69 South
Podcast 69 South is about mystery, true crime, attempting to find the truth in a world full of chaos. We dig deep in to current and past true crime incidents. Reporting what we find to our listeners. We want to become your reliable source for all things relevant, while we live in a society that is truly lost.
69 South
Secrets in the Snow: Part 4 Fighting for JUSTICE
What if the truth you've been told is only part of the story? Join us on 69 South as we peel back the layers of the enigmatic death of John O'Keefe, spotlighting the entanglement of Brian Higgins and Karen Reed. We probe the odd behavior of the Boston police officers involved and examine the discrepancies in the narratives surrounding the evening of O'Keefe's death. From suspicious phone calls to the strange insistence of the Alberts for O'Keefe to join them, our investigation raises critical questions about the motives and actions of those involved.
As the plot thickens, we confront the inconsistencies and apparent biases within the investigation led by Trooper Proctor. We question the reliability of witness testimonies provided by Jen McCabe and Carrie Roberts and consider how these may have unfairly tilted the scales against Karen Reed. With private investigator Scanlon presenting a fresh perspective on Karen's innocence, we dig deeper into the evidence, challenging the integrity of the charges and uncovering overlooked aspects of the case that could shift the narrative entirely.
Our journey into this complex legal drama unfolds further as we expose potential corruption within the Massachusetts police force. A mysterious rehoming of a German shepherd, the disposal of key cell phones, and the internal investigation of Officer Michael Proctor suggest efforts to obscure the truth. We also touch on wider issues of systemic corruption, probing the link between the O'Keefe case and the mysterious death of Sandra Birchmore. As we prepare for Karen Reed's new trial in January 2025, our commitment remains steadfast: to follow the twists and turns of this gripping story and seek justice in the shadows of unsettling revelations.
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Disclaimer: All defendants are INNOCENT UNTIL PROVEN GUILTY in a court of law. All facts are alleged until a conviction!
Welcome everyone to podcast 69 south, where we discuss and discuss true crime, cold cases, current events and hot topics, along with our state of society today. This is your trigger warning. Our podcast content is produced for adult listeners, 18 years of age and older. We discuss situations that may be offensive and triggering to some listeners. Sit back, relax and enjoy. Welcome back to 69 South, everybody. I am Chop, your host of today's podcast, and with me is my beautiful co-host, julie.
Speaker 2:Hello.
Speaker 3:We hope you had a good time since the last time. In the last episode we dropped a bunch of text messages between Karen and Brian Higgins. What do you think, julie? Do you think Brian Higgins had anything to do with John O'Keefe's death?
Speaker 2:I don't know. I asked myself would Higgins really drop that bomb on John in that type of situation? Well, they were all drunk, so I mean yeah, they are all cops and they were all driving drunk except for John. He let his drunk old lady, karen drive him to 34 Fairview Road, where he mysteriously disappeared for hours and then ended up dead on the front lawn.
Speaker 3:Now I know, if you get on these free Karen Reid sites on Facebook and stuff, you got some of the people that's arguing that she's definitely guilty. How could all these cops have such an organized conspiracy against Karen Reed? But I mean, these boys in blues in Boston, man, they're really tight. You know what I mean. I'm not so sure in my mind that Brian Higgins maybe had his hands on John O'Keefe, but it's I don't know. That's the part that I don't understand. I do not think Karen Reed is guilty for sure.
Speaker 2:I believe Karen Reed is innocent. After diving deep into this case Now, could Brian Higgins, do you think he was so intoxicated that he told John that Karen had been sending him those text messages and also that she gave him an over-friendly peck on the cheek and that she text him talking about how miserable she is with him? And then she's telling Brian Higgins how hot he is.
Speaker 3:I don't know if the dude had like a low self-esteem, you know, maybe it was really cut into him after she talked all that shit and then walked into the bar and didn't say a word to him, like ghosted him Right.
Speaker 2:In person.
Speaker 3:I mean the Brian Higgins and Albert they were. They were good friends and you seen them all you know playing grab ass at the bar together. They actually spent the whole day together from a trip back from New York. Once they hit town that day they went straight to the Hillside Bar to slam some Irish Risky. I actually think Karen Reed was there at the Hillside Bar.
