Sandra Birchmore believed things were getting better. Matthew Farwell brought ginger ale to her apartment. She texted a friend that he was coming around. She was contacting lawyers. She was building a plan for child support. She was preparing for a future with the child she was carrying — a future she believed was finally within reach.

Farwell was allegedly having different conversations entirely.

According to federal prosecutors, he told one person that if Sandra did not end the pregnancy, he would "take care of the problem himself." He told another he needed to "put crazy back in the bag." He told a third that "the problem was going to take care of itself." Three people. Three conversations. All allegedly pointing toward a man who had decided that a pregnant twenty-three-year-old — the same girl he allegedly began a relationship with when she was fifteen and enrolled in his police youth program — was a problem to be eliminated.

On January 20, 2021, Sandra's friend called the Stoughton Police Department and reported Farwell's involvement with Sandra. The employee who took the call told Farwell. Eleven days later, Sandra was dead.

At 9:27 PM on February 1, Farwell entered her Canton apartment building. At 9:56 PM, he left. Twenty-nine minutes. Sandra's phone recorded its final movements while he was still inside. She was found three days later in the same clothes. Her death was classified as something other than homicide for years.

The forensic evidence prosecutors have since assembled tells a different story. Farwell's DNA on the duffel bag strap they say was used to strangle her. His sperm cells in her underwear — contradicting his claim of months without contact. An injury to her right clavicle sustained while she was alive, matching a buckle behind her head. A broken pink flamingo necklace — one Sandra wore regularly — tangled in her hair on the bedroom floor. And a reenactment at a private gathering where an inebriated Farwell reportedly demonstrated how she supposedly died, describing details no one outside the investigation should have known.

DNA testing confirmed Farwell was not the biological father of Sandra's unborn son. But both he and Sandra believed he was. Prosecutors say that belief — combined with Sandra's growing willingness to tell the truth about how their relationship began — is what made her a threat he allegedly could not allow to speak.

Sandra put her trust in the police. They allegedly broke it in every way a person can be broken.

Farwell has pled not guilty. His defense maintains Sandra took her own life.

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For years, Sandra Birchmore’s family held vigils outside buildings that didn’t want them there. They held signs at the Stoughton Police Department. They demanded answers from a system that had already decided Sandra did this to herself. Then the FBI came.

On August 28, 2024, agents arrested Matthew Farwell and charged him with killing Sandra to prevent her from exposing his crimes. A superseding indictment added a charge under the Unborn Victims of Violence Act for the death of her unborn baby boy. Farwell has pleaded not guilty. His trial begins October 5, 2026 in Boston federal court.

The defense has tried everything. They moved to dismiss the charges. Denied. They moved to relocate the trial. Denied. They sought bail, presenting Farwell as a war hero. Prosecutors responded with new DNA evidence: Farwell’s genetic material on the strap used to strangle Sandra, his sperm cells in her underwear contradicting his statements. Their filing also revealed that months after Sandra’s death, Farwell allegedly bought a drink for a woman at a bar who woke up naked while he searched her room for his keys.

All three officers connected to Sandra’s exploitation have been permanently barred from law enforcement. The DA who oversaw the initial investigation won’t seek reelection. Sandra’s family has endorsed his potential replacement. The political fallout has been seismic.

Sandra Birchmore was born in 1997. She lost her mother, grandmother, and aunt before turning twenty-three. She worked with children. She was studying nursing. She wanted to be a police officer. She wanted to be a mother. Everything taken from her began with trust. The trial begins in October.

This is Part 5 of a five-part series on the Sandra Birchmore case.

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Within one hour of finding Sandra Birchmore’s body, officers told the medical examiner there had been no foul play. That call shaped everything. The medical examiner never visited the scene. Canton police misidentified the murder weapon as a scarf. Investigators never compelled a DNA sample from the man seen on surveillance entering Sandra’s building the night she was last seen alive. They let him keep his phone for days. They never searched his home.

Federal prosecutors later wrote it plainly: at no point was Matthew Farwell seriously considered as a suspect in a homicide. He was a decorated police detective, a union president, a veteran. He had the kind of standing that makes people not ask uncomfortable questions. Sandra was a twenty-three-year-old with documented emotional challenges. His credibility was assumed. Hers was dismissed.

Sandra’s family refused to accept the official story. They said she was looking forward to being a mother. She was making plans. She was not in crisis. They filed a wrongful death lawsuit and hired an independent forensic pathologist. Dr. Michael Baden determined Sandra’s death was a homicide. A fractured hyoid bone supported the finding. The FBI’s own expert, Dr. William Smock, reached the same conclusion. Two independent analyses overturned what the state had decided in an hour.

Norfolk County DA Michael Morrissey has since announced he won’t seek reelection. Sandra’s family has endorsed a former federal prosecutor to replace him. The Birchmore case didn’t just expose a murder. It exposed the infrastructure that allowed it to be buried.

This is Part 4 of a five-part series on the Sandra Birchmore case.

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