Supporters proclaim ‘Justice for Sandra’ as SPD officer indicted for murder

Supporters of Sandra Birchmore hold signs in front of Town Hall during last month’s standout.

A two-year quest to secure justice for a deceased Canton woman and her unborn baby took a stunning turn last week when federal prosecutors confirmed what many close to her had long suspected — that 23-year-old Sandra Birchmore did not die by suicide as state and local authorities had concluded but instead was brutally murdered inside her Windsor Woods apartment.

The man responsible for Birchmore’s death, according to federal authorities, is Matthew Farwell, a former Stoughton Police detective who allegedly subjected Birchmore to “years of grooming, statutory rape and sexual violence” after initially serving as her instructor in the Stoughton Police Explorers program beginning in 2012.

On Wednesday, August 28, Acting U.S. Attorney Joshua Levy announced that FBI agents had arrested Farwell, 38, following his indictment on the charge of killing a witness or victim, which carries a minimum life sentence and possibly the death penalty. The indictment alleges that Farwell, after learning that he had impregnated Birchmore and later being told that a friend of hers had reported their relationship to the Stoughton Police, strangled her inside her home “on or about February 1, 2021,” and then staged her apartment to make it look like a suicide. Prosecutors allege that he did so “willfully, deliberately, maliciously, and with premeditation” in an effort to cover up the commission of alleged federal crimes, including deprivation of rights, coercion/enticement of a minor, and wire fraud (for engaging in sex acts while on the clock and being paid).

“He allegedly attempted to cover his tracks to literally try and get away with murder, and he almost did — until today,” Levy told reporters.

While details of Farwell’s alleged sexual misconduct had been public knowledge since September 2022 — following the release of a scathing internal affairs report that also documented the inappropriate conduct of at least three other SPD officers — Farwell tried to minimize his relationship with Birchmore in interviews with state authorities, claiming they only had sex “two or three times” in 2020 and denying paternity of her unborn child. He also denied having underage sex with her and refused a State Police request for a DNA sample.

In the weeks leading up to her death, however, Birchmore had told several friends that Farwell — a married Stoughton cop and the same man who she claimed had taken her virginity at age 15 — was in fact the father of her child but that the pregnancy had become a source of tension between the two of them. One friend told State Police that Birchmore had even threatened to tell his wife and employer about the pregnancy, and Farwell “got angry and took her phone away from her.”

At the same time, those closest to Birchmore said she seemed excited to be a mother — almost prematurely so, as evidenced by her purchase of a baby stroller and selection of a daycare just weeks into the pregnancy. When reports surfaced that Birchmore had been found dead in her apartment, seated on the floor with a duffel bag strap around her neck and fastened to a closet doorknob, their doubts only persisted, with several reaching out directly to investigators to voice their concerns about Farwell.

Even the initial Canton Police report filed by Lt. Michael Lank — one of five CPD officers on scene on the day Birchmore’s body was found — referenced a conversation that the property manager had with one of Birchmore’s friends about a “police officer” she had been dating and his alleged claims that he would “take care of the problem himself.” Canton Police, per the report, also spoke via telephone with Birchmore’s aunt, who stated that she had been “very happy” about the pregnancy and her death “did not make any sense.” The report also documents a conversation that police had with the office leasing manager at Windsor Woods, who recalled Birchmore saying she had broken up with the police officer but “seemed to be happier” and joked about the large number of packages that she was expecting to have delivered in the coming weeks.

According to the CPD report, all of that information was promptly passed on to State Police investigators, who interviewed Farwell days later in the parking lot of a Stoughton Elementary School. Asked about surveillance footage that captured him entering Birchmore’s apartment on the night she was last heard from, Farwell admitted that he had gone to her home to end the relationship that evening but denied harming her. He also agreed to turn over both his personal and work cell phones but told investigators he had already deleted all communications with Birchmore.

Against the urging of Birchmore’s friends and family, the state medical examiner’s office ultimately ruled her death a suicide, and the office of Norfolk County District Attorney Michael Morrissey declined to file charges after he said investigators found no “evidence of criminality.”

Still, the incident raised enough questions for the Stoughton Police Department to launch its own internal investigation, as Chief Donna McNamara pledged to leave “no stone unturned.”

The IA report found that at least three Stoughton officers — Farwell, his brother William, and Robert Devine, the former director of the explorers program — had inappropriate sexual relations with Birchmore, with Farwell’s encounters dating to at least 2013, when Birchmore was a 15-year-old Stoughton High School student.

