Former officer accused of killing Sandra Birchmore, staging suicide

BOSTON (Court TV) — A former Massachusetts police officer is in custody and facing charges that he murdered his pregnant mistress to hide their affair — which started when she was underage.

Matthew Farwell, 38, was indicted on charges he killed Sandra Birchmore by strangling her inside her Canton home in 2021, to ensure that their affair stayed secret. Farwell, who resigned from the Stoughton Police Department in 2022, had been an officer with the department as well as an instructor at the Stoughton Police Explorers Academy, where he met the victim.

According to a federal indictment, investigators say that Farwell immediately began grooming Birchmore for a sexual relationship that began when he was 26 and she was 15 years old. At times, according to prosecutors, Farwell would meet Birchmore for sex acts while he was on the clock and supposed to be working as a police officer.

READ MORE | Michael Baden: Sandra Birchmore’s death was homicide, not suicide

Messages between Farwell and the victim refer to sexual violence, but Birchmore was allegedly eager to have a child. Farwell is accused of agreeing to father a child on the condition that Birchmore keep their relationship a secret. But once she was pregnant, Birchmore allegedly told her friends that Farwell became physically violent and described being pushed, shoved and placed in a chokehold.

Investigators say Farwell plotted his mistress’ death, even getting her to give him a key to her home. During a looming blizzard on Feb. 1, while his wife was in labor with their third child, prosecutors say that Farwell wore a mask, used his key to get into her home and strangled her to death with a duffle bag strap. Farwell is accused of then staging the scene to look like a suicide.

The prosecution has asked a judge to hold Farwell behind bars until trial: “There are no conditions of release that will protect the community from a defendant whose conduct reveals such an indifference to human life.”

The indictment also accuses Farwell of attempting to destroy evidence in the case, even instructing Birchmore to delete evidence of their sexual relationship from her phone before her death.

Birchmore’s family has separately filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Farwell and the Stoughton Police Department.

In a statement after the charges were announced, Stoughton Police Chief Donna McNamara said in a statement, “The day after Sandra Birchmore was found dead in her Canton apartment, I ordered a lengthy and aggressive internal affairs investigation, the instructions of which made it clear that no stone should be left unturned. The Stoughton Police Department has supported other agencies and worked with other agencies, including the FBI investigation that today resulted in a murder indictment that concluded that Sandra was killed. The alleged murder of Sandra is a horrific injustice. The allegations against the suspect, a former Stoughton Police Officer, represent the single worst act of not just professional misconduct but indeed human indecency that I have observed in a nearly three-decade career in law enforcement. It has been my life’s work over these past three years to ensure that justice was served. As I have stated previously, Sandra Birchmore received no justice during her life. It is imperative that justice be served in her death, and today’s actions appear to bring our society one step closer to justice.”

If convicted, Farwell faces a potential sentence of life in prison.