A former Massachusetts detective sexually groomed a young police department volunteer, impregnated her and then strangled her and tried to make it look like a suicide, federal prosecutors said.
Sandra Birchmore was 23 and newly pregnant when she was found dead in her Massachusetts apartment, a strap wound around her neck and tied to a door knob. It was 2021, and a coroner ruled her death a suicide, authorities said.
But this week, the case took a stunning turn when federal prosecutors announced they'd charged former detective Matthew Farwell with strangling the young woman and making it look like she had hanged herself, to cover up an illicit affair that began with him sexually grooming Birchmore when she was 12, according to a federal indictment released Wednesday.
“Matthew Farwell’s gun and badge did not grant him authority to violate the Constitution, and it certainly didn’t entitle him to sexually exploit, abuse, and rape a child before killing her and her unborn baby in an attempt to cover up his alleged crimes,” said FBI Assistant Special Agent in Charge Stephen Kelleh at a press conference.
Farwell, 38, pleaded not guilty in federal court on Wednesday to one count of killing a witness or victim, according to federal authorities. He will remain in custody until a detention hearing is held next month, prosecutors said.
He was an instructor for the Stoughton Police Department’s Explorers program, a volunteer group for young people interested in becoming law enforcement officers, prosecutors said.
Farwell had begun to groom Birchmore soon after she joined the program in 2010 at age 12, prosecutors alleged. “This grooming culminated in Farwell raping Birchmore in April 2013, when she was only 15 years old,” said an FBI agent in an affidavit filed in federal court.
Farwell is married and has children, authorities said. The sexual relationship between the officer and the girl continued until her death in 2021, prosecutors allege.
Stoughton Police Chief Donna McNamara said Wednesday she had demanded a full investigation of Birchmore's death and that her department had worked closely with the FBI in building the federal case.
A subsequent autopsy of Birchmore's remains concluded her death was a homicide, caused by strangulation, authorities said. Investigators also alleged that subsequent interviews with the woman's friends revealed she had been in good spirits before her death, and was excited about having a baby, according to affidavits filed in connection with the federal case.
“The alleged murder of Sandra is a horrific injustice,” McNamara said. “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,” she said in a statement.
Farwell resigned the department in 2022, following an internal affairs investigation, police said.
Prosecutors also alleged that Farwell was violent and had pushed, shoved and placed Birchmore in a chokehold not long before her death.
The young woman had wanted to have a baby and Farwell had agreed to impregnate her in exchange for her keeping silent about their relationship, according to investigators. But a friend of Birchmore's blew the whistle on Farwell, calling the Stoughton Police Department to report the officer's sexual relationship with Birchmore, prosecutors said.
One month later, Birchmore was dead.
“When it became clear to Mr. Farwell that he could no longer control Sandra Birchmore, he allegedly silenced her, permanently,” U.S. Attorney for Massachusetts Joshua S. Levy said at the news conference. “He used his knowledge and experience as a law enforcement officer to stage her death to look like a suicide.”
The police chief said the killing was "a horrific situation."
The victim "received no justice during her life," the chief said. "It is imperative that justice be served in her death."
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