Defense presses Jennifer McCabe on her testimony during Day 7 of Karen Read retrial. Here’s how Wednesday unfolded. - The Boston Globe (2025)

By Travis Andersen, Globe Staff

McCabe told Read lawyer Alan Jackson she had reached out by phone to Michael Lank, the Canton police sergeant whom she had known from “around town” since her youth, later on Jan. 29 to ask him to return to the scene.

“It was Brian Higgins [a friend of Brian Albert, who lived at the home where John O’Keefe’s body was found] who suggested you reach out to Officer Lank,” Jackson said.

“I’m not sure if it was him who suggested it,” McCabe said. “No one was really providing me information because they didn’t know what happened. I was just sitting there trying to recount what had transpired since I got that 4:53 a.m. phone call” from Read.

McCabe said she told Lank, “I was remembering things and asked if he could come back.”

She said she told Lank that Read said, “I hit him, I hit him, I hit him.”

Jackson noted that Lank’s report quoted McCabe as saying that Read said “something to the effect of ‘I hope I didn’t hit him.’”

”Incorrect," McCabe said. “I told him that she said ‘I hit him.’”

”Is this another example of an officer getting a report wrong?" Jackson asked sarcastically.

Cannone sustained a government objection.

The attorneys returned to a sidebar soon after.

By Travis Andersen, Globe Staff

Following the sidebar, Jackson read excerpts from McCabe’s testimony last year when she said she was exiting the vehicle as she saw Read straddle O’Keefe and lift his shirt.

“Are you trying to ... improve your testimony to suggest” no one could have reasonably seen a body on the lawn, Jackson asked, noting that McCabe testified on direct examination that she couldn’t make out a body until she got very close to Read and Roberts.

Both McCabe and Roberts have testified that Read got out of the car as soon as they arrived at the Canton home and went directly to O’Keefe’s body before they could see anything in the dark, snowy conditions.

“I’m not trying to improve my testimony, no,” McCabe said.

Jackson turned to McCabe’s testimony that she heard Read tell an emergency responder “I hit him” three consecutive times at the scene.

“Something you would not easily forget or overlook, is that right?” Jackson said.

“Correct, yes,” McCabe said. “I will never forget it.”

“And that’s because “it was so impactful on you,” Jackson said.

“Yes,” McCabe said.

Jackson then handed her a transcript of her April 2022 grand jury testimony.

“Turn to the page or pages in that transcript where you recount to the grand jurors that my client said, ‘I hit him, I hit him, I hit him.’“

”This is over 227 pages,” McCabe said.

“You didn’t, did you?” Jackson said.

“Again, I’m not sure,” said McCabe, who later said that ” ‘I hit him, I hit him, I hit him’ is just as fresh today as it was three years ago.“

Jackson noted that McCabe was asked multiple times during her grand jury testimony in April 2022 about what Read had said at the scene.

At one point before the grand jury, Jackson said, McCabe told the grand jury that Read said “Could I have hit him?”

”Yes, that was part of my answer," McCabe said.

Jackson cited several additional examples where she told the grand jury that Read had asked if she “could have” struck O’Keefe.

“Yes, I see that here as part of my answer,” McCabe said after Jackson cited another example.

He also noted that McCabe referenced Read’s statement to the female paramedic at the scene, telling grand jurors that Read said, “could I have hit him” and “is he dead? is he dead? is he dead?”

”That was your testimony in front of the grand jurors, correct?" Jackson asked.

“Yes it was,” McCabe said.

She also reiterated to Jackson, “I do know that morning your client said, ‘I hit him, I hit him, I hit him three times, and there was a female EMT there.”

McCabe said she also told investigator Michael Proctor that Read had said she hit O’Keefe.

When Jackson mentioned that Proctor didn’t include that statement in his report, McCabe said, “I’m not responsible for his report.”

She later said, “yes, I told him. ... He was taking notes, correct.”

By Travis Andersen, Globe Staff

McCabe told Read lawyer Alan Jackson “at different times I went to the door, I did text.”

She told Jackson “at one point I did” look out and see the SUV had left.

“I’m not sure of the time,” the car left, she said.

Jackson said McCabe testified previously that she had noticed that around 12:50 a.m. She said, “I’m not sure of that.”

After viewing a transcript of her prior testimony, McCabe said “it says on the paper that I was asked if after 12:45 it was gone” and that she answered affirmatively.

“I never gave a time,” she said.

At a bare minimum, Jackson said, she looked out at the front yard at least four times.