Speaker 2:She did ask John to meet her for a drink at the Hillside and he declined because he was busy at the moment. And he declined because he was busy at the moment. He did go out with a friend later on that evening and Karen met him at CW McCarthy's around 9 pm so she could be his ride home.
Speaker 3:I think her plan was to go meet John and give him a ride home and then go back to her house in Mansfield due to them not getting along so well. That makes you think would John want to go to an after party if Karen is his ride home? It's midnight, big snowstorm is coming. They've both been drinking, but Julie Albert had texted John around 8.45 pm telling him to come to the Waterfall Bar, and then she also texted him again around 10 pm telling him to come to the waterfall. Chris Albert and Julie's husband also texted John telling him to come to the bar. It makes you wonder why the Alberts wanted John to come hang out that night, because according to them, they didn't know each other that well, which I find hard to believe too.
Speaker 2:And Chris Albert had said that he had just got John's number. That evening when John and his nephew went in to get pizza at his business, he said that's when he first obtained his number whenever he was in there, but his wife had had his number. And why do they keep texting him and telling him to come to the bar? That is awful weird.
Speaker 2:What I can't figure out Now. It also puts in my mind like why in the world would Jim McCabe invite John and Karen to her sister's house for a quote-unquote afterpartum when her sister doesn't even know them like that? So they say anyway, I think that they are trying to put out an appearance like they were just acquaintances, but something is just telling me they were all a lot friendlier than we know of.
Speaker 3:I mean, granted, there is what somewhere around 3,000 Boston police officers? But John O'Keefe was a special officer, he was working in sex crime, so he wasn't just a beat cop, and they live two miles from each other. I mean, there's almost no way that they didn't have some kind of a friendship or acquaintanceship. I think they're just distancing each other, you're right some kind of a friendship or acquaintanceship.
Speaker 3:I think they're just distancing each other from this and I tell you it's awful weird that. It makes me wonder why Albert didn't come out of his home at all when there's a dead cop on his driveway, on his lawn. I mean he's involved in everything else plus the snowplow driver saw his car out there at what 4 am and then just two hours later he's so deep into sleep that he doesn't see the police and the EMSs and the detectives out there in his driveway, in his lawn. That makes zero sense to me.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and then you know. I want to go back to where Jen was on the phone with John giving him directions, like she said she was. No, I want to go back to where Jen was on the phone with John giving him directions Like she said she was. Why didn't John and Karen pull up from the direction that she told them to come? Jen told investigators that. She told John that it was at 34 Fairview Road. You take Chapman Road to Fairview Road, go down Fairview Road and past Bella's mom's house and it's at the bottom of the hill, but oddly enough they pull up from the opposite direction.
Speaker 3:Now, didn't they initially drive past Fairview Road and then they had to do a turnaround and then go back to Fairview Road?
Speaker 2:Yeah, they passed the road, Fairview Road and then they had to do a turnaround and then go back to Fairview Road. Yeah, they passed the road, and I mean they only passed the road by a few houses, had to go up, turn around and come down.
Speaker 3:Brian Higgins even texted John you coming. I believe that was about the same time that John and Karen had pulled up to the house.
Speaker 2:Now eyewitness accounts report that they pulled up behind Karen Reed as she was pulled up along the driveway of the Albert home. The witness stated Karen Reed was sitting in her car alone with the dome light on and that she was the only person in the car. If that is true, where was John? Karen was sitting outside waiting on him to text her and let her know that everything was cool.
Speaker 3:He didn't respond to her so she just left, Went to his house that was two miles away, because his niece was there alone, along with the fact that Karen had few too many drinks, and that was a better decision than driving 25 to 30 minutes away in the weather. Karen leaves John at 34 Fairview Road, goes back to John's house on 1 Meadows Avenue. At this point in time, Karen, she's pissed off. She's pissed off because John never texted her back, called her and let her know what was going on To her. He's just ignoring all of her calls. She leaves a few not-so-nice voicemails paired with text messages. They all went unanswered. So eventually she crashes out and wakes up a few hours later. John still not showed up. He never came home.
Speaker 2:Now Karen realizes this is extremely off and she starts calling Jim McCabe to see where John was.
Speaker 3:And that's about the recap of the Secrets in the Snow. Let's start talking about this investigation, because it is crazy.
