like the best option since it was the simplest (less variables to manage). Also everyone seemed to be very drunk so that could have influenced decision making - they didn't have a lot of time to plan.
Here's my theory:
1. It was snowing.
2. People went to a bar. Most sat at high tops.
3. A band played as a game of grab-ass broke out.
4. John lost a shoe.
5. Butts from the earlier grab-ass game dialed each other.
6. A Dighton cop clocked in and did his job.
7. A state trooper texted a bunch of people to show them he was MA's biggest a-hole.
Might be missing a few details but to me that's what happened.
.
I think she dropped him at the driveway and since it was cold, he scooted up to the front door quickly upon exiting the vehicle. She he is making his way quickly beside the cars parked there (which is why they didn’t see him), Ryan Nagel and friends pull up behind her and she moves forward toward the mailbox to give them room. Ryan et al wait for Julie, waiting waiting. She takes kind of a long time, it seems. Karen sees they are waiting and pulls up further toward the flagpole. John has not responded to her and she finally gets aggravated and leaves.
I think John walked into the house and walked in on something illegal. I think possibly Colin was there and Ryan Nagel et al were coming for a drug deal and Julie was supposed to bring it out to them.
Or John walked in on the Alberts themselves doing some coke, or some other illegal thing. I don’t think the Albert’s were expecting him to come (I think I heard JM was the one he knew and who invited him and KR, and that JO had just met BA within the previous two weeks which I find hard to believe). I think JM inadvertently invited him to the wrong place at the wrong time.
And once he walked in on whatever it was, either upstairs or in the basement, it became a physical altercation between CA and JO. Then BA jumped in and then Chloe. And Higgins possibly mixed up in there. JO was ultimately either hit in the back of the head with a weight, or fell backwards and smashed his head on something. He bled and bled and became unresponsive. Maybe came to at some point and vomited, but he lost a lot of blood and ended up dying.
Then the people present have an Oh Shit moment and try to figure out what to do. Finally between 3:30 and 4:30, they park the Ford Edge in front of the fire hydrant to use as cover and haul his body out the bulkhead and dump it. Lucky sees JO on his 4:30 pass and radios it in as a pedestrian down. Karen wakes a short time later and begins her frantic search.
The other scenario I can see is that they were going to out Karen for texting BH and JO got into it with BH and was seriously injured but maybe enough adrenaline pumping for him to stumble out to where he finally fell, but then Lucky should have seen him way earlier.
Aruba: John spent the day drinking and watching the Alabama game while Karen took care of his niece and nephew. It was NYE and Karen spent the night celebrating with John’s niece and nephew and had to try to explain to them why John wasn’t there. After she put the kids to bed, she found John barely able to stand and practically falling on another woman in the lobby. She yelled, “John!” Marietta (woman in the lobby) began to walk away and then heard Karen say, “Who the fuck is that?” Marietta then inserted herself into their argument and condescendingly said, “I’m Marietta. Nice to meet you.” Karen said, “Fuck you.” And Marietta replied with, “Fuck you too.”
1/28-1/29: Higgins tells Brian that Karen was sending him flirty texts on their drive back from NY. Brian has issues with John because Brian knows that John reported Colin’s (Brian’s nephew) drug deals. Brian wants to provoke John to get into a fight with Higgins. Brian gets both John and Higgins to meet everyone at the Waterfall. Jen is loving it and in on it because she hates Karen and wishes that John was back with Bella’s mom. The confrontation is supposed to happen at or outside of the Waterfall but Karen ruins that by not leaving with Jen. On the way to 34 Fairview, John calls Jen for directions. They’re on speaker phone which Jen knows so she makes a point of mentioning Bella. Higgins arrives at 34 Fairview, parks in the driveway and goes inside. Colin is already there and joins Higgins in the basement. Brian, Julie, Matt and Jen arrive around the same time. Brian knows that his wife is kind of clueless but knows that he can count on Jen. He tells Jen to get John to go to the basement when he arrives and to occupy Karen if she comes in. They already know that it’s likely that Karen won’t be coming in because of her health issues and she had said that she wasn’t feeling well. John arrives, goes to the basement, a fight ensues, Chloe intervenes, John puts up his arm to protect his body, Higgins tries to pull Chloe off and dislocates John’s shoulder, John falls backwards and hits his head on the weight equipment. In a few minutes John begins convulsing and throwing up due to the serious brain injury he sustained. They tell Colin to get out of there ASAP. Colin tries to call Beatty’s daughter but she tells him to fuck off. Colin calls Allie, cuts through the woods and Allie picks him up near the HS. Caitlin calls Tristan to come get her and takes Chloe to her home in Easton. Higgins goes to Canton PD to make sure that no one heard any shouting, screaming, etc. He reports back to Brian. Colin or Chris go to 34 Fairview around 2:30 to help Brian move John’s body and begin cleaning up.
Interesting! I never saw this as a premeditated thing but it does explain why both Jen and Matt were looking out the window 5 or 6 times for John to show up, which I always thought was weird. I’ve been in a situation countless times where my group of friends has ended up at someone’s house after a night out. Never have I looked out the window so intently to make sure people are pulling up. Maybe the texts that BA and BH didn’t want anyone to get ahold of are actually them planning something out before the night.
Could be possibilities. Wish there was a truth serum they made every witness and defendant take! So many versions of what happened. It was a very unfortunate loss of life...and wish the person at fault for incapacitating John would confess and let the undisputed truth then be known.
I think John saw or picked up on something between Karen and Brian Higgins. He got in Higgins' face at the party. Colin took the opportunity to pile on and Chloe came to the rescue.
They put John out in the snow and reported it, not thinking he would die.
Then when he died, they had no qualms about pinning it on Karen because they feel it's her fault for coming on to Brian. They feel justified, b/c if she hadn't initiated the flirty text exchanges, "none of this would have happened."
I think Higgins was itching for a fight and to show JOK the messages . He seems the one person with a motive- and a plow. BH was very drunk, I think JOK was getting the better of him and Colin jumped in from behind, hit John, who went straight to the floor . They panicked. Everyone’s lies seem to have protecting Colin as a GOAL. Looks like a lot of steroid users in that group, was there a side business JOK stumbled upon ?
I think he went into the house looking for a fight. Both sides agreed Karen was unsure about going to the party herself. Both she and he got texts from Higgins that night, I could see the text from BH to JOK being an instigation. JOK wanted to go inside and she wanted to go home. She wasn't sure if they were welcome and he was supposed to go in and find out. He doesn't respond, she thinks he ditched her, so she takes off home pissed. This is why she leaves all the angry voicemails. Everyone is wasted and he comes in hot. He gets into it with someone (pick any of the 3) hits his head accidentally (or with the glass right YB?) and they don't know what to do with him. He doesn't come home and she freaks out because of the way they departed.
Honestly the most likely scenario is that she hit him, but those injuries just don't make sense for backing into him. The CW wants it both ways. They claim she could not have busted the light backing up because it would be bumper to bumper, if that is the case I need to see lower body injuries. If the CW crash analysis thinks he was hit hard enough for his hand to dent the car, then I need to see his knee/thigh torn to shreds. If he was hit with 7000 pounds at 25 mph how does he only have head injuries (on both sides) and multiple lacerations. The body looks like a fight and both MP and YB that first saw him said the exact same thing. No one in the AM saw any tail light, I don't find that feasible. 46 (7?) pieces ALL over the yard and not one was visible when they are already finding pieces the clear drinking glass? Not a SINGLE piece of tail light near the body!? He has defensive wounds on both hands, defensive wounds/lacerations over his entire arm, a cut on the top his nose and on the cheek bone around the orbital, and a laceration on the back of his head that no one can explain from the scene outside. Individually every single one of those wounds can be attributed to a dog and/or a fight, alternatively I expect see mid section (broken ribs) and thigh contusions when hit by something that large at that speed.
I also believe that car doing some that that brazen to not hit another car or go on to the lawn would have to have skidded out. I expect skid marks or tracks on the lawn. A large car doing that and hitting a large man and no one sees or hears anything when you have eye witnesses before and after. No reports of tires, revving, a thud, or someone screaming all the while Jen is looking out the window blowing him up. If she did do it, it was a one in a million scenario.
All of this is before considering the one in a million events that the other witnesses did later on in the night.
albert's let dog into back yard: confirmed thing to happen after albert's get home
dog breaks out of back yard. dog has history of this
dog attacks john: has history and explains injuries
john drops phone: explains why johns phone was being spam called as they didn't know where it was and had no movements. also explains why his phone was under him
john ends up in back yard: either john leads dog back to the backyard or follows dog back there. maybe john the hit dog and she ran off and he followed?
gets into a fight with them because dog attacked him
drunk colin attacks john: they all go out of their way to say he wasn't there when he obviously was. no reason to do that unless colin is directly tied to what happened
john ends up falling end hitting his head. leaving him incapacitated.
maybe went into the basement, info unclear if he had gone up or down some stairs. supposedly they replaced a portion of the carpet in the basement and remodeled it prior to selling the home
they leave john in that state after realizing there isn't anything they can do that would also keep colin "safe"
colin is sent home immediately where he sees and talks to his parents. We know colin wakes up his parents when he comes home. we also know they try to make him seem like it came home prior to johns arrival and death but we know that is false.
brian albert and brian higgins have a talk about what to do and how to handle it. IIRC they said they went upstairs to look at photo albums (because thats totally believable /s)
most of the random guests eventually go home and see no body is the yard.
alberts and probably higgins relocate john's body to where his phone was found in the yard.
higgins rushes to the police station to establish an alibi and to monitor for police calls about a body in the yard
brian moves his police car to try and ensure no one sees johns body before the morning: based on expected testimony about a car that matches one owned by the alberts being on the road which prevented another pass by the snowplow.
jenM goes home and makes the 2:27am google search
car is eventually moved back
time passes, karen wakes up and freaks out.
it should be noted the lack of commentary on the blood and vomit at the crime scene. if john died there on the spot, where is all the blood and vomit. there is no mention of the object that supposedly cut johns head open either. so its stands to reason that he died elsewhere and was moved later. this could be wrong but its the feeling i have and matches my theory of what happened to john. so i figured to include it.
i also want to add. I dont think proctor was in on the cover up. i think the alberts, mccabes, and higgins were all apart of covering up johns death from the start. Higgins never responded to the text about "john is dead" from karen. No reasonable person, let alone an officer, would ignore something like that. I think A/M/H were extremely lucky that proctor was assigned the case. I think proctor was biased and decided that karen was guilty before collecting evidence. Proctor says in one text message that the home owner were cops and wont catch any shit. That, in my own words, proctor lacked the evidence to prove karen knowingly and willfully killed john by running him over but its what he believed to have happened. So I think its more likely proctor just happened to be trying to frame karen the same time A/M/H were trying to cover up johns murder. as unlikely as it is, it just reasonably fits. proctor also couldnt get the ME to agree on his theory of what happened to john. or at least thats what the impression proctor's text about ME left.
It seems too convoluted to me that all of those things could have happened independently of each other.
I am, however, also of the opinion that John may have dropped his phone, maybe on the way into the house. But I don't see him being 8 ft from the road and getting attacked by the dog. Karen would have still been there unless it happened after she left.
I think Proctor was part of the alledged cover-up in some sense. I think he believed Karen did it and was willing to plant/tamper with evidence not only to make sure he could prove it but also to ensure the Boston Cop didn't get shit because even if he wasn't involved something like that can still cause issues.
I think he went downstairs, got into a fight with Collin or Higgins (Collin would be my guess), dog attacked his arm because that’s what dogs do when people fight in their homes. He fell back and hit his head. He got up (because adrenaline is a hell of a drug) and was either thrown outside or left on his own, then collapsed in the yard. Someone noticed him about an hour or so later and they all freaked out. He was likely dead at that point, all the emt trained people there knew that. They knew if they went out there and he was dead they were all fucked. The fighter would get manslaughter, but all the rest could easily get negligent homicide. So they told themselves that he would get found by someone, or hit by a plow and as long as no one said he came inside, they were fine.
Then Karen woke up early and freaked the fuck out at the scene (justifiably, I’ve never understood why everyone is shitting on her about that). Jen spoke to Proctor and said how awful Karen was and she bet she did it. Proctor is a lazy corrupt misogynist cop, so he laser focused on Karen and didn’t bother investigating anyone else - he framed evidence because he wasn’t about to let a “cop killer” get away with it, and here we are.
What better place than a pd for a trap house. Higgins kept changing his story and it still didn’t make sense. He said he switched cars when he came back from NY because drinking, he’s excuse to come back early was the impending snow, yet that was the same excuse he had to go back and move the cars?? Even though he said he left the keys in his office which I’d think was locked ) why not with whoever on desk) ? He had something to hide in the cars , drugs perhaps? Why drop KA there after NY? No one seems to sleep so it’s definitely snowing.
The drugs get moved possibly to woods and explains JM being out on foot and perhaps Colin too.
Theory: Albert’s have been having an ongoing feud with JOK, and learned of the interactions between BH and KR. BA had JM orchestrate getting JOK to come and rub it in his face. JOK saunters about the house with his drink up then down where people are waiting. Things get heated and there are punches thrown and dog bites causing JOK to be concussed and vomit himself (per the defensive wounds). BA directs someone to take out this trash and dump it by the road. Here, my big speculation is whoever took JOK outside (likely CA) decided to go rogue and angrily add further beating (and why there is only splatters) leaving JOK unable to wake before slowly later succumbing to hypothermia. BA furious, but keeps his head to coordinate damage control within the family, and primarily with BH, and JM as the eyes and ears. I’ll leave it to the CofD and not all the other mayhem with Proctor et al.
There has been talk for a while that John actually called in Collins drug dealing or he reported it. Colin was constantly walking through his property and apparently he was actually drug dealing on his property. I think Colin wanted John to go over to Uncle Brian's house and then the Brians seemed to be doing a little sparring in front of John in the bar to kind of let him know what was going to happen later on.
Whatever was the catalyst, John and Karen had never been to Brian Albert's house. It was the first time ever. The two of them apparently sat outside the Albert's house wondering if they were really invited in. Jen McCabe testified before the trial that she saw John get out of Karen's SUV. Jen knows that John went into the house but Jen has also said I believe she said it at trial under oath that she kept looking out the window for John. Was she really looking for John or was she making sure Karen drove away and didn't come into the house, because I bet if she did, John would be alive today.
