Episode 216: The Murder of Sandra Birchmore
Sandra Birchmore, born on May 13th, 1997, was raised in Stoughton, Massachusetts by a single mom who was dealing with chronic illness and health issues. Sandra was a responsible kid, often taking care of her mom Denise and growing up rather quickly as a result. Denise’s aunt and uncle lived nearby, and Sandra was very close with them as they were like her grandparents. When Denise passed away after a major stroke in May of 2016, just days shy of Sandra’s 19th birthday, and when her grandmother passed away a month later in June, Sandra took both deaths incredibly hard. Growing up, Sandra was a great kid and incredibly driven, enrolling herself in a local Police Explorers program with the Stoughton Police Department in March of 2010 at the age of 12.
As Denise had health emergencies requiring assistance from police and first responders on multiple occasions, Sandra had developed a sense of trust of the police from a young age and thought this program would be a good way to see if a career in law enforcement was something she wanted to pursue. Her mom also felt it would be a good opportunity for Sandra to have positive male role models and mentors in her life. Unfortunately, the Marshall Project did an investigation into these Police Explorer programs and found almost 200 allegations of abuse and misconduct against the minors involved. Sandra would be one of the cases they investigated as one of the officers who volunteered with the program and then became an instructor was 25-year-old Matthew Farwell, who had taken an immediate interest in Sandra after he was hired by Stoughton police in March of 2012. He was more than half her age, and he began grooming her and eventually manipulating her into spending time with him outside of the program. Investigators later learned of the extent of his grooming and abuse towards Sandra and learned that this lasted all the way up until her murder in 2021.
On February 4th, 2021, police received a call from concerned coworkers who reported that 23-year-old Sandra Birchmore hadn’t been at work for several days. She was working as a teachers assistant in an elementary school in Sharon, Massachusetts while taking community college classes, and it was unlike her to simply not show up to work. Police did a wellness check at her Canton, Massachusetts apartment, and once they gained entry inside they found Sandra’s body. She was in a sitting position on the floor, and a duffle bag strap that had been tied to a doorknob to a closet was around her neck. She was last seen on her apartment building’s surveillance footage on February 1st, and using this and data from her cellphone it was determined she died that evening around 9:00 p.m.
Autopsy found signs of a struggle such as bruising on her chest and that her hyoid bone in her neck was fractured, indicating strangulation. She was also 8-10 weeks pregnant, which her friends and family knew as Sandra was “over the moon” about becoming a mom. When her death was ruled a suicide, those that knew her were baffled as she was truly happy and had many things to look forward to such as the degree she was pursuing and welcoming her new baby. Sandra’s apartment was full of brand new baby items and she was in the middle of doing laundry when she died, leading friends and family to believe she had not died by suicide. When her death was further investigated by police and the FBI, what unfolded was the discovery of the extent of Matthew Farwell’s grooming of Sandra that extended to multiple other members of the Stoughton police department including Matthew’s twin brother William, who joined the police department in 2017, and former Police Explorers supervisor and deputy chief Robert Devine.
Matthew Farwell was himself an alumni of the Police Explorers program, using this to build Sandra’s trust and a relationship with her. Within months after he was hired with the police department and started as an instructor with the Police Explorers, they were messaging back and forth on Facebook and arranging times to meet up outside of the program for “tutoring sessions.” In April of 2013, Matthew initiated a sexual relationship, committing statutory rape when Sandra was 15 and he was 27. Matthew and his fiance married in June, just a month after he raped Sandra for the first time. Their sexual relationship grew more violent, with Matthew continuing to commit statutory rape and having Sandra play out depraved fantasies of his where he asked her to pretend that he was raping her. He also grew more violent during sexual encounters and used violence to “punish” Sandra for things like getting bad grades in school. Multiple of these sexual encounters took place when Matthew was working as well as allegedly inside of his police cruiser.
In October of 2020, Sandra began confiding in a friend about the extent of her relationship with Matthew, telling them that she and Matthew began having sex before she was 16-years-old and that they had been having a sexual relationship for almost a decade. Also in October of 2020, Sandra learned that Matthew’s wife was pregnant with their third child and that she was due in February of 2021. This really stirred up a lot of emotions in Sandra, because she then drafted a message to Matthew’s wife telling her how Matthew has been cheating on her since before they were married. Sandra never ended up sending the message. She did confront Matthew about her knowing his wife was pregnant and presented him with an offer: she would keep their relationship a secret if they could have unprotected sex and conceive a child of their own. Matthew agreed, but tried to say he did not agree to this later that month when Sandra became more serious about her wishes to have a baby.
