
The death of her boyfriend John O’Keefe on Jan. 29, 2022 and the resulting murder case against her has seemingly become all-consuming for Karen Read. But before that, she had a successful career in financial services.
Read grew up in Blacksburg, Virginia, and inTaunton, Massachusetts, and lived in Mansfield, Massachusetts, at the time of O’Keefe’s death.She attended Coyle & Cassidy,a now-closed private school, and earned undergraduate and master’s degrees in finance at Bentley University in Waltham, Massachusetts.
The 45-year-old worked in financial services at Fidelity Investments and as an adjunct professor at Bentley University, teaching finance, until she was arrested. She was then fired from both positions.
Read is charged with manslaughter, motor vehicle homicide and leaving the scene of a deadly crash in Canton. As of June 13, the jury has started deliberating in her second trial.
Prosecutors say Read and O’Keefe had been drinking at a Canton bar with friends and acquaintances before they got into an argument. They say she hit him with her SUV outside the home of Brian Albert, who was hosting an after-party, shortly before 12:30 a.m.
But Read’s lawyers say Read dropped O’Keefe off at Albert’s home, and that O’Keefe was fatally beaten inside before his body was planted on the front lawn. They say she was then framed by police and other parties for his death.