A DISGRACED cop charged with murdering a pregnant woman he’d groomed since she was 15 preyed on her childhood trauma and left her fearing for her life years before allegedly killing her, a friend claims.
Matthew Farwell, a 38-year-old former Stoughton Police Department detective, was arrested on Wednesday and charged with the murder of Sandra Birchmore, 23.
Former police detective Matthew Farwell is accused of murdering Sandra Birchmore after having a years-long sexual relationship with the victim[/caption]
Birchmore, who was 10 weeks pregnant with Farwell’s child, was found dead in her apartment in Canton, Massachusetts, on February 4, 2021.
Local investigators ruled her death a suicide but a re-examination of the case conducted by federal authorities in the last year uncovered critical new evidence pointing to Birchmore’s death being a homicide, officials said.
Farwell is accused of strangling Birchmore to death with the strap of a duffel bag and staging the crime scene to make it appear as though she’d taken her own life, according to court filings.
Prosecutors alleged that Birchmore had recently informed Farwell he was the father of her child and wanted him to be involved in the baby’s life.
Farwell, who is married with children to another woman, feared he was “losing control” of Birchmore and killed her to prevent her from revealing the existence of their years-long relationship which is alleged to have begun when she was just 15 and he 27, authorities claim.
Prosecutors alleged Farwell groomed Birchmore over a period of three years after she enrolled in a police youth program in 2010 where he worked as an instructor.
Farwell has pleaded not guilty to murdering Birchmore and previously denied having sex with her before she reached 16, the state’s age of consent.
Tiara Martin, a friend of Birchmore’s, told The U.S. Sun that Birchmore began confiding in her about her relationship with Farwell when they were 15.
However, she never shared Farwell’s real age, only that he was an “older guy” who she’d met at a local police youth cadet program.
According to Martin, Birchmore had an incredibly difficult upbringing and sought stability and love wherever she could find it – making her incredibly impressionable and susceptible to manipulation.
It was her search for stability and her illicit relationship with Farwell that fueled Birchmore’s fixation with cops and her obsession to become one, Martin said.
Martin claims that Farwell promised to help Birchmore get a job within Stoughton PD once she graduated and “gaslighted” her into believing he wanted to start a family with her.
Martin accuses Farwell of using his position of authority to prey on Birchmore’s vulnerabilities and insecurities to satiate his own sick desires.
“Sandra was very, very vulnerable. She was always a ‘yes, yes, yes’ person, even when in the back of her head she would want to say no,” shared Martin.
“Ever since she was young she wanted to go to school for criminal justice, and I think that stemmed from the trauma of her upbringing and what she’d been through, so that’s what brought her to the cadet program to begin with.
“So getting in this cadet program where she believed people actually cared for her and loved her and gave her a sense of family and community only for her to be taken advantage of again by someone in a position of power […] it’s absolutely disgusting and disturbing.”
Birchmore, age 13, smiles at the police explorer program with former Deputy Chief Robert Devine (L) who was also fired for having an inappropriate relationship with her[/caption]
‘LIVING IN FEAR’
As time went on, Martin says Birchmore’s conversations about Farwall became more detailed and more concerning.
Such conversations would include Birchmore telling Martin that Farwell had tried to kiss her, later that they’d “made out”, and only after they went to college did she share they’d already had sex several times.
Birchmore would also detail their arguments, which on at least one occasion turned physical, Martin claimed, with Birchmore allegedly telling her that Farwell had “laid a hand on her”.
Further heightening Martin’s concern is that Birchmore would apparently refuse to ever show her the text messages the pair exchanged and was cagey about sharing personal information about Farwell.
She even told me once, ‘I’m scared to go because he’s a cop’, and this was when we were 18 years old.
Tiara Martin
Martin said she voiced her concerns to Birchmore about her relationship with Farwell and the way he was treating her on numerous occasions.
“I remember we’d be sitting there after class and all she’d do is rant about him, and I’d ask her, ‘What do you mean he did this and this?’” said Martin.
“And she’d tell me, ‘Well he put his hands on me, or he threatened to do this if I said this’, and it was just so clear to me that he was gaslighting and manipulating her.
“I didn’t know just how much older he was than us […] but she’d tell me one minute he’s not nice and the next they’re in love, and then she’d be done with him but back with him the next minute.
