Karen Read was willing to talk about why boyfriend John O’Keefe was found dead on a fellow Boston police officer’s front lawn in January 2022 even before her first trial in 2024 ended in a mistrial.
As her retrial on second-degree murder and manslaughter charges is set to begin April 1, Investigation Discovery is releasing A Body in the Snow: The Trial of Karen Read, a docuseries that closely follows Read and her legal team behind the scenes during the first trial. “Doing this film is my testimony. This has happened to me. I know what happened between John and me,” Read tells director Terry Dunn Meurer (Unsolved Mysteries) early on in the series.
Speaking to The Hollywood Reporter, Meurer explains that the access she and her camera team got to Read and her attorneys was surprisingly comprehensive.
“At first, I thought, I hope they really mean what they’re saying. You know, can we be in the car? Can we be in the War Room? Can we be in your hotel room? And it turned out that they really did [allow us to]. The access was incredible, really unprecedented,” Meurer recalled.
ID president Jason Sarlanis adds that the competing legal claims of Read’s first trial — a toxic romance ending in either a murder or a frame up — underscores the journey of one woman against the system that continues to capture national attention. “I think Karen’s struggle through this multi-week process is so daunting, and the level of openness to share that struggle with the world is what makes this project so interesting for potential viewers,” Sarlanis tells THR.
A Body in the Snow: The Trial of Karen Read, produced by Unsolved Productions for Investigation Discovery, airs on ID and streams on Max over three nights starting March 17, with a one-hour finale on March 19. Below, Meurer and Sarlanis say Read hasn’t been able to fully tell her story until now: “She’s never felt like she could tell her entire story from beginning to end.”
***
Why do a docuseries on Karen Read?
TERRY DUNN MEURER Actually, this project came to me. I had only heard briefly about Karen Reed. The attorneys representing Karen Reed were looking for someone to follow them through the pre-trial and trial process. So I quickly did some research about the case and I was amazed at how there were two strong sides to this case. I hopped on a zoom with Karen and Alan [Jackson] and three weeks later, I was in Boston and we were filming.
You were promised access to Karen Read. Were you surprised by how much access you got?
MEURER What excited me about the project was the access. At first, I thought, I hope they really mean what they’re saying. Can we be in the car? Can we be in the War Room? Can we be in your hotel room? And it turned out that they really did [allow us to]. The access was incredible, really unprecedented.
Why were you given this unprecedented access?
MEURER In the documentary, Karen answers that actually. She says, ‘This is my testimony.’ Karen liked to talk and she’s been muzzled for two years. She’s done a few interviews here and there. But she’s never felt like she could tell her entire story from beginning to end. And that’s what she wanted to do. I think she knew she probably wasn’t going to be asked to testify on the stand. I doubt her attorneys would let her do that, because that’s rare. I think she just wanted to tell her story.
Jason, you typically have a higher purpose to your ID docuseries. What drew you to this project?
JASON SARLANIS From our vantage point as the originating home of true crime television, we see every single type of documentary series. It is uniquely rare to see a project with this level of access, this level of intimacy, that Terry was able to secure. Part of the purpose of being a platform for this documentary is to demonstrate for people who are going through the emotional drama of their own dealings with courts and legal battles. This is such an example of that on such a high level. We do think our viewers can take away from this what it would be like to go through that, because of this level of access.
This case turns one woman, an outsider, against an apparent blue wall of silence in a Boston home where it’s unclear whether an alleged murder took place. Is that one of the appeals here, the story of a lone woman against the system?
SARLANIS I think Karen’s struggle through this multi-week process is so daunting, and the level of openness to share that struggle with the world is what makes this project so interesting for potential viewers — questions of potential corruption in the system, the issues frankly with drunk driving, there’s so many different layers to this five-part documentary series. But I think at the core, one woman’s struggle against the greater system is absolutely one of the perspectives we found so interesting.
MEURER One of our reporters, Ted Daniel, says, “This is about Karen Reid, almost rather than John O’Keefe,” but he says this is so much bigger than Karen. I think he’s really right about that. I’ve never seen a case that has divided a town like this has, destroyed friendships and families. People can’t even talk about it. As one of the people in the film says, “you’re either pro-Karen Read or you’re not pro-Karen Read.” One of the things that attracted me to the story is there are two very, very strong theories on both sides of the case. The prosecution has really interesting points to make, and the defense has really interesting rebuttals. I’ve not seen a case either where there’s so much suspicious behavior on both sides. Both sides had so much to work with using that to create reasonable doubt.
SARLANIS This story can only be told now because in a post-social media environment, this is really a commentary on bothsidesism and tribalism, the way it has divided the New England area.
The series clearly shows that Karen Read and her team used social media to turn the case to their advantage with national attention.
MEURER That was a defense strategy. Karen, in the film, talks about how there wasn’t much buzz about this case in the traditional media. So they reached out to independent journalists, hoping they could light a fire under this. And they were very instrumental in creating the social media dialogue, vitriol, if you will. That is this case. We call them the pinks and the blues. The pro-Karen Read people wear pink. And the people that support John O’Keefe and his family and friends and the prosecution side, they wear blue.
