A former Massachusetts police officer accused of killing a pregnant young woman he first met through a police youth program is on trial in federal court in Boston.
Story Highlights
- Former Stoughton police officer Matthew Farwell, 40, is accused of killing Sandra Birchmore, 23, on Feb. 1, 2021, and making her death look like a suicide.
- Prosecutors told jurors he killed her to keep her from telling authorities that he began abusing her when she was 15.
- His lawyer told jurors he did not kill her and that she took her own life; he has pleaded not guilty.
- DNA testing later showed Farwell was not the father of her unborn child, a point both sides accept.
What Prosecutors Told the Jury
Farwell, a former Stoughton police detective, has pleaded not guilty. His trial opened Friday, October 9, with opening statements before Chief U.S. District Judge Denise J. Casper at the federal courthouse in Boston. Torey B. Cummings, an assistant U.S. attorney (a federal prosecutor), told jurors that Farwell strangled Birchmore in her Canton apartment and set the scene to look like a suicide. She said the reason was silence: Birchmore knew about his abuse and could expose him. “She could end his life with the information she had. So he was going to end hers first,” Cummings said.
Farwell’s lawyer, federal public defender Kimberly C. Stevens, answered directly. “Matthew Farwell did not kill Sandra Birchmore. He did not,” she told jurors. She said he “has made regrettable mistakes” but argued that Birchmore took her own life, pointing to her past suicide attempts, holidays spent alone and problems in her pregnancy, including a recent hospital visit.
How Prosecutors Say It Began
Birchmore joined the Stoughton police Explorers program at about age 12. Explorers is a youth program run by a police department, where young people interested in police work train and volunteer alongside officers. Farwell was a volunteer instructor there. Prosecutors say he used that role to groom Birchmore, meaning he won a child’s trust in order to abuse her, and that he began abusing her when she was 15 and he was 27. They say the relationship went on into her adult years, sometimes while he was on duty.
According to court filings, Birchmore told Farwell on Dec. 28, 2020, that she was pregnant and that he was the father. Prosecutors say text messages from that day through Feb. 1, 2021, show he believed it. They say she was excited, kept him posted on her due date, ultrasounds and doctor visits, and told him she was “keeping” the baby, and that he called her “the worst person on the face of the earth.” She was eight to 10 weeks pregnant when she died. DNA testing later excluded Farwell as the father, which both sides accept.
Why This Is a Federal Case
Farwell faces two federal charges: killing a victim or witness, and causing the death of an unborn child. The first falls under a federal witness-tampering law, which makes it a crime to kill someone to stop them from telling federal officers about a crime. Prosecutors say Birchmore could have reported three federal crimes: using his police badge to violate her rights, coercion and enticement, and wire fraud over alleged lies about his work hours. He is not charged with those three crimes, but jurors will hear about them. A grand jury added the unborn-child charge in October 2025.
Prosecutors say Farwell arrived at Birchmore’s apartment at 9:14 p.m. on Feb. 1, 2021, wearing a hood and a mask, and left about half an hour later. Her last texts to him said, “Doors open when you get here.” Cummings told jurors that Dr. William Smock, a doctor who testified in the Derek Chauvin murder trial, found a broken bone in Birchmore’s neck that fits strangulation, and that her devices showed “zero searches” for ways to take her own life. The state medical examiner first ruled the death a suicide. That ruling was later withdrawn, and the cause of death is now listed as “undetermined.”
Where the Case Stands
The FBI arrested Farwell on Aug. 28, 2024, and he has been held without bail since. Sixteen jurors were seated, 12 plus four alternates, and the trial is expected to run about five weeks. Federal prosecutors are not seeking the death penalty. If he is convicted, he faces life in prison.
Accountability and Public Trust
The case reaches beyond one officer. Birchmore’s death was first ruled a suicide, and Farwell was charged only after internal affairs and FBI investigations. In court on Friday, October 9, Cummings accused the State Police unit assigned to the Norfolk County district attorney’s office of looking the other way and telling the medical examiner the death was a suicide. Farwell resigned from the Stoughton force in 2022 and lost his police certification.
Good officers are the first to want a bad one held to account. Here a former officer stands accused of using his badge to abuse a girl and then hiding a killing behind a false suicide. The jury will decide whether prosecutors prove it. Until then, Farwell is presumed innocent.
Sources:
foxnews.com, abcnews.com, enterprisenews.com, wcvb.com, justice.gov, bostonglobe.com
