Sandra Birchmore deliberate to announce her being pregnant on Valentine’s Day.
On February 1, 2021, as a blizzard swept by means of japanese Massachusetts, the 23-year-old holed up in her house within the Boston suburb of Canton. She was about 10 weeks pregnant and had shared the information with solely a handful of individuals.
In two weeks, she meant to submit a pink-and-blue poster on social media embellished with tiny footprints. “I’m expecting a new little one to love,” it learn. “My own little Valentine arriving September 2021.”
With snow piling up outdoors, Birchmore stayed largely indoors and ready for motherhood. She texted a good friend about new child garments, looked for nursery furnishings and selected a maternity photographer. At 5:33 p.m., a surveillance camera captured video of her stepping outdoors to retrieve a windshield snow brush in turquoise leggings and a darkish puffy jacket, her hair piled right into a excessive bun.
They are the final identified photographs of her alive.
Police discovered her physique three days later in a seated place on her bed room ground. A duffel bag strap was looped round her neck and tied to a closet door deal with. Her cellphone lay inches from her physique and had locked at 9:13 p.m. on February 1, federal investigators stated.
The Massachusetts Office of the Chief Medical Examiner dominated her loss of life a suicide. But to her household, nothing about it made sense.
She needed to be a mom. She’d already purchased onesies. She was planning. “That’s all she was talking about. I mean, really, really excited,” stated her cousin, Angelique Pirozzi. “It was a goal of hers. She was glowing.”
Within days of Birchmore’s loss of life, Pirozzi referred to as native authorities and urged them to take a more in-depth look into what occurred inside her cousin’s house that wintry evening.
“My message to the police was no one in Sandra’s life thinks she would kill herself,” she stated. “Everyone seemed disinterested in entertaining the idea that this might not be a suicide.”
More than three years later, federal investigators stepped in. And in August 2024, a federal grand jury dropped a bombshell: Allegations {that a} police officer killed Birchmore to cease her from exposing a sexual relationship that began when she was 15.
The officer, Matthew Farwell, labored for the close by Stoughton Police Department, and his spouse was anticipating their third youngster on the time. He believed Birchmore’s unborn youngster was his, however a DNA check after her loss of life decided he was not the daddy, in accordance with a federal affidavit.
Farwell has pleaded not responsible to killing a witness or sufferer and violating a federal legislation defending unborn youngsters. His attorneys declined to remark as a result of the case is ongoing. He’s due again in court docket at this time for an evidentiary listening to, with a trial anticipated to start in October.
Farwell’s attorneys have argued that Birchmore’s journals recommend she was contemplating suicide. But federal investigators stated a damaged flamingo allure necklace on Birchmore’s bed room ground advised a special story. So did surveillance video showing a masked, hooded figure getting into her house constructing that evening and leaving 29 minutes later, they stated.
This account of Birchmore’s closing day – and her tragic life – relies on court docket information and interviews together with her household and legislation enforcement, in addition to information recovered from her iPhone and laptop computer. They reveal a difficult childhood, an alleged illicit relationship with an grownup mentor and a disputed trigger of loss of life that in the end led the health worker to alter the official ruling.
“What happened to Sandra Birchmore was a profound tragedy that should never have occurred,” stated Stoughton Police Chief Donna McNamara. “She was a young woman who deserved to be protected, not exploited.”
Sandra Birchmore was largely raised by her mom, Denise Birchmore, who struggled with coronary heart illness, emphysema and bronchial asthma. As an solely youngster, Birchmore took on caregiving duties at a younger age and needed to develop up quick, her cousin Pirozzi stated.
Her mom and grandmother doted on her. During crowded household gatherings at her grandmother’s house, Sandra soaked up the noise and chaos, comfortable to produce other children round.
“She had these beautiful, bright blue eyes and these freckles across the bridge of her nose,” Pirozzi stated. “She was excited and giggly and tickled to have all these guests in their house.”
With younger Sandra’s father out of the image, her mom needed her to have constructive male position fashions. In spring 2010, when Sandra was 12, her mom signed her up for the Stoughton Police Department’s explorers’ program – an initiative that exposes youth to legislation enforcement careers.
“It was supposed to be a positive thing … for kids who might need an additional role model in their life,” Pirozzi stated.
Two years later, Matthew Farwell joined the Stoughton Police Department and turned an teacher in this system.
By then, Sandra seemed to be thriving as a police explorer. She posted pictures in her black uniform with a police explorer badge. In June 2013, she introduced on Facebook that she’d achieved the rank of sergeant.
But by then, prosecutors stated, Farwell was secretly grooming her. He gained the belief of the teenager and her household by serving to her together with her homework, Pirozzi stated.