“Correct,” McCabe said.

Jackson asked if she had a clear view of Read’s SUV every time she looked out, and she said, “It was dark and snowy. ... I could see a vehicle out there, yes.”

At no time, Jackson said, did McCabe hear any unusual noises or yelling or a revving engine or the squealing of tires or a collision or a victim screaming in distress.

“No,” McCabe said repeatedly.

She told Jackson she saw tire tracks as well in the road.

“In the street, correct,” McCabe said.

She said she saw the tracks “over to the left” at one point near the SUV.

McCabe told Jackson she did not see O’Keefe outside the SUV or on the lawn whenever she looked out the window.

She said she would just look at the SUV but “I wasn’t taking in all the surroundings.”

McCabe said “I was looking in the direction of the flagpole at the vehicle.”

“You saw no body in the snow, did you?” Jackson asked.

“I didn’t look for a body in the snow,” McCabe said.

“I didn’t ask you if you looked for one,” Jackson said.

“You weren’t looking for tire tracks either, were you? And you saw those.”

”I did see those, yes," McCabe said.

Yet she did not see the body of O’Keefe, a “big boy” who stood 6’2’’ and weighed 216 pounds.

“I don’t think I’d refer to him as a big boy, but he was tall, yes,” McCabe said.

As she left with her husband, Julie Nagel, and another woman, McCabe said, she again did not see O’Keefe’s body on the lawn.

By Travis Andersen, Globe Staff

Following the lunch break, McCabe told Read lawyer Alan Jackson she “walked to the door, saw the car [outside the Fairview house], and that’s when I sent [John O’Keefe] the text.” She said she texted O’Keefe “here!?”

Jackson asked McCabe if she remembered “the times of those five texts” that she had sent, and then handed her a written record of the messages.

Jackson took the paperwork back after a moment and asked McCabe if she sent her “here!?” text to O’Keefe at 12:27 a.m. She said she wasn’t certain but, “I’m assuming if it’s on that paper.”

Following a brief sidebar, Jackson said the parties were stipulating that O’Keefe at 12:14 a.m. texted McCabe, “where to,” wrote him “here!?” at 12:27 a.m., wrote “pull behind me” at 12:31 a.m., “hello” at 12:40 a.m., and then “where are u.”

McCabe said that when she went to the door a second time, Read’s SUV had moved near the flagpole.

Jackson asked if McCabe remembered testifying previously that each time she looked outside, she saw “something that prompted you to text something.”

McCabe viewed a transcript of her testimony and told Jackson, “I answered correct to that, yes.”

Jackson asked if that meant she went to the door five times.

“I’m not sure,” McCabe said. “I remember definitely going twice,” seeing the SUV “at the flagpole” and “a third time further up.”

McCabe said “some things, unfortunately, I think about every single day with this case, the trauma of it, and what I experienced and went through.”

By Travis Andersen, Globe Staff

McCabe told Read lawyer Alan Jackson that months after O’Keefe’s death, she asked Julie Nagel, a guest at the afterparty, to send her a screenshot of a text message that Nagle had sent her brother, who had initially pulled up to the home to pick her up before Nagle she decided to stay longer.

“She had no involvement,” McCabe said of Nagel. “What happened outside was separate from anything that happened inside.”

“Did you ask for that screenshot for your own personal use?” Jackson asked.

“Yes,” McCabe said. Jackson said the screenshot was timestamped 12:23 a.m. for when Nagel’s brother pulled up.

Judge Beverly Cannone called the attorneys to a sidebar.

Following the sidebar, McCabe said the screenshot included a text that said “here” from Ryan Nagel to his sister Julie.

McCabe told Jackson that as she looked out the window, she saw Read’s SUV as well as Nagel’s truck. Higgins’s Jeep was parked by the mailbox, she said.

“I remember Mr. Nagle’s truck over to the left in my peripheral vision,” McCabe said.

Jackson pressed her on whether Higgins’s Jeep was between Read’s SUV and Nagel’s truck when she first looked out.

“Do you remember the Jeep being between the truck and the SUV?” Jackson asked.

“I remember looking out the window, it was dark,” McCabe said. “I remember seeing lights over the left. That is what I remember. ... I’m assuming the Jeep was still parked at the mailbox.”

McCabe said she saw Julie Nagel go outside but did not see her near her brother’s vehicle. Nagel came back into the Fairview Road home soon after talking to her brother outside. Cannone called a lunch recess at 1 p.m.