“It was very scary, and those who know Sandra know she’s an amazing person but she did have different struggles to other people which meant she was easily taken advantage of.”
Sandra Birchmore was strangled to death with the handle of a duffle bag, prosecutors say[/caption]
Tiara Martin, a close friend of Birchmore, claimed the child was not carried to term[/caption]
Martin says she begged Birchmore to leave Farwell several times but she never did.
In some instances, Martin claims Birchmore said she was “scared” to leave him because he was a cop and she allegedly lived in fear of what the consequences of leaving Farwell would be.
“I was thinking about it today, going back through it all, thinking I would’ve done this, I would’ve reported this but Sandra couldn’t do that for herself,” added Martin.
“She couldn’t go to the police and be like, ‘Hey, they’re doing this to me,’ because she was in fear for her life.
“I tried for years to get her to leave him and get away from him but she didn’t listen.
“She even told me once, ‘I’m scared to go because he’s a cop’, and this was when we were 18 years old.
“But there’s only so much you can do when the person doesn’t want to help themselves. You can’t do any more than to keep trying and I tried for so long.
“It truly breaks my heart that this is the sad reality of it all now […] she’s no longer with us and it’s truly a horrible situation but she will get the justice she deserves.”
SICK TEXTS REVEALED
Farwell was arrested on Wednesday morning at a shopping center in Revere, Massachusetts.
He was indicted later the same afternoon on one charge of killing a witness or victim.
The indictment alleges that Farwell began sexually abusing Birchmore when she was 15 and he was 27, having “used his authority and access to groom, sexually exploit and ultimately sexually abuse” her, the Department of Justice stated.
On several occasions, Farwell allegedly engaged in sex acts with an underage Birchmore while he was on duty as a police officer, per the DOJ.
Farwell is accused of falsely claiming he’d worked certain hours when he was “not working but engaging in sex acts with the then-minor victim,” a DOJ release stated.
A detention motion obtained by The U.S. Sun allegedly details texts shared been Farwell and Birchmore discussing the exact date he took her virginity.
“I had butterflies the day you took my virginity […] It was April 10, 2013,” wrote Birchmore in an exchange on January 11, 2020.
“Best day of my life,” she added with a heart emoji.
Farwell responded, “Me too,” before later continuing, “Lol if I pushed I absolutely could’ve f**ked you without condoms from day one.”
Birchmore replied, “Probably if you really pushed it.
“I was kinda scared to say no in the beginning not knowing how you’d take it so yeah you would’ve got no comdoms [sic] lol.”
Birchmore was abused beginning when she was 15, prosecutors said[/caption]
A text exchange from January 11, 2020, shows the pair discussing the date Farwell took Birchmore’s virginity[/caption]
In a similar exchange the following month, Farwell said he “absolutely would’ve f**ked” Birchmore in 2012, when she was 14.
Other texts are purported to demonstrate Farwell’s alleged sexual interest in minors, per court records.
In a text exchange in June 2019, Farwell and Birchmore discussed role-playing during their next sexual encounter, with Farwell asking how old she was going to pretend to be during it.
When Birchmore told him “14”, Farwell responded with a smiley face emoji, the records show.
In a similar exchange in February 2020, Farwell discusses pinning Birchmore down during sex and asks her to say “Matt, stop I’m 13 and I’m not ready for this omfg please stop.”
Other texts allegedly show Farwell asking Birchmore to act as if he were her older brother coming into her room at night to have sex with her or to simulate that she was raped, records show.
SANDRA’S FINAL MONTHS
Birchmore and Farwell’s relations continued up until her death on February 1, 2021, according to prosecutors.
Birchmore was discovered dead three days later on February 4.
Martin said she knew from the beginning that Birchmore would’ve never killed herself and long suspected Farwell was involved in her death.
“When it was announced that it was suicide, I knew that was f**king bulls**t, and I knew it was this person who she was obsessed with and who had manipulated, abused, and gaslighted her for years who was really to blame,” said Martin.
“Sandra had a hard life but she was never suicidal and she never spoke of being suicidal, but she was very vulnerable and easily manipulated.
“Everyone knows what it was. She was taken advantage of, she was gaslighted, she was molested, she was raped – and she was under-f**king-age when it all began.”
Birchmore’s death was initially ruled a suicide in 2021[/caption]
Farwell’s twin brother, William Farwell, has also been accused of sharing inappropriate relations with Birchmore[/caption]
According to prosecutors, Birchmore approached Farwell in October 2020 and told him she wanted a child of her own.