Before lengthy, he was assembly her in his patrol automotive or his truck to have intercourse, typically whereas he was on responsibility. Occasionally, she skipped class – and even her promenade – to be with him, in accordance with federal paperwork.
Federal court docket filings allege Farwell was sexually concerned with Birchmore from the time she was 15 till her loss of life at 23. In Massachusetts, the age of consent is 16. “Farwell used his authority and access to groom, sexually exploit, and ultimately sexually abuse then-15-year-old Birchmore … until he killed her,” investigators wrote.
Birchmore’s family knew Farwell had taken an curiosity in serving to her with schoolwork. But not that issues had turned sexual, Pirozzi stated.
Birchmore’s mother died after a stroke in May 2016. About a month later, her grandmother handed, immediately leaving her with no help system.
She sunk into melancholy not lengthy after, her household stated.
By then, a number of different Stoughton Police officers have been sexually concerned together with her, federal prosecutors stated, together with Farwell’s twin brother, William, who also worked for Stoughton Police.
William Farwell didn’t reply to NCS’s request for remark. But his lawyer, David M. Bae, has denied that his consumer was having intercourse with Birchmore when she was underage.
“There has never been … a scintilla of evidence that my client had sexual relations with SB while she was a minor,” he stated at a police misconduct listening to following the federal allegations.
Only Matthew Farwell has been criminally charged.
“Once they got their hooks in her,” Pirozzi stated, “she didn’t have a chance.”
Stoughton Police Chief Donna McNamara ordered an inside affairs investigation after Birchmore’s loss of life.
“The investigation revealed, starting when Sandra was a young teenager, a pattern of abuse and generally inappropriate and abhorrent behavior by multiple men who were, at different times, employed by the Stoughton Police Department,” McNamara advised NCS in a press release.
Four officers, together with the Farwell brothers, have been decertified and are barred from working in legislation enforcement within the state.
In the months earlier than Birchmore died, rumors about her relationship with Matthew Farwell had began leaking out.
As this occurred, federal investigators consider Farwell turned more and more alarmed. In late January, a good friend of Birchmore’s referred to as the Stoughton Police Department and notified them of the sexual relationship with Farwell, in accordance with federal paperwork.
Farwell was outraged when he came upon. He despatched Birchmore expletive-filled textual content messages, federal paperwork present.
“Dude, your f***ing friend called my job Sandra wtf,” one stated.
She needed a child and gave him an ultimatum
Pirozzi stated Birchmore’s family members warned her about Farwell.
“She was getting lots of advice from people telling her to be careful with this guy,” Pirozzi stated. “But grooming doesn’t allow for those voices.”
Pirozzi was involved about her younger cousin taking up motherhood alone. One of Birchmore’s final messages to her was a Facebook inbox searching for stroller suggestions.
“I said to her, ‘I am happy that you’re happy, but you know there’s kind of larger issue here … You have to think long and hard about whether you’re ready to do this,’” Pirozzi stated. “I was trying to encourage her to think about this choice. My thing was, ‘What stroller you should get? You’re asking the wrong questions.’”
At the time, Birchmore labored at a neighborhood elementary college as a instructor’s aide and had began taking lessons to organize for nursing college later that 12 months, stated Barb Wright, her mom’s cousin.
She was a younger girl creating her personal little household, and her life appeared to be coming collectively, Wright stated.
But her family later realized that months earlier, in October, Birchmore had given Farwell an ultimatum: If he agreed to have unprotected intercourse to conceive a toddler, she wouldn’t disclose their relationship, in accordance with her textual content messages cited in federal paperwork.
She knew having intercourse with a minor is a criminal offense and threatened to reveal their relationship. A reluctant Farwell finally agreed to strive for a child, prosecutors stated, and she despatched him her ovulation schedule. “The two started discussing timing their sexual encounters around specific times in Birchmore’s cycle,” the affidavit stated.
In December, Birchmore texted Farwell that she was pregnant, and despatched him a photograph of a poster she’d made to rejoice. “Congrats, we are goin’ to be parents,” it learn.
She additionally texted him a listing of expectations. She needed the kid to have his final identify. She additionally needed him current for the beginning and for just a few days round Christmas and Easter, in accordance with federal paperwork.
“I feel like I’m trying to be as fair as I can. And I want you there for (my) labor … That I’m standing my ground on,” she texted.
But prosecutors stated Farwell appeared displeased concerning the child. He advised her, “That’s not my child,” when she confirmed him the sonogram, Birchmore advised a good friend, and shoved her, the affidavit stated.
At occasions, Farwell requested her to delete their textual content conversations. In one trade concerning the child, he advised Birchmore she was asking for greater than she ever had earlier than.
“And still less than what any other girl would ask for,” she texted again.