By Travis Andersen, Globe Staff

Read lawyer Alan Jackson also asked McCabe about a moment at the Waterfall bar on the night of Jan. 28 when Brian Higgins and Brian Albert were briefly pantomiming a sparring-type situation, which Jackson described as “playfighting.”

The moment was captured on the business’s video surveillance.

“Big boys,” Jackson said of Higgins and Albert. “They took a fighting stance with each other, and started grappling, playing, coming for each other.”

”I did not see that, I’m sorry," McCabe said, adding that she thought she recalled Read also engaging in similar playfighting at one point with her husband at the bar.

She told Jackson that Brian Albert Jr. was sitting at the kitchen table with his friends when she entered the Fairview Road home for the afterparty, and Brian Albert Sr. and Higgins were in another room looking at a family picture.

McCabe also identified a photo of 34 Fairview and identified the front door, as well as two other alternate entrances in front.

She said she was in the kitchen while Brian Albert and Higgins were in an adjoining TV room.

McCabe said that when she first pulled up to the house, she noticed a Jeep parked in front but couldn’t describe it in great detail.

She said she later learned it was Higgins’s Jeep, which was parked in front of the mailbox.

“Have you ever discussed having seen that Jeep in that spot with anybody else in this case ... for instance, your husband?” Jackson asked.

Cannone sustained a government objection before McCabe could respond.

She said she later saw Read’s vehicle outside when she looked out.

“It was in front of the Jeep,” McCabe said.

“That would take up much of the room of the curb area of 34 Fairview between the Jeep, assuming there’s a snowplow on a full-size SUV, correct?” Jackson asked.

“I’m not really sure of the whole area but there was a Jeep, and then there was the car,” McCabe said.

Jackson asked if she told investigator Michael Proctor that she saw Read’s SUV parked in a different spot by the driveway as indicated in the trooper’s report, and McCabe said, “I never said by the driveway. ... I said the car was straight out front. When I was looking out the front door, it was straight ahead.”

Jackson asked if McCabe had “actually said” to Proctor that she first saw Read’s SUV parked on the street by the driveway facing nearby Chapman Street.

McCabe denied saying that.

Jackson asked if those inside the Fairview home after O’Keefe’s body was found were given the chance to coordinate their stories.

“None of those witnesses were separated” that morning, Jackson said.

“There was no reason to separate us,” McCabe said, adding that she was with her family.

McCabe said she had asked Proctor to meet her at her home for the initial interview so she could check on her children.

She said Brian Albert was in her home “for the interview” when she later spoke to Proctor.Jackson also asked if McCabe was with Kerry Roberts, who also was at Fairview Road when O’Keefe’s body was found, just before she testified before a grand jury proceeding.

McCabe said she recalled being in a waiting room with Roberts.

She told Jackson that Roberts testified after the two women had created their written timeline, which was done right after O’Keefe’s death.

Jackson then switched gears to asking about Chloe, the German Shepherd that lived in the Fairview home at the time.

The defense contends the dog may have attacked O’Keefe in a struggle, leaving scratch marks on his arm. The dog was later rehomed to Vermont, per prior testimony.

“Seventy-pounder,” Jackson said of the dog.

“I don’t know its weight,” McCabe said.

She told Jackson she was “in a state of shock” when she went upstairs to wake up Brian Albert and her sister.

McCabe said she was “definitely trying to wake them up” when she said their names.

Jackson asked how Chloe reacted to the commotion.

“I don’t recall seeing the dog,” McCabe said.

Jackson asked if she knew the dog slept in the couple’s room.

“It may, I don’t know for sure,” McCabe said.

“The reason you don’t remember the dog being there is because the dog wasn’t there, was it?” Jackson asked.

“I don’t remember seeing the dog” when she entered the home just after 6:40 a.m, McCabe said. “It doesn’t mean it wasn’t there.”

Jackson asked if McCabe was aware Chloe wasn’t good with strangers.

McCabe said she knew Chloe wasn’t good with other dogs, “so I could never bring my dog over there.”

By Travis Andersen, Globe Staff

McCabe told Read lawyer Alan Jackson she called the agents back and “explained that I had forgotten to mention a couple people that I had reached out to.”

”You remembered Matt and you remembered Kerry," Jackson said.

McCabe told Jackson she also contacted O’Keefe’s mother, the victim witness advocate in the Norfolk DA’s office, and Brian Albert before the agents came in and began the interview.

“For some reason you did not want these officers to know that you had communicated specifically with Brian Albert, the homeowner, just before you talked to them,” Jackson said.