Speaker 2:What investigation, it seems like.
Speaker 3:Yeah, any reasonable person would believe or assume that this would be an investigation, with all of its I's dotted and T's crossed, that the first police officers that arrive on the scene would be prepared and knowledgeable enough to follow protocol in this type of situation. That sounds about right, right.
Speaker 2:Not a Boston police officer found dead at the residence of another Boston police officer the residence of another Boston police officer. Before the 6 am 911 call made by Jen McCabe. We know that Carrie Roberts phoned. Well, we know that she phoned in to the Canton Police Department and she was asking if John O'Keefe, a Boston police officer, had been arrested because his girlfriend reported that she woke up and he hadn't returned home, that they were out drinking the night before at a blizzard party, also stating she had called all area hospitals as well. The officer stated that no, john O'Keefe had not been picked up.
Speaker 3:Immediately after John was taken to the hospital, the police should have been doing everything they were trained to do, you know, preserve the crime scene. You would have thought they would have had that thing roped off. They would have had 24-hour security there. Yeah, a tent, I mean. They had snowblowers out there blowing shit around. That just don't make any sense to me at all. Why would you want to blow any evidence around? They just automatically jumped on this bandwagon that Karen Reed ran into him because I think that's what the intentions of Jen McCabe and all of them that were at the scene. Subsequently, massachusetts State Police Officer Trooper Michael Proctor became the lead investigator for the Norfolk County District Attorney's Office. He was also a resident of Canyon Canton, sorry. He had several professional and community connections to a lot of people in the community, as well as personal friends and family.
Speaker 2:I can't stop thinking about what a conflict of interest and the appearance of impropriety this is. The first witness that Michael Proctor informally interviewed was Jen McCabe. This was about five to six hours after they found John O'Keefe. Instead of having Jen come down to his office and do a formal interview, he went to her house, where she was there with Brian Albert and her husband, matt McCabe.
Speaker 3:Now just keep in mind that Jen McCabe was the first person to speak with every single officer that arrived on that scene that morning. How convenient. She was also the last person to speak with John, single officer that arrived on that scene that morning.
Speaker 2:How convenient.
Speaker 3:She was also the last person to speak with John, right before he comes up missing, and you said you were giving him directions to 34 Fairview to come down Chapman Street and then turn on Fairview, go past Bella's mom street and the houses at the bottom of the hill.
Speaker 2:She stated that she's seen Karen's vehicle pull up, but she never seen John get out of the car, so she just assumed that John and Karen left and decided to go home. Brian Albert and Matt McCade obviously made similar statements, and then Trooper Proctor was on his way.
Speaker 3:By 2.30 pm Trooper Proctor had called the police department in Dighton Massachusetts. At 30 pm Trooper Proctor had called the police department in Dighton Massachusetts and stated they needed to go seize Karen Reed's Lexus SUV, that it was a vehicle involved in a homicide.
Speaker 2:So we know that by the time he was already convinced that Karen had hit John with her car the previous night and left him there to die in the snow.
Speaker 3:How do you think Proctor was so sure that Karen had hit John already?
Speaker 2:Well, it came out in trial that the initial statements that Karen had made, asking if she could have possibly hit him yeah, if she couldn't remember much from the night before, why would she think that she could have hit him?
Speaker 3:My thoughts are that when she called Jen, she said no, John didn't come in, and Karen was thinking how in the fuck did he not go in? Why would she have thought that she did a three-point turn? I believe that is what Jim McCabe had told her. What happened, or was at least trying to convince her of. My initial thought was that they could have been talking about John walking home drunk and how he could have gotten hit by a snowplow. I think that was Jen's first stab at shaping the narrative of this story, and I say this because of the evidence that came out in trial that we will talk about here shortly.
Speaker 2:It was three hours from the time that Trooper Proctor had spoken with witnesses and he was convinced that Karen did this. Was he rushing to judgment or was he rushing to save and protect the interest of a fellow officer from the same area that he had family and community connections with?