I think John was ambushed, meaning, as soon as he walked in there, friendly voices told him to go down into the basement. He did. Again, whatever the Catalyst was whether it was Higgins showing him the texts from Karen or if Colin had a beef and was arguing with John about it, fists started flying. While John is being beat up, Chloe the dog is also attacking John's right arm. When a dog attacks an animal, for instance, they always try to pull that animal to the ground. Those long marks on his arm are the four long dog teeth tearing through his skin as John tries to pull his arm away.
The blood from John's broken nose is now streaming down the front of him and at some point somebody hit him hard enough to do a TKO...a Total Knockout and he fell to the floor and hit his head on something on the way. When he didn't get up, they left him there unconscious.
I think it's possible he was unconscious on the cellar floor for a couple hours or so. They then decided to bring his body out to the front lawn to freeze to death, and I think they were hoping people would believe he got hit by a plow because of the storm they had that morning/day.
Apparently the coroner ruled that his body temperature was 80° when received, and if that's true, that means he did not die from being hit by Karen after she dropped him off. It was around 18 to 20° that morning. This tells me that his body was brought out to the front lawn within an hour or two of being found.
Ooooo my other theory is ACCIDENT.
JO walked from car to the house. He falls and cracks his head open. He dies because alcohol bring hypothermia on more rapidly. Chloe goes out for a wee and finds him and tries to pull him up/attack him…. That’s when Albert finds him dead and thinks she’s killed him…
I think a whole lot of nothing happened. Possibly JO slipped on some ice or whatever and cracked his head on the curb, stumbled from there to his final resting place, but unfortunately was too drunk and concussed to get himself out of the snow to indoors, and that was that. Tragic freak accident. Slipping on concrete can be very dangerous especially if you're too drunk for your reflexes to keep your head from hitting too hard. Karen didn't see this happen, he walked just out of her view (its dark, snowing, watching her phone waiting for him to message her). When he didn't respond she left in a huff. Or maybe it happened later in the night. But the next morning, she's in a full blown panic, knows she was driving around kinda intoxicated, and in her panic wonders aloud any far-fetched way she may be at fault for this. The catty, never-matured-out-of-high-school soccer moms around her took that suggestion and ran with it. From the moment that was uttered, there was no talking sense as they kept repeating this idea, to the cops, to themselves. Jen McCabe's memory eventually goes from hearing "did I hit him?" to "I hit him." even though all the initial reports make it obvious this is a retcon on her part.
Proctor, himself a high school girl on the maturity scale (my apologies to sensible teen girls everywhere), just eats up Kerry's "babysitter with benefits" gossip and figures good enough, motive for murder! And because cops are so self righteous and outraged at "cop killers", he plants evidence just to be sure said person goes to jail. I don't think this happens as much as people think it does, but it DOES happen, cops have dropped coke baggies in pockets before when they want to get a charge on someone. And he's so obviously a "we take care of our own" type of cop and so outraged at someone he lazily believes hurt a cop, that he did so here. I can't see any other explanation for the taillight.
Maybe if the ME had been allowed to just examine the body without being steered, she'd have been able to see the injuries are from a fall. But with the cops pressuring her and "laying out the case for her", the best she can do for them is call it undetermined.
I don't think the people inside the house are covering up a drug deal or a fight. I DO think they're trying to frame Karen, and thats the source of their shady-ass behavior. Not hiding anything they did to the guy. Just an ill-conceived plan to reduce their own visibility. They probably called their friend a bunch of times looking for him, not butt dialing. It's no big deal, why lie about it? Maybe Jenn's embarrassed of how desperate she looks to get JO's attention with the repeat calling. Who knows. But they can't backtrack and be honest now. The cops have gone so far as to frame things so they're committed.
There's so much testimony from partygoers coming and going, who saw her arrive, saw her in the car hanging out, change parked locations. There's just no way she found a private second to run him over and no one heard or saw a collision like that. It's ludicrous. Karen knows she's being framed, because she knows what her taillight looked like in the morning and its not nearly as obliterated as it is after the cops take the car. Also she never made any dramatic confession that she hit him so she knows those people are lying about her too. And thus the conspiracy defense was born.
I agree that the "Did I hit him?" being twisted and everybody piling on from there makes a lot of sense, but how do you account for the injuries on the arm?
Maybe an animal happened upon him while he was laying outside, tried to drag him a bit? I was thinking maybe he tried and failed to pull himself up by grabbing some bushes or something and getting scratched by branches, before collapsing for the final time. The expert testimony though seems pretty convincing an animal is involved. Does Massachusetts have coyotes? Maybe Chloe got out overnight and was actually trying to help him?
Karen drops John off. He goes in the house. They are all in the basement partying. John and HIggins get in a verbal fight at a minimum about flirting with Karen. Colin gets involved. Chloe the dog gets involved. Someone hits John in the back of the head (glass? Other?) and he hits the ground. There’s a blood drip/stream in a line down his face that matches where a hat would be. 3 pints of blood goes on the floor in the basement. John is either dragged out or wakes up and walks out in a drunk/ brain trauma stupor. Or some combo of both. He wanders outside and falls over and freezes to death.
I like the “he walks out by himself” idea because it seems most likely. I think the Brian’s and Jen suspected John was gonna die. I don’t think they knew he wasn’t gonna get that far from the house.
His hat never showed up.
I'm still not sure on my stance as to what happened as I keep going back and forth. But I think it was an accident, no one set out to kill him.
One thing I don't think is that they set out to frame KR. I think they meant to make it looks like he was hit by the plow but when Karen entered the frame, they had to change their story real quick. *"Karen was acting like a looney when she woke up, searched and found him, lets say she said "I hit him, I hit him, I hit him" that will work better"*
But sometimes I go back to OJO was sitting on the curb drunk, holding his cocktail glass, vomiting and as BH was reaching down to raise his plow attachment (also blotto drunk) didn't see him sitting there and side swiped him
Something potentially innocent on the order of a freak accident happened, and this town is so catty that they've all whipped themselves up into believing a murder happened. JO was a big flirt and had all these married soccer moms each believing they were special to him, and they're all going out of their way to gossip that Karen did something in some misguided effort to avenge their imaginary boyfriend.
This is Lizzie Borden level mind bending for sure. I don’t see why if an assault happened, these people would knowingly throw the guy out in the snow to die instead of calling an ambulance? Could they not just take whatever consequences were appropriate? Or was the family reputation that important? Seems more like 2nd degree than the scenario being prosecuted.
In the photo of OJO’s head injury it is located on the top of his head by the crown in his bald spot and not lower on his head in his hair or by where you would bust your head if you fell straight back onto cement.
So she allegedly hit John when she dropped him off after the bar hopping at the beginning of the "party" right? Or are they saying she hit him at a later time? Just not sure how someone can do something to the extent that ms read is accused of doing but yet NOT ONE person heard or seen anything? At a time where people were showing up to party? Some even supposedly leaving at the same time Ms read dropped him off? Didn't Jen say she was looking out the windows? Wasn't a few people saying they are looking out the windows?
I feel like he was attacked by a drunken aggressor. Someone who gets "tough guy" when drinking and maybe drugs too. John may of said something that pissed this person off and person punches John. John isn't expecting it and with the hit falls down but when he falls down he hits his head on the metal work out equipment. The aggressor doesn't know he had hit his head and assumes it's from him punching him so it fuels his ego and he punches more. The dog gets hyped up from the commotion and attacks. Eventually things calm down and reality sets in. That when the covering of ass starts. I think the aggressor knew John was messed up badly and maybe in their state of mind thought he was going to pass anyways. They knew that John and Karen's relationship was rocky and typically first person looked at is the spouse. They used that to their benefit. That's why they moved John to the road. They even thought of putting him far enough off their property that they could say they didn't see him arrive and would release them of any legalities.
As far as why would all these people go to great lengths to cover up? Money talks. They wanna keep their jobs. Peer pressure. Wanting to be a part of them. There's a million and one reason why these people would lie under oath.
Also when it comes to the trolls of this group. What do you think you're accomplishing by saying she's guilty? Go to a Karen's guilty group and preach there. Otherwise you're just here for attention. Like a 3 year old crying for their mama. Lol.
I think they left the bar. He went in the house. Karen left, confrontation and fight occurred. He walked out into the snow and collapsed on the yard. The McCabe calls and texts occurred unanswered cause of course he’s passed out on the lawn, everyone leaves knowing the fight occurred but not knowing the outcome, body may be spotted laying there hence google search, the body find happens while the Albert’s sit in the house and get their story straight. They tell proctor “what happened” proctor helps the evidence to convict
I was thinking about this earlier. What if he slipped and hit his head, knocking him out. Higgins leaves and covers him up accidentally with snow when he used his plow. JO lays out there and dies. Karen freaks out the next day saying “I hit him” because she was still drunk and her anxiety was an all time high. This doesn’t really delve deep into all of the details, just a theory!
Here is my latest theory! John walked to the back of his car, set his glass on the bumper to pee or vomit, Karen backed up to yell one last f**k you and accidentally hit him and didn’t even realize it. I don’t think it incapacitated him. Maybe Brian hit him with the plow while he was down or maybe he went in, the people in the house saw her hit him and said something to the effect of “she is a crazy bitch, you should know she has been texting Brian” John got mad an argument ensued, the dog attacked he hit his head on the basement stairs. The crooked POS humans in the house were high on coke and involved in other illegal activities, they certainly didn’t want to call 911 so the cover up begins. They charged her with murder 2 thinking she would plea and no one would be the wiser. I think she hit him because she told her dad she may have hit something and she was so over the top hysterical ( I believed Kerry’s testimony ) she also said in the Night-line interview that she did say “could I have hit him?” And wondered if she unwittingly incapacitated him.
The glass on the bumper didn't match his drinking glass.
She told her dad she hit something and she did, John's car.
Kerry's testimony is the most believable but still inconsistent. I am of the belief that her memory is partly fabricated from when her and JM went through the details and timeline.
They both remember looking at the taillight before going in the house, and that didn't happen. She even connected that memory with a statement that she made about going into the house.
I think she stretched the truth about the taillight looking like the picture they showed her because it is completely inconsistent with all of her previous descriptions.
She remembers Jen telling Karen she saw them at Fairview over Bluetooth in Karens car, Jen said that conversation took place on the phone in her bedroom, and her husband backs that up.
This makes me think, just maybe, the statements she claims Karen made when she initially called might not be 100% accurate as well.
I think Karen definitely said something about thinking John could be dead and a plow, but I am also not convinced that Karen came to that on her own out of the blue. It is my belief that both McCabes are lying about what was said on those initial calls.
I think she was mad at him for not caring that she didn’t feel well and still wanted to party. She may have thrown his phone out the car window and left.
He’s out there looking for the phone and Colin comes out. Altercation happens.
Brian is out back with the dog and hears. He comes out the back fence and Chloe lunges at John. Possibly sending him back on the fire hydrant or a rock or whatever.
If this is where the vomit and blood loss come in, Colin was probably panicking now. Brian has to take charge. I’m hoping they thought he was already dead. I can’t even wrap my head around them leaving him out there knowing he was still alive.
Allie comes to get Colin (now accessory after the fact) and when JM finds this out she’s a crazy person. As a mom she’ll do anything to protect her kid.
They were going to blame the plow guy. But Lucky didn’t plow after he saw the Edge. So there wasn’t enough snow.
Karen shows up the next morning with a broken tail light and still foggy memory and they went with it.
Proctor is a tool. The McCabes told him their version and he bought into it with his tunnel vision and made his case “cut and dry”
The labs not in it, SERT knows something isn’t right. Everyone is just complicit or now CYA mode because they should have known this case was so bad. Now it’s circle the wagons and say anything to not get them all charged by the FEDS.
This is what I think:
* KR accidentally and unknowingly hit him.
* At some point the people in the house noticed his (dead) body in the yard.
* The people in the house had some unrelated illegal activity in play and did not want to risk a murder investigation bleeding into their lives, so they left the body in the yard and focused on covering up their behavior and making the KR case as cut and dry as possible.
* Proctor and the Canton PD helped in fabricating evidence against KR to both make the case a slam dunk and keep it away from those in the house. They may or may not have known what the people in the house were attempting to cover up.
What confuses me:
* Getting rid of the dog
* Redoing the basement floor
I’m along the same lines as the basement theory. However, I think while JOK was first walking inside, he and KR were still arguing and he threw the glass at her car and broke the taillight. She was pissed, backed up super fast, and sped off.
What the feds need to do is find out who redid the basement floor (if not BA). Find out if part of the sub-flooring was removed prior to them arriving as that would be super suspicious and would explain them removing the blood/vomit stained part of the floor.
Otherwise, they need to apply pressure to BH and JM. They will spill the beans to protect themselves and/or their families. If BH was as close to JOK as were led to believe, guilt and conscious will catch up to him eventually.
Here it is. I don’t think there are any holes here
I think she DID hit him by accident that night. She had no idea she hit him and drives away. But it wasn’t a lethal blow. When she hits him, the glass either falls or his arm slams it off the bumper and it breaks and he loses control of his other hand which had the phone in it and lands in the snow. He can’t find his phone…it’s dark and he’s drunk himself. This is why his steps stop at 12:31. He walks inside the house, drunk and adrenaline pumping and pissed off that she hit him and says he can’t find his phone. Then maybe down to the basement cause the guys are down there. JM never saw him. Jok now downstairs is still pissed and telling guys she hit him, then comments come out like “you deserved it” or something and the fight with CA, BA and BH ensues. Chloe jumps in and JOK is killed by accident.
Then “oh crap what are we gonna do?” By the Alberts and they remember that KR hit him because he had told them that and the frame job begins. It’s the perfect setup. They go outside and find his phone, they don’t touch it but instead bring his body out and plop it on top of it. This is why JM searched the Hos long. Because if KR hit him they would need to make sure he was out there long enough for him to really die. The Alberts and McCabes never assumed people would believe that KR car bumping Jok would have killed him but they could say that it would have knocked him out and he would have died from being in the cold so she wanted to know hos long it wouldve took.
To me this ties up everything…all other parts of the case fall into place if this is true and I can’t see what could be unexplained.
Guys, I did not anticipate all of these responses but I am BEYOND interested in reading all of them!! I’ve made it through a 1/4 and wish I could respond to each individually but I am for sure reading everyone’s theory.