The pair apparently “reached an agreement” that Farwell would impregnate her in exchange for her silence about his past criminal sexual encounters with her and their years-long affair, court documents state.
During the same month, Birchmore drafted a message to Farwell’s wife, writing in part, “I am just messaging to inform you that your husband Matthew has been out cheating on you since before you guys were even married,” court records state.
There’s no evidence the text was ever sent.
Then, that December, Birchmore told Farwell that she was pregnant and wanted him to be more involved with the planning of the birth.
Prosecutors claim Farwell became angry and fearful he was “losing control” of the situation.
Less than two weeks before Birchmore was discovered dead, a friend called Stoughton PD and reported Farwell’s sexual relationship with Birchmore, according to the DOJ.
Farwell was reported to have become “visibly angry” after learning about the call and “started to lose his patience.”
Birchmore also confided in friends that Farwell had become physically violent with her, the DOJ said.
In one instance, Farwell allegedly grasped a pregnant Birchmore in a headlock and told her that he wished she were dead, prosecutors claim.
Disturbing Relationship Timeline
Sandra Birchmore had a decade-long relationship with the Stoughton Police Department before her death in February 2021.
2010: Birchmore, then 13 years old, enrolls in the Stoughton police youth program, known as Police Explorers.
She eventually meets twin brothers Matthew and William Farwell, who had both been police explorers as teenagers, through the program.
March 27, 2012: Matthew Farwell becomes a Stoughton police officer after working with the Wellesley police force for several years.
April 10, 2013: Farwell, then 27 years old, allegedly begins a sexual relationship with Birchmore, who had recently turned 15.
The age of consent in Massachusetts is 16.
Farwell and Birchmore continue their relationship through at least 2020.
2015: Birchmore graduates from Stoughton High School, spends two months in the US Army Reserve, and enrolls in Massasoit Community College in Brockton.
2016: Birchmore’s mother and grandmother both pass away just over a month apart from each other.
The Stoughton police department ends its explorers program.
Robert C. Devine, the director of the program, is demoted from deputy chief to patrol officer after he’s investigated for harassing a woman he was having an affair with, according to an investigative report.
March 21, 2017: William Farwell, Matthew’s twin brother, becomes a Stoughton police officer.
September 1, 2019: Birchmore takes the statewide civil service exam in the hopes of becoming a police officer in Stoughton.
January 2021: Birchmore tells Falwell she is pregnant, and expecting her first child.
She tells her friends the baby’s father will not be involved in their lives, but is still excited to be a mother, prosecutors allege.
Farwell is reported to be the father by a call made to the police department, and he allegedly becomes enraged with Birchmore.
He then gets physically abusive with her, and plots her murder, prosecutors allege.
February 1, 2021: Matthew Farwell visits Birchmore’s apartment in Canton.
Surveillance footage allegedly shows him entering her building, and leaving 28 minutes later.
February 4, 2021: Birchmore, then 10 weeks pregnant, is found dead in her apartment by Canton police officers.
February 6, 2021: Farwell is interviewed by police officers.
He tells them he told Birchmore that he wasn’t the father of her unborn child, that their relationship was “over,” and that he was “blocking her from all forms of communication.”
February 24, 2021: Farwell is placed on paid administrative leave.
May 21, 2021: A state medical examiner rules Birchmore died by suicide.
April 1, 2022: Farwell resigns from the Stoughton police department.
He got a commercial driver’s license and started his own trucking business, DMJ Transportation LLC, while on leave.
August 15, 2022: Devine retires from the Stoughton police department.
He denies having a relationship with Birchmore outside of the program.
September 23, 2022: The Stoughton police department concluded a 19-month investigation, finding misconduct by Devine and the Farwell brothers.
December 29, 2022: Birchmore’s estate files a wrongful death lawsuit against the Farwell brothers, Devine, and the town of Stoughton, including its police department.
November 28, 2023: A search warrant affidavit reveals that Birchmore and Matthew Farwell exchanged 32,709 text messages between December 2019 and February 2021.
March 21, 2024: Matthew Farwell agrees to no longer work in law enforcement in Massachusetts.
June 18, 2024: A former New York City chief medical examiner rules Birchmore’s death a homicide.
