Former Stoughton police detective Matthew G. Farwell was indicted Wednesday on a federal charge that he killed a 23-year-old pregnant woman in 2021 after she claimed he fathered her unborn baby and initiated sexual contact when she was a teenage participant in a law enforcement youth program.
The arrest of Farwell, 38, marked a dramatic turn in the case of Sandra Birchmore, whose body was found on Feb. 4, 2021, in her apartment in Canton. State authorities initially ruled her death a suicide, though Birchmore’s family and friends have raised questions about the investigation over the last several years.
The indictment charges Farwell with a single count of killing a witness or a victim. It alleges he killed her on or about Feb. 1, 2021, by strangulation and “staged” her Canton apartment “to make it appear as if Birchmore had committed suicide.”
In bringing the case, federal prosecutors also accused Farwell of committing statutory rape against Birchmore based on evidence that he initiated sexual contact with her when she was 15 and participating in the youth program.
Farwell is accused of killing Birchmore “with malice aforethought, willfully, deliberately, maliciously, and with premeditation” to prevent law enforcement from learning that he may have violated federal laws.The crimes Farwell could have faced, according to the indictment, were deprivation of Birchmore’s rights, coercion and enticement, and wire fraud.
Farwell’s lawyer did not respond to a request for comment.
Stoughton Police Chief Donna McNamara, who in 2021 had ordered an internal affairs investigation of her officers’ interactions with Birchmore, said her death is “a horrific injustice.”
“It is imperative that justice be served in her death, and today’s actions appear to bring our society one step closer to justice,” McNamara added in a statement.
The charge carries the potential for the death penalty, but Acting United States Attorney Joshua S. Levy said Justice Department officials in Washington, D.C., would decide whether to seek capital punishment. Farwell faces a minimum of life in prison if convicted.
At a press conference Wednesday, Levy said Farwell relied on his “knowledge and experience as a law enforcement officer” in the alleged coverup.
“He allegedly attempted to cover his tracks to literally try and get away with murder,” Levy said. “And he almost did — until today.”
FBI agents arrested Farwell without incident Wednesday in Revere, according to Stephen J. Kelleher, FBI Boston assistant special agent in charge. Kelleher called Farwell’s alleged actions a “depraved and a gross betrayal of his sworn oath and the public’s trust.”
Prosecutors requested Farwell be held pending trial under federal dangerousness laws. A hearing has been scheduled for Sept. 10. Farwell pleaded not guilty to the charge during a brief court appearance Wednesday.
After hearing of Farwell’s arrest, Birchmore’s cousin, Angelique Pirozzi, told the Globe: “We are grateful that the arc of justice has bent toward Sandra. We however remain shocked and saddened by how hard it was to get to this place. Justice is not blind, particularly when law enforcement is involved, and this isn’t the end but the beginning of finally getting justice for Sandra.”
Julia Perlin, a childhood friend of Birchmore’s, had a message for her: “Sandra, we can’t bring you back, but we’re fighting for you.”
She said she “knew my friend would have never killed herself or harmed her unborn baby. I feel that he’s getting what he finally deserves. And at the end of the day, everything was about getting justice for Sandra.”
Birchmore met Farwell in about 2010, when she was 13 and enrolled in the Stoughton police youth program known as explorers. Farwell, who is nearly 12 years older than Birchmore, was an instructor who had previously participated in the program as a teenager.
The Globe has reported Farwell allegedly began having sex with Birchmore as early as April 10, 2013. At the time, Birchmore was 15 and Farwell was a 27-year-old Stoughton police officer who was engaged to be married the following month. The age of consent in Massachusetts is 16.
Farwell has denied having sex with Birchmore when she was underage, but has acknowledged doing so when she was an adult. Investigators found they exchanged 32,709 text messages between December 2019 and her death.
In those messages, investigators said Birchmore presented Farwell with an ultimatum in October 2020. They would have unprotected sex to conceive a child in exchange for Birchmore keeping their long-running interactions a secret, shielding Farwell from facing possible repercussions for allegedly committing statutory rape, cheating on his wife, and having sex while he was on the clock as a Stoughton police officer, FBI Special Agent Chenee Castruita wrote in court papers.
Farwell and two other former Stoughton police officers have been accused in a lawsuit brought by Birchmore’s estate of wrongful death, assault and battery, and negligence, for allegedly grooming Bichmore when she was a teenager.