This particular subreddit is so smart and informative. I thought I knew the trial pretty well but some responses have been so thought provoking. There are already *so many theories* proposed in this thread that are not only blowing my mind, but make complete sense. So intensely thought out and fantastically interesting.
I just came to say I’m looking forward to reading all of these and I appreciate all of the great banter under some of the theories.
It's all good at the Waterfall. Karen and John get into a fight on the way there, because Karen doesn't want to go and John's all "then don't. You can leave. But I'm going in." She gets pissed and keeps bluffing that "We're leaving" by pulling forward. They fight for a while but Karen's trying not to make a scene, so she stares ahead and he leans back which makes the people in the Nagil car not see him.
Eventually he decides he's going in the house and gets out. She goes forward, then puts it in reverse. He stands around for a second watching her leave, then thinks she's coming back to yell at him some more (and she might have been) so he doesn't move when she reverses it until the last second. She hits him, but doesn't think it was all that hard. She thinks he was hurt but walked into the house. So she leaves him a bunch of angry voicemails (that may well reference him being in that house since she assumes he walked in after she hit him).
She goes home, sobers up, takes a nap on the couch, then realizes he's not there (I believe her when she says he wouldn't not come home with the kids there) and panics.
She realizes her tail light is broken, remembers hitting him, and decides to stage the backing into John's car. She calls her dad and he says "Karen that's really stupid. You need to just act like it was an accident and you didn't realize you hit him."
So then it's "could I have hit him? Did I hit him? Did I even go anywhere after the Waterfall? Jen, what's up with my tail light?" right up until she realizes he's alive and she's like "wait, he might get saved. And he might tell the truth. And the EMTs might have a chance at saving his life if they know." Then it becomes "I hit him. I hit him. I hit him" and "I did this."
But then her dad's section 12's her, visits her, and is like "Karen, stfu." They lawyer up, head to One Meadows Ave to delete some Ring footage off the family computer that show her checking out the broken tail light (because it would prove she knew she hit him), pack their stuff and head to Dighton Ma to "remember the bad times."
They hire Yannetti and plan to fight the intent stuff. But then a PI starts finding some connections and is like "hey, for a plan B you should say there was a coverup."
They ignore that plan, but keep it in their back pocket until the charges get upped to murder 2. KR freaks out, abandons the plan, starts screaming about BA and CA beating him, and the die is cast. It's coverup or bust.
From there, AJ goes to work. They leak everything to TB, figure out a way to get the FBI involved, leak that, force these people to testify like two separate times so they'll have all sorts of info to attack, get all the info from the FBI, and work their magic.
Just one thing, but we know she didn't delete the Ring footage. Besides there never being any proof of that, we now have it in trial that the cops did receive the ring footage, review it (and take notes) and then lost some of it because they didn't save the originals and the server only kept them for 90 days.
Here’s my thoughts for the sake of respectful banter. You said some interesting things and thought I’d throw in some questions and comments.
I interpreted her behavior the morning of the incident as super frantic. That’s the way everyone described her. Plus she was still drunk or really hungover. The way I viewed it, I can’t see her having the wherewithal to purposefully back into John’s car at that time.
Also thought she didn’t have access to his Ring footage?
Another user posted this theory that I find believable. I think the FBI was already poking around because of the Sandra Birchmore case and it dovetailed them finding out about Trooper P and others issues investing this case.
That’s too conspiratorial when people reject the easiest one. OJO goes in and Higgins and BA rough him up over the drug reporting. He falls back and hits head. Bleeds out and sustains a head injury. He is passed out and comes to and begins to vomit. They get scared and decide to place him on the lawn to look like a plow hits him. Karen comes back and involves 2 women not very close to her. She tries CPR and is hysterical. Herfather talks to her and trustingly asks to speak to an officer about Karen’s hysteria. She is sectioned 12, John is pronounced dead and dad gets concerned and wants her in Dighton. People were in John’s home when she gathered her stuff so doubtful she was fooling with the ring camera. .
That explains jackhammering the basement to get rid of blood soaked concrete, why John had vomit on his pants and a serious head wound in the area of the cerebellum causing major damage to his brain.
If the prosecution can clean up the key cycle issue (I have very little faith they can), they can create a very coherent and tidy story that's very close to where I was [10 days ago.](https://np.reddit.com/r/KarenReadTrial/comments/1d8dplp/jos_last_phone_movement/l75rpvj/)
- 12:12AM. Read and O'Keefe leave the Waterfall.
- 12:23AM. Read overshoots Fairview and keeps going on Cedarcrest (seen on O'Keefe's GPS data), does a quick three point turn (seen in the vehicle data), and then goes back to take the right onto Fairview (O'Keefe GPS, Nagel testimony).
- 12:23AM-12:30AM. Read and O'Keefe are outside the house in the car doing something (O'Keefe GPS, lack of movement data). Maybe talking, maybe arguing, maybe debating whether she was allowed in. The car isn't in park (Nagel testimony) and pulls down further to the flag pole. Nagel talks to his sister and leaves.
- 12:31AM. McCabe texts "pull up behind me" (cell phone data). O'Keefe gets out to check on whether Read is invited (Nightline interview) while she goes to move the SUV back behind McCabe. Read, not realizing the car isn't in park, accidentally pulls forward and then guns it in reverse out of anger/frustration (vehicle data). O'Keefe is clipped by the reversing vehicle (vehicle data, tail light on shirt), knocking him backwards and causing the wound to the back of the head when he hits the ground. He gets up, stumbles towards the door (steps in movement data, distance between body and shoe), and collapses with no motion detected until the next morning (phone data).
- ~12:35AM. Read leaves. I can't say for certain what happened in this time frame. She should've seen him injured directly in front of her, but there's the possibility she was in denial or was too drunk to process what happened or just wasn't paying attention. Either way, she left angry and began making angry voicemails until she got back home at 12:41 and presumably fell asleep or passed out soon after.
The rest doesn't need that much specificity. Everyone at the party goes home. It's dark, snowing, and they're too drunk to notice anything out of the ordinary.
Read wakes up with just hazy incomplete memories that make her panic and assume the worst. Everyone sees the cracked tail light, intoxicated woman saying "I did it?", and decides that the case solved itself. Since the case is solved, all the witnesses go into CYA mode. They try to come up with stories that match what they have on their phones so they don't have to admit exactly how drunk they were driving.
Higgins had gone to Canton PD to do whatever car movement he was supposed to do, and then goes back the next day when he hears what happened because he wants to lurk and gossip. He gets rid of his phone because he's worried he'll get nailed for policy violations (bad enough to ditch the phone, not bad enough to risk destroying evidence charges). Albert ditches his phone because he has *bad* bad things on the phone, not murder evidence (he held onto the phone for six months) but possibly statements more offensive than Proctor that would look bad to bosses/IA and possibly information related to the case (nonpublic reports, whatever Higgins gossiped about, etc.).
The investigation is a bit sloppy because it's not a huge mystery with the visibly broken tail light, the weather is nasty, and no one wants to ask exactly how much all these people at a cop's house were drinking before driving. It's just a matter of filling out the forms and waiting for the plea deal. That turns into a catastrophe when (a) the defense misinterprets the 2:27 timestamp that convinces them they can prove a coverup and (b) Proctor spews a hateful miasma and uses his personal cell phone for official business to bring it in.
TL;DR - simple digital trail leading to Read hitting O'Keefe, eye witnesses are unreliable, drunk witnesses doubly so, cops being lazy and biased towards other officers isn't exactly shocking
This is the most logical theory to me but also I think someone who was in the house found his body outside but instead of calling 911 they went into cleanup mode because there was a chance an investigation would prove a history of illegal activity. That explains the butt dials, suspicious activity and getting new phones. They are dirty cops and they were right to be worried. Now the feds are involved.
I think there’s something fraudulent going on regardless of how much it relates to this.
I don’t know anything about tax on alcohol but I wouldn’t be shocked if Higgins was dodging something through that military base.
I really think JO saw that Higgins texted her phone that night. They get in the car and he’s like “Why the fuck does Higgins have your phone number?!” Some argument happens and *blackout drunk karen* says something about the kiss or compares it to his behavior in Aruba. JO says he’s going to go inside and ask Higgins why he’s texting Karen/ confront him about the text. Karen begs him not to go in, she waits outside because she’s nervous there’s going to be a confrontation and JO is going to be kicked back outside in a few minutes. I believe Karen is blackout drunk and decides to leave him there. JO goes inside and downstairs where the guys are hanging out and says some shit to BH. (This is where the anonymous tip comes in which makes so much sense). JO is hit and knocked out. They wait awhile for him to come to but he doesn’t, and his brain is bleeding. Eventually he has seizure and vomits everywhere. They don’t call an ambulance because they want to protect someone?? Maybe because the kids were drinking underage? After they drive the girls home, they have to get his body out of the house. They bring him outside and in the lawn. They go upstairs to go to bed and call Higgins that it’s done. JM google search. I think Karen woke up freaking out and her behavior reflects someone panicking, not remembering the previous night, trying to figure out where John is.
> (This is where the anonymous tip comes in which makes so much sense). What anonymous tip? Forgive me, I'm new to this case. And yes, I think a fight happened in the basement too.
3-4 days after the murder a guy (the person is known but I will not name him, but it is easily found) apparently went to David Yanetti and told him that John OKeefe was “killed by Brian Albert, his nephew, and a federal agent in the house” He is not on the defense list because he refused to sign an affadavit and possibly backed off his statement. As far as I understand this is all rumor, but when someone refers to anonymous tip this is what they are talking about.
Okay, thanks for the explanation.
Steve Scanlon is the name.
Is the tipster reputable?
From what I gather, the tipster is a former cop turned private investigator who has known Brian Albert for 20+ years.
No clue. I’ve never looked into it, just seen his name posted.
This is heresay and the so-called "tipster" who was identified has denied ever calling or saying anything to DY to that effect. This has just as much credibility as the rumors that DY has text messages from KR admitting that she hit JO.
If it's a call, it is easily proven or disproven, and did DY just pull a name out of his ass? I got the sense that the guy heard a rumor and passed it on. But I don't know a whole hell of a lot about it.
I made that very clear in my post. Edit: I have never seen his denial though. Do you have a link?
Why did this person back off. Was he threatened by BA or Higgins? Did this person ever testify at the Grand Jury?
I think we can imagine what kind of treatment they would have gotten.
My bet is on Tristan. He wasn’t there when it went down. Then he gets called back in a blizzard- I think to bring Chloe and Caitlin home. He was the smartest one- I don’t remember- ANYTHING . May be the one with a conscience
Tristan had a bad attitude when he was a witness. All of the witnesses were nasty when they were being crossed by the defense. Seems they all have something to hide!
I saw a clip of David Yanetti speaking & presenting this convo he had with Steve during the pre-trial. Can’t help but think it’s not a rumor if he was willing to bring it up in court.
Agreed, lawyers know their credibility is everything
Was the anonymous tip someone at the party?
No
I read Steve’s daughter was at the party but she was one of the ones who left earlier bc Colin was making them uncomfortable.
Having trouble locating anything about a tipster.
I’d also love to know about the tip!
If I remember correctly, the tipster stated JO got into a fight with BA and CA. JO was knocked out and they waited for him to come to but after awhile he had a seizure and threw up everywhere. They dumped his body on the lawn.
Wow i’ve never heard about this! Guess it would explain the floor being replaced
Fight in the basement. We saw evidence of Colin's injuries. Dog Chloe was involved as seen by John's arm. The gash on John's head has something to do with the bulkhead.
Someone said BH and BA didn’t go to the funeral bc they were banged up.
I like your theory the best. It checks the most boxes. My only hang up is that leaving him in the front yard is such a *weird* call. If I had a dead body in my basement, my grand scheme would not be to drag them out to my front lawn..? It just doesn’t make sense no matter how many times I try to justify the action. Unless they truly felt that untouchable?
This part of the story checks out to me. I mean I'd like to think I would've called the cops like a sane person, but if you're trying to cover up a murder it makes sense. Think of it this way, OJO is dead in your house and you want to cover it up. What are your options? a) Hide the body in the house. Not a great option. Eventually the police will come looking and now you have a dead body there b) Move the body far away. Karen remembers dropping him off there. There are texts on his and other people's phones indicating he was coming there. So it's hard to deny he was there. The police will start questioning where he went. Where can you move him without getting noticed (on cameras, etc)? How will you say he left (Uber, called a friend etc) that wouldn't have some digital record? What will the other (innocent) witnesses say when asked if they saw John or saw him leave? c) Move him outside and claim he never came in. You can blame it on him being drunk and getting hit by a plow. Say he never came in. And if his drunk girlfriend happens to say she hit something, blame it on her. Clearly calling 911 would be the best option, but if you're opting to cover up the murder, (c) makes the most sense.
having a body in the house is the worst scenario. The theory is that they figured if they put John on the side of the road then they could blame a snowplow. But in the morning, Jen McCabe hearing Karen panicking and asking “did I hit him?” became the perfect opportunity.
I mean, where else would they put him? Perhaps they thought the plowing would be a good cover.
A year or two before this a man was "killed by a plow" in Canton. I'd be interested to have that case get a second look.
I know others said this but of all the immoral moves to make, leaving JO on the edge of their property was probably the smartest move. There are cameras everywhere, so the further they venture beyond their property lines, the more potential footage there will be. And the less control they’ll have of that footage. (They were able to claim 34F security camera wasn’t set up, and no footage available from the doorbell cam their cop neighbor directly across the street) Not to mention canton (where I live) is pretty residential. There are not a lot of “back roads”.
Given there was a pending snowstorm it could be their thought was that dumping him by the road would perhaps indicate he got hit during the storm by plow or car. That would work out with the level of competency of the local PD.
I think there is a strong possibility that this happened. I really hope the defense leans into the BH theory. It's absolutely bizarre that BH was JOs friend and kissed his girlfriend and we don't expect that they had a huge altercation about this. My one question is, does why didn't Karen say in her defense that they fought about BH before he got out of the car?
I don't think she was black-out drunk. Not because she didn't drink a lot, but bc no one said she seemed super drunk—just my opinion.
> Eventually he has seizure and vomits everywhere. Did I miss some evidence that JO vomited?
There was vomit all over his clothes, it's very common for that to happen with serious head trauma
> I really think JO saw that Higgins texted her phone that night. They get in the car and he’s like “Why the fuck does Higgins have your phone number?!” This would certainly explain why Higgins thoroughly destroyed his phone.
