The blizzard that hit Canton, Massachusetts, on January 29, 2022, didn't just dump two feet of snow; it buried the truth under a mountain of forensic contradictions. When the body of Boston Police Officer John O’Keefe was discovered on the front lawn of 34 Fairview Road, the initial narrative seemed straightforward to investigators. His girlfriend, Karen Read, had allegedly backed her Lexus into him and left him to die. But as the john o'keefe autopsy pictures were displayed to a stunned jury in the Norfolk Superior Court, that simple story started to fray at the edges.
If you’ve been following the Karen Read trial, you know it's a powder keg. People are taking sides like it's a local sports rivalry, but the actual medical evidence is where the real drama lives. The autopsy wasn't just a routine procedure; it became a Rorschach test for two completely different versions of how a man dies on a cold night.
The Physical Reality of the Autopsy Findings
When Dr. Irini Scordi-Bello, the medical examiner who performed the autopsy on January 31, 2022, took the stand, the atmosphere changed. She didn't use flowery language. She talked about "blunt impact injuries" and "hypothermia."
Basically, O'Keefe's body was a map of a very violent encounter. He had a significant laceration on the back of his head, roughly two inches long. Underneath that skin, his skull was fractured in multiple places. His brain was bleeding. His eyes were swollen shut—what experts call "raccoon eyes"—which usually indicates a basal skull fracture.
But here’s the kicker: his body temperature was a staggering 80.1 degrees when he was found. That’s deep, lethal hypothermia.
The prosecution looked at these injuries and saw a pedestrian hit by a vehicle. They argued the back of his head hit the frozen ground after the SUV's taillight clipped him. But the defense? They saw something else entirely. They looked at those same john o'keefe autopsy pictures and saw the aftermath of a fight inside the house.
Scratches, Bites, and the Dog Theory
You can't talk about this case without talking about the arm. O'Keefe's right arm was covered in a series of linear abrasions—scrapes that looked like claw marks.
- The State's View: These were caused by shards of a broken plastic taillight as the car hit him.
- The Defense's View: These were dog bites from Chloe, the German Shepherd belonging to the Albert family who owned the house.
Honestly, looking at the photos, the marks are weirdly uniform. Dr. Marie Russell, a forensic pathologist called by the defense, testified that she was "highly certain" those marks were from a dog. She’d seen hundreds of animal attacks in her career. However, Dr. Scordi-Bello, the original medical examiner, was much more non-committal. She called them "superficial" and said they didn't even penetrate the fat or muscle.
She wouldn't rule out the car, but she wouldn't rule out a dog either. It’s that "undetermined" label that has kept this case alive for years.
Why the "Manner of Death" Matters
In a typical murder case, the medical examiner checks a box: Homicide, Accident, Suicide, or Natural. In the case of John O'Keefe, Dr. Scordi-Bello checked Undetermined.
That’s a massive red flag for a prosecution trying to prove second-degree murder.
If the person who literally opened up the body and looked at the brain cannot say for sure that this was a crime, how is a jury supposed to? She testified that while the cause of death was blunt trauma and hypothermia, the manner—how those things happened—was a mystery. She even admitted under cross-examination that his head injury was consistent with falling backward and hitting the frozen ground.
No car required.
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The Missing Evidence on the Body
If a 7,000-pound SUV hits a human being at 24 miles per hour—which is what the prosecution claims—you usually see "pedestrian hit" markers. We're talking broken legs, shattered pelvises, or "bumper injuries" on the lower extremities.
John O'Keefe had none of that.
He had a scrape on his right knee. That’s it for the lower body. His ribs were fractured, but the medical examiner actually attributed those to the intense CPR efforts by paramedics trying to bring him back to life.
This lack of lower-body trauma is the heartbeat of the defense's "cover-up" theory. They argue he was beaten, bitten by a dog, and then dumped in the snow to freeze. It sounds like a movie script, but when you look at the john o'keefe autopsy pictures and see a man with a shattered skull and perfectly intact legs, the "hit by a car" theory starts to feel a bit thin.
Practical Takeaways from the Forensic Evidence
If you are trying to make sense of this case, don't get bogged down in the social media shouting matches. Focus on the hard data that came out of the medical examiner's office:
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- The Absence of Typical Impact: The lack of "bruising at the point of contact" on his torso or legs is the biggest hurdle for the prosecution's vehicular homicide theory.
- The "Coup-Contrecoup" Injury: The brain injuries suggested his head moved violently. This happens in car accidents, but it also happens if someone is shoved and hits a hard surface like a floor or a curb.
- Hypothermia as a Closer: Regardless of how he got on the ground, the cold finished what the head injury started. His BAC was .21, which means he was heavily intoxicated. That level of alcohol thins the blood and accelerates hypothermia, making it impossible for him to get up once he was unconscious.
The trial ended in a hung jury in 2024, and a retrial was set for 2025. The reason? Those twelve people couldn't agree on what those photos were telling them. Forensic science is supposed to be objective, but in the Canton case, it’s been anything but.
To really understand the nuances here, you should look into the testimony of the ARCCA biomechanists. These were independent experts hired by the FBI—not the prosecution or the defense—who concluded that the damage to the car didn't match the injuries on O'Keefe's body. They basically said the physics didn't work. When the federal government's own experts start poking holes in a local murder case, you know the autopsy findings are more complex than they appear on the surface.