Speaker 3:This makes us question how all these officers are only acquaintances and they just recently met John and he definitely did not come into the Alberts' home that night just found dead on his front lawn. Nah, that's not suspicious at all, as evidence of the investigation has come to light. This whole I hit him, I hit him. I hit him. Statement that Karen was allegedly screaming over and over again in front of the police paramedics, carrie Roberts and Jen McCabe. It was all twisted and manipulated.
Speaker 2:Two women seen Karen Reed's vehicle after she left 34 Fairview Road that night. That was Carrie Roberts and Jim McCabe. In the early morning hours when they went searching for John, karen Reed had left John's house to go pick up Jim McCabe. As Karen is backing out of the garage, she is on the phone with Jim McCabe and she hits John's vehicle.
Speaker 3:In the security footage you see her backing out slowly and then you see her bump into John's vehicle because his vehicle shakes from the impact. She had backed into his car with her passenger side taillight. Since we know Karen is on the phone with Jim McCabe, can you infer that when she felt her vehicle hit John's she said something to the effect of oh shit, I just backed into John's car, sounded like I might have cracked my taillight or something. Karen arrives at Jen's house to pick her up so she can help her find 34 Fairview again. During this trial, jen testified that Carrie Roberts pulls up in front of Jen's house and follows them, carrie and Karen, back to John's house to see if John had come back home. But during one of her first interviews she states that her and Karen were already at John's house when Carrie arrived to meet them.
Speaker 2:Now, when Karen and Jen got out of Karen's car, carrie Roberts stated that Karen Reed said my taillight, my taillight, look at my taillight. And Carrie responds you told me you don't remember anything from last night. And Karen was like do you think I hit him? Do you think I hit him? And Carrie Roberts says no, I don't think you hit him. Now I just don't believe this version of events One, because Jen's story has changed so many times and Carrie's story makes no sense at all.
Speaker 3:The entire taillight housing was missing. There was no crack at all. The entire thing was gone. Now ask yourself this If you're looking at a whole taillight and most of it is missing, are you going to say no, I don't think you hit him.
Speaker 2:I mean, I myself would have been like oh yes, bitch, you sure did hit something, Absolutely you hit something because your fucking taillight's missing.
Speaker 3:Or let's say they did have that conversation and Carrie said oh, I don't think you hit him. She would have only say that if there wasn't any damage or just like a tiny, minimal crack. It's like they're trying to draw all this attention to her taillight and to her admitting hitting John, that their stories don't match their actions that morning.
Speaker 2:Meaning that if things had really happened like Carrie and Jen claim, their actions, I believe, would have been totally different. Carrie's memory seems dependent upon Jen's recollection of events rather than her own, and what I mean by their actions would have been different. If your friend asked you if you hit something and the whole taillight housing is gone, I'm not going to say no, I don't think you didn't hit anything. But if she, if they had that like I said, if she had that conversation and Carrie Roberts really said no, I don't think you hit anything, then that means the taillight housing was there, right?
Speaker 3:That's what I would think.
Speaker 2:Now you really have to follow this case minute by minute, from the time John gets out of the car. From the moment he gets out of the car, his cell phone is collecting breadcrumbs of evidence, as is everyone else's, and the police know this.
Speaker 3:Karen's Lexus, along with her cell phone, were collected as evidence. Because they wanted to get Karen so bad. They wanted to track her every move that morning, including the calls to Carrie Roberts and Jen McCabe. So the police said hey, we're going to download your cell phone so we could track Karen's every move and all of her calls and texts with you. The evidence that was recovered from Jen's phone was more damning for Jen than anything in Karen Reed's cell phone.
Speaker 2:Karen was charged with the death of John O'Keefe. It was all over the news. Everyone in the area was glued to the TV and social media.
Speaker 3:Woman runs over cop boyfriend, then leaves him to die in the snow. Now a private investigator named Scanlon seen Karen Reed's arraignment on television and he was immediately concerned that an innocent woman was getting charged with the death of her boyfriend, who in fact was innocent.
Speaker 2:Scanlon had come upon some information that John O'Keefe was beaten inside the home on 34 Fairview Road by Brian Albert, colin Albert and Brian Higgins. This information matched the state that the body was in, which reassured the whistleblower's suspicions. He also knew Brian Albert personally.
Speaker 3:Yeah, they worked together 30 years ago in corrections. They were also a part of the Boston Police Department Boxing Club, so they knew each other pretty good.