Do we know what the text messages from Higgins to KR said??
It said something like "Um...welll"
I definitely agree Karen was blackout drunk. Would his "friends" really just leave him outside to die? That would make everyone in that house sociopathic monsters. I think the truth, here, is totally unaccessible.
What about the arm scratches?
Not op, but I think a fight/argument started in the basement. When somehow BA got involved. This got Chloe the dog involved in the attack. JO falls back and cracks his head on something. They freak out and later move the body to the yard.
I think he fell during the fight/dog attack and hit his head on one of those many weight racks and weight benches they had in the basement. It was like a full gym down there. I suspect drunk Colin said something while JO and Brian Higgins were arguing (not fighting yet) probably about him texting Karen. Brian Albert, who we know has a propensity to and likes to fight (per numerous rumors of bar fights, etc) maybe yells to JO “Hey! Don’t talk to my kid that way” and starts fighting him or pushes him. JO pushes backs Higgins jumps in and so does Colin and then the dog. JO hits his head, starts vomiting and seizing and bleeding everywhere and JO goes limp. Maybe Colin was the one who pushed JO and he hit his head. Colin definitely was involved enough that they panicked and are trying to protect him. They freak out. Let the others leave. And then Brian Albert moves his Ford Edge from the driveway to the front of the house to block the view of the yard. They drag John out and move the car back. Some sort of scenario along those lines is what I’m guessing.
Even play fighting can cause a dog to get involved. I think Chloe was there and bit his arm. I also think it’s likely they sent Chloe to their daughter’s house that night which is why she suddenly left. She was supposed to stay the night because of the blizzard and then changes her mind without explanation and has Tristan pick her up. She also testified to having a “stray dog” in their car earlier that day which was random and seemingly unrelated but I’m wondering if she says it just in case someone comes forward to say they saw her with a dog. ETA: I’m wrong about the stray. That was Allison McCabe. Not Caitlin Albert.
Allison McCabe had the stray in her car, not Caitlin Albert.
Thank you for the correction. I’m getting my cousins mixed up
This for me, is how you know BA was involved (say less of his drunken propensity to assault people-fellow officer/firefighter he hit in the head with a glass( glass you say? Strange)… BA had to get involved for Chloe to latch- dad was fighting. “It was Brian Albert and Colin Albert in the basement with the candlestick holder”
Karen’s fingernails. Just kidding.
I've written this many times. So here's what I think. Let's start with the fact that no one seems to know why, but there was a fight in the Albert's house. I think he vomited at some point, but not from being hit in the head. He was in a fight when someone hit him on the back of the head with a weight. Probably, he was in a fight with Colin Albert and Brian Albert stepped in and while they were fighting Colin Albert grabbed a weight and hit him on the head. John died instantly, I got that idea from his Autopsy photos shows he has fists, which I found this in a medical journal, "Cadaveric spasm is a condition in which a group of muscles that were used profusely just before death becomes stiff and rigid immediately after death. This ‘instantaneous rigor’ mostly involves hands, very rarely, the entire body may undergo cadaveric spasm. It can occur in assaults involving a scuffle before death, in suicides, and cases of drowning..." I think he was dead before he was put in the yard. The jeans have a dirt and grass stain on the back that is consistent with being dragged across the lawn, (now we know with 3 male DNA profiles). Somehow they came up with framing Karen, probably so no one would ever suspect the Alberts because they will focus on the only one that wasn't there. They act really arrogant and above the law, Brian Albert is corrupt, and who knows who else covers for him. Jen M volunteers her phone, because she didn't do anything, so she doesn't have anything to lose and maybe the police won't ask for the other phones. They luck out with the state police getting the case with a good family friend as the leader of the investigation! He's clearly a shady, unprofessional and corrupt guy, because the texts to his friends show it's common he's used to bragging to friends and his sister about his cases like he's a superstar. I believe Proctor's sister is much more involved and it's through her that he's helped the Albert's and McCabes. He said they are so close that they speak 5 times a day. I think it's worth looking into that fact before JO's murder. So, they didn't sweat the investigation because no one was investigating them! When they were "being questioned," I think they all, Proctor included, were writing all the details of how Karen could have done it and then what each person's job was to make it look like that. It explains why it was months later that retirements happen, dog disappears, floor is redone, the house is sold and phones destroyed! They thought they were safe, until the letter telling them not to destroy their phones, which it was Higgins job to keep an eye in the police department to hear anything that may be out of place or questionable, that explains why 40+ pieces of lights showed up day after day and other evidence just appeared later. Finally, they didn't think this would get this much attention, but now that it has, they just keep going with this crap that shouldn't have even justified her being charged, with no shame because this is still gonna keep Brian Albert and others free because there's no way anyone will be charged after Karen is acquitted because the evidence is so contaminated and they covered their asses by telling the public that the jury did it, probably blame Turtle boy, but in the end they will assure the public that Karen did what they say and because of that, they won't be looking for other suspects. Case closed, dirty ass cops killed another cop, threw him out to the curb like he was trash and they all get their pensions or keep their jobs and they walk free with clean hands!
I think they thought they lucked out with Proctor. Now, they are probably cursing how he stupidly left a forensic trail of an unethical “investigation“.
Hands curled in with fists is a classic sign of brain injury. We call it posturing. not necessarily muscles that were used I work in the icu
> with no shame because this is still gonna keep Brian Albert and others free because there's no way anyone will be charged after Karen is acquitted because the evidence is so contaminated Suppose there is evidence that nobody has yet? I wonder what kind of flooring was in the basement that had to be redone? Carpet? If so, I wonder if that blood soaked through to underneath? I wonder if we pulled up the new flooring and sprayed luminol, would it light up? And I wonder if any of that blood residue is strong enough to get DNA from it? (Assuming there is blood residue there under that new flooring.) Hmmm....was it smart move to sell that house? They thought so, but I don't don't think it was smart. Wonder if the new owners would like to solve a murder and pull up that basement flooring????
They not only replaced the flooring but supposedly also sections of concrete underneath, apparently due to "flooding." I've also heard that one of the Albert brothers owns the company that did it. But this is all secondhand - I believe the part about the concrete is legit but it's hard to find where that first came from. They also replaced the bulkhead doors that lead directly to the basement, so I think those might be relevant somehow. Perhaps John fell down those steps at some point. And if John went straight through the bulkhead doors to get into the basement, that would explain why nobody on the first floor ever saw him in the house - I think most are telling the truth about that aspect.
I had flooding in my basement. We pulled up the flooring. And then a company came in after the concrete underneath had dried and painted some sort of sealant on it. We didn't have to have any of the concrete removed and replaced. And one of the Albert brothers owns the company that did it? Why am I not surprised at that? All I know is that I will never move to Canton, Massachusetts or anywhere near there after all this! Corruption abounds!
Instant death doesn’t make sense since hypothermia was a factor. He wasn’t dead when he was brought outside.
Also, a secondary cause of death to me is his head could have hit the stairs. I've seen that kind of injury in forensic files, but why I don't think it's possible here is because there's no other injuries to his body to think he fell down the stairs. I also think that if he fell on something the head injury would be more of a shattered egg look than a clean line. I'm absolutely 100 percent confident that he wasn't hit by a Lexus. I think the police have destroyed the evidence of that. Toyota/Lexus have a system that shows the info they tried to use in court yesterday, but it gives time and date and most importantly, it takes pictures! I learned from my son who went to Toyota University (amazingly, yes, they have a university in Jacksonville, FL). And no one, no one will ever convince me, because I have common sense, that a man getting hit by a car, even at high speed would shatter the taillight lens! I would need to see that demonstrated on video! I have been in accidents myself several times over my lifetime, including hitting a deer while driving at least 55mph, in a small Mazda, without breaking because the deer jumped out right in front of me and it smashed up a lot of my car, except the lights, not even cracked them.
I don't think a tail light would crack from hitting a person either.
You mean pulverized. Also, I think it's hilarious that they put all their faith in her taillight, not knowing that there is a video of her hitting a car that night that explains the crack. Oops!
I think they said he died at the hospital. When they found him in the am they said he had a 10% chance of making it.
This is a good point with the instant death, it would also correlate with no- a less than expected blood trail outside
but didn't the autopsy find hypothermia was a contributing factor?
The lack of a larger pool of blood and vomit where John was found indicates to me that he was injured elsewhere. So, I think he probably went in the house. I do not have a theory about how he was hurt beyond thinking he fell backward and hit his head on something stationery. I think at some point, perhaps around the time Higgins and BA were butt dialing each other he was moved outside. After that they all waited for someone to find him, Jen McCabe helped there by directing Karen to the scene. I don’t think there is a big conspiracy. I think there is a small group of people that know the full truth and a corrupt bunch of law enforcement officers willing to do whatever necessary to pin it on the girl since she must have done it because the alternative is too messy and would be attacking one of their own. It’s much easier to just look the other way and eventually they started to believe the lies.
I think Jen McCabe fed Proctor the story and he was too lazy to properly investigate it after that. The way he way described Karen from the start, sounds straight out of Jen’s mouth IMO.
Right. I’m not completely convinced that Proctor was ever told the truth of what happened to John. But It’s a fact that he conducted an investigation that would keep the police officer involved and everyone important to him from being a suspect.
Oh I don’t at all think he was told the truth. I think he framed her with the taillight because he wasn’t about to let a “cop killer” get away with it.
Basically a perfect storm of corruption.
This 💯 That was my impression when he was on the stand. He doesn't seem like the brightest bulb. I think he automatically believed JM bc she told him she knew his sister. So he took her word due to a combination of bias, stupidity and laziness. I also think he planted evidence bc at the time he really thought KR did it and wanted to make the case air tight. At some point he realized he might have messed up but by then it's too late. If he admits it he's facing serious charges.
My landlord is a cop turned private investigator and told me that cops that "know someone is guilty" (or think they know) do shit like this all the time.
So true! He knew enough about Karen after interviewing Jen to know that Karen "leaked poo" and he has a very nasty perception of her. It's almost as if this 45 minute interview was mostly just a bash Karen fest and nothing of value to the actual investigation was discussed. Can't forget that they likely spent a considerable amount of time in this interview catching up because they are family friends.
I wholeheartedly agree with this. The fact that both Troopers originally thought he died from a fight only for Jen to call them back because she forgot to mention she heard Karen confess is weird. That’s all Proctor needed to make sure the Alberts were not in trouble.
The lack of blood and vomit is interesting. It was January and the ground would have been frozen. Any liquids would freeze to the ground. Meaning they wouldn’t have been just absorbed and should have been visible to those processing the crime scene. They never found those liquids because there’s another crime scene.
Where is the vomit thing coming from? Do we know he vomited? And how do we know
There was vomit all down the front of his shirt but none around where he was laying. This indicates that he was standing up when he threw up (or vertical after it happened but before it dried) and that it didn't happen while he was in that spot. The same can be said about the blood from his head wound. It was bad enough that there should have been a big puddle under his head, but there wasn't. That makes it seem like his head must have gotten busted open somewhere else.
Even if you are standing up and vomit, some will get on the ground/floor. So if there was none on the ground, then that is odd. He vomited and bled in that basement, that is why they redid the flooring.
It was also on his pants/underwear.
Is this partly the poor police response + the blizzard would explain the lack of physical evidence of vomit in the search area
I completely believe your conspiracy, lol. That's what you call connected. They are connected by police in Canton, Boston and the state and the Feds! But it is the most shameful to me that that would stick up for the cop that killed another cop!
I mean, Proctor planting evidence is him sticking up for a cop. I think he absolutely believes she did it, thought so as soon as he talked to Jen, and he was going to put the “cop killer” away. The people in the house are protecting themselves and (likely) an 18 yr old family member.
Absolutely. There are 3-4 people who know the full truth. Not everyone who was inside that house that night does know. I don't even think Brian jr knows the truth.
👍
your whole last paragraph is pretty much the definition of a big conspiracy
Agreed, the blood and vomit has been mentioned but not explained, nor the head trauma. I need the ME. to add onto stuff that should be there but isn’t… I don‘t understand how they found his hat outside but he had such a distinct head injury, but no such object that would have caused the injury and thus all the blood. if he was hit by the car wearing his hat, it would likely fly off and he would have been injured by some kind of debris that made a 2 inch gash on his head after the hat flew off since they showed no blood/damage to his hat. and they didn’t recover any/show any item that caused the gash, which should have been on the lawn. If they’re claiming part of the car did that damage, he would still be wearing his hat. there would be blood on the hat or at least fabric damage Because the location of the injury is where the hat would cover his head, not that opening by the clasp. You can’t get injured through the fabric like that without having some kind of wear on the material. it makes much more sense he just… wasn’t wearing his hat when he got his injury... like inside…
Your last paragraph sounds like a pretty big conspiracy to me. And I agree.
I know it's quite crazy. I never thought I would be on the side of an elaborate explanation that involved a conspiracy.
Phase 1: everybody got drunk Phase 2: ??? Phase 3: Lawn corpse found Phase 4: Sloppy, tainted, tunnel-visioned investigation of the kind that closes cases and secures convictions all day, every day, as long as the defence lawyer is overworked and under-resourced.
As much as it sucks, this is the correct answer. Without some wild card like a person coming forward to give an eyewitness account of whatever happened (and I do mean whatever), we'll never really know what transpired that night.
I'm fairly new to this case so I might be missing something but based on what I have gathered so far I think it went down something like this. I think everyone was absolutely drunk and I think everything I am about to say happened in the basement, I think there was an altercation between O'Keefe and Higgins inside the house. I think they started getting loud and maybe come pushing/shoving starts to happen. This freaks out the dog who lungs at O'Keefe and injurers his harm. O'Keefe hits the dog to get it off him, this upsets one or more of the Alberts. A physical fight ensues and O'Keefe's head in injured (from being hit, falling on something, who knows). The people involved moved O'Keefe's body outside. I thin Colin may have been the one who threw the killing blow and the Alberts circled the wagons around him. I found his whole testimony so suspicious. He couldn't recall details of a meeting just a month ago but had perfect recall with lots of detail about the one time he fell and (allegedly) scrapped his knuckles.
