General
Former Officer Charged With Killing Woman Whose Death Was Ruled a Suicide
Sandra Birchmore was pregnant when she was found dead in Canton, Mass., in 2021, and she had told the officer that he was the father, federal prosecutors said.
When Sandra Birchmore, a young pregnant woman, was found dead in her apartment in Canton, Mass., in 2021, it was initially ruled a suicide.
But the case took a grim turn on Wednesday when federal prosecutors charged that the 23-year-old had actually been killed by a former Stoughton, Mass., police officer who she said had gotten her pregnant, to cover up a sexual relationship that started when she was underage.
The former officer, Matthew Farwell, 38, was arrested on Wednesday morning and charged with one count of killing a witness or victim. He pleaded not guilty, according to prosecutors, and will remain in custody until a detention hearing next month.
Mr. Farwell got to know Ms. Birchmore while he was working as an instructor for the Stoughton Police Department’s Explorers Academy, a program for young people to learn about careers in law enforcement. Prosecutors said that Mr. Farwell had begun to groom Ms. Birchmore soon after she joined the program in 2010.
“This grooming culminated in Farwell raping Birchmore in April 2013, when she was only 15 years old,” according to an affidavit from an F.B.I. special agent. Mr. Farwell was 27 at the time, the agent said.
The sexual contact continued for years, according to court documents, and in December 2020 Ms. Birchmore learned that she was pregnant. The next month, a friend of Ms. Birchmore’s called the Stoughton Police Department and mentioned the illicit relationship, according to the affidavit, and one of Mr. Farwell’s colleagues informed him of that call.