Speaker 2:I wonder how he got that information, that secret information, Well, so I don't want to be wrong, but this is what I've heard is that one of the girls that were there in the house that night is his daughter's best friend, and that girl told his daughter what had happened, and she went back and told her father. He was also a private investigator too.
Speaker 3:I don't see him just making that shit up, especially if he's saying that it come from you. Know his daughter.
Speaker 2:Somebody, that was there Right.
Speaker 3:Scanlon took this information to Karen Reed's attorney and he forwarded it to the United States Attorney's Office. An FBI investigation was opened following the state's investigation.
Speaker 2:Now it is highly, highly, highly unusual for a federal investigation to run simultaneously with the state, because now it's two sets of facts arguing against each other. The FBI requested all of the documents that the DA's office had collected and then they did their own investigation. The federal Selbright report matches the defense's report, which confirmed that at 2.27 am Jen McCabe Googled how long to die in the cold. Now this search was also deleted and it was also misspelled. So all of the deleted information and inconsistencies versus what the state has is making her look 100% guilty.
Speaker 3:What exactly is Cellbrite?
Speaker 2:Cellbrite is the application that law enforcement agencies use when they want to take our phones and download them. They can download everything from our phones our text messages, our phone calls. What we searched on the internet I mean it's a data dump of your whole entire phone is what it is.
Speaker 3:Why in the hell would she be searching how long to die in cold at 2.27 in the morning? That just makes absolute no sense to me. That's one of the little pieces.
Speaker 2:Because somebody was dying in the cold and she was wanting to know how long it took for them to die in the cold. That's the only plausible explanation for that and she, you know I think she tried to cover her tracks that. And she, you know, I think she tried to cover her tracks that, uh, because she searched it again at 6 30 that morning, which she said Karen told her to search that.
Speaker 3:But I don't believe anything that comes out of Jim McCabe's mouth the FBI crash experts state that John's injuries are not consistent with being struck by an automobile and I, I have to say I agree with him.
Speaker 2:Yeah, he had no bruising below his neck.
Speaker 3:It was all jaw, eye, back of the head, split, the back of the head injury.
Speaker 2:It all seriously looks like a boxing match. And then the injuries on the right side of the arm, the scratches. The scratches and I think it looks like a dog bite with its paws on each side.
Speaker 3:Which that's what a protective shepherd would do if people were around him fighting, and especially if the owner of the dog was in the fight. A good shepherd's going to jump on whoever is fighting with the owner.
Speaker 2:And I don't think that we've mentioned that in our series yet that Brian, that we've mentioned that in our series yet that Brian Albert had a German shepherd named Chloe that they rehomed after half for six years. They rehomed her in a whole nother state about what? Five months, three or four months after this incident happened.
Speaker 3:Chloe was the dog's name. I don't think that I've seen anything where they found the dog or where they let anybody know where they rehomed the dog. Did they just say a random story, or has that been proven?
Speaker 2:No, it's been proven that they did rehome the dog to a family in Vermont.
Speaker 3:FBI Trooper Proctor admitted that he knows the Alberts and downplayed his relationship to the federal grand jury. Brian Albert and Brian Higgins got rid of their cell phones and admitted to the feds that they did so the day before the preservation order from the judge was granted. Jim McCabe never tells the federal grand jury that Karen Redd said I hit him, so she never said that in the first place at all. Now I mean these two dudes got rid of their cell phones the day before.
Speaker 2:The preservation order.
Speaker 3:Yeah the day before the judge says do not get rid of your cell phones. That makes me think two things, two things. They had a shitload of stuff to hide. And it also makes me think that they have somebody on the inside telling them that the preservation order was get ready to hit the next day.
Speaker 2:Yeah, because it's not a coincidence that they both get rid of their phones the day before.
Speaker 3:That's not a coincidence. And last but not least, michael Proctor's work and private text messages are exposed and they are funky, disrespectful, immature.
Speaker 2:Let's, let's pull some up so our listeners can hear about this dude.
Speaker 3:Keep in mind that this is a lead detective on a homicide case, a seasoned state police officer, and just listen to the immaturity and the unprofessionalism in this, these text threads non-professionalism in this, these text threads.