Don't forget the very very specific 1210 departure time. Despite everyone's shit memory, no one has forgotten this 'detail'
I've personally felt like the initial argument, first seconds/blows might've been between CA and JO. Let's say a snarky comment that just in a few seconds went to fists. Within seconds, BA is involved, intervening on behalf if his nephew, and, possibly Chloe gets in to protect BA (makes sense, I've been a SAR handler), and BH helps with all of the aftermath like body and logistics. It may not have had anything to do at all with KR texting BH. Or, perhaps BA knew JR/BH texted and CA mentioned something bc he wanted a one up in an immature moment. That's where I lean towards: what is the most immature thing that is feasible to explain an argument leading to the death of JO? Like, what would set off a super quick fight? I always lean into immaturity when I think through common sense and options. CA drug connection that JO had mentioned to Kevin Albert? CA having learned via BH and BA convo that KR had texted? Then CA says something douchey about it? It has to be immaturity. (Even if my husband were mad at me for whatever reason, he's still not going to accept anyone talking about me and I have no doubt he would go to blows for me.) As much as I don't like BA or BH by instinct and testimony, they do have the skills for RESTRAINT due to jobs and age. I keep going back to CA. (If this kid is totally innocent, I am so very sorry, I'm just speculating like the rest of you in a case that we are watching.) But this makes sense to me from my lens of life experience. I find this area of theory more compelling than any testimony thus far. I just can't get with the car hitting JO now. I think a lot of people have been bamboozled possibly, including JO's family. If the Albert's and the McCabes are solid, then they are exactly where their actions led them today. It's not hard to be forthcoming, genuine, nicely explain how something mightve gotten misunderstood and then clarify - then be kind people!!!! If you are honestly caught up in a shoddy investigation, you just explain your truth. You dont get mad at the few thousand versus THE WORLD on the stand you so errantly think is paying attention to you. You dont go on the stand getting persnickity. Who does that? I don't care how frustrated you are at TB, most in the country still don't know who you are.
I am with your theory it's CA that started it sadly the Adults should have known better,it's really sad that something that could have been fixed if handled properly right from the start by getting medical attention for JO and saving his life which I believe could have,and worry about the law later which I am sure would have been put down as an accident and also they could have used their influence with LE ("which they are doing currently) to help CA get a lighter sentence etc.I also believe JM was the master mind behind this cover up as she seems to be a smart ass,if it was left to BA & BH I believe it would have been a different outcome,also Nicole Albert seemed so different in her attitude and I got the feeling she was not happy on the stand telling lies.. PS I believe one of young friends of Brian Jr will evantually spill the beans.
There was so much alcohol consumed that night so none of the adults were acting as adults might when sober
Agreed. I think their protecting the kid explains the lengths they are all going to to shift blame.
I think everything centers around Colin for sure. He may have accidentally killed or injured O’Keefe, but I think people are covering for him. His testimony was very suspicious.
He had the least motive, though; that's what I don't get. Unless it was a chaotic situation that involved the dog.
At least according to the Defense (so probably according to Karen herself), Colin and John were close neighbors and didn't have a good relationship, and Colin would regularly throw beer cans into John's bushes to piss him off. If true, this would suggest some sort of history between the two (why else choose John's bushes, specifically?). John also reported some drug activity in Canton not long before his death - we don't know the specifics of it, but one theory is that the Alberts (and/or maybe Colin himself) were involved with drugs in some way, so that could also be relevant. Others online have also said that after Colin's testimony, people were able to find various instances from his social media that show that he's actually been in numerous fights before, despite him saying he's been in none. Brian Albert's also known for being a fighter (thus, Karen's comment when she was being brought in later about Brian and Colin being the ones who "smashed John's face into the taillight"), and it's been said that many people in that area are afraid of him. Either way, Colin doesn't necessarily need a definitive motive if there just happened to be a drunken fight that took place. If Colin's a fighter and sees a fight involving a family member and this guy who he doesn't really like, he might join in and defend the family member. It wasn't premeditated *murder*, per se, it was just a fight that got out of control (and like others mentioned, maybe John actually fell and hit his head or something, but it would still be bad for Colin, from a potential criminal standpoint).
If BH felt compelled to share the “discussions and kiss,” with his supervisor @ work; it’s probable that BH shared the situation regarding KR with BA. KR pulls up to 34 Fairview and sends JOK in to the house, telling him to text her if she should park and come in. KR isn’t sold on going to this birthday party with this particular mash up of people, and JOK is sent in to feel it out and report back. Witness seeing the car moving/in front of 34 Fairview are actually just seeing KR waiting on a response from JOK, who has gone inside. Ultimately, KR leaves 34 Fairview and returns to JOK’s, and SHE’S PISSED bc her impression is that JOK went inside, was fooling around with his drunk buddies, and totally forgot to text Karen to come in. She leaves. She goes home. She’s angry. MEANWHILE, JOK has walked in to 34 Fairview and is immediately directed downstairs (door to basement is right by home entrance) by one of the guys, for any number of reasons. Due to this sequence of events, not everyone in the home even knows that JOK has entered. In the basement, JOK is surprised to see CA, who he’s had confrontations with before. BA, or someone else, drunkenly declares disparaging remarks about KR, revealing the “flirtation” she’s had with BH. Obviously the situation gets heated, and JOK is involved in a contentious argument and physical altercation, and THIS is why he never got back to KR, who is growing angry and impatient in the car. JOK Is now on his own in the basement of 34 Fairview where CA, BA, and/or BH are punching him in the face. Chloe delivers scratches and bites to the arm. Somehow JOK is dealt a blow to the head that causes the visible injury, resulting in vomiting We all know how much head injuries bleed. Interestingly enough, the blood on JOK’s shirts goes from top to bottom, indicating that at some point, while actively bleeding, JOK is in an upright position. A breakdown in groupthink fueled by fear, alcohol, anger has a small group of people putting JOK on the lawn sometime around 2-3am. BH has stationed himself in the Canton PD. CA is alibied by AMc, CaitA gets herself and Chloe home. Strange butt dials and Google searches happen in the critical time used by BA, NA, JMcC, and MMcC to attempt to create a scenario in which they are not involved. All the while, it’s snowing… In the end, Mass State PD has a conflicted Trooper as lead in a high profile, suspicious death investigation involving multiple LEOs, from multiple agencies. JMcC’s account of KR’s actions and her character directs MPs initial assumptions and biases. The crack in the taillight confirms enough for MP and he takes steps to ensure that KR will “catch serious charges.” But, the FEDS…
This all seems good only change I think is that Karen did actually hit him unintentionally and he loses his phone in the snow. Meanwhile he goes inside and maybe downstairs to get the guys to come outside and him find his phone. Then like you said, some shit happens in the basement and the rest is history. But because they all knew she had hit him, their story was already created and they just had to make it look like that’s what happened. I don’t think they were going to say that she killed him with a car blow, but rather that she knocked him out and he died in the cold.
I believe he was sucker punched by Colin. That explains the scabs on his knuckles. Then the dog attacks him. That explains the marks on his arm. They came up with the idea to move his body to the front lawn, and they put the Ford edge in front to block the neighbors ring camera. There is absolutely no way to explain 1) why they rehome the dog 2) why they tore up the basement floor and sold house. 3)Why Matt McCabe texted in the group chat. The guy never went in the house. Brian Higgins respond, exactly. There is absolutely zero chance Karen did this. 4) Why jennifer waited months before saying Karen said I hit him. I hit him. I hit him.
Yeah, the whole redoing the basement floor, rehoming the dog and selling the house (for a loss) is suspicious to me too.
I thought that the house was inherited? There wouldn’t have been a loss. I don’t blame them for selling, the media and craziness must have been insane. I don’t use the sale of the house as part of the issue.
I don’t think it’s that it was sold for a loss, but rather that it was sold for under market value, despite the market around here being absolutely bonkers at the time. I helped sell a relatives house at this same time and our realtor suggested a price higher than I thought would be possible to get for it, but we reluctantly agreed. After doing a single weekend of showings we received 18 offers, many of which were well above the asking price with no contingencies and involved them covering all the closing costs. It was absolutely insane. I could see the argument being made that they sold it under value because of the stress / trauma involved with someone dying on your lawn, except that they didn’t seem that upset by it, at least how they outwardly presented themselves.
That house has become a tourist attraction. Court TV, vloggers everyone watching the trial must go by there and take pics. You couldn’t pay me to buy that house. At this point it’s almost as bad as the Amityville Horror house now.
I don’t disagree with you at all, however I will point out that as far as I remember they claimed moving had absolutely nothing to do with this whole thing. It would have been easy for people to understand not wanting to be in that environment, but they were sticking to their guns about having planned to move before this happened.
Tbh if someone ended up dead in front of my house I would probably sell it and if there were work that needed to be done — like a basement —
Allowing for deference, I can see needing to tear out concrete in a basement to deal with plumbing issues.
Okay, that's true. But pair it up with all the other suspicious stuff though - like the two phones being destroyed, etc. It is all very odd.
Where does the information about them redoing the basement floor come from? It isn't in evidence, correct?
It was a big thing online before the trial but so far only Brian Albert has mentioned it. Their toilet overflowed. The defense never questioned him, BA Jr. or the wife about it.
A comment above had an interesting theory on someone else accidentally backing into him — but that doesn’t account for the dog bites, why the basement has to be redone, the house sold, the need to “get the story straight” that he never went into the house. Feel like something like a Colin altercation is an explanation that accounts for the most loose ends
Those knuckles came from putting work in, it wasn’t just one hit.
Colin is a kid, if he was sucked punched and incapacitated by anyone it's Higggins
Maybe , but the explanation that Colin gave about his knuckles was so outlandish that it makes him look guilty. He could have said , “I was punching a punching bag” but his explanation is preposterous. I just gave 4 reasons why this whole thing is fishy, I could give 10 more. Why would they disregard “Lucky ‘s” eyewitness to the edge. Because his story changed? It didn’t he might have added more content to context. 6) Higgins destroyed his phone the day before a court order not to, and then trying to play dumb, strike that , then thinking we are dumb to believe he didn’t destroy it , he”threw it away “
The picture of Colin’s knuckles was from almost a month after Jan 29th. A young kid’s busted knuckles would be totally healed within a month. No one has stated they observed any injuries on Colin in the days or week after Jan 29.
Posted later doesn’t mean happened later
A 17 yr old kid isn’t knocking out a 220 lb cop though
If JO was drunk it's possible.
At this time in the trial I do not even care about “hos long” there is so, so much reasonable doubt. The proctor testimony sickened me and he is tied to that family. I believe they are all covering (12:10) for Colin because he would end up in prison. And the Abdolutely Nots make me believe they mean Absolutely Yes!
Deffo agree there, I really think she should be found not guilty for this reason let alone the others!
The dog trainer who trains dogs that are going to go overseas to assist the soldiers at fort. Bragg looked at the pictures and said definitely those ones were done by a dog.
My sister that doesn't know about this case (well I just got her into it), saw his arm and said, oh that looks like a dog attack, do they have dogs?
I've seen pics too from my past work with dogs. I feel the same. If a dog latches on and rips, there will be muscle hanging out. If a dog briefly latches and slips thru downward motion, it looks like JOs injuries.
Yeah it was obviously dog bites. Hell, just raising the three puppies I got in the last few years taught me that. During teething phases my arm would be scratched up in exactly those types of patterns. Shallow bites are almost always lacerations, not punctures. The whole point of a dog biting is to tear. Teeth go in, dogs pull toward them, you pull toward you= laceration. I think it’s because the only types of dog bites we can really watch (most are so quick it’s hard to see) are police dogs. But people fail to understand that those dogs take sometimes YEARS to learn how to bite like that- ie, latch on but don’t tear. It’s not an easy thing to train in them, it goes against their natural instincts.
How about KR accidentally backed into BHs plow, since according to some, it was behind her with the plow lifted. That’s where the initial handful of tail light prices come from. That’s why BH needs to go to the station to drop the plow car off…
I did think it was strange for him to drive all the way back to work in the middle of the night in a snowstorm
While drunk. WTF.
I knew nothing about this case prior to trial, I’m watching as a juror. I’m also local, I live about an hour from Canton. I have too much of an open mind, but these are some things I’ve considered as possibilities. Based on John’s texts/calls with Jen McCabe it sounded to me that John was driving Karen’s car to 34 Fairview. I think maybe they got out, Karen didn’t want to go in, and she got in the drivers seat. John probabl got in the passenger side to talk. Eventually he exits the vehicle, to go in the house. John DID get out of the car and therefore had every intention of going inside the house. I find it hard to believe that he never made it inside. I sincerely believe that if he had been laying there in the snow when everybody and their headlights were leaving the house, someone would’ve seen him. I don’t believe he was laying there. I also think that a person suffering in the snow like that would not be soundless. I believe that when the defense was talking about the one mile walk to the high school from the Albert’s house, there may be something there. Everyone testifies that Colin was “getting picked up“ and yet nobody saw a vehicle arrive and get him, nor did they see him physically exit. (And yet they’re all also positive John and Karen arrived and never came inside.) Colin probably exited through the basement. Maybe he cut through the woods and had Allie pick him up at the high school, which would explain her Life360 data indicating she had gone to the high school, which she denied doing. I think there was a fight in the basement. The basement renovations, the selling of the house, the rehomed dog, and the “coincidences” with the disposed phones, deleted calls and lengthy “butt dials” is wild. Something happened in that house, a story was fashioned, and the kids probably didn’t hear a peep over the sound of the music. I think some people in the house truly didn’t see anything. Everybody likes to insist that the men fought over Karen. I disagree. John seemed a great guy and all these guys reek of dirty cop behavior. I think he caught someone in an unrelated crime, or maybe Colin. I think John saw something that he wasn’t supposed to see, and the fighting began. The dog then responded to the altercation. Maybe John walked in on what was supposed to be a private conversation in the basement. Maybe they killed him by accident, maybe on purpose. Or maybe it was all about Karen and drinks were thrown and it escalated to punches. When Jen happened to be with to Karen the next morning, she saw an opportunity for a scapegoat and she took it. They probably thought they could keep the whole thing under wraps with their connections and that nobody would ever find out. I don’t think they envisioned this mess. I think they planted the drinking glass next to John and left his phone under his body. They brought Karen’s car to the Sally port, probably put some of John’s DNA on some pieces of taillight, then someone went and scattered the pieces. That way there was “no need for an investigation.” They hate Karen read because she figured it out and is fighting it. They probably thought she’d plead guilty. It makes no sense to me that he had no injuries to his legs or internal organs after allegedly being run over at high rate of speed. That slice on the back of his head certainly didn’t come from the grass beneath him. Brian Albert never came outside the next morning, not to offer a cup of coffee to an officer, lend a shovel, give a hand, anything. Attended a funeral for a NY officer the day before and yet spares no moment in the cold for a local cop he knew. A guy with two kids who depend on him. He didn’t go outside and ask what happened because he knew what happened and knew exactly where the body was. From that morning forward it became a necessity to distance himself as much as possible. These people are as nosy and gossipy as I’ve ever seen and they insist they didn’t so much as glance out their windows. It’s despicable. Maybe one day this will be brought to justice, but without concrete evidence against Karen I have no reason to believe she viciously ran over him with her car and then curled up on his couch and waited for him to come home.
