DNA evidence introduced in Karen Read murder case. What did it show?

A new court filing in the case against accused killer Karen Read suggests that DNA and other forensic evidence lends credence to the prosecution’s theory of what led to Braintree native John O'Keefe death.

The 49-page filing in Norfolk County Superior court on Wednesday also sheds light on the state of the couple’s fraught relationship, according to WCVB.

Read, of Mansfield, is accused of backing into her Boston police officer boyfriend, John O'Keete, with her SUV and leaving him in the snow to die two years ago.

The new filing is the prosecution's response and argument against a defense motion to dismiss the case. Much of the information contained in the documents outlines the details of the grand jury proceedings that led to Read's indictment.

What happened that night in Canton?

Read, 43, is accused of hitting John O'Keefe, 46, a Boston police officer, with her vehicle outside of a home in Canton during a snowstorm on Jan. 29, 2022. Both had been drinking that night.

Read and her lawyer claim O'Keefe was beaten inside the home, bitten by a dog and then taken back outside and left in the driveway to die. The defense believes the death was pinned on Read as part of a cover-up.

She has pleaded not guilty to charges including second-degree murder.

Is there DNA evidence in the Read case?

According to the prosecution, evidence in the case includes pieces of the cracked taillight from Read's SUV. Two pieces of the red plastic were found by Massachusetts State Police Special Emergency Response Team members who dug through the snow, the prosecution said.

The new filing indicates that the Massachusetts State Police Crime Laboratory found O'Keefe's DNA on that broken taillight. The prosecution also states that microscopic pieces of red and translucent plastic, consistent with Read's taillight, were found on O'Keefe's clothing.

Prosecutors have also said human hair found on the back of Read's SUV is being tested.

The filing also takes a swipe at the defense’s claims of the dog attack, as the swabs taken from O'Keefe's clothing in the areas of his injuries did not contain any canine DNA.

Her claims of a cover-up were amplified by Aidan Kearney, the blogger known as “Turtleboy.”

More: 'Turtleboy' blogger hit with new indictments in witness intimidation case

Kearney is facing over a dozen charges of witness intimidation in the case and is serving a 90-day sentence following a charge of domestic abuse.

Read has since been accused of having frequent contact with Kearney.

Dueling timelines in search of 'how long to die in cold'

Read's defense and prosecutors have repeatedly disagreed about the time that a witness used their cellphone to search “hos [sic] long to die in cold."

Her defense said that the search was entered at approximately 2:30 a.m., hours before the body was found, but the prosecution wrote in their new filing that three experts agree it was done at approximately 6:23 a.m., after O'Keefe was found.

The state of Read and O'Keefe's rocky relationship

In the filing, prosecutors describe evidence from voicemails and text messages on O'Keefe's phone that "detailed strains" in his relationship with Read that led him to talk about breaking up with her. The voicemails, according to prosecutors, include ones in which Read screaming about hating him and accusing him of sexual activity with "another girl."

Read’s own fidelity was also called into question.

"The defendant complains that the Commonwealth attempted to besmirch the defendant in some manner and fabricate problems within her relationship with the victim as a motive for murder by introducing testimony about an incident four weeks prior in Aruba. Yet the defendant avoids mention or challenging the venomous voicemails she left on the victim's cellphone as well as evidence of other issues in their relationship, including the defendant's recent romantic entanglement," prosecutors wrote.

Read's trial is scheduled for March 12.

This article originally appeared on The Patriot Ledger: New DNA and forensic information revealed in case against Karen Read