Speaker 1:Yeah, this was a critical day in this murder trial, with Trooper Michael Proctor testifying to his investigation. Now we should note that Trooper Proctor is currently under an internal affairs investigation by his own department, and today jurors got a glimpse as to why.
Speaker 1:we do want to warn you that some of the language you're about to hear could be considered disturbing I recognize that to be the housing unit for the first time in the karen reed murder trial, massachusetts state police trooper michael proctor, taking the stand, showing jurors pieces of evidence he says were collected from reed's suv, says taillight. One large piece of plastic color red, one small piece of red plastic Trooper Proctor, also addressing this video shown last week capturing Reed backing up into John O'Keefe's vehicle.
Speaker 4:We want to at least go document that there was no damage to Mr O'Keefe's car, the defense claiming this is how her taillight was damaged, but Proctor disputing that. There's no red pieces of taillight was damaged, but proctor disputing that there's no uh red pieces of taillight which would show up in the contrast to the white snow but it was these damning text messages about the case that had proctor's credibility and integrity in question yep, so these came from me. From all accounts, he didn't do anything wrong.
Speaker 1:She's a whack job proctor, admitting discussing the case with friends, family and fellow officers.
Speaker 4:I text my wife waiting to lock this wack job up.
Speaker 1:Calling Reed profanities, making explicit comments about her appearance and joking about her medical condition.
Speaker 4:No news so far.
Speaker 1:At one point, Proctor texting about looking through Reed's cell phone for nude photos. I'm going through his clients phone right now correct.
Speaker 4:Yes, after the picture, sir. Yes.
Speaker 1:Who's the client?
Speaker 4:I was referring to Ms Freed.
Speaker 1:Proctor, again claiming that these were just jokes.
Speaker 4:The rest of the unprofessional and regrettable comments are something I'm not proud of.
Speaker 1:Outside of court. Few words, karen. How is it hearing those messages? I'd like the state police to say something about the language they've heard.
Speaker 3:We didn't play a bunch of those text messages because it'd be kind of long and drawn out. But how unprofessional is that You're going to look through the lady's phone looking for naked pictures of her while he's going through it.
Speaker 2:That's like an invasion of privacy Absolutely. I would sue for that.
Speaker 3:Absolutely it is, and he was talking about her medical condition. What was her medical condition?
Speaker 2:She had multiple sclerosis, but I think she might have had something along the lines of irritable bowel syndrome, because in one of his text messages he made a reference to her leaky balloon knot.
Speaker 3:I had to kind of go back and wonder. I didn't. Actually I've never heard a butthole called a balloon knot, but I could see why they call it a balloon knot, I guess. But still, man, that's rude. He called her the C word whack job. He's basically telling everybody from his text message that he thinks she's guilty from the gate.
Speaker 2:That he did. Now let's talk about the physical evidence and the facts that we know for sure.
Speaker 3:physical evidence and the facts that we know for sure Now. No taillight pieces were found the morning after John's body was taken to the hospital and, like we said earlier, they even took a snowblower to the crime scene. They found a few spots of blood, a broken cocktail glass and his shoe, and that was about it.
Speaker 2:It was reported that John lost massive amounts of blood and there was only a few spots of blood at the scene. So where was the rest of the blood? That leads us to think that this is not the actual crime scene.
Speaker 3:Absolutely, and I want to touch base on the injuries to John's arm. It 100% looks like if a dog bite and scratches to his arm. Karen's vehicle was actually towed to the Canton Police Department, passing two state police posts along the way. Now, if the Canton Police Department had recused themselves from the case, then why in the world would they have her vehicle towed there? During the trial, we get to see the video of the sally port, that's the garage area that Karen's vehicle was parked while they collected evidence from it. Approximately 40 minutes of this footage is missing. The footage was also inverted by someone to make it look like nothing suspicious was going on, but it was caught by the defense attorneys while watching the video.
Speaker 2:They noticed that the word police was spelled backwards like a mirror image of something. So the footage was, let's say, hacked and of course no one knows how or why. The taillight evidence at the scene was not found until later on that day when the CERT team found a few pieces of the taillight at the scene. Now, the scene was left unattended for five to six hours, so anything could have been planted there or placed there. Now, to add to the craziness, trooper Proctor supposedly finds more pieces of this broken taillight up to two weeks after the accident.