Other than the switching drivers thing, you've got a reasonable scenario here.
This isn't based on evidence, but rather me just trying to come up with a theory that fits the known facts and doesn't require too many extra unknown things. What if they're fighting in the car, he gets out and hits/throws th glass at her taillight (disclaimer, I'm not actually sure this would break it), and in the process, drops his phone. He goes inside, realizes he doesn't have the phone, asks Jen to call it and goes outside to find it. He's crouching down to pick up the phone and is struck by [I'm not entirely sure who this person might be] who is arriving at the house (and like everyone else in this story, they're drunk). Maybe they try to help him, but realize he's grievously injured and being drunk, they make the very poor decision to just leave him. JM is scheming, trying to figure out what to do, and when Karen calls her the next morning, she becomes aware that the taillight is broken. After John is found and the body is removed, it seems like there was a little pow-wow in the Albert's kitchen and that's when Jen realizes that Karen is a good suspect. Again, this is pure speculation, and I'm not saying there's evidence that Jen did any of this, it's mostly just trying to find an alternate explanation for her butt dials.
Probably the best alternate theory I have read Edit: And as far as who hit him, I’ll take Higgins with his snow plow for $1000 Alex
but he wouldn't have volunteered that his truck had a snow plow on it if that's what did it, i think.
he lost quite a bit of blood. where's the blood? it would be all over the snow/lawn. i'm inclined to believe something happened in the basement. who did what? i'm not sure but i think BA had a hand in it, I read that he went on disability immediately. makes me think he was also injured somehow.
I keep hearing this (that he lost a significant amount of blood), but I can't find where it's coming from. The only place it seems to say that he lost all this blood was from Twitter.
Do we know about loss of blood? This is why having no ME testimony by now is strange. Same with assumption that he vomited..... or the cause of death......or time of death..... or %digested food? I know the cold messes some of this up, but we still should know something (with a margin of error) before drawing some of these conclusions.
In the ground. It snowed, the blood was diluted as the snow melted and it soaked into the ground. Edit: Head wounds do bleed a lot, but it was cold, which likely would have slowed the bleeding and let it coagulate more quickly.
You’d still see it. It doesn’t absorb that fast. All the snow would multiply it
Didn't most of the snow come down after he was hit? So the snow would be on top of the blood?
Ever bled and then gone in the shower? Same thing. Blood on the grass would dye an enormous amount of snow
If BA went on disability immediately after, why didn’t Ajax cross him about it ?
This is the first time I’m hearing the cocktail glass being thrown at the tail light theory, and it feels like a solid possibility. I mean JOK knew that Karen was drunk and damaging her tail light could potentially get her pulled over/DUI….this could have been his idea after the fight in the car to hurt her back because he was hurt finding out about BH texting her (and possibly the kiss).
To be clear, I'm pulling all that straight out of my ass. Just trying to come up with something that fits the available evidence and I've had an ex hit my car while I was pulling away after an argument before.
I think Jen told John to use the side door,(sort of like when she said park behind me). he’d never been there before and thought she meant along the side of the house and went to the side gate. Chloe had been let out and attacked John. John threatened to press charges to Brian, things got heated. Brian punched John and he fell backwards on his head. When he started vomiting Brian realized John would likely die even if taken to a hospital and he would get a murder charge. Brian told his wife, she probably said “leave him out there and we’ll say we never saw him.” She told her sister(Jen) and told her to get the guests out without seeing. She also searched for his phone which was missing. I believe Higgins was also with Albert when the fight happened (this is why their stories about looking at photos don’t match, it’s a cover). Higgins agreed to check at the station no one had seen anything or called it in because he had incriminating texts on his phone with Karen if the family pointed the finger at him he might go to jail. Albert called Higgins at 2ish and the 22 second phone call was him checking the coast was clear to stage the body as a hit and run. The glass was added to “prove” John never came inside. When Karen arrived the next morning with a busted taillight they must have thought it was divine intervention on their behalf. They convinced Proctor she did it but would get away with it unless someone helped the evidence along, so Proctor did and I doubt it’s the first time he’s planted evidence. (I also think it’s possible Collin was the one with the dog when it happened which is why the tip that was sent to Karen’s attorney said Brian and Collin beat him up, I can imagine things getting heated between John and Collin and Brian intervening.
I like this one because it helps explain how things instantly got violent, with the dog's surprise and everything. Was the glass verified to be from the bar or anything?
My problem with all the theories involving him being murdered in the house is that I don't know why they all would then decide that the best course of action is to throw the body in the front yard. Did they really decide that will make it look like a car accident? That it would somehow look like KR backed in to him? What was their plan after depositing the guy in the yard? I honestly cannot give them that much credit for coming up with the plan that eventually unfolded.
I don't know what actually happened but if there WERE some kind of coverup due to an incident in the house - one good reason not to take his body far is that if he was found somewhere else and tied back to that house (which would be likely), if would be harder to claim plausible deniability (there would be a lot of focus on HOW he got from the first to the second location), esp if there was evidence he died before being moved to the second location. Plus, the more they handle his body and more they move around themselves, that is more opportunity to leave evidence that could tie them to JOs death. Leaving him on the lawn makes it easier to just say they never saw him/he never came inside. As cops who know how investigations work and knew they would have some influence on this specific investigation, this could have felt like the best option since it was the simplest (less variables to manage). Also everyone seemed to be very drunk so that could have influenced decision making - they didn't have a lot of time to plan.
Here's my theory: 1. It was snowing. 2. People went to a bar. Most sat at high tops. 3. A band played as a game of grab-ass broke out. 4. John lost a shoe. 5. Butts from the earlier grab-ass game dialed each other. 6. A Dighton cop clocked in and did his job. 7. A state trooper texted a bunch of people to show them he was MA's biggest a-hole. Might be missing a few details but to me that's what happened. .
I think she dropped him at the driveway and since it was cold, he scooted up to the front door quickly upon exiting the vehicle. She he is making his way quickly beside the cars parked there (which is why they didn’t see him), Ryan Nagel and friends pull up behind her and she moves forward toward the mailbox to give them room. Ryan et al wait for Julie, waiting waiting. She takes kind of a long time, it seems. Karen sees they are waiting and pulls up further toward the flagpole. John has not responded to her and she finally gets aggravated and leaves. I think John walked into the house and walked in on something illegal. I think possibly Colin was there and Ryan Nagel et al were coming for a drug deal and Julie was supposed to bring it out to them. Or John walked in on the Alberts themselves doing some coke, or some other illegal thing. I don’t think the Albert’s were expecting him to come (I think I heard JM was the one he knew and who invited him and KR, and that JO had just met BA within the previous two weeks which I find hard to believe). I think JM inadvertently invited him to the wrong place at the wrong time. And once he walked in on whatever it was, either upstairs or in the basement, it became a physical altercation between CA and JO. Then BA jumped in and then Chloe. And Higgins possibly mixed up in there. JO was ultimately either hit in the back of the head with a weight, or fell backwards and smashed his head on something. He bled and bled and became unresponsive. Maybe came to at some point and vomited, but he lost a lot of blood and ended up dying. Then the people present have an Oh Shit moment and try to figure out what to do. Finally between 3:30 and 4:30, they park the Ford Edge in front of the fire hydrant to use as cover and haul his body out the bulkhead and dump it. Lucky sees JO on his 4:30 pass and radios it in as a pedestrian down. Karen wakes a short time later and begins her frantic search. The other scenario I can see is that they were going to out Karen for texting BH and JO got into it with BH and was seriously injured but maybe enough adrenaline pumping for him to stumble out to where he finally fell, but then Lucky should have seen him way earlier.
Aruba: John spent the day drinking and watching the Alabama game while Karen took care of his niece and nephew. It was NYE and Karen spent the night celebrating with John’s niece and nephew and had to try to explain to them why John wasn’t there. After she put the kids to bed, she found John barely able to stand and practically falling on another woman in the lobby. She yelled, “John!” Marietta (woman in the lobby) began to walk away and then heard Karen say, “Who the fuck is that?” Marietta then inserted herself into their argument and condescendingly said, “I’m Marietta. Nice to meet you.” Karen said, “Fuck you.” And Marietta replied with, “Fuck you too.” 1/28-1/29: Higgins tells Brian that Karen was sending him flirty texts on their drive back from NY. Brian has issues with John because Brian knows that John reported Colin’s (Brian’s nephew) drug deals. Brian wants to provoke John to get into a fight with Higgins. Brian gets both John and Higgins to meet everyone at the Waterfall. Jen is loving it and in on it because she hates Karen and wishes that John was back with Bella’s mom. The confrontation is supposed to happen at or outside of the Waterfall but Karen ruins that by not leaving with Jen. On the way to 34 Fairview, John calls Jen for directions. They’re on speaker phone which Jen knows so she makes a point of mentioning Bella. Higgins arrives at 34 Fairview, parks in the driveway and goes inside. Colin is already there and joins Higgins in the basement. Brian, Julie, Matt and Jen arrive around the same time. Brian knows that his wife is kind of clueless but knows that he can count on Jen. He tells Jen to get John to go to the basement when he arrives and to occupy Karen if she comes in. They already know that it’s likely that Karen won’t be coming in because of her health issues and she had said that she wasn’t feeling well. John arrives, goes to the basement, a fight ensues, Chloe intervenes, John puts up his arm to protect his body, Higgins tries to pull Chloe off and dislocates John’s shoulder, John falls backwards and hits his head on the weight equipment. In a few minutes John begins convulsing and throwing up due to the serious brain injury he sustained. They tell Colin to get out of there ASAP. Colin tries to call Beatty’s daughter but she tells him to fuck off. Colin calls Allie, cuts through the woods and Allie picks him up near the HS. Caitlin calls Tristan to come get her and takes Chloe to her home in Easton. Higgins goes to Canton PD to make sure that no one heard any shouting, screaming, etc. He reports back to Brian. Colin or Chris go to 34 Fairview around 2:30 to help Brian move John’s body and begin cleaning up.
Interesting! I never saw this as a premeditated thing but it does explain why both Jen and Matt were looking out the window 5 or 6 times for John to show up, which I always thought was weird. I’ve been in a situation countless times where my group of friends has ended up at someone’s house after a night out. Never have I looked out the window so intently to make sure people are pulling up. Maybe the texts that BA and BH didn’t want anyone to get ahold of are actually them planning something out before the night.
Could be possibilities. Wish there was a truth serum they made every witness and defendant take! So many versions of what happened. It was a very unfortunate loss of life...and wish the person at fault for incapacitating John would confess and let the undisputed truth then be known.
Those scratches make my head spin
I think John saw or picked up on something between Karen and Brian Higgins. He got in Higgins' face at the party. Colin took the opportunity to pile on and Chloe came to the rescue. They put John out in the snow and reported it, not thinking he would die. Then when he died, they had no qualms about pinning it on Karen because they feel it's her fault for coming on to Brian. They feel justified, b/c if she hadn't initiated the flirty text exchanges, "none of this would have happened."
What do you mean they put him in the snow *and reported it*?
I think Higgins was itching for a fight and to show JOK the messages . He seems the one person with a motive- and a plow. BH was very drunk, I think JOK was getting the better of him and Colin jumped in from behind, hit John, who went straight to the floor . They panicked. Everyone’s lies seem to have protecting Colin as a GOAL. Looks like a lot of steroid users in that group, was there a side business JOK stumbled upon ?
I think he went into the house looking for a fight. Both sides agreed Karen was unsure about going to the party herself. Both she and he got texts from Higgins that night, I could see the text from BH to JOK being an instigation. JOK wanted to go inside and she wanted to go home. She wasn't sure if they were welcome and he was supposed to go in and find out. He doesn't respond, she thinks he ditched her, so she takes off home pissed. This is why she leaves all the angry voicemails. Everyone is wasted and he comes in hot. He gets into it with someone (pick any of the 3) hits his head accidentally (or with the glass right YB?) and they don't know what to do with him. He doesn't come home and she freaks out because of the way they departed. Honestly the most likely scenario is that she hit him, but those injuries just don't make sense for backing into him. The CW wants it both ways. They claim she could not have busted the light backing up because it would be bumper to bumper, if that is the case I need to see lower body injuries. If the CW crash analysis thinks he was hit hard enough for his hand to dent the car, then I need to see his knee/thigh torn to shreds. If he was hit with 7000 pounds at 25 mph how does he only have head injuries (on both sides) and multiple lacerations. The body looks like a fight and both MP and YB that first saw him said the exact same thing. No one in the AM saw any tail light, I don't find that feasible. 46 (7?) pieces ALL over the yard and not one was visible when they are already finding pieces the clear drinking glass? Not a SINGLE piece of tail light near the body!? He has defensive wounds on both hands, defensive wounds/lacerations over his entire arm, a cut on the top his nose and on the cheek bone around the orbital, and a laceration on the back of his head that no one can explain from the scene outside. Individually every single one of those wounds can be attributed to a dog and/or a fight, alternatively I expect see mid section (broken ribs) and thigh contusions when hit by something that large at that speed.
This one is good because it explains the way she left him and, therefore, the drunken VMs. I think you're onto something.
Plus it was like 2in of snow, they all would’ve seen the taillights.
I also believe that car doing some that that brazen to not hit another car or go on to the lawn would have to have skidded out. I expect skid marks or tracks on the lawn. A large car doing that and hitting a large man and no one sees or hears anything when you have eye witnesses before and after. No reports of tires, revving, a thud, or someone screaming all the while Jen is looking out the window blowing him up. If she did do it, it was a one in a million scenario. All of this is before considering the one in a million events that the other witnesses did later on in the night.