Data from Birchmore’s iPhone and laptop computer helped federal investigators piece collectively key moments in her relationship with Matthew Farwell. Text messages created an in depth report of their communications and actions within the months, days and hours main as much as her loss of life.
The digital path dated again years. It confirmed Farwell despatched her a Facebook good friend request in October 2012, when he was 26, in accordance with the federal affidavit.
Over the years, the pair made references to the start of their relationship, together with messages from Birchmore about having “butterflies” the day he took her virginity when she was 15, in accordance with the affidavit.
In late January – days after Birchmore’s good friend referred to as Farwell’s office – he requested for keys to her house and stated he’d cease by for “hugs,” the affidavit stated. During one of his final visits to her house, Birchmore texted a good friend that she seen him inspecting her closet and rest room and she thought it was “really weird,” an affidavit stated.
Investigators allege he was scouting the house for a spot to stage her loss of life.
At 9:08 p.m. on February 1, 2021, Farwell texted Birchmore and requested whether or not he might come over, the affidavit stated. She advised him she’d go away the door unlocked.
It was the ultimate outgoing message on her cellphone. Farwell arrived 4 minutes later carrying a darkish hoodie and a medical masks, the affidavit stated.
Surveillance video exhibits him leaving her constructing at 9:43 p.m. — about half an hour after her iPhone locked and stopped recording motion.
Birchmore’s physique was discovered after she didn’t present up for her job on the elementary college and her co-workers requested a welfare verify.
Pirozzi stated she started elevating alarms about Farwell with native and state police inside days of studying about her loss of life.
“It was really important for them (police) to understand that Sandra was in a long-term, intimate relationship with a married Stoughton police officer who was not happy about her pregnancy,” Pirozzi stated. “It was very important that we created an environment where people couldn’t look away.”
But Farwell wasn’t arrested for 3 and a half years, resulting in protests by native residents about lack of motion by legislation enforcement. A spokesperson for the US Attorney’s Office in Boston declined to touch upon what prompted the federal investigation or why it took that lengthy.
A legislation enforcement supply advised NCS the delay in arresting Farwell factors extra to “shoddy police work” than any cover-up by native police. So far federal investigators have discovered no proof of such a cover-up, the supply stated.
Birchmore died in Canton, a city dealing with intense scrutiny over how police deal with high-profile loss of life investigations.
Almost a 12 months to the day after Birchmore’s loss of life, Boston police officer John O’Keefe was discovered useless within the snow outdoors a Canton home celebration in January 2022. His girlfriend Karen Read was accused — and later acquitted — of homicide after two trials that drew nationwide publicity. Critics of that case stated investigators ignored essential proof and made key errors, considerations echoed by Birchmore’s household.
Canton Police Chief Michael Okay. Daniels, who took over the embattled division earlier this 12 months, stated native officers responded to Birchmore’s house alongside Massachusetts State Police and the District Attorney’s Office, whereas the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner in the end decided the trigger and method of loss of life.
“This was not a Canton Police-led investigation … we work in a support role. That structure is consistent with how investigations like this are handled in communities like ours, where those agencies have jurisdictional authority and specialized resources to lead,” Daniels advised NCS through e mail. “Our role is to respond, secure the scene, gather information, and document initial observations. … Any preliminary information communicated early in an investigation should not be interpreted as a final determination.”
In court docket filings, federal prosecutors stated the health worker didn’t ship state pathologists to Birchmore’s house however relied on native authorities, who shared incomplete or inaccurate info. The Canton Police despatched a single paragraph to the health worker “stating in a conclusory fashion that Birchmore’s death was a suicide by hanging,” federal paperwork stated.
Daniels, the Canton police chief, advised NCS he understands individuals need solutions however declined to invest on businesses’ previous selections or intent whereas the case stays energetic.
“My focus is on being as transparent as we can within the law and ensuring we meet community expectations,” he stated.
The Massachusetts State Police referred questions concerning the Birchmore case to the Norfolk County District Attorney’s Office. A spokesperson for the DA advised NCS through e mail that prosecutors spent vital time investigating Birchmore’s loss of life alongside state companions and emphasised that the health worker’s workplace was chargeable for figuring out the official trigger of loss of life.
The health worker’s workplace stated its preliminary findings have been based mostly on the knowledge obtainable on the time. It declined to remark additional, citing the continuing prison case.
In an uncommon transfer, the company final month up to date Birchmore’s loss of life certificates from its unique discovering of suicide. It now lists asphyxia because the trigger of loss of life and the way as “undetermined.”
McNamara, the Stoughton Police Chief, advised NCS her division centered on figuring out whether or not officers violated insurance policies of their interactions together with her. She turned over her findings to state and federal investigators.
The fallout from the case has led to calls for for change and accountability. Following a vote by Canton residents, a 2025 independent audit really useful sweeping reforms for the city’s police division, together with expanded coaching and obligatory critiques of all loss of life investigations by supervisory workers.
Daniels stated the division is working by means of these suggestions as half of a broader effort to rebuild public belief.
Farwell, 40, has been in jail since his arrest in August 2024.
His attorneys sought his launch on bail after DNA dominated him out as the daddy of Birchmore’s unborn child. Investigators haven’t revealed who the daddy is. But prosecutors have stated Farwell believed the kid was his on the time of Birchmore’s loss of life.
“It is the fact that Farwell held this belief — and not the fact that he was mistaken — that will be most relevant at trial,” prosecutors wrote in an April 2026 memo towards Farwell’s launch on bail.
In the identical memo, prosecutors stated Farwell’s DNA was present in Birchmore’s underwear and on the duffel bag strap round her neck.
However, Farwell’s attorneys have argued that his was one of 4 DNA profiles present in her house, on the underwear and on the strap.
“Complex mixtures cannot be claimed to match any given individual,” his lawyer Joanne Daley advised the court docket at his detention listening to.
Farwell’s attorneys have argued in court docket filings that Birchmore was suicidal and had a historical past of psychological well being points relationship again 14 years. But prosecutors stated they spoke together with her family, buddies and therapist, who all agreed she was not suicidal.
“Birchmore spent parts of her life depressed and anxious. That is no secret. And perhaps that’s in part because she’d been … exploited by a local police officer since her childhood, forced to act out rape fantasies,” federal prosecutors wrote in court docket paperwork. “Depression and anxiety do not equal suicidal ideations.”
Wright, her mom’s cousin, stated Birchmore struggled with the loss of the matriarchs in her household however was not suicidal.
On February 1, 2021 – the day she died, Birchmore Googled, “What color is the suicide ribbon?” The protection has stated that is proof she contemplated suicide, however the prosecutor stated she was simply curious after seeing related ribbons on social media.
In her journal, she’d listed methods to commit suicide, together with utilizing a rope, the protection stated.
At his bail listening to, Farwell’s attorneys stated he doesn’t deny going to her house that night. “He was there that day. They had an argument, that he ended things with her, told her he was not the father, and he left,” Daley advised the court docket.
Prosecutors have disputed that narrative of their affidavit.
“Once inside, he killed her and staged her body and apartment to make it appear that Birchmore had died by suicide,” they stated.
Prosecutors say her damaged necklace and scattered hairpins from her updo level to a wrestle. But the protection has challenged that interpretation, arguing that Farwell’s DNA was not discovered below Birchmore’s fingernails.
At the bail listening to final month, prosecutors and protection attorneys supplied starkly totally different portraits of Farwell.
The protection described him as a embellished US Army veteran who served in Afghanistan and earned medals as a police officer for saving lives. But federal prosecutors referred to as Farwell a “dangerous” man and warned he would do no matter it took to keep away from a compulsory life sentence.
Outside the federal courthouse in Boston, a small group of protesters has gathered throughout many of Farwell’s authorized proceedings — very similar to they did at hearings for Karen Read. They held blue indicators that learn, “Justice for Sandra Birchmore” alongside a big photograph of her face.
Supporter Melissa Berry advised NCS she began following the case in September 2022, when Police Chief McNamara launched the inner report on the Stoughton Police officers who have been sexually concerned with Birchmore.
“I was in my room folding clothes … and this news report comes on and … I’m screaming at my TV, like what? How does this happen in a police department?” Berry stated.
Soon after, Berry was driving from her suburban Boston house to protest outdoors the federal court docket throughout Farwell’s hearings. With Birchmore’s household’s permission, she began a Facebook group, “Justice for Sandra Birchmore,” which has about 20,000 supporters who share info and talk about proof.
Berry stated she thinks about Birchmore’s mom and how she believed she was doing what was greatest for her daughter, not realizing the devastating affect the police explorers’ program would have on her life. One query retains replaying in her thoughts: “Who do you go to when the police are abusing you?” she stated.
On May 13, Berry and different protesters gathered in Stoughton to mark what would have been Birchmore’s twenty ninth birthday.
Meanwhile, for Birchmore’s household, the emotional toll persists. Last month the health worker notified them of the change to the loss of life certificates, Wright stated. She’s relieved it not states her second cousin died by suicide.
After years of ready and with the federal prosecution underway, Birchmore’s family consider justice is inside attain.
“Everyone’s kind of holding their breath,” Pirozzi stated.
Birchmore had additionally deliberate to disclose her child’s gender on Valentine’s Day, the affidavit exhibits. She was anticipating a boy.