Speaker 3:How the hell was there still evidence at the scene two weeks later Tail light pieces that can clearly be seen from the front lawn. I mean, like nobody went out there in two weeks and saw these pieces of tail light. I can't express enough that the whole situation is riddled with doubt from the inside out.
Speaker 2:If they are having a party at a home and there are approximately 11 people there and those people go to leave the party, you would think that one of the 11 party goers would have seen a body on the front lawn. One of his shoes was found 50 foot from his body, which seems really unusual for a hit and run.
Speaker 3:His body was found 12 foot away from the curb at the opposite end from the driveway. I don't see why his body is so far from the driveway. I mean, it's snowing. You wouldn't want to tromp through. You know the snow to go up into someone's house. Plus, he was laying on top of a layer of snow so he would have been pretty visible. A snowplow driver went down Fairview Road two times about 2.30 am and he testified on the stand that he didn't see anybody. He also testified that he had a clear view of the right side and left side of his plow and that he definitely looks for stuff like mailboxes or curbs or dead bodies or anything that's in the way of him plowing and watching him on the stand. I believe that he was cutting dry testimony.
Speaker 2:Believed him 100%. Now he was making his rounds, like you just said, and he came back again about 4 am, and this time he had to go around a Ford Edge that was parked in front of the Albert house, but he didn't see a body at that time either. All he seen was the Ford Edge.
Speaker 3:Guess, who drives a black Ford Edge for his work vehicle, brian.
Speaker 2:Albert. So why was his vehicle at 4 o'clock in the morning, when he's supposed to be asleep parked in front of his house? Now we also have the behavior of Brian Higgins. After a night of drinking he decides that he is going to go up to the Canton PD where he has like a satellite office, because he's an ATF agent and he has an office at the Canton PD. Now he goes up there to move or swap vehicles around in the parking lot. Who does that? Who drinks all night and then decides to go to the police department to swap cars around? That's just weird. Why do you think that he went up to the police station?
Speaker 3:I think he was up there monitoring the. You know where people call in the 911 dispatch.
Speaker 3:Yes, monitoring the dispatch. Another thing I wanted to make a point is you've been in a yard. You know we live in Indiana and when it snows everything is so bright white. I mean literally you would see a body laying somewhere. I mean it would just catch your eye out of nothing but just sheer. Something is odd over in the white, you know, blanket of snow. It just doesn't seem viable that. You know they didn't see anything. Also, the camera footage around the Alberts' home which could clarify what happened that night, that's oddly missing from the hours that would be relevant.
Speaker 2:The police chief of Canton PD actually lives directly across the street from the Alberts and his camera could have definitely helped us figure out what happened, but that footage for some reason is not available. It seems like there are more secrets at 34 Fairview than there are answers.
Speaker 3:It is odd that all the camera footage is missing. I mean, that just doesn't fly with me. And the jury in this case felt the same way and could not come to a conclusion on one of the three charges that Karen Reed was charged with. Initially, she was charged with manslaughter while operating a motor vehicle under the influence and leaving the scene of a fatal accident. Karen never had a second thought about pleading guilty to any of these charges and she told the Commonwealth just that.
Speaker 2:Now, since Karen didn't want to play the game what I mean by playing the game is they wanted her just to plead guilty to these charges and since she didn't, they're going to take this information that they have and go before a grand jury so that they can charge her with second degree murder. And that's exactly what they did in June of 2022. So when the trial started, she was actually facing three charges instead of just the two.
Speaker 3:Didn't they offer her like a real sweet deal too, like to?
Speaker 2:plead guilty in the beginning of that, I don't recall.
Speaker 3:The jury came to a unanimous agreement on two of the three charges the second degree murder charge and the leaving the scene of a fatal accident. They decided to acquit her of those two charges.
Speaker 2:But they couldn't come to an agreement on the manslaughter while operating a vehicle, so the judge decided a mistrial was appropriate because the jury verdict form had no not guilty options. Now how crazy is that.
Speaker 3:After the mistrial, the DA said that it planned on retrying Karen. In the meantime, Karen's defense attorneys have filed with the Supreme Court trying to get the two charges that the jurors acquitted vacated. So that is where we are right now in the case.