On December 28th, 2020, Sandra texted Matthew that she was three and a half weeks pregnant. The texts included a photo of a poster Sandra had made where she had written “Congrats we are going to be parents!” and the year 2021, but Sandra’s excitement was quickly diminished when Matthew began arguing with her and became frustrated and upset. During the argument, Matthew texted Sandra “You are truly the worst person on the face of this earth.” After meeting up in person the next day, text messages from Sandra to Matthew afterwards indicated an altercation as Sandra had texted “it made me really uncomfortable and stressed out and scared when you were next to me because I thought you were gonna hit me after you said what you said and took things out of my hand.”
She later told a friend that Matthew had said that he “wished [she] just would die and he wants nothing to do with the baby” and that he put her in a headlock and took her phone from her out of her hand. Sandra also told a friend that Matthew had on one occasion pushed her to the ground and expressed not wanting anything to do with the baby. The friend called Stoughton Police Department in mid-January of 2021 to tell them about Matthew and Sandra’s relationship, which caused Matthew to angrily send several text messages to Sandra. This pattern of behavior continued until January 24th, 2021, when Sandra was texting a friend that Matthew came over to her apartment, bringing her a ginger ale and asking for a key to her apartment that he initially refused when offered. Sandra had said that his behavior was a “complete 180 from where we were at” and had expressed feeling as though Matthew was coming around to the idea of having a baby. She then mentioned that Matthew “looked in my closet and then the bathroom but idk why haven’t figured that out.”
On February 1st, 2021, Sandra was last seen in the early evening on video surveillance and last texted with Matthew shortly after 9:00 p.m. after he had asked to come over. He was seen on video surveillance wearing a sweatshirt with the hood pulled up, a COVID-19 medical mask, and a baseball cap arriving at her apartment around 9:15 p.m., then leaving at around 9:45 p.m. He then attended the birth of his third child at the hospital about thirteen hours later. When questioned about Sandra’s death, Matthew admitted to state police that he was at her apartment on the night of the murder but that they had only had sexual contact two or three times, with the last encounter in October of 2020 and that he could not be the father of her child. Matthew also told police that Sandra was involuntarily hospitalized for mental health concerns on multiple occasions, despite this being false and her having sought mental healthcare on one occasion where she was deemed not a risk for self harm.
His cellphone was later taken for evidence, but Matthew used his police department issued phone to search if deleted text messages could be recovered. He was placed on administrative leave several months later. Almost a year later on April 1st, 2022, Matthew resigned from the police department, with his twin brother William being placed on administrative leave three days later. William resigned on August 1st, denying any kind of misconduct despite his confirmed sexual relationship with Sandra. Matthew was later decertified from working as a police officer in the state of Massachusetts.
On September 22nd, Stoughton Police Chief Donna McNamara revealed that the internal affairs investigation found that the Farwell twins, Matthew and William, as well as their former supervisor Robert Devine, all violated department rules and regulations when all three had inappropriate sexual relationships with Sandra. The investigation revealed that William exchanged sexual messages and photos with Sandra while he was on the clock with the Stoughton police. William also attempted to introduce Sandra to other men to have sexual encounters with.
On December 29th, 2022, Sandra’s legal team filed a wrongful death lawsuit, claiming that both Matthew and William as well as Robert Devine pushed Sandra to suicide as a result of their abuse, grooming and sexual assaults.
On June 18th, 2024, Michael Baden, a forensic pathologist hired by Sandra’s family and legal team, made the official determination that Sandra did not die by suicide and that her death was a homicide.
On August 28th, 2024, Matthew Farwell was charged with Sandra’s murder. Prosecutors believe that he allegedly used his experience as a police officer to stage the scene as a suicide. After he was arrested, Matthew pleaded not guilty. U.S. Attorney Joshua Levy stated, “We allege that Sandra Birchmore survived years of grooming, statutory rape and then sexual violence, all at the hands of Matthew Farwell. He allegedly attempted to cover his tracks to literally try and get away with murder. And he almost did — until today… When it became clear to Mr. Farwell that he could no longer control [her], he allegedly silenced her permanently.”
Following his arrest, Matthew was asked for a DNA test and once he agreed, it was found that he was not the father of Sandra’s unborn child. Sandra’s cousin Barbara Wright stated, “Paternity means very little right now. He believed he was the father and had other motives aside from Sandra’s pregnancy.”
In early December of 2025, it was ruled that Matthew would not face the death penalty. Two months prior in October, Matthew was indicted on a second count of killing a witness or victim based on the state’s laws for protecting unborn children. The indictment stated that Sandra was 8-10 weeks pregnant with a boy.
Matthew Farwell’s next court proceedings in Boston federal court will be in October of 2026.
Image sources:
bostonglobe.com - “Sandra Birchmore case: Matthew Farwell is not father, test shows”
abc11.com - “Former cop accused of killing pregnant woman, staging death to look like suicide”