Matthew Farwell allegedly told three different people three different things — and all of them pointed in the same direction. He told one person that if Sandra Birchmore 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." According to federal prosecutors, those conversations occurred in the weeks before Sandra was found dead in her Canton apartment on February 4, 2021 — and they form the backbone of the prosecution's case for premