Ex-Stoughton officer Matthew Farwell goes on trial over Sandra Birchmore's 2021 death

Right · 2The murder trial of former Stoughton, Massachusetts police officer Matthew Farwell began on Friday 9 October 2026 with a brief morning hearing in Boston federal court, with opening statements to follow once the jury is seated. 1 2 Right · 2Prosecutors say Farwell groomed and sexually abused Sandra Birchmore from the time she was a teenager in Stoughton's police youth "Explorers" program, and strangled her on 1 February 2021, when she was 23, after she told him she was pregnant, then staged her death to look like a suicide. 1 2 Right · 2Birchmore joined the Explorers program at 12; prosecutors allege Farwell, then 27 and a program instructor, first had sex with her on 10 April 2013, when she was 15, below Massachusetts' age of consent of 16. 1 2

Right · 1According to the arrest affidavit as relayed by the New York Post, surveillance footage showed Birchmore entering her Canton apartment building at 5:33 p.m. on 1 February 2021 and Farwell, in a hoodie and medical mask, entering at 9:14 p.m. and leaving at 9:43 p.m.; his wife gave birth hours later. 2 Right · 1Birchmore's body was found on 4 February 2021 after a wellness check; she appeared to have hung herself from a doorknob, and prosecutors say her phone's last recorded movement, at 9:40 p.m. on 1 February, and her lack of phone use were inconsistent with her habits. 2 Right · 2Her death was initially deemed a suicide (medical examiners ruled so in May 2021). Farwell was charged after internal affairs and FBI investigations; the FBI arrested him in August 2024, and he has been jailed since. 1 2

Right · 2Farwell has pleaded not guilty. He faces one count of killing a witness or victim and one count of killing an unborn baby. 1 2 Right · 2Lawyers on both sides agree DNA testing excluded Farwell as the unborn child's father, but prosecutors say he believed he was the father, citing texts between 28 December 2020 and 1 February 2021; Birchmore was between eight and 10 weeks pregnant. 1 2 Right · 1Farwell told police two days after the body was found that he visited the apartment to deny being the father and end the relationship, according to the Boston Globe as cited by the Post. 2

Right · 1Birchmore's family also accused Farwell's twin brother William Farwell, and Robert Devine, who ran the youth program, of abusing her; all three officers deny wrongdoing and resigned in 2022, but only Matthew Farwell was criminally charged. The three are defendants in a wrongful death suit by Birchmore's aunt, on hold until the trial ends. 2 Right · 2The prosecution's witness list names 68 people, including William Farwell, and the trial is expected to last five to six weeks; the first witnesses are expected to be Stoughton Detective Heather Cheever and a local elementary school official. 2 1