A medical expert for federal prosecutors in the Sandra Birchmore case urged state law enforcement officials on Wednesday to rethink how they investigate strangulation deaths, amid lingering questions over how Massachusetts authorities concluded Birchmore hanged herself.
Dr. Bill Smock, an emergency medicine physician who has worked for the medical examiner and law enforcement agencies in Kentucky, called for better training to detect possible strangulation or suffocation in unattended deaths. He further pressed for a specific protocol for approaching suspicious deaths in cases in which the victims were in an intimate relationship with a law enforcement officer. He likened such a new protocol to how special investigations are conducted in police shootings.
“This is an opportunity for Massachusetts to say, ‘We had some issues with Sandra’s investigation. Let’s make sure that the mistakes that occurred here don’t happen again,’ ” Smock said in a phone interview.
“Sandra’s case would be an example where clearly the investigating agency knew there was a connection to a police officer or multiple police officers,” he said. “So that should say, ‘OK, we need to take a closer look.’ Just like we would take a closer look and add additional resources to the investigation of an officer-involved shooting.“
Smock’s remarks came a day after a federal jury convicted former Stoughton police detective Matthew Farwell, 41, of killing a pregnant Birchmore to keep information she held about his past misdeeds from reaching US law enforcement. He was also found guilty of causing the death her male fetus.
He is slated to be sentenced Feb. 3 and faces an automatic life term.
Federal prosecutors alleged Farwell strangled Birchmore, 23, in her Canton apartment on Feb. 1, 2021, and then staged the scene to make it look like she hanged herself.
Police found her body three days later with a duffel bag strap around her neck and suspended from a bedroom closet doorknob.
Smock helped the prosecution persuade jurors to convict Farwell, who was tried in the federal system after state authorities declined to bring charges.
Prosecutors argued Farwell killed Birchmore to prevent her from revealing he had initiated a criminal sexual relationship with her when she was a 15-year-old in a police youth Explorer program and he was a 27-year-old officer and Explorer instructor.
In calling Smock, prosecutors put forth an engaging presenter known for testifying in other high-profile cases, including the murder trial for the former Minneapolis police officer who killed George Floyd. He also participated in the investigation into the police raid that killed Breonna Taylor in Louisville, Ky.
Smock is medical director for the Training Institute on Strangulation Prevention, a nonprofit that educates law enforcement and prosecutors on strangulation and suffocation crimes.
The staged suicide scene Smock detected in Birchmore’s case is not an isolated event, he said. He pointed to the murder conviction of a retired Westfield police officer who was prosecuted in the shooting death of his wife in 2018.
In that case, Brian Fanion initially told investigators that his wife had shot herself.
“We need to provide additional training for anyone who is investigating a suspicious death,” Smock said.
He said state leaders should also consider forming a commission to review the Birchmore investigation and mandate training in staged suicide scenes for the state medical examiner and State Police troopers, who handle death investigations for most cities and towns.
Smock offered his support for a legislative proposal introduced last year that would create protocols for investigating suspicious deaths of people who previously experienced domestic violence.
The bill has been promoted by Needham resident Susan Malman Altman, who was in court for Smock’s testimony in Farwell’s trial. The 2015 death of Malman Altman’s sister in Denver was initially ruled an accident, but after the family pressed investigators to reconsider, her brother-in-law was charged with murder and convicted.
The guilty verdict for Farwell in a federal courtroom has renewed public outcry over the initial investigation into Birchmore’s death by State Police troopers assigned to Norfolk District Attorney Michael W. Morrissey.
Morrissey never brought criminal charges in Birchmore’s death, which was initially ruled a suicide even as her friends and family contacted investigators and insisted she didn’t kill herself.
The state medical examiner first ruled that Birchmore died by suicide, but her manner of death is now listed as undetermined.
Since the jury announced its verdict Tuesday afternoon, state officials have pointed fingers at each other in response to questions about how Farwell avoided prosecution for more than two and a half years.
In a statement, Morrissey faulted the state medical examiner’s office, asserting that its suicide determination prevented him from mounting a prosecution.
But at trial, the medical examiner said Morrissey’s detectives didn’t note anything suspicious about Birchmore’s death even as text messages emerged showing she and Farwell, a married father, were meeting for sex.
Morrissey and his office didn’t respond Wednesday to messages seeking further comment. He did not seek reelection this fall and leaves office early next year. His successor, Djuna Perkins, has said she intends to examine how detectives handled the investigation into Birchmore’s death.
State Police on Tuesday declined to make Colonel Geoffrey Noble available for an interview and didn’t respond Wednesday to a follow-up request for comment on how their investigation was portrayed by federal prosecutors.
Throughout Farwell’s trial, the prosecutors characterized Morrissey’s detectives as dismissive and deferential to their police counterparts, as they ignored calls to scrutinize Birchmore’s death more closely. Interviews with Farwell and his twin brother were conducted in parking lots and not recorded, and state investigators did not seek a warrant to examine Farwell’s phone, according to trial testimony.
The lead investigator, Lieutenant John Fanning, was never called to testify, though Farwell’s twin brother told the jury that Fanning described the probe as something he needed like “a [expletive] bullet in the head.”
A subordinate, Trooper Matthew Dunne, testified for the prosecution, and he was pressed to explain why detectives didn’t interview Birchmore’s neighbors or record their interviews with the Farwell brothers. State Police also missed a critical piece of evidence: a snapped chain from a necklace Birchmore was wearing. A relative found it while cleaning out her apartment and gave it to detectives.
Fanning, Dunne, and their unions didn’t respond Wednesday to requests for comment. Fanning now has an administrative role at the agency’s Division of Investigative Services, and Dunne is assigned to Morrissey’s office.
Meanwhile, Governor Maura Healey, who oversees the State Police, told reporters that what happened to Birchmore was “disgusting.” She said she was glad Farwell was convicted and noted the state investigation into Birchmore’s death preceded Noble’s appointment.
The agency cooperated with the FBI and federal prosecutors, Healey said.
She would not commit to ordering her own investigation into how State Police handled the case, pointing only to the review that Perkins has already discussed.
“As governor, I’ll support any review that’s done to hold those accountable who should be held accountable for something like this,” Healey said at the State House following an unrelated event.
Dennis Galvin, a retired State Police major who now serves as president of the Massachusetts Association for Professional Law Enforcement, said Morrissey’s detectives have “a track record now” of troubling behavior.
More broadly, troopers assigned to district attorneys, who are elected officials, need more supervision from State Police headquarters.
“They must be held accountable,” Galvin said.
Galvin said any review of Birchmore’s case should consider the State Police detective unit and how troopers generally handle homicide investigations.
“Anything other than silence is better,” he said. “Right now all you’re doing is punishing this guy, reassigning this guy — but the whole thing isn’t changing, and it’s not getting any better.”
Laura Crimaldi can be reached at laura.crimaldi@globe.com. Follow her @lauracrimaldi. Sean Cotter can be reached at sean.cotter@globe.com. Follow him @cotterreporter.