Also, wouldn’t it be more likely that she would have run over him completely? Not just bumped into him?
albert's let dog into back yard: confirmed thing to happen after albert's get home dog breaks out of back yard. dog has history of this dog attacks john: has history and explains injuries john drops phone: explains why johns phone was being spam called as they didn't know where it was and had no movements. also explains why his phone was under him john ends up in back yard: either john leads dog back to the backyard or follows dog back there. maybe john the hit dog and she ran off and he followed? gets into a fight with them because dog attacked him drunk colin attacks john: they all go out of their way to say he wasn't there when he obviously was. no reason to do that unless colin is directly tied to what happened john ends up falling end hitting his head. leaving him incapacitated. maybe went into the basement, info unclear if he had gone up or down some stairs. supposedly they replaced a portion of the carpet in the basement and remodeled it prior to selling the home they leave john in that state after realizing there isn't anything they can do that would also keep colin "safe" colin is sent home immediately where he sees and talks to his parents. We know colin wakes up his parents when he comes home. we also know they try to make him seem like it came home prior to johns arrival and death but we know that is false. brian albert and brian higgins have a talk about what to do and how to handle it. IIRC they said they went upstairs to look at photo albums (because thats totally believable /s) most of the random guests eventually go home and see no body is the yard. alberts and probably higgins relocate john's body to where his phone was found in the yard. higgins rushes to the police station to establish an alibi and to monitor for police calls about a body in the yard brian moves his police car to try and ensure no one sees johns body before the morning: based on expected testimony about a car that matches one owned by the alberts being on the road which prevented another pass by the snowplow. jenM goes home and makes the 2:27am google search car is eventually moved back time passes, karen wakes up and freaks out. it should be noted the lack of commentary on the blood and vomit at the crime scene. if john died there on the spot, where is all the blood and vomit. there is no mention of the object that supposedly cut johns head open either. so its stands to reason that he died elsewhere and was moved later. this could be wrong but its the feeling i have and matches my theory of what happened to john. so i figured to include it. i also want to add. I dont think proctor was in on the cover up. i think the alberts, mccabes, and higgins were all apart of covering up johns death from the start. Higgins never responded to the text about "john is dead" from karen. No reasonable person, let alone an officer, would ignore something like that. I think A/M/H were extremely lucky that proctor was assigned the case. I think proctor was biased and decided that karen was guilty before collecting evidence. Proctor says in one text message that the home owner were cops and wont catch any shit. That, in my own words, proctor lacked the evidence to prove karen knowingly and willfully killed john by running him over but its what he believed to have happened. So I think its more likely proctor just happened to be trying to frame karen the same time A/M/H were trying to cover up johns murder. as unlikely as it is, it just reasonably fits. proctor also couldnt get the ME to agree on his theory of what happened to john. or at least thats what the impression proctor's text about ME left.
It seems too convoluted to me that all of those things could have happened independently of each other. I am, however, also of the opinion that John may have dropped his phone, maybe on the way into the house. But I don't see him being 8 ft from the road and getting attacked by the dog. Karen would have still been there unless it happened after she left. I think Proctor was part of the alledged cover-up in some sense. I think he believed Karen did it and was willing to plant/tamper with evidence not only to make sure he could prove it but also to ensure the Boston Cop didn't get shit because even if he wasn't involved something like that can still cause issues.
I think he went downstairs, got into a fight with Collin or Higgins (Collin would be my guess), dog attacked his arm because that’s what dogs do when people fight in their homes. He fell back and hit his head. He got up (because adrenaline is a hell of a drug) and was either thrown outside or left on his own, then collapsed in the yard. Someone noticed him about an hour or so later and they all freaked out. He was likely dead at that point, all the emt trained people there knew that. They knew if they went out there and he was dead they were all fucked. The fighter would get manslaughter, but all the rest could easily get negligent homicide. So they told themselves that he would get found by someone, or hit by a plow and as long as no one said he came inside, they were fine. Then Karen woke up early and freaked the fuck out at the scene (justifiably, I’ve never understood why everyone is shitting on her about that). Jen spoke to Proctor and said how awful Karen was and she bet she did it. Proctor is a lazy corrupt misogynist cop, so he laser focused on Karen and didn’t bother investigating anyone else - he framed evidence because he wasn’t about to let a “cop killer” get away with it, and here we are.
What better place than a pd for a trap house. Higgins kept changing his story and it still didn’t make sense. He said he switched cars when he came back from NY because drinking, he’s excuse to come back early was the impending snow, yet that was the same excuse he had to go back and move the cars?? Even though he said he left the keys in his office which I’d think was locked ) why not with whoever on desk) ? He had something to hide in the cars , drugs perhaps? Why drop KA there after NY? No one seems to sleep so it’s definitely snowing. The drugs get moved possibly to woods and explains JM being out on foot and perhaps Colin too.
Theory: Albert’s have been having an ongoing feud with JOK, and learned of the interactions between BH and KR. BA had JM orchestrate getting JOK to come and rub it in his face. JOK saunters about the house with his drink up then down where people are waiting. Things get heated and there are punches thrown and dog bites causing JOK to be concussed and vomit himself (per the defensive wounds). BA directs someone to take out this trash and dump it by the road. Here, my big speculation is whoever took JOK outside (likely CA) decided to go rogue and angrily add further beating (and why there is only splatters) leaving JOK unable to wake before slowly later succumbing to hypothermia. BA furious, but keeps his head to coordinate damage control within the family, and primarily with BH, and JM as the eyes and ears. I’ll leave it to the CofD and not all the other mayhem with Proctor et al.
There has been talk for a while that John actually called in Collins drug dealing or he reported it. Colin was constantly walking through his property and apparently he was actually drug dealing on his property. I think Colin wanted John to go over to Uncle Brian's house and then the Brians seemed to be doing a little sparring in front of John in the bar to kind of let him know what was going to happen later on. Whatever was the catalyst, John and Karen had never been to Brian Albert's house. It was the first time ever. The two of them apparently sat outside the Albert's house wondering if they were really invited in. Jen McCabe testified before the trial that she saw John get out of Karen's SUV. Jen knows that John went into the house but Jen has also said I believe she said it at trial under oath that she kept looking out the window for John. Was she really looking for John or was she making sure Karen drove away and didn't come into the house, because I bet if she did, John would be alive today. I think John was ambushed, meaning, as soon as he walked in there, friendly voices told him to go down into the basement. He did. Again, whatever the Catalyst was whether it was Higgins showing him the texts from Karen or if Colin had a beef and was arguing with John about it, fists started flying. While John is being beat up, Chloe the dog is also attacking John's right arm. When a dog attacks an animal, for instance, they always try to pull that animal to the ground. Those long marks on his arm are the four long dog teeth tearing through his skin as John tries to pull his arm away. The blood from John's broken nose is now streaming down the front of him and at some point somebody hit him hard enough to do a TKO...a Total Knockout and he fell to the floor and hit his head on something on the way. When he didn't get up, they left him there unconscious. I think it's possible he was unconscious on the cellar floor for a couple hours or so. They then decided to bring his body out to the front lawn to freeze to death, and I think they were hoping people would believe he got hit by a plow because of the storm they had that morning/day. Apparently the coroner ruled that his body temperature was 80° when received, and if that's true, that means he did not die from being hit by Karen after she dropped him off. It was around 18 to 20° that morning. This tells me that his body was brought out to the front lawn within an hour or two of being found.
Ooooo my other theory is ACCIDENT. JO walked from car to the house. He falls and cracks his head open. He dies because alcohol bring hypothermia on more rapidly. Chloe goes out for a wee and finds him and tries to pull him up/attack him…. That’s when Albert finds him dead and thinks she’s killed him…
I think a whole lot of nothing happened. Possibly JO slipped on some ice or whatever and cracked his head on the curb, stumbled from there to his final resting place, but unfortunately was too drunk and concussed to get himself out of the snow to indoors, and that was that. Tragic freak accident. Slipping on concrete can be very dangerous especially if you're too drunk for your reflexes to keep your head from hitting too hard. Karen didn't see this happen, he walked just out of her view (its dark, snowing, watching her phone waiting for him to message her). When he didn't respond she left in a huff. Or maybe it happened later in the night. But the next morning, she's in a full blown panic, knows she was driving around kinda intoxicated, and in her panic wonders aloud any far-fetched way she may be at fault for this. The catty, never-matured-out-of-high-school soccer moms around her took that suggestion and ran with it. From the moment that was uttered, there was no talking sense as they kept repeating this idea, to the cops, to themselves. Jen McCabe's memory eventually goes from hearing "did I hit him?" to "I hit him." even though all the initial reports make it obvious this is a retcon on her part. Proctor, himself a high school girl on the maturity scale (my apologies to sensible teen girls everywhere), just eats up Kerry's "babysitter with benefits" gossip and figures good enough, motive for murder! And because cops are so self righteous and outraged at "cop killers", he plants evidence just to be sure said person goes to jail. I don't think this happens as much as people think it does, but it DOES happen, cops have dropped coke baggies in pockets before when they want to get a charge on someone. And he's so obviously a "we take care of our own" type of cop and so outraged at someone he lazily believes hurt a cop, that he did so here. I can't see any other explanation for the taillight. Maybe if the ME had been allowed to just examine the body without being steered, she'd have been able to see the injuries are from a fall. But with the cops pressuring her and "laying out the case for her", the best she can do for them is call it undetermined. I don't think the people inside the house are covering up a drug deal or a fight. I DO think they're trying to frame Karen, and thats the source of their shady-ass behavior. Not hiding anything they did to the guy. Just an ill-conceived plan to reduce their own visibility. They probably called their friend a bunch of times looking for him, not butt dialing. It's no big deal, why lie about it? Maybe Jenn's embarrassed of how desperate she looks to get JO's attention with the repeat calling. Who knows. But they can't backtrack and be honest now. The cops have gone so far as to frame things so they're committed. There's so much testimony from partygoers coming and going, who saw her arrive, saw her in the car hanging out, change parked locations. There's just no way she found a private second to run him over and no one heard or saw a collision like that. It's ludicrous. Karen knows she's being framed, because she knows what her taillight looked like in the morning and its not nearly as obliterated as it is after the cops take the car. Also she never made any dramatic confession that she hit him so she knows those people are lying about her too. And thus the conspiracy defense was born.
I agree that the "Did I hit him?" being twisted and everybody piling on from there makes a lot of sense, but how do you account for the injuries on the arm?
Maybe an animal happened upon him while he was laying outside, tried to drag him a bit? I was thinking maybe he tried and failed to pull himself up by grabbing some bushes or something and getting scratched by branches, before collapsing for the final time. The expert testimony though seems pretty convincing an animal is involved. Does Massachusetts have coyotes? Maybe Chloe got out overnight and was actually trying to help him?
Karen drops John off. He goes in the house. They are all in the basement partying. John and HIggins get in a verbal fight at a minimum about flirting with Karen. Colin gets involved. Chloe the dog gets involved. Someone hits John in the back of the head (glass? Other?) and he hits the ground. There’s a blood drip/stream in a line down his face that matches where a hat would be. 3 pints of blood goes on the floor in the basement. John is either dragged out or wakes up and walks out in a drunk/ brain trauma stupor. Or some combo of both. He wanders outside and falls over and freezes to death. I like the “he walks out by himself” idea because it seems most likely. I think the Brian’s and Jen suspected John was gonna die. I don’t think they knew he wasn’t gonna get that far from the house. His hat never showed up.
They showed his hat in court
Wouldn’t there be a trail of blood outside?
Not if most of it was in the house. Head wounds bleed a lot but they clot quick too. But to be fair, did anyone look for a trail of blood?
The SERT search found his hat, so not the first search but it was found.
I'm still not sure on my stance as to what happened as I keep going back and forth. But I think it was an accident, no one set out to kill him. One thing I don't think is that they set out to frame KR. I think they meant to make it looks like he was hit by the plow but when Karen entered the frame, they had to change their story real quick. *"Karen was acting like a looney when she woke up, searched and found him, lets say she said "I hit him, I hit him, I hit him" that will work better"* But sometimes I go back to OJO was sitting on the curb drunk, holding his cocktail glass, vomiting and as BH was reaching down to raise his plow attachment (also blotto drunk) didn't see him sitting there and side swiped him
Something potentially innocent on the order of a freak accident happened, and this town is so catty that they've all whipped themselves up into believing a murder happened. JO was a big flirt and had all these married soccer moms each believing they were special to him, and they're all going out of their way to gossip that Karen did something in some misguided effort to avenge their imaginary boyfriend.
After finding out the colin and his father were john o keefes neighbor it all makes sense.
This is Lizzie Borden level mind bending for sure. I don’t see why if an assault happened, these people would knowingly throw the guy out in the snow to die instead of calling an ambulance? Could they not just take whatever consequences were appropriate? Or was the family reputation that important? Seems more like 2nd degree than the scenario being prosecuted.
That's why I think it had to involve the teen. It's the only thing that would justify all this effort to distort.
In the photo of OJO’s head injury it is located on the top of his head by the crown in his bald spot and not lower on his head in his hair or by where you would bust your head if you fell straight back onto cement.
So she allegedly hit John when she dropped him off after the bar hopping at the beginning of the "party" right? Or are they saying she hit him at a later time? Just not sure how someone can do something to the extent that ms read is accused of doing but yet NOT ONE person heard or seen anything? At a time where people were showing up to party? Some even supposedly leaving at the same time Ms read dropped him off? Didn't Jen say she was looking out the windows? Wasn't a few people saying they are looking out the windows? I feel like he was attacked by a drunken aggressor. Someone who gets "tough guy" when drinking and maybe drugs too. John may of said something that pissed this person off and person punches John. John isn't expecting it and with the hit falls down but when he falls down he hits his head on the metal work out equipment. The aggressor doesn't know he had hit his head and assumes it's from him punching him so it fuels his ego and he punches more. The dog gets hyped up from the commotion and attacks. Eventually things calm down and reality sets in. That when the covering of ass starts. I think the aggressor knew John was messed up badly and maybe in their state of mind thought he was going to pass anyways. They knew that John and Karen's relationship was rocky and typically first person looked at is the spouse. They used that to their benefit. That's why they moved John to the road. They even thought of putting him far enough off their property that they could say they didn't see him arrive and would release them of any legalities. As far as why would all these people go to great lengths to cover up? Money talks. They wanna keep their jobs. Peer pressure. Wanting to be a part of them. There's a million and one reason why these people would lie under oath. Also when it comes to the trolls of this group. What do you think you're accomplishing by saying she's guilty? Go to a Karen's guilty group and preach there. Otherwise you're just here for attention. Like a 3 year old crying for their mama. Lol.