August 28, 2024: Federal authorities indict Matthew Farwell on charges that he killed Birchmore, then 23 years old, in February 2021.
Martin claims that Birchmore had previously fallen pregnant with another of Farwell’s children a few years earlier in either late 2017 or early 2018.
She said she’s unsure whether Birchmore miscarried, was made to get rid of the baby, or willingly did so, but the pregnancy was never went to term.
Martin shared, “But after, she would always say, ‘I want to get pregnant by him again. I want to have another kid with him, I want to get pregnant by him again and raise a family with him.
“Sandra really wanted a family of her own, because it’s something she always lacked, and that’s what this man did to her; he told her he would have a family with her, that he wanted to be with her, and he started doing this from when she was a minor right up until being a young woman.
“He promised her everything she’d wanted but he was just taking full advantage of her all while he had his own f**king family.
“Then when she fell pregnant for the second time, I think his tactic was, ‘I gotta get rid of this girl’ because it was threatening to mess his other family up.”
SUICIDE RULING REVERSED
On February 1, 2021, prosecutors allege Farwell went to Birchmore’s apartment wearing a mask over his face and strangled her to death using a duffle bag strap, according to court filings.
He then used his experience in late enforcement to stage her death to look like a suicide, prosecutors say.
Surveillance footage from Birchmore’s lobby captured him arriving at the building and leaving alone some while later.
He also allegedly lied repeatedly about the nature of his relationship with Birchmore to state police detectives investigating Birchmore’s death, according to FBI Boston Special Agent in Charge Steve Kelleher.
Farwell told detectives that their sexual relationship began in 2020, despite texts from Birchmore’s phone showing it began in 2013, according to court documents.
He also allegedly told detectives they last had sex in October 2020, “attempting to avoid suspicion about whether he was the father of Birchmore’s unborn child,” per court filings.
However, those text messages reportedly indicate that Farwell met with Birchmore to engage in sex after that date.
Sandra was very, very vulnerable. She was always a ‘yes, yes, yes’ person, even when in the back of her head she would want to say no.
Tiara Martin
Before Birchmore’s death, authorities further claimed that Farwell directed her to delete evidence of their sexual relationship.
Birchmore’s death was originally ruled a suicide by state investigators.
However, an independent autopsy evaluation conducted by a family-hired pathologist found Birchmore’s death was a homicide.
Speaking to reporters on Wednesday, acting US Attorney Joshua Levy said that over the last year, investigators uncovered critical new information that pointed to Birchmore’s death being a homicide.
Levy did not elaborate on what initially spurred federal authorities to re-examine Birchmore’s death.
However, Kelleher shared that in reviewing tens of thousands of texts, emails, and other records, investigators found “evidence inconsistent with someone dying by suicide.”
Such information included the fact that Birchmore had reached out to a photographer to ask about booking a newborn photo shoot and to a friend about obtaining baby clothes in the hours leading up to her death.
She also was in the middle of doing laundry when she died, Kelleher shared.
A DEVASTATING END
Farwell worked as an officer for the police department in Stoughton, south of Boston, for 10 years, from 2012 until 2022 when he stepped down amid an investigation into his relationship with Birchmore.
Farwell faces a minimum sentence of life in prison if convicted of killing Birchmore.
The charge is also eligible for the death penalty should the DOJ wish to pursue execution.
Further charges are being explored with state and local authorities, Levy said.
Two of Farwell’s former colleagues at Stoughton PD are also accused of molesting Birchmore.
His brother, William Farwell, along with former Deputy Police Chief Robert Devine, were all accused of sexual abuse in a wrongful death suit filed by Birchmore’s relatives, which remains ongoing.
All three cops resigned from the department in 2022 but no criminal charges have been filed regarding the allegations.
Tiara Martin, meanwhile, told The U.S. Sun she will not stop fighting for justice in Birchmore’s name.
Martin said she will remember Birchmore as a friendly, loving, and outgoing friend who deserved so much more than she got out of life.
“All I can say is that I wish she truly had the family she always dreamt of, I think she thought she was finally going to get that moment, which is the most sickening thing,” shared Martin.
“I don’t know where to begin, I just feel so angry and so upset.
“I feel that in a world full of so many angry and mean people, people take advantage of those who can’t take care of themselves, and that’s what happened here.”
If you or someone you know is affected by any of the issues raised in this story, call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-7233 or chat at thehotline.org.