“No, incorrect,” McCabe said, later adding that she had “forgotten who I had called” while the agents were waiting outside.

“And all of a sudden you had an epiphany right after they walked out the door,” Jackson said.

“Yes,” McCabe said, adding that her husband asked her who she had spoken to.

By Travis Andersen, Globe Staff

McCabe told Read lawyer Alan Jackson she told the interviewing agents she had just called her husband and Kerry Roberts, who was with her and Read when they found O’Keefe’s body in the snow.

“I don’t remember my exact words” to her husband, McCabe said. “But I did ask him to come home.”

She said she called Roberts because she was “curious as to if they had already been to [see] her.”

Asked if McCabe wanted to know what Roberts told the agents, McCabe said “No. ... I called to ask her if they had been there.”

Jackson asked if McCabe wanted to “ensure that your story would line up” with Roberts’s account, and McCabe said “that’s not true. We both know what happened. We don’t have to have a story.”

If that’s the case, Jackson said, she had no reason to call Roberts.

“We’re going through this whole experience together,” McCabe said, adding that they always called each other whenever they received visits from the media, or Read’s private investigator, or similar parties.

Jackson said the agents asked McCabe if she had spoken to anyone else besides Roberts and her husband before letting them in, and she said no.

Jackson said “that was a lie, correct?””It wasn’t a lie," McCabe said.

Pressed if she contacted anyone else in that brief period, McCabe said, “yes, I did.”

”The agents asked you, in fact, did you contact anyone" in those 10 minutes, Jackson said.

“Correct,” McCabe said.“You told them ‘Matt and Kerry,’” Jackson said.

“Correct,” McCabe said, adding that she said no “at that moment” when asked if she had contacted anyone else.

After she said no, Jackson said, “those two law enforcement officers ... they left, right?”

“Yes,” McCabe said.

She said she later called the agents back.

“Did you call them back and say ‘I’m calling you back because my husband told me that I lied to you, and I better clear that up?’” Jackson asked.

Judge Cannone sustained a government objection before calling both sides to a sidebar.

By Travis Andersen, Globe Staff

Asked after the recess if she has a connection with Canton police, McCabe said “not with the police department but [Canton Police Detective] Kevin Albert is Brian Albert’s brother.”

Read lawyer Alan Jackson later noted that McCabe in April 2023 was interviewed by representatives from an unspecified law enforcement agency that was not the local or state police.

“When I first spoke with them, their conversation was pretty vague,” McCabe said.

She said the authorities approached her while she was in her car, and she thought they were salespeople so she said she wasn’t the homeowner and then entered her residence.

The authorities later called her when she was in her house and identified themselves as law enforcement, she said.

McCabe said she told the investigators she would speak with them but she needed about 10 minutes to get ready.

The agency wasn’t identified Wednesday. The Justice Department had launched a separate federal investigation into how state law enforcement handled O’Keefe’s death. No one has been charged with any federal crimes in connection with the case.

Jackson asked McCabe if she suspended that interview at one point because she didn’t feel comfortable, and she said, “correct.”

She said she had also called her husband who returned home, and that she had also called Roberts before the interview commenced.

By Travis Andersen, Globe Staff

McCabe told Read lawyer Alan Jackson she was aware Brian Albert, who owned the Canton home where John O’Keefe’s body was found, was a Boston police officer.

Albert has since retired from the force, and his brother Kevin Albert works for the Canton police department. A third Albert brother, Chris Albert, serves on the town Select Board, she said.

McCabe told Jackson that her sister Nicole’s nickname is Coco, and that her father Tom Weeks lives in a town close to Canton. Her sister Michelle’s nickname is Shelly, she said, and her sister Denise’s nickname is Didi.

“And naturally, you’re very protective of your family as anybody would be,” Jackson said.

“Yes, I love my family,” McCabe said.

Read, Jackson said, “very much is not family, correct?” Jackson asked.

“Correct,” McCabe said.

Jackson asked if investigator Michael Proctor’s sister Courtney was “basically best friends” with McCabe’s sister-in-law, Julie Albert.

“I’m not aware of that,” McCabe said. “She’s best friends with Julie’s sister, Jillian.”

”So Courtney’s best friends with Jillian, who’s sister to Julie, who’s married to Chris, who’s an Albert, who’s a little brother of Brian Albert," Jackson said.

“Yes,” McCabe said.

Judge Cannone called a brief morning recess around 10:45 a.m.