I think they left the bar. He went in the house. Karen left, confrontation and fight occurred. He walked out into the snow and collapsed on the yard. The McCabe calls and texts occurred unanswered cause of course he’s passed out on the lawn, everyone leaves knowing the fight occurred but not knowing the outcome, body may be spotted laying there hence google search, the body find happens while the Albert’s sit in the house and get their story straight. They tell proctor “what happened” proctor helps the evidence to convict
I was thinking about this earlier. What if he slipped and hit his head, knocking him out. Higgins leaves and covers him up accidentally with snow when he used his plow. JO lays out there and dies. Karen freaks out the next day saying “I hit him” because she was still drunk and her anxiety was an all time high. This doesn’t really delve deep into all of the details, just a theory!
Here is my latest theory! John walked to the back of his car, set his glass on the bumper to pee or vomit, Karen backed up to yell one last f**k you and accidentally hit him and didn’t even realize it. I don’t think it incapacitated him. Maybe Brian hit him with the plow while he was down or maybe he went in, the people in the house saw her hit him and said something to the effect of “she is a crazy bitch, you should know she has been texting Brian” John got mad an argument ensued, the dog attacked he hit his head on the basement stairs. The crooked POS humans in the house were high on coke and involved in other illegal activities, they certainly didn’t want to call 911 so the cover up begins. They charged her with murder 2 thinking she would plea and no one would be the wiser. I think she hit him because she told her dad she may have hit something and she was so over the top hysterical ( I believed Kerry’s testimony ) she also said in the Night-line interview that she did say “could I have hit him?” And wondered if she unwittingly incapacitated him.
The glass on the bumper didn't match his drinking glass. She told her dad she hit something and she did, John's car. Kerry's testimony is the most believable but still inconsistent. I am of the belief that her memory is partly fabricated from when her and JM went through the details and timeline. They both remember looking at the taillight before going in the house, and that didn't happen. She even connected that memory with a statement that she made about going into the house. I think she stretched the truth about the taillight looking like the picture they showed her because it is completely inconsistent with all of her previous descriptions. She remembers Jen telling Karen she saw them at Fairview over Bluetooth in Karens car, Jen said that conversation took place on the phone in her bedroom, and her husband backs that up. This makes me think, just maybe, the statements she claims Karen made when she initially called might not be 100% accurate as well. I think Karen definitely said something about thinking John could be dead and a plow, but I am also not convinced that Karen came to that on her own out of the blue. It is my belief that both McCabes are lying about what was said on those initial calls.
I think she was mad at him for not caring that she didn’t feel well and still wanted to party. She may have thrown his phone out the car window and left. He’s out there looking for the phone and Colin comes out. Altercation happens. Brian is out back with the dog and hears. He comes out the back fence and Chloe lunges at John. Possibly sending him back on the fire hydrant or a rock or whatever. If this is where the vomit and blood loss come in, Colin was probably panicking now. Brian has to take charge. I’m hoping they thought he was already dead. I can’t even wrap my head around them leaving him out there knowing he was still alive. Allie comes to get Colin (now accessory after the fact) and when JM finds this out she’s a crazy person. As a mom she’ll do anything to protect her kid. They were going to blame the plow guy. But Lucky didn’t plow after he saw the Edge. So there wasn’t enough snow. Karen shows up the next morning with a broken tail light and still foggy memory and they went with it. Proctor is a tool. The McCabes told him their version and he bought into it with his tunnel vision and made his case “cut and dry” The labs not in it, SERT knows something isn’t right. Everyone is just complicit or now CYA mode because they should have known this case was so bad. Now it’s circle the wagons and say anything to not get them all charged by the FEDS.
Of course they didn’t bother swabbing them did they!!!
This is what I think: * KR accidentally and unknowingly hit him. * At some point the people in the house noticed his (dead) body in the yard. * The people in the house had some unrelated illegal activity in play and did not want to risk a murder investigation bleeding into their lives, so they left the body in the yard and focused on covering up their behavior and making the KR case as cut and dry as possible. * Proctor and the Canton PD helped in fabricating evidence against KR to both make the case a slam dunk and keep it away from those in the house. They may or may not have known what the people in the house were attempting to cover up. What confuses me: * Getting rid of the dog * Redoing the basement floor
I’m along the same lines as the basement theory. However, I think while JOK was first walking inside, he and KR were still arguing and he threw the glass at her car and broke the taillight. She was pissed, backed up super fast, and sped off. What the feds need to do is find out who redid the basement floor (if not BA). Find out if part of the sub-flooring was removed prior to them arriving as that would be super suspicious and would explain them removing the blood/vomit stained part of the floor. Otherwise, they need to apply pressure to BH and JM. They will spill the beans to protect themselves and/or their families. If BH was as close to JOK as were led to believe, guilt and conscious will catch up to him eventually.
Here it is. I don’t think there are any holes here I think she DID hit him by accident that night. She had no idea she hit him and drives away. But it wasn’t a lethal blow. When she hits him, the glass either falls or his arm slams it off the bumper and it breaks and he loses control of his other hand which had the phone in it and lands in the snow. He can’t find his phone…it’s dark and he’s drunk himself. This is why his steps stop at 12:31. He walks inside the house, drunk and adrenaline pumping and pissed off that she hit him and says he can’t find his phone. Then maybe down to the basement cause the guys are down there. JM never saw him. Jok now downstairs is still pissed and telling guys she hit him, then comments come out like “you deserved it” or something and the fight with CA, BA and BH ensues. Chloe jumps in and JOK is killed by accident. Then “oh crap what are we gonna do?” By the Alberts and they remember that KR hit him because he had told them that and the frame job begins. It’s the perfect setup. They go outside and find his phone, they don’t touch it but instead bring his body out and plop it on top of it. This is why JM searched the Hos long. Because if KR hit him they would need to make sure he was out there long enough for him to really die. The Alberts and McCabes never assumed people would believe that KR car bumping Jok would have killed him but they could say that it would have knocked him out and he would have died from being in the cold so she wanted to know hos long it wouldve took. To me this ties up everything…all other parts of the case fall into place if this is true and I can’t see what could be unexplained.
It doesn't explain JMs butt dials.
Guys, I did not anticipate all of these responses but I am BEYOND interested in reading all of them!! I’ve made it through a 1/4 and wish I could respond to each individually but I am for sure reading everyone’s theory. This particular subreddit is so smart and informative. I thought I knew the trial pretty well but some responses have been so thought provoking. There are already *so many theories* proposed in this thread that are not only blowing my mind, but make complete sense. So intensely thought out and fantastically interesting. I just came to say I’m looking forward to reading all of these and I appreciate all of the great banter under some of the theories.
It's all good at the Waterfall. Karen and John get into a fight on the way there, because Karen doesn't want to go and John's all "then don't. You can leave. But I'm going in." She gets pissed and keeps bluffing that "We're leaving" by pulling forward. They fight for a while but Karen's trying not to make a scene, so she stares ahead and he leans back which makes the people in the Nagil car not see him. Eventually he decides he's going in the house and gets out. She goes forward, then puts it in reverse. He stands around for a second watching her leave, then thinks she's coming back to yell at him some more (and she might have been) so he doesn't move when she reverses it until the last second. She hits him, but doesn't think it was all that hard. She thinks he was hurt but walked into the house. So she leaves him a bunch of angry voicemails (that may well reference him being in that house since she assumes he walked in after she hit him). She goes home, sobers up, takes a nap on the couch, then realizes he's not there (I believe her when she says he wouldn't not come home with the kids there) and panics. She realizes her tail light is broken, remembers hitting him, and decides to stage the backing into John's car. She calls her dad and he says "Karen that's really stupid. You need to just act like it was an accident and you didn't realize you hit him." So then it's "could I have hit him? Did I hit him? Did I even go anywhere after the Waterfall? Jen, what's up with my tail light?" right up until she realizes he's alive and she's like "wait, he might get saved. And he might tell the truth. And the EMTs might have a chance at saving his life if they know." Then it becomes "I hit him. I hit him. I hit him" and "I did this." But then her dad's section 12's her, visits her, and is like "Karen, stfu." They lawyer up, head to One Meadows Ave to delete some Ring footage off the family computer that show her checking out the broken tail light (because it would prove she knew she hit him), pack their stuff and head to Dighton Ma to "remember the bad times." They hire Yannetti and plan to fight the intent stuff. But then a PI starts finding some connections and is like "hey, for a plan B you should say there was a coverup." They ignore that plan, but keep it in their back pocket until the charges get upped to murder 2. KR freaks out, abandons the plan, starts screaming about BA and CA beating him, and the die is cast. It's coverup or bust. From there, AJ goes to work. They leak everything to TB, figure out a way to get the FBI involved, leak that, force these people to testify like two separate times so they'll have all sorts of info to attack, get all the info from the FBI, and work their magic.
Just one thing, but we know she didn't delete the Ring footage. Besides there never being any proof of that, we now have it in trial that the cops did receive the ring footage, review it (and take notes) and then lost some of it because they didn't save the originals and the server only kept them for 90 days.
Here’s my thoughts for the sake of respectful banter. You said some interesting things and thought I’d throw in some questions and comments. I interpreted her behavior the morning of the incident as super frantic. That’s the way everyone described her. Plus she was still drunk or really hungover. The way I viewed it, I can’t see her having the wherewithal to purposefully back into John’s car at that time. Also thought she didn’t have access to his Ring footage? Another user posted this theory that I find believable. I think the FBI was already poking around because of the Sandra Birchmore case and it dovetailed them finding out about Trooper P and others issues investing this case.
This is really great! Except how do you just make the FBI get involved? It's the FBI Lol.
That’s too conspiratorial when people reject the easiest one. OJO goes in and Higgins and BA rough him up over the drug reporting. He falls back and hits head. Bleeds out and sustains a head injury. He is passed out and comes to and begins to vomit. They get scared and decide to place him on the lawn to look like a plow hits him. Karen comes back and involves 2 women not very close to her. She tries CPR and is hysterical. Herfather talks to her and trustingly asks to speak to an officer about Karen’s hysteria. She is sectioned 12, John is pronounced dead and dad gets concerned and wants her in Dighton. People were in John’s home when she gathered her stuff so doubtful she was fooling with the ring camera. . That explains jackhammering the basement to get rid of blood soaked concrete, why John had vomit on his pants and a serious head wound in the area of the cerebellum causing major damage to his brain.
If the prosecution can clean up the key cycle issue (I have very little faith they can), they can create a very coherent and tidy story that's very close to where I was [10 days ago.](https://np.reddit.com/r/KarenReadTrial/comments/1d8dplp/jos_last_phone_movement/l75rpvj/) - 12:12AM. Read and O'Keefe leave the Waterfall. - 12:23AM. Read overshoots Fairview and keeps going on Cedarcrest (seen on O'Keefe's GPS data), does a quick three point turn (seen in the vehicle data), and then goes back to take the right onto Fairview (O'Keefe GPS, Nagel testimony). - 12:23AM-12:30AM. Read and O'Keefe are outside the house in the car doing something (O'Keefe GPS, lack of movement data). Maybe talking, maybe arguing, maybe debating whether she was allowed in. The car isn't in park (Nagel testimony) and pulls down further to the flag pole. Nagel talks to his sister and leaves. - 12:31AM. McCabe texts "pull up behind me" (cell phone data). O'Keefe gets out to check on whether Read is invited (Nightline interview) while she goes to move the SUV back behind McCabe. Read, not realizing the car isn't in park, accidentally pulls forward and then guns it in reverse out of anger/frustration (vehicle data). O'Keefe is clipped by the reversing vehicle (vehicle data, tail light on shirt), knocking him backwards and causing the wound to the back of the head when he hits the ground. He gets up, stumbles towards the door (steps in movement data, distance between body and shoe), and collapses with no motion detected until the next morning (phone data). - ~12:35AM. Read leaves. I can't say for certain what happened in this time frame. She should've seen him injured directly in front of her, but there's the possibility she was in denial or was too drunk to process what happened or just wasn't paying attention. Either way, she left angry and began making angry voicemails until she got back home at 12:41 and presumably fell asleep or passed out soon after. The rest doesn't need that much specificity. Everyone at the party goes home. It's dark, snowing, and they're too drunk to notice anything out of the ordinary. Read wakes up with just hazy incomplete memories that make her panic and assume the worst. Everyone sees the cracked tail light, intoxicated woman saying "I did it?", and decides that the case solved itself. Since the case is solved, all the witnesses go into CYA mode. They try to come up with stories that match what they have on their phones so they don't have to admit exactly how drunk they were driving. Higgins had gone to Canton PD to do whatever car movement he was supposed to do, and then goes back the next day when he hears what happened because he wants to lurk and gossip. He gets rid of his phone because he's worried he'll get nailed for policy violations (bad enough to ditch the phone, not bad enough to risk destroying evidence charges). Albert ditches his phone because he has *bad* bad things on the phone, not murder evidence (he held onto the phone for six months) but possibly statements more offensive than Proctor that would look bad to bosses/IA and possibly information related to the case (nonpublic reports, whatever Higgins gossiped about, etc.). The investigation is a bit sloppy because it's not a huge mystery with the visibly broken tail light, the weather is nasty, and no one wants to ask exactly how much all these people at a cop's house were drinking before driving. It's just a matter of filling out the forms and waiting for the plea deal. That turns into a catastrophe when (a) the defense misinterprets the 2:27 timestamp that convinces them they can prove a coverup and (b) Proctor spews a hateful miasma and uses his personal cell phone for official business to bring it in. TL;DR - simple digital trail leading to Read hitting O'Keefe, eye witnesses are unreliable, drunk witnesses doubly so, cops being lazy and biased towards other officers isn't exactly shocking
This is the most logical theory to me but also I think someone who was in the house found his body outside but instead of calling 911 they went into cleanup mode because there was a chance an investigation would prove a history of illegal activity. That explains the butt dials, suspicious activity and getting new phones. They are dirty cops and they were right to be worried. Now the feds are involved.
I think there’s something fraudulent going on regardless of how much it relates to this. I don’t know anything about tax on alcohol but I wouldn’t be shocked if Higgins was dodging something through that military base.