‘Hos long to die in cold’: Jen McCabe grilled on hotly debated Google search

McCabe denied making — and deleting — the now-infamous alleged 2:27 a.m. Google search. “I never would have left John O’Keefe out in the cold to die,” she said.

Witness Jennifer McCabe disputed the 2:27 a.m. timestamp for her now-infamous “hos long to die in cold” Google search Wednesday, pushing back on allegations that she had hypothermia on her mind hours before John O’Keefe was found unresponsive in the snow.

McCabe’s Google searches have played a pivotal role in

’s third-party culprit defense as lawyers for the Mansfield woman seek to blame others for killing O’Keefe, her boyfriend of two years.

Read, 44, has pleaded not guilty to charges of second-degree murder, motor vehicle manslaughter while driving under the influence, and leaving the scene of a collision causing injury and death. Prosecutors say she drunkenly — and intentionally — backed her SUV into O’Keefe while dropping him off at a home in Canton on Jan. 29, 2022.

However, Read’s lawyers argue she was framed in a widespread coverup. They allege O’Keefe walked into a social gathering at 34 Fairview Road that night and was beaten, attacked by the family’s pet dog, and left outside in a blizzard.

McCabe, they allege, was in on the conspiracy.

She previously testified that she was drinking at a bar with family and friends on Jan. 28, 2022, when Read and O’Keefe arrived and joined the group. As the outing came to a close, McCabe’s sister and brother-in-law, Nicole and Brian Albert, issued an open invitation to their home at 34 Fairview Road.

McCabe, who attended the afterparty, has denied seeing O’Keefe enter the house that night.

As her cross-examination continued Wednesday morning, defense attorney Alan Jackson pointed to McCabe’s cellphone data, indicating she made several Google searches when she returned home sometime after 2 a.m. on the 29th. McCabe confirmed she Googled a basketball team her daughter had been invited to join.

Asked why she didn’t wait to do her research until later that morning, she explained she had been texting a basketball-related group chat and “basketball was clearly on my mind.”

“Was there anything else on your mind in that early morning hour timeframe?” Jackson asked.

“Don’t believe so,” McCabe replied.

Jackson pressed her on whether she also made a search regarding how long it would take someone to die from exposure to extreme temperatures.

“I did, in the morning, at the request of your client,” McCabe said.

“And what phrase did you use?” Jackson asked.

“I’m not sure,” McCabe said.

“Really?” Jackson asked skeptically.

McCabe, Read, and a third woman, Kerry Roberts, went out searching for O’Keefe on Jan. 29, 2022, and found him outside 34 Fairview Road around 6 a.m. McCabe previously testified that Read asked her to “Google hypothermia. Google how long it takes to die in the cold” after they discovered O’Keefe’s body. On Wednesday, she maintained she didn’t remember exactly what she typed that morning.

“How about this: ‘Hos long to die in cold,’” Jackson offered. “That sound familiar?”

“Yeah, it’s been everywhere,” McCabe said.

“Why does that sound so familiar?” Jackson asked.

“Because you’ve put it out on social media,” McCabe said.

“Well, I haven’t put anything out on social media, because I don’t personally have social media,” Jackson replied.

“I’m sorry, Turtleboy did,” McCabe corrected, referring to blogger Aidan Kearney, who is facing several witness intimidation charges in connection with his coverage of Read’s case.

Jackson showed McCabe data from her cellphone extraction, indicating she made several searches for both “hos long to die in cold” and “how long ti die in cikd.”

“Why the two searches?” he asked.

“She (Read) was standing next to me screaming, shaking my hand,” McCabe said. “My hand was cold. I was trying to Google it. Obviously maybe whatever came up first didn’t make sense because I had some misspellings, so I did it again.”

Jackson pointed to the 2:27 a.m. timestamp for her first “hos long” search. Similar searches were timestamped later, at 6:23 a.m. and 6:24 a.m.

“Ms. McCabe, you made that search at 2:27 a.m. because you knew that John O’Keefe was outside on your sister’s lawn dying in the cold, didn’t you?” he asked.

“Absolutely not,” McCabe answered. “I did not make that search at that time, no.”

Jackson continued the third degree: “Ms. McCabe, you realized the next morning after John was discovered, after 6 a.m., that you had an incriminating search on your phone, didn’t you?”

“Absolutely not,” she replied.

“To cover your tracks, you searched it again in order to overwrite the original search at 2:27, correct?” asked Jackson, who suggested McCabe failed to replicate her 2:27 a.m. search the first time so she searched again.

“Again, absolutely not,” McCabe said. She also denied deleting the alleged 2:27 a.m. search, though Jackson showed jurors a phone extraction report indicating otherwise.

“Did you delete that search because you knew you would be implicated in John O’Keefe’s death if that search was found on your phone?” he asked.

“I did not delete that search,” McCabe maintained, adding, “I never would have left John O’Keefe out in the cold to die, because he was my friend that I loved.”

She also testified that she wouldn’t even know how to delete a search from her phone.

On redirect examination, McCabe told Assistant District Attorney Adam Lally she left an internet tab open after finishing her basketball-related Google searches earlier on the 29th.

“I used to always leave my tabs open, and my kids would yell at me,” she added.

McCabe further testified that she used the same tab later that morning, when Read frantically asked her to look up hypothermia.