Speaker 2:The new trial is scheduled for January of 2025. And I think they did that on purpose, because you know how cold it is in January up in Massachusetts. It's really cold up there and with this first case, they had a plethora of people outside protesting Free Karen Reid. I mean, hundreds of people were out there protesting. I mean hundreds of people were out there protesting. So I think that they scheduled this second trial in January, because it's going to be like blizzard conditions and freezing up there, so that people aren't out there protesting.
Speaker 2:Now, that's just my take. I haven't heard that, but that's what that made me think of. Now, this is the corruption and craziness of the boys in blue up there in Massachusetts, and they really have the hammer coming down on them up there and the dominoes are starting to fall with all these police officers and their corruption now since the case, I believe, michael Proctor has been relieved of his police officer duties actually they did put him on leave, but since he's part of the police union or something, they have to go through this formal type of way of letting him go.
Speaker 2:So they put him on unpaid duty and then I believe that once their investigation's not finished yet, but once the investigation's finished, they're going to fire him, chicken him for good.
Speaker 3:Right? I believe so he should be let go, just in the unprofessionalism that was shown in his text messages. I mean, how freaking embarrassing would it have to be for you to be a state police detective and have to get up there and have your private text messages read because you were talking shit and being a little immature prick?
Speaker 2:Yeah, he never thought these text messages were going to come to light. But since the Fed started their investigation that's how the defense team got those text messages is because those came out of the federal investigation. Now, wouldn't you think something is really, really wrong if the feds open up an investigation on the investigation?
Speaker 3:Yeah, if there wasn't something that they were starting to dig up, if there wasn't something that they thought that they were seeing was wrong, I don't think they would be messing with it at all. But they're still digging, aren't they?
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, and you know what? I believe 100% that they were already there in the area running some investigations, because I believe it was in 2023. There was a girl named Sandra Birchmore. She was 23 years old, she was pregnant and she came up missing. Well then they found her and said that she committed suicide.
Speaker 2:And but the thing is with that is she was a part of this police explorers program and this was at a town Explorers program, and this was at a town just like the town over from Canton I think it was Staunton and it was found that a police officer over there had been having an inappropriate relationship with this girl from the time that she was 15 to the time that she was 23. And Michael Proctor was also the lead investigator on her death. So I really think that the feds were there investigating all of that and investigating the Norfolk County District Attorney's Office, and they felt they had no other choice to see what was really going on in this case. I mean, this is getting really deep. We're just at the tip of the iceberg with this corruption up there in Massachusetts.
Speaker 3:I believe, like you said, the dominoes are going to fall and I cannot wait to see those dominoes fall, to see those dominoes fall. I'll tell you another thing that I didn't really ever think about until this case was how the jury came up with not guilty on two of the charges, but the state was going to try and retry her on all of the charges.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, they still are. And what had happened is there was no box to check on the paperwork that said not guilty and they, unanimously I don't think they're going to be able to charge her because that's the double jeopardy law. That's why that's going to the Supreme Court.
Speaker 3:As it should.
Speaker 2:Yep, and so that sums up our Secrets in the Snow series on Karen Reed. And you know, the information that we have provided you guys is minimal of how deep this case really is. There's so many people involved. There's so much corruption. So many people involved, there's so much corruption. And you would not think that all these police would work together to set this woman up. And I don't think they did it intentionally to set Karen Reid up.
Speaker 3:I think it's just I think the fight got out of hand and they didn't know what to do. And I think, from the information that we've gathered, these police up there are so intertwined with each other and probably have a shitload of dirt on everybody and if, if and when the dominoes do start to fall and I think it's just going to be a big shit show for all of them I mean brian albert's brother is one of the big detectives in canton.
Speaker 2:That's why they needed to recuse themselves, but they really didn't recuse it. They have michael proctor, a family friend that's been friends with the alberts for years. I mean his nephew, colin was in his sister's wedding party. I mean they're just all so tied together and that's why they act like they're just acquaintances. I think they're all tight.
Speaker 3:But we will keep you on track whenever anything new comes out about this case and we will keep following along, and we hope you have keep following along and we hope you have a good day, a good evening or whatever.
Speaker 2:We'll see you next time.