The federal indictment alleges, “During some of the shifts when Farwell was supposed to be performing his duties as a Stoughton police officer, he was instead engaged in sex acts with Birchmore.”
Birchmore found out she was pregnant around December 2020, and told Farwell she believed he was the father, according to the indictment. She was excited to be pregnant, prosecutors wrote.
But, “Farwell responded poorly,” prosecutors wrote. “He became physically violent with Birchmore. She told multiple friends that Farwell had pushed and shoved her, grabbed objects from her hands, and put her in a chokehold.”
On Jan. 20, 2021, Stoughton police received a tip from a friend of Birchmore’s that Farwell and Birchmore had had sexual relations, the indictment states. A Stoughton police employee told Farwell about the tip, according to the indictment, which does not identify the employee.
Within two weeks of the call, federal authorities said, Farwell strangled her and then hung her body from a doorknob he had inspected several days earlier.
Officers found Birchmore in her bedroom, her body hanging from a doorknob by a gym bag strap, State Police records show.
Three months after Birchmore’s death, the state medical examiner’s office ruled she died by suicide. Yet in June 2024, Dr. Michael Baden, a forensic pathologist hired by Birchmore’s estate, concluded she was a homicide victim who died by strangulation.
A forensic specialist commissioned by the FBI similarly found that Birchmore’s death was a homicide, citing the nature of her injuries, including an imprint injury on her chest.
The office of Norfolk District Attorney Michael W. Morrissey directed the initial investigation into Birchmore’s death, but didn’t bring any charges. In a search warrant affidavit filed last year, a State Police lieutenant assigned to his office wrote that investigators and the medical examiner’s office determined Birchmore died by suicide, based on her mental health history, “past suicidal ideations,” personal notes, and autopsy findings.
On Wednesday, a spokesperson for Morrissey said its investigation remained “open and active.” He said federal investigators developed additional information, but didn’t comment further.
Spokespeople for State Police and the state medical examiner’s office didn’t address questions about the gulf between their findings that Birchmore died by suicide and the federal government’s allegation she was murdered.
Farwell was the last person known to see Birchmore alive on Feb. 1, 2021, three days before her body was found, when surveillance cameras captured him arriving and then leaving Birchmore’s apartment building in Canton, according to the Stoughton police internal affairs report.
Farwell, a former president of the patrol officers union, previously said in an interview with investigators that he went to Birchmore’s apartment to end their relationship and told her that he didn’t father her unborn child, according to a State Police report.
On the morning after, his wife gave birth to the couple’s third child, according to the child’s birth certificate.
The Globe was the first to report on concerns about Farwell’s interactions with Birchmore in April 2022, when he resigned from Stoughton police.
The indictment is also the latest criminal case against a former member of the Stoughton Police Department, which has faced decades of state and federal prosecutions of its officers, including the convictions of a previous chief and a sergeant in an extortion scheme.
The internal affairs investigation initiated by McNamara, the police chief, found Farwell and two fellow officers, his twin brother, William, and their mentor, Robert C. Devine, had “inappropriate” relationships with Birchmore.
The wrongful death litigation brought by Birchmore’s estate targets the Farwell brothers and Devine, a former Stoughton deputy police chief and lawyer who led the explorers program from 2002 to 2014.
Birchmore’s estate alleges the men took advantage of her “significant mental and emotional problems” and reverence for law enforcement with a “near decade-long scheme of grooming and repeated assaults” that culminated in her death. William Farwell and Devine also deny the allegations.
Birchmore grew up in Stoughton, where she was raised by her mother and grandmother. Both women died in 2016, and Birchmore told a colleague at the Sharon elementary school where she worked that her father had “never been in the picture,” according to State Police records. An aunt who also helped raise Birchmore died in 2019.
Birchmore participated in the Stoughton police explorers program until she graduated from high school in 2015, officials have said. In 2014, her mother wrote a letter thanking the department and Devine for the program, according to the police internal affairs report.
Sean Cotter and Travis Andersen of the Globe staff contributed to this report.
Laura Crimaldi can be reached at laura.crimaldi@globe.com. Follow her @lauracrimaldi. Shelley Murphy can be reached at shelley.murphy@globe.com. Follow her @shelleymurph.