My boyfriend’s sick of me. “Can I say one more thing about the case?” I ask, peering into the bathroom where hes just stepped out of the shower because I simply can’t wait. I call it “the case” because being more specific might be met with a more immediate no. I’ve been on this for the past two nights. I’m nothing short of obsessed; it almost begs the question: is this normal? The answer is probably not. But this is about justice, baby.

It all started when I turned on A Body in the Snow: The Trial of Karen Read on HBO Max. I hadn’t watched a crime docuseries in quite some time, and I needed a hit. It was also advertised pretty heavily on the homepage. Although they can’t figure out what to name their own network, HBO knows exactly what they’re doing. And I fell for it.

It opens raw with pre-roll of the defendant, Karen Read. Off-camera, producers ask questions the audience typically never hears. We aren’t even three minutes in when it cuts to body cam footage from the night of January 29th, 2022. Here. We. Go.

Karen Read is on trial for the murder of her Boston-cop boyfriend, John O’Keefe. What might seem like a story of an outspoken, possibly jealous girlfriend who was unhinged and drunk enough to commit a horrific act… actually isn’t that at all. This is a story of cover-ups, police corruption, and a comedy of, potentially deliberate, errors from the Massachusetts PD—though it comes at the expense of what I believe is an innocent woman.

The prosecution claims Karen hit John with her car in the driveway of a fellow cop’s home, leaving his body to die in the freezing cold in Canton, Massachusetts. The couple had been out at a bar earlier that night with friends, and afterward headed to the home of Brian Albert to continue the party. When they arrived, it didn’t look like much was going on inside, so Karen stayed in the car while John went to check things out. After five to ten minutes, he wasn’t coming back and wasn’t answering his phone. Upset, Karen puts the car in reverse and heads home.

John’s body was found around 6 a.m., and just a few days after pulling away from the Albert home, Karen was handcuffed as the prime, and only, suspect. Police never searched the house. No one inside, including the homeowners, was questioned. And no injuries exactly consistent with a hit-and-run were found on John’s body. Reasonable doubt, however, is found in every corner of this case.

A Body in the Snow will suck you in from episode one. It might even have you subscribing to YouTube’s Law & Crime Network, just to keep up with the trial in real time. That said, maybe you’re not like me. Maybe you’re normal… and more frugal with your streaming subscriptions.

We’ve got a lightning-fast defense team and questionable testimonies from the prosecution, all wrapped in thick Massachusetts accents and salacious, exposed texts. I really shouldn’t be foaming at the mouth over this kind of thing – and maybe I should just finally watch The Departed instead – but this trial proves, once again, that reality really is stranger than fiction.

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Michelle Aguilar is a UW–Madison School of Journalism grad, pop culture enthusiast, and NYC-based salesperson. Follow her on Twitter @ItsMichAguilar and Instagram @michiaguilar.