Former officer charged with murder of 23-year-old pregnant woman

A former police detective from Stoughton, Massachusetts was charged this week with killing a pregnant woman he allegedly sexually exploited since she was 15 and part of a youth vocational training program.

The 2021 death of 23-year-old Sandra Birchmore was initially ruled a suicide, but her family and supporters spoke out about her death for years, claiming to local media, in posts online and in a lawsuit that Matthew Farwell – allegedly the father of her unborn child – was responsible.

Then on Wednesday, federal authorities dropped the bomb that Farwell had been indicted on charges of killing a witness or victim, claiming he staged Birchmore’s death as a suicide to deter her from speaking out about his possible crimes.

Farwell was taken into custody; his lawyers did not immediately respond to JS’s requests for comment.

“Matthew Farwell’s gun and badge did not give him the authority to violate the Constitution, and it certainly did not give him the right to sexually exploit, abuse, and rape a child before killing her and her unborn baby murdered in an attempt to cover up his alleged crimes. Stephen Kelleher, an FBI assistant special agent in charge, told reporters.

According to one bail motion obtained by JS, Birchmore first asked a local “Police explorersprogram in March 2010 when she was 12. Farwell was a volunteer for the vocational program before joining the Stoughton Police Department in 2012, then became an instructor with Police Explorers.

Prosecutors said Farwell began communicating with Birchmore online in 2012, when he was 26 and she was 15, and would meet her at the Stoughton Public Library “where he would sexually groom her under the guise of providing academic guidance.” His sexual abuse began in 2013, prosecutors said, but a text message cited in the bond showed Farwell told Birchmore he would have liked to have sex with her when she was younger.

And as Birchmore came of age, Farwell is said to have developed a “controlling and sometimes violent relationship.”

Some of the sexual encounters occurred while he was on duty, according to prosecutors, who said Farwell’s actions could have violated federal laws, including coercion and enticement, deprivation of rights under the color of law and wire fraud.

In October 2020, Birchmore told Farwell she wanted to have a child. The two reached an agreement that Farwell would impregnate Birchmore in exchange for her silence about the criminal sexual encounters, prosecutors said. But when Birchmore told him she was pregnant in December, the bail bondsman said he “reacted poorly.”

“He became physically violent toward Birchmore,” prosecutors wrote. “She told multiple friends that Farwell had pushed and shoved her, grabbed objects from her hands and put her in a chokehold.”

One of Birchmore’s friends called Stoughton police in January 2021 and reportedly spoke about the sexual abuse. A department employee later informed Farwell of the call, with prosecutors saying he then “angrily demanded that the employee never tell anyone about the information.”

Farwell allegedly confronted Birchmore by texting her: “What else do I have to worry about now? What other friend is going to do something tomorrow.” It was at this point that prosecutors say he began making plans to kill her.

On Feb. 1, 2021, Farwell told Birchmore he was going to her apartment and then entered wearing a face mask, prosecutors said. He allegedly strangled Birchmore before repositioning her body. First responders “later found Birchmore in a sitting position with a leash around her neck and doorknob,” the bond said. The state medical examiner’s office months later ruled her death a suicide.

But her relatives believed Farwell was responsible, and thousands of people joined a Facebook page about Birchmore’s death. Her family has filed a report wrongful death lawsuit in December 2022, accusing Farwell and two other Stoughton officers — Robert Devine and Farwell’s brother William Farwell — of pushing the 23-year-old to commit suicide. The family alleged in the lawsuit that the men performed sex acts on Birchmore while she was a minor and part of the Police Explorers program.

In response, all three denied or claimed that they did not have sufficient knowledge to confirm or deny their responsibility in the death. The lawsuit is still ongoing. The three men voluntarily left their jobs with the Stoughton Police Department in 2022. The Boston Globe reports this.

Earlier this year, a forensic pathologist hired by Birchmore’s family said her death was a homicide. according to the Globe.

A message on one “Justice for Sandra Birchmore” website described this week’s indictment of Matthew Farwell as a significant move.

“This is not the end. Getting Sandra and her unborn child the justice they deserve is just the beginning. It is also important to note that this indictment could save countless other women from the evil of Matthew Farwell,” the site said. ‘And what about the others? Only time will tell if William Farwell and Robert Devine will also be charged.”

Stoughton Police Chief Donna McNamara praised the federal indictment against Matthew Farwell, calling Birchmore’s death “a heinous injustice.”

“The charges against the suspect, a former Stoughton police officer, represent the worst act of not only professional misconduct, but human indecency that I have observed in a career spanning nearly three decades in law enforcement,” McNamara said.

Dive deep into true crime cases and keep up with the latest headlines with JS’s Suspicious Circumstances newsletter. Sign up here.