Pregnant Sandra Birchmore was eagerly anticipating motherhood before her death, according to testimony in the murder trial of former Massachusetts police officer Matthew Farwell.
Farwell was initially believed to be the father of Birchmore’s unborn child. DNA testing, however, identified Jason Pickard, a former U.S. Army Reserve recruiter, as the baby’s biological father.
Pickard described Birchmore as “ecstatic” about her pregnancy when he testified Oct. 22, according to CBS News. “I had never seen her so upbeat,” he said. “So full of joy and happiness. She wouldn’t stop talking about it.”
Farwell, a former Stoughton police officer, is accused of strangling Birchmore in February 2021 and arranging the scene to resemble a suicide. Prosecutors say he wanted to stop the 23-year-old from revealing their sexual relationship, which allegedly began when she was a minor. They also allege he was trying to conceal the relationship from his pregnant wife, according to earlier reporting by Oxygen.
Farwell has pleaded not guilty. His attorneys argue that Birchmore had a history of depression and took her own life.
Pickard testified that he and Birchmore began a relationship in December 2019, while he was married. He said he urged her to report Farwell’s alleged abuse, but she declined. Pickard said he ultimately remained silent because he feared the consequences for his marriage and military career.
“I was afraid. I was a married man,” Pickard told the court. “I was a recruiter and she was a recruit. I knew what it would do to my marriage, I knew what it would do to my children, I knew what it would do to my career. I also respected her request not to tell.”
Pickard said Birchmore told him she was pregnant but insisted that he was not the father.
Farwell’s lawyers pointed to text messages from 2020 in which Birchmore allegedly characterized Pickard as “super rough” with her, CBS News reported. In the same messages, she reportedly described Farwell as being “scared of hurting me.”
What Happened to Sandra Birchmore?
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Prosecutors say Farwell first met Birchmore when she was 12 and participating in the Stoughton Police Department’s Explorers Program, where he served as an instructor.
“Farwell allegedly used his authority and access to groom, sexually exploit and ultimately sexually abuse Birchmore when she was 15 years old and continued to have sex with her when she became an adult,” the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Massachusetts said. “On several occasions, Farwell allegedly engaged in sex acts with Birchmore while on duty as a Stoughton police officer.”
According to the prosecution, Farwell agreed to have a child with Birchmore in return for her silence about the alleged abuse. But when she told him she was pregnant in December 2020, prosecutors say he became angry, calling her “the worst person on the face of the earth” and accusing her of blackmail.
Birchmore also allegedly told friends that Farwell had grown violent. She said he put her in a headlock and told her he wished he were dead.
On the night Birchmore died, surveillance video captured a masked man entering her apartment building in Canton. Prosecutors contend the man was Farwell. Birchmore was later found with a duffel-bag strap around her neck.
Her death was first classified as a suicide. The Massachusetts Office of the Chief Medical Examiner later changed the manner of death to undetermined.
Farwell was charged in August 2024 with killing Birchmore and her unborn son.
Farwell’s defense team has acknowledged that he was the person shown in the surveillance video. Attorneys said he wore a disguise to hide the affair, arguing that such behavior “is what people having an affair might do.”
An attorney representing Farwell did not immediately respond to Oxygen’s request for comment.