Matthew Farwell, a former Stoughton, Massachusetts police detective, has been accused of murdering a 23-year-old pregnant woman, Sandra Birchmore, and staging the scene to appear as if she died by suicide. An FBI SWAT team arrested the 38-year-old on the morning of Aug. 28, 2024.
On Feb. 4, 2021, police officers arrived at Birchmore’s Canton apartment for a welfare check after she didn’t show up for work. They discovered Birchmore, who was three months pregnant, deceased, and it initially appeared as if she’d taken her own life via strangulation. She was wearing the clothes she had on when she was seen entering her apartment building on Feb. 1, which led investigators to conclude that she died that day.
Matthew Farwell allegedly groomed Sandra Birchmore
Birchmore had been interested in law enforcement and joined the Stoughton Police Explorers Academy, a program that allows youth to explore a career in the field. Farwell was one of the instructors. According to the indictment, Farwell, who was 27 at that time, started engaging in sexual activities with a 15-year-old Birchmore in 2015. There were also text messages between them mentioning the exact day when the detective took the minor’s virginity where Birchmore said, “Best day of my life,” to which Farwell replied, “Me too.”
Text messages between the two indicated they had an ongoing sexual relationship, and in Dec. 2020, Birchmore told Farwell that she was pregnant via a text message. While Birchmore was elated, Farwell responded by texting, “I literally have nothing to say right now how could you express that in text when I said I don’t appreciate it.” According to Farwell’s detention affidavit, he was married and had two children, and his wife was pregnant with their third child at the time of the texts.
What happened before and after Sandra Birchmore’s death?
In Jan. 2021, one of Birchmore’s friends alerted the Stoughton Police Department about Birchmore and Farwell. At a news conference announcing Farwell’s arrest, attorney Joshua Levy stated it was after that incident that Farwell lost control. “His illegal conduct was in danger of slipping out. In fact, word started to get out about their relationship less than two weeks before she was found dead,” Levy stated.
When investigators interviewed Farwell, he blatantly lied and said he didn’t have sexual relations with Birchmore until 2020, and he couldn’t have been the father of her child because he claimed the last time they were together was in Oct. 2020. However, text messages proved otherwise. The detention affidavit further lists Farwell’s various efforts to conceal the crime.
Birchmore’s death was initially ruled a suicide, but her family hired a pathologist who found that it had been a homicide. In 2022, Farwell resigned from his work as a police detective amid the ongoing investigation. He was charged with killing a victim or witness “with malice aforethought, willfully, deliberately, maliciously, and with premeditation,” according to the Grand Jury statement. If found guilty, Farwell faces a mandatory sentence of life in prison.
Published: Aug 29, 2024 04:58 am