I got a call from their mutual friend that we grew up with. They said, Johnny's dead.

Brenan called me. Of course, he told me the news. And can't even explain. Can't even explain the feeling, right?

I remember pounding on my dresser and just literally screaming like, not John. Not after what that family has been through and how much those kids need him.

What was it like getting that news?

It's awful.

It's like a bad dream.

I was released from the hospital at noon. My father and my brother and sister-in-law came to pick me up, and I said, Dad, I have to go see the kids. I just can't imagine what they're going through. I just want to hug them.

They all head to John's house, where his family has now gathered her car still in the driveway. And that's when Karen says she stops to show her dad her cracked tail light, something she says she had noticed earlier that morning when searching for John with Jennifer and Carrie.

I showed my dad my light. It was cracked, and he said, I just want to make sure the light is operational. I'm not going to put your car back on the road if I know it's impaired in any way. So we go into the house. John's nephew was not home from his sleep over yet, but John's parents, Paul, his brother, and his niece were there.

Karen says John's mother seemed to keep her distance.

They had pulled into the driveway before me, so I was presuming she saw my cracked tail light and was thinking, Did you hit my son? I could sense from her that she was looking at me very wearily And then when John's nephew came home, I just wanted to see him and squeeze him and hug him. It was quite uncomfortable. I said, Dad, come upstairs to the master bedroom. And I said, I think I need to leave. I said, I think John's mother thinks I did something to John.

At what point on Saturday, the 29th, did you have the wearwithal to think, Maybe I need an attorney?

As soon as I interacted with John's mother at John's house, when we were driving When I came home, I said to my father, I got to get an attorney.

That's a smart move to get legal advice under those circumstances.

She had hired an attorney. That was it. No more contact, which I find odd.

What did the family do then?

It was a blizzard. We couldn't do anything. We couldn't be together. We couldn't go anywhere until the day after. I went to Peggy's or Johnny's house, and just to be with her and Uncle John and a few of his friends, and just to be with her. We just sat around and talked and laughed and cried.

And you're now with a mother who had lost two children in the space of a couple of years. Yes.

She's strong as steel.

Meanwhile, an investigation is underway. Now, the Massachusetts State Police come in. In this case, the State Police completely take over the case because the Kent Police Department doesn't want the appearance of a conflict of interest.

There's literally a blizzard hitting Kent, Massachusetts, on top of this crime scene. This becomes a huge challenge for investigators.

Unfortunately, in this situation, the crime scene that you arrive on is not the same crime scene that's going to exist 30 minutes later because it's snowing, and it's windy, and it's cold. So the evidence is changing. And you're trying to do this as quickly as you can, but you also don't want to miss steps because you're rushing. So It's definitely a race against the clock.

There are plows that are going by.

And in situations like that, you have to just go with what you think is going to work best for the situation.

They bring out a leaf blower, and they're trying to blow the snow to uncover whatever evidence might be beneath the snowfall.

According to police reports, when investigators initially preserved at the scene are six samples of what appears to be blood and a broken cocktail glass. Remember, according to the security footage, when John O'Keefe walks out of the waterfall bar, he's got a cocktail glass in his hand.

That afternoon, the lead detective on the case, Trooper Michael Proctor and his colleague from the Massachusetts State Police, pay a visit to Karen at her parents house. They see her car parked there and describe that broken tail light in their official police report as shattered.

When the troopers came to my house, now I know I haven't done anything, but they said, If we're just trying to help find out what happened to John. If you care about John, you need to help us piece together his final moments. And I answered their questions.

Karen appears very forthcoming.

She says they had an argument earlier in the morning about what she fed his niece for breakfast.

She admits that she was drinking that night and was operating a motor vehicle.

She tells officers that they go out drinking. She says that she and John drove to the Albert's house. She tells officers that she had what she referred to as stomach issues. So she said that she decided to call it a night and go home.

After the detectives interview Karen, they seize her car and they tow it. They then process the vehicle for evidence. They noticed that the rear right-side tail light is broken, and there's missing pieces of the red and clear plastic that should have been on top of it. There were shards of glass that were in the bumper of the vehicle.

The medical examiner searching John's body precludes.

The medical examiner ruled that John's cause of death was from an injury he sustained from blunt force trauma and then hypothermia.

This was a combined effect of multiple skull fractures, swelling and bleeding inside his brain, and also the cold.

Later in the day that John died, investigators at the scene report finding pieces of red plastic tail light and a clear piece of plastic at the scene. Pieces that appeared to missing pieces from Karen Reid's SUV. And days later, once the snow begins to melt, authorities say they find additional pieces on the scene. So just how was that tail light broken?

I said, I think I'm going to get arrested.