All three officers subsequently resigned, and in December 2022, Birchmore’s estate filed a wrongful death lawsuit accusing the three men of “grooming and repeated sexual assaults from a young age.” (The suit also names the town of Stoughton and the Stoughton PD as defendants, and all parties deny the allegations.)

This past June, Dr. Michael Baden, a forensic pathologist hired by Birchmore’s estate and the former chief medical examiner for the city of New York, concluded that her death was a homicide by strangulation, and this was also the opinion of Dr. William Smock, a forensic specialist hired as part of the federal investigation into Farwell.

Both experts noted the fracture of Birchmore’s right hyoid bone, which they said rarely occurs in suicidal hangings and is more commonly seen in strangulation assaults.

In stark contrast to the initial state investigation, the year-long federal probe uncovered what prosecutors described as an “overwhelming” amount of evidence against Farwell, including thousands of text messages he exchanged with Birchmore that discuss everything from the date they first had sex to Farwell’s fascination with rape fantasies.

In one exchange where the two are discussing an upcoming sexual encounter, Farwell tells her the “perfect” scenario is one in which Birchmore says no and Farwell takes her anyway — the “full r word,” as he put it. Authorities also cited at least 20 separate occasions in the year preceding Birchmore’s death that Farwell referenced grabbing her throat, pinning her down by her throat, squeezing her throat, or choking her during sex.

In a 45-page motion arguing for Farwell to be held until trial, prosecutors cite testimony from several of Birchmore’s friends who allege that Farwell became physically violent after learning of the pregnancy. (Farwell’s wife was also pregnant at the time and gave birth to their third child hours after Birchmore was killed.) In the days leading up to her death, prosecutors said Farwell exhibited a sudden change in demeanor, treating Birchmore more kindly and asking her to give him a key to her apartment, which they theorize was an attempt to appease her before Farwell could carry out the planned murder.

Federal investigators also uncovered evidence that they said was inconsistent with a woman choosing to die by suicide, including the fact that Birchmore had spoken to a photographer about scheduling newborn photos, had performed a Google search for kids’ furniture, and was in the middle of doing laundry on the day she was last heard from.

Investigators can also place Farwell inside Birchmore’s apartment at precisely the time when activity ceased on her phone, and they cited additional factors that they believe would make him a “profound danger to the community” if released before trial, including the fact that he is a trained U.S. Army explosives expert with a total of 10 firearms registered to his home address.

“[Farwell] has been charged with the intentional, premeditated murder of a young person he knew for years,” stated prosecutors in their motion for detention. “He strangled her to death when he knew she was several weeks pregnant. He did so while he was serving as a police officer, and after using that position of trust and authority to groom and sexually exploit her for years, beginning when she was just 15 years old. There are no conditions of release that will protect the community from a defendant whose conduct reveals such an indifference to human life.”

For Birchmore’s growing legion of supporters — a community now numbering in the thousands and stretching across the globe — news of Farwell’s arrest was met with both shock and elation, with many people calling it a “long time coming” and a reminder that police officers are not above the law.

“I started crying when I heard the news!” exclaimed a commenter on the Justice for Sandra Birchmore Facebook page. “She’s finally getting justice!”

The group’s founder, a New England-based content creator named Melissa “Mizzy” Berry, said she first learned about Sandra Birchmore’s case from a TV news segment, and the more she dug into it, the more outraged she became that no arrests had been made.

In addition to organizing monthly “standouts,” Berry hand-delivered petitions to DA Morrissey’s office, spoke at length to one of the State Police detectives assigned to the case, and sent a letter to the U.S. Department of Justice urging them to look more closely into Farwell.

Upon hearing that federal officials had arrested and indicted him, Berry said she felt personally vindicated, but even more than that, she was happy for Birchmore’s loved ones and grateful to have played a part in the fight for justice.

“I’m proud of everyone who stepped up and helped spread the word and put the pressure on law enforcement to do something,” she said. “They thought Sandra Birchmore was disposable. They thought nobody cared. Well, there’s a lot of people who care about her now.”

Rachael Wallace, a Canton resident and a fellow advocate for Birchmore who organized one of the earliest protests in front of the Norfolk DA’s Office following the release of the internal affairs report, said that she too is proud to have spoken up. “I am very grateful that such a tragic case was finally taken seriously and investigated appropriately,” she said.

Wallace noted that Massachusetts recently became one of the first states in the nation to classify coercive control as domestic violence, following the passage of House Bill 4744, An Act to prevent abuse and exploitation. “This case,” she said, “underscores the vital importance that education, awareness and accountability play in keeping vulnerable members of the community safe.”

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