The murder trial of former Massachusetts police officer Matthew Farwell, who is accused of killing his pregnant mistress and staging her death to resemble a suicide, is set to begin after a brief 9 a.m. hearing Friday.
After the jury is seated, attorneys are expected to deliver opening statements. Testimony will then begin with Stoughton Detective Heather Cheever, followed by a local elementary school official.
Federal agents arrested Farwell, 40, in August 2024 over the death of 23-year-old Sandra Birchmore, who died three years earlier.
Sandra Birchmore appears in a selfie she posted on Facebook in January 2021, roughly three weeks before her death. Prosecutors allege the scene was staged to look like a suicide and have accused former Stoughton Police Officer Matthew Farwell of killing Birchmore and her unborn child. (Sandra Birchmore/Facebook)
Prosecutors allege Farwell groomed Birchmore beginning when she was a teenager, maintained a sexual relationship with her for years and killed her after she revealed that she was pregnant. They also accuse him of making her death appear to be a suicide.
Birchmore’s death was initially classified as a suicide. Farwell was later charged after investigations by the department’s internal affairs unit and the FBI.
Federal prosecutors alleged last year that Farwell killed Birchmore to stop her from speaking out after she told him she intended to keep the baby. According to prosecutors, he responded by calling her “the worst person on the face of the earth.”
Matthew Farwell, a former Stoughton, Mass., police officer, pleaded not guilty Wednesday, Aug. 28, 2024, to charges that he killed a woman he is accused of sexually exploiting while she was underage. (Stoughton Police Department via AP)
Although DNA testing excluded Farwell as the biological father of Birchmore’s unborn child, both sides have acknowledged the result. Prosecutors contend Farwell believed he was the father, citing text messages exchanged with Birchmore from Dec. 28, 2020, through Feb. 1, 2021—the day she died.
Prosecutors say Birchmore was enthusiastic about the pregnancy and shared updates with Farwell about her due date, ultrasounds, medical appointments and a planned gender-reveal event.
She was estimated to be between eight and 10 weeks pregnant when she died, about two weeks before Valentine’s Day. Prosecutors say she planned to announce the pregnancy publicly around that time.
Court documents say Birchmore joined the police department’s explorers program when she was 12. Farwell volunteered with the program and is accused of using that position to groom, exploit and abuse her after she turned 15. Farwell was 27 at the time.
Stoughton Police Headquarters in Stoughton, Mass., on Sept. 4. (Boston Globe via Getty Images)
Prosecutors allege the sexual relationship continued into Birchmore’s adulthood, including encounters while Farwell was on duty. He is accused of strangling her on Feb. 1, 2021, after learning she was pregnant.
Farwell has pleaded not guilty and has remained jailed since his arrest in August 2024.
Stoughton is located roughly 20 miles south of Boston.
Jury selection was conducted earlier this week.