Besides following Read and her team, the series does a lot to keep O’Keefe, the deceased, in the frame by interviewing friends.
MEURER It was so important in putting this film together to keep John O’Keefe, the victim in this case, a presence in the series. Because, it’s about John. Everyone would tell you he is a great guy, a great cop, a great dad to his sister’s kids and and he’s gotten so lost in this. That’s why it was so important to bring his friends into it, to keep him as a presence with loyal friends. The case is complicated. It’s easy just to debate the issues, the evidence in the case and the witnesses. But we really need to not lose sight of the fact it’s about a wonderful man who is now dead.
SARLANIS Projects like this are told from a singular side. And while Terry got incredible access to Karen and Karen’s team, the way she has folded part of John’s extended loved ones is critical to creating the balance that we think makes the show.
Returning to social media, we assume ID docuseries have to follow certain journalistic tenets: be factual, show both sides. But online, early on we’re introduced to Turtleboy, who grandstands on social media and says whatever he wants, with no accountability.
MEURER We didn’t do an interview with Turtleboy. We wanted to include him, because he is part of the story. But there’s a side part of his story. He’s facing 16 counts of witness intimidation. He has his own case going. He’s being prosecuted, which tells you he has crossed the line to have these charges leveled against him. But he’s an independent journalist and isn’t held to the same standards as all the other reporters we included in in the series. He can say and do whatever he wants. It’s the collateral damage — this is a very personal opinion — that he’s done in terms of the lives of these witnesses, who are just witnesses, as Jennifer McCabe says on the stand, “I’m just a witness.” It’s really concerning and disturbing.
SARLANIS When you look at the Wild Wild West that is social media and influencer culture, there’s no accountability. And that’s why we do these projects. The way we do them, with the depth, the multi-part exploration, so that we can give space to commentary on just that.
MEURER I think the word “accountability” is the key word. There’s no accountability. That’s frightening and Wild Wild West. You’re using a great phrase, because what is going on?
Is this lack of accountability due to social media or a breakdown in communication in the public square today?
MEURER Turtleboy is getting a lot of clicks, and he is making a lot of money off this situation — trial number one and now heading into trial number two. There’s financial and exposure gain for him, and Turtleboy isn’t the only one. A lot of the bloggers are hopping on, as it’s about money and clicks. But Turtleboy is tapping into something. All these people are following him. He’s almost like a cult leader. He tapping into something, specifically in the Karen Reed case, this idea that the system is corrupt and we’re not going to take it anymore.
With all unscripted doc series, there’s the question of where to end. The first trial ending in a mistrial, what did that mean in wrapping up this five-parter?
MEURER I know everyone on the defense team was very surprised that they did not get an acquittal. I think they thought that when the jury went out to deliberate they were going to come back in a couple hours, or certainly by that day. Then another day go goes by, another day goes by. You could see them start to get pretty nervous and to start to consider the idea that this might be a mistrial. What it did, in terms of our focus on the project, the prosecution, the District Attorney’s office immediately announced that they were going to retry the case. And we would always want to make a balanced presentation of both sides, the prosecution and the defense. But I think it became even more important, because this project is going to air before the second trial begins — and we don’t want to feel like we have swayed anyone in one direction or another. I don’t know how they’re going to find a jury that hasn’t heard about this case. If we get as many viewers as we hope we will, then a lot of them might have seen this show.
Have you made a decision on whether to make another series about the second trial?
MEURER Right now, we’re not planning on going back. But Jason and I can chat about that later. Karen came to us because she wanted to tell her story. And we feel like we did that very thoroughly in this series of five episodes. Her story would be the same in the second trial. There’s some new players, there’s a new prosecutor, and three additional defense attorneys. There’s some new evidence, some new witnesses. But her story is the same. I feel like it would be little repetitive. I don’t know, Jason, what do you think?
SARLANIS I would say to Terry’s credit, as a filmmaker and the incredible team she surrounded herself, this five-part documentary feels very complete. The viewer goes on such an emotional roller coaster. And I do believe, even though it ends the way it ends, you get a sense that it is the end of that particular part of the journey. The other thing that we pride ourselves on is embracing and empowering agency in subjects. Karen approached Terry. I f Karen were to come back and want to tell more story, of course, I think both Terry and myself would be open to hearing how that could work. But that’s really in Karen’s hands.
Terry, you followed the first trial with your camera. If you don’t do a series about the second trial, do you look forward to just watching like everyone else, as a spectator?
MEURER Absolutely, I cannot wait. I am so excited, actually, to see what happens, because I’m so invested in these characters. And now there’s some new characters, and there’s going to be some new strategy on the on the part of the defense. Because they did not get an acquittal, they did not create reasonable doubt or enough reasonable doubt to create to get an acquittal, which means their third party culprit defense strategy didn’t work. So what’s their new strategy going to be? I can’t wait to see. I think what would interest me the most about going back would be to cover if there is a verdict and if there’s another hung jury. I doubt that they’re going to retry it.
***
A Body in the Snow: The Trial of Karen Read premieres on ID over three nights from March 17 to March 19, streaming on Max.
#Karen #Read #Trial #Doc #Director #Talks #Access #Body #Snow
