Birchmore was a a 23-year-old Massachusetts woman whose death was initially ruled a suicide but is now the subject of a federal homicide case. The federal murder trial of former Stoughton police detective Matthew Farwell has brought renewed attention to the life and death of Sandra Birchmore.
Prosecutors have alleged Farwell killed Birchmore in February 2021 and staged her death to appear self-inflicted. In 2010, when she was 12, she joined the Stoughton Police Department’s Explorers Program, a youth initiative introducing teenagers to policing careers. Because she had never expressed suicidal thoughts, cheever testified she never believed Birchmore had taken her own life.
Farwell has pleaded not guilty. On the trial’s opening day, jurors heard testimony from Stoughton detective Heather Cheever, who mentored Birchmore through the department’s youth programme. Other witnesses recalled Birchmore being excited about her future and her pregnancy. Birchmore developed an interest in law enforcement at a young age.
Farwell began communicating with her online in 2012, according to the indictment. He then later allegedly starting a sexual relationship in 2013, when Birchmore was 15 and Farwell was 27. Birchmore was found dead in her Canton apartment in February 2021. In 2024, the Department of Justice charged Farwell with killing Birchmore and staging the scene to resemble a suicide. Birchmore, nevertheless, began a new beginning in 2020 as a teacher’s aide at Sharon’s East Elementary School.
She said that although Birchmore is wonderful with children, she spends too much time on her phone and is frequently absent due to illness.
Birchmore reportedly told colleagues that the baby’s father was a police officer. Witnesses testified that Birchmore loved helping people, cared deeply for animals and wanted to pursue criminal justice professionally. After graduating from high school, she enrolled in community college to study criminal justice before later working as a teacher’s assistant at East Elementary School in Sharon, Massachusetts. Federal prosecutors allege Birchmore met Matthew Farwell through the Explorers Program, where he volunteered as an instructor. Prosecutors have argued the relationship continued for years, even after Birchmore became an adult. Farwell has denied the criminal allegations and has pleaded not guilty in federal court. Her death was initially ruled a suicide by local authorities. However, federal investigators later reopened the case. Prosecutors alleged he strangled her to prevent her from exposing their relationship. One of the central issues in the trial is Birchmore’s state of mind before her death. Family members and friends testified that she was thrilled after learning she was pregnant. Birchmore enrolled in a small college to study criminal justice after high school. After that, she experienced a string of losses, including the passing of her grandmother and mother. The second witness in Farwell’s trial was Cheryl Carlson, the former assistant principal of the school.
Her cousin, Barbara Wright, testified Birchmore was “over the moon” about becoming a mother and was making plans for the future. Prosecutors have also cited those accounts to challenge the original suicide finding.