By Travis Andersen, Globe Staff

McCabe told Read attorney Alan Jackson on cross-examination that she last spoke with Kerry Roberts Tuesday night, but the two did not discuss either of their testimonies.

“She asked if my daughters were going to be staying home from school today, because her daughter would possibly join them,” McCabe said.

She added that she has discussed the case “many times” with Roberts.

“We’ve talked about what has happened, yes,” McCabe said.

She said she and Roberts have “both talked about what we’ve discussed, but it wasn’t like a comparison. We weren’t comparing anything.”

Jackson asked McCabe if she had told Roberts “details” about the case that Roberts “was not privy to,” and vice versa.

“Correct,” McCabe said.

Jackson, attempting to show the two women have been coordinating their testimonies, asked McCabe how many times she and Roberts have discussed their “perceptions” of the case.

“This happened three years ago, and we’ve talked about it time and time again,” McCabe said. “This case has traumatized our lives.”

”You’ve somehow been influenced" by Robert’s memories and vice versa, Jackson suggested.

“I don’t think I would say influenced,” McCabe said.

She said she has met with prosecutor Hank Brennan, who joined the case last fall, a handful of times, along with other members of the prosecution and investigative teams.

“Were you asked questions during those four meetings” about her testimony from the first trial, Jackson asked.

“I did review some of my testimony, yes,” McCabe said, adding that she watched portions of her direct and cross examination from the first trial.

Jackson asked if there was any discussion about “changing” her demeanor on the stand.

“No, I was just told to slow down, answer the question, and answer to the best of my memory,” McCabe said.

She said she did not practice her testimony during the meetings. During one meeting with prosecutors, she viewed surveillance footage and a number of photos, she said.

Two of the meetings were “fairly quick” while one lasted about a “couple hours,” McCabe said.

She said state troopers did not ask her questions about the case, and she did not see anyone taking notes during the meetings.

Jackson asked if she considered herself to be close to her sister Nicole and brother-in-law Brian Albert, whom she has known since kindergarten.

“We have a very close family,” McCabe said.

By Travis Andersen, Globe Staff

McCabe later identified herself on video footage walking to the front door of the Fairview Road home to enter and wake up her sister and brother-in-law.

She also identified the moment when a “light went on” after she entered.

McCabe said she later offered to go to the hospital with Roberts and Read, but Canton police officer Michael Lank informed her “one of us had to stay at Fairview” to speak to State Police investigators.

“I was in shock,” McCabe said. “I was extremely concerned, I was calling Kerry, trying to get updates about John. ... I think deep down I knew that John was gone,” but she was also trying to maintain “a little bit of hope.”

She said Brian Higgins, the ATF agent who had been at the Canton home for the afterparty and who had previously swapped flirtatious texts with Read, later arrived at the crime scene, as did Brian Albert’s brother Chris.

Brian Albert, McCabe’s brother-in-law, lived at the Fairview Road home.

Lank told McCabe to call him if she needed anything, and she did and asked him to return to the Fairview scene.

When he arrived, she told him that she heard Read tell the female paramedic “I hit him.”

McCabe said she got a call at the scene from State Police Trooper Michael Proctor, the lead investigator on the case who was later fired for misconduct linked to it.

“Do you know how he got your number?” Brennan asked.“No,” McCabe said.

McCabe said Proctor informed her he wanted to question her, and Proctor and another trooper questioned her later that day at her house. Brian Albert came over as well, she said.

“I said what Karen had said to me” and also mentioned that Read had shown her that her taillight was broken, McCabe said.

By Travis Andersen, Globe Staff

McCabe said Canton police officer Michael Lank asked her to go into her sister’s house at 34 Fairview Road and wake everyone up.

“Was there any direction about what you should speak to your sister about?” Brennan asked.

”No,” she said, adding that no lights were on at the time and the door was unlocked.

She said she opened the door, walked up the stairs, and entered the bedroom of her sister and brother-in-law, and tried to wake them up, saying “Brian, Nicole, Brian, Nicole.”

McCabe said the pair woke up “startled and confused. ... I spoke to them.”

She said all three of them made their way downstairs, and Lank was in the house.

McCabe said Lank spoke with her sister and brother-in-law, but she wasn’t sure for how long.

“I was standing at the front doorway and then my husband Matt had just arrived,” McCabe said, adding that Lank asked Matt McCabe if he could speak with him outside.

McCabe also identified police cruiser dashcam footage from the crime scene, as well as Robert’s vehicle and herself at the scene.

“Do you see the flagpole in that video?” Brennan asked.

