On a snowy early morning in January 2022, Boston police officer John O’Keefe was found on a colleague's front lawn, unconscious, with signs of hypothermia, and a severe head injury, just six hours after he’d been out drinking at a bar with friends.

On Monday, two-and-a-half years after his death unleashed a slew of conspiracy theories and finger-pointing, jurors were sensationally deadlocked on whether his girlfriend Karen Read killed him. The judge’s declaration of a mistrial is likely to pour fuel on the fire of a true-crime phenomenon that has divided the small town of Canton on Boston’s outskirts.

“Despite our rigorous efforts we continue to find ourselves at an impasse,” the jury foreman wrote in a note to the judge on Monday after five days of deliberation. “Our perspectives on the evidence are starkly divided. Some members of the jury firmly believe that the evidence surpasses the burden of proof, establishing the elements of the charges beyond a reasonable doubt. Conversely, others find the evidence fails to meet this standard and does not sufficiently establish the necessary elements of the charges.

“The deep division is not due to a lack of effort or diligence but rather a sincere adherence to our individual principles and moral convictions. To continue to deliberate would be futile and only force us to compromise these deeply held beliefs.”

In declaring a mistrial, Judge Beverly Cannone told the jury, “I’m not going to do that to you folks. Your service is complete and I’m declaring a mistrial.” A status hearing was set for July 22, and prosecutors will have to decide whether to re-try Read.

The case centered around whether, as prosecutors argued, Read, 44, drunkenly rammed into her boyfriend with her SUV and left him for dead in a blizzard. Or, as Read’s defense team argued, she was the victim of an elaborate........

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