A former Massachusetts police detective is facing trial on allegations that he killed a pregnant woman to conceal a sexual relationship that began when she was 15.
BOSTON — When Sandra Birchmore was found dead inside her Massachusetts home, authorities swiftly classified the death as a suicide. Her friends, however, immediately questioned that conclusion.
Birchmore, 23, had recently discovered she was pregnant and was excited about becoming a mother, her friends told investigators. They said the person distressed by the pregnancy was Matthew Farwell, the married police detective with whom she had been involved.
Five years later, Farwell, now 40, is being tried in federal court on charges that he killed Birchmore and arranged the scene to resemble a suicide, allegedly to hide that he had sexually abused her beginning when she was 15.
The case is also putting the initial police investigation under scrutiny.
Federal prosecutors say state police troopers assigned to the Norfolk County District Attorney’s Office never reconsidered their conclusion that Birchmore had taken her own life. Farwell was questioned for only about 15 minutes in a parking lot, prosecutors said. Investigators did not document the interview, check Farwell for injuries or collect his DNA. They examined his phone only after he had deleted his messages with Birchmore.
“Not only did they not investigate, they very quickly told others, including the medical examiner, that this was definitively a suicide and there was no foul play,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Torey Cummings told the jury.
Farwell’s twin brother, Billy Farwell, was among those reassured by investigators. He testified that the lead investigator, a longtime family friend, said he wanted the case finished. Billy Farwell recalled the investigator saying he needed the investigation like he needed a “bullet in the head.”
Defense attorney Kimberly Stevens conceded that Farwell “had an affair,” but told jurors that the relationship did not make him a murderer.
“He has made regrettable mistakes. He is human,” Stevens said. “Matthew did not kill Sandra Birchmore.”
The FBI took up the case after a deputy chief raised concerns
The FBI opened a new inquiry into Birchmore’s death in 2023, in part after Brian Holmes, a former deputy chief at the Stoughton Police Department, pressed for further review.
Holmes had overseen an internal affairs investigation into Farwell, but Farwell resigned before Holmes issued findings that concluded the detective had engaged in a sexual relationship with Birchmore.
Dr. William Smock, a medical expert retained by federal authorities, determined that Birchmore was strangled with a duffel bag strap and fought back before she died.
Birchmore dreamed of becoming a police officer
Birchmore was 12 when she joined a Stoughton police mentoring program for children interested in law enforcement careers. Farwell, who was 24 at the time, soon connected with her on Facebook.
Years later, their relationship produced roughly 40,000 text messages, some of which have been shown at trial. In a 2020 message, Birchmore told Farwell she would never forget their first sexual encounter — April 10, 2013, when she was 15 and he was 27.
“Best day of my life,” Birchmore wrote.
“Me too,” Farwell responded.
As the years passed, prosecutors said, the messages included sexual exchanges involving choking and strangulation.
“I’ll grab your throat and say you won’t say a word to anyone or you will be sorry,” Farwell wrote in one text.
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She wanted a baby and it led to fights
Prosecutors said Birchmore urged Farwell to have a child with her in 2020 and threatened to tell his wife about their relationship if he refused. After she became pregnant late that year, Birchmore sent Farwell a picture bearing the message: “Congrats, we are going to be parents.”
Farwell responded that he had “nothing to say.”
When Birchmore suggested in a text that Farwell should be present when the baby was born, he replied: “You are truly the worst person on the face of the earth.”
One of Birchmore’s friends, Leslie Davis, testified that the two fought. She said Birchmore told her about one fight where Farwell pushed her to the ground. Birchmore had wanted Farwell to promise to identify himself as the baby’s father on a birth certificate.
“He wouldn’t sign it and said, ‘That’s not my baby,’” Davis said.
A tipster contacted the police
In January 2021, a woman called Stoughton Police and reported Farwell’s relationship with Birchmore.
Farwell was incensed, saying in a text to Birchmore, “You have no idea how bad what she did is.”
Twelve days later, on Feb. 1, 2021, Farwell texted Birchmore, asking to stop by her apartment. She said he was welcome.
Security camera video showed Farwell entering the building at 9:14 p.m. A digital forensics expert testified that Birchmore’s phone stopped moving at 9:40 p.m., three minutes before the lobby security camera recorded Farwell leaving.
Prosecutors say that during that time, Farwell killed Birchmore to prevent her from revealing their relationship. She was about eight weeks pregnant.
“It was no longer a matter of whether his crimes would be exposed; it was a matter of when,” Cummings, the prosecutor, told jurors. “He had lost control of Sandra. He had a real problem. He needed a way to silence her permanently.”
Farwell’s lawyer says Birchmore was suicidal
Farwell’s lawyer, Stevens, told jurors that Birchmore was a troubled woman who started taking psychiatric medication at age 6, attempted suicide as a teenager and was desperate after becoming pregnant. Birchmore was alone for the holidays and had less than $3 in the bank, Stevens said.
“She is worried. She is stressed. She is freaking out,” Stevens said.
Farwell, she said, went to Birchmore’s apartment to break up with her, not kill her.
The state’s medical examiner, relying partly on information from police, initially determined Birchmore died by suicide. The office has since changed the official cause of death to “undetermined.”
A paternity test revealed Farwell was not the one who impregnated Birchmore. It was Army recruiter Jason Pickard, who said he met Birchmore in 2019, when she was considering enlisting, and soon after started a sexual relationship. He testified that Birchmore told him Farwell was the father and that their relationship began when she was underage.
Prosecutors finished presenting their case Wednesday.
The defense was expected to call witnesses for a third day Friday before the case goes to the jury as early as next week.