Matthew Farwell convicted in the 2021 deaths of Sandra Birchmore and her unborn baby

Former Massachusetts police officer Matthew Farwell was found guilty on Tuesday of 2021 killing Sandra Birchmore and causing the death of her unborn child. Farwell was found guilty on Tuesday of both counts he faced on the second full day of deliberations. Birchmore was pregnant at the time of her death, on Feb. 1, 2021, and she and Farwell had been in an extramarital relationship — Stoughton police have said it began when Birchmore was 15 and enrolled in the department’s police explorer program. Farwell faced federal charges of killing a witness or victim and of violating a federal law protecting unborn children. He’s pleaded not guilty, and his attorneys have argued that Birchmore did in fact die by suicide. The jury began deliberating on Friday, the 19th day of the trial, which was held in Boston’s federal court. It featured testimony from Farwell’s twin brother, who admitted having extramarital sex with Birchmore when she was an adult and acknowledged that he’s been given immunity in exchange for testifying. Farwell declined to take the stand in his defense. Birchmore’s death at her Canton apartment was initially ruled a suicide, but new scrutiny was placed on the case in 2022, when Stoughton’s chief of police held a news conference to reveal that three former officers had inappropriate sexual relationships with the young woman, one when she was a girl, and that the officers, including the Farwell brothers, resigned during the investigation. The revelation came as defense attorneys for Karen Read were making their own initial police misconduct claims in her now-well-known case, which also involved the town of Canton and the Norfolk County District Attorney’s Office. Some of her supporters went on to advocate for Birchmore’s death to be re-investigated. In 2024, Farwell was arrested and federal prosecutors announced that the former officer had been indicted after an FBI investigation. They alleged that he killed Birchmore to keep her from revealing their relationship and the alleged crimes connected to it. “Sandra Birchmore survived years of grooming, statutory rape and then sexual violence, all at the hands of Matthew Farwell, who was employed throughout the relationship as an officer and then detective for the Stoughton Police Department,” said Joshua Leavy, then the acting U.S. attorney for Massachusetts, at a news conference at the time. Farwell isn’t charged with murder in his trial because murder is, with a few exceptions, prosecuted by the state the death took place in. He hasn’t been charged in state court; the Norfolk District Attorney’s Office’s has referred to the case as “an ongoing and pending criminal matter,” which limits what the agency can say about it. Birchmore’s estate has filed a civil lawsuit against the Town of Stoughton, Farwell and others; it’s set for a hearing after the federal trial ends. “There’s a lot more work to do,” Barbara Wright, Birchmore’s cousin, said outside the courthouse. “We’re not done.” “There are still other people to hold accountable, who enabled him, people who looked the other way,” Wright said. The case has continued to roil Stoughton — its police chief and town manager are both on leave amid an outside investigation into Chief Donna McNamara’s claim that Town Manager Thomas Calter tried to force her out of the job. Her lawsuit alleges that Calter had told her to destroy a second internal investigation about the case, which she’s denied doing. Farwell will be sentenced on Feb. 3, 2027, six years and two days after Birchmore was killed.