“Yes,” McCabe said.

“And is that the area where you found John?” Brennan asked.

“Yes,” she said.

McCabe also identified who she believed was the female first responder who Read spoke to. A police officer turns away from the group in the footage as Read speaks.

Brennan asked if McCabe could see that on the screen, and she said that she did.

Paramedic Catie McLaughlin testified at the first trial that after Read told her she hit O’Keefe, one of the officers signaled to someone else to get a sergeant to the scene. McLaughlin has yet to take the stand at the retrial.

By Travis Andersen, Globe Staff

McCabe told prosecutor Hank Brennan she wasn’t certain if Read and Kerry Roberts had begun CPR when she called 911.

“Karen was afraid that he was going to choke on his blood and wanted to move him on his side,” McCabe said.

“But then Kerry was yelling at her, [saying] ‘we can’t move him.’”

Roberts later asked McCabe to take over chest compressions, she said. McCabe said she wasn’t sure how long she tried to help O’Keefe.

Brennan asked if McCabe at any point saw “any signs of life” from O’Keefe, and she said no.

“Karen’s just running around crazy, just yelling, screaming, kind of like a ping-pong [ball],” McCabe said.

She said police began to arrive as well as firefighters and paramedics.

“I think they lifted John onto a board at one point,” McCabe said.

Read continued screaming and asking over and over, “Is he dead?” “Did I hit him?” and “Could I have hit him?”

McCabe said she spoke to multiple officers and EMTs at the scene. She said she was “friendly” with one of the responding officers, Michael Lank of the Canton police.

McCabe said she tried to comfort Read, who was “very upset” and later moved to the back seat of a cruiser.

McCabe said got in the cruiser with Read, who was crying and “asked me to get in.”

“We held hands. We prayed. She did have blood on her hands and she said ‘Could I have gotten my period? Who’s going to take care of the kids?’” McCabe testified.

Read later told McCabe to Google how long it takes to die in the cold, she said. McCabe said she was outside the cruiser at the time.

McCabe said she had difficulty typing because of the cold. Brennan asked if that search was the first time she had Googled the phrase, and she said, “yes it was.”

McCabe said she tried to do similar searches but didn’t have a chance to see whether any results came up since the scene was so chaotic.

At one point, McCabe said, she overheard Read talking to a female first responder.

Read told the first responder, “I hit him, I hit him, I hit him,” McCabe said. “I was startled.”

She said she asked Read, “What are you saying? ... I thought she was just talking crazy.”

By Travis Andersen, Globe Staff

McCabe on Wednesday identified photos of the surveillance cameras on John O’Keefe’s garage above the driveway.

She also identified a photo of Read’s vehicle in O’Keefe’s driveway on Jan. 29, 2022. Prosecutor Hank Brennan asked if that was the vehicle Read had shown her with the broken taillight, and McCabe said “yes it is.”

Earlier, when Read and O’Keefe were headed to the afterparty on Fairview Road, McCabe said, she had told Read to drive past “Bella’s house,” referring to a girl whose mother O’Keefe had previously dated.

Brennan also played a 911 call that McCabe made from at the crime scene, informing dispatch that “there’s a man unresponsive in the snow.”

The dispatcher asked McCabe how long O’Keefe had been in the snow, and she said she didn’t know.

“I think he’s passed away,” McCabe quietly told the dispatcher.

Read is heard screaming in the background during the call, as McCabe told the dispatcher O’Keefe and friends had “been out” the night before, after the dispatcher asked if drugs or alcohol were involved.

McCabe told Brennan she was “in shock” at the time.

“My heart was racing,” McCabe said.

She said the scene “with Karen and Kerry was a bit chaotic between the two of them,” and that she was trying to remain calm and answer the dispatcher’s questions “the best that I could.”

McCabe said she told dispatch a man was in the snow, as opposed to naming O’Keefe, because she wanted to “get out the most specific detail.”

By Travis Andersen, Globe Staff

Testimony resumes Wednesday in Karen Read’s retrial with key witness Jennifer McCabe returning to the stand in Norfolk Superior Court.

She testified Tuesday that a frantic Read repeatedly asked her and another woman, Kerry Roberts, if she could have struck her boyfriend, John O’Keefe, as the trio made their way to the Fairview Road home where his body was found in the snow.

McCabe also testified that Read had earlier pointed out her cracked taillight to her and Roberts. McCabe’s direct examination will continue Wednesday with prosecutor Hank Brennan before the defense cross-examines her.