Karen Read speaks after mistrial in murder case and describes how she found her boyfriend, a Boston police officer, dead

Massachusetts murder defendant Karen Read, in her first interrogation since the verdict in her first murder trial, insisted that she found her fatally injured boyfriend on the side of the road and that the true circumstances of his death were being covered up.

Read, 44, is accused of fatally hitting Boston police officer and friend John O'Keefe with her SUV on January 29, 2022, and then leaving him to die in a snowstorm.

In an interview with ABC's “20/20,” which will air in full Friday night, Read recalled how she and two friends set out to search for O'Keefe that cold, dark night.

“Coming down Fairview Road in Canton, Massachusetts, there's a little drop and a left turn. I kept my eyes open and thought, 'He's right (expletive) there,'” Read said in a clip released Thursday.

“I jumped out of the passenger seat and fell onto the road. His eyes were closed and he had blood stains on various parts of his face and was motionless – not stiff, but motionless.”

During Read's trial, a jury was unable to reach a verdict, prompting a judge to declare a mistrial in July. Prosecutors are seeking to retry Read and the case is scheduled to resume in January.

Read did not testify at her first trial.

“It was cold. I was cold, but not dangerously cold. It was just a weird feeling knowing, 'I'm OK. I'm not dying, but he's here with me, and he's dying, and I can't warm him up,'” Read told “20/20,” recalling her state of mind that night.

A spokesman for the Norfolk County Attorney's Office declined to comment Friday.

The prosecutor had previously stated that O'Keefe's death was the result of a dispute in the difficult relationship between him and Read.

While Read admits they argued, he insists authorities are covering up the true cause of his death. The defense says O'Keefe died in an argument with another Boston police officer who lived just steps from where his body was found.

When asked why O'Keefe's death was being covered up, Read said, “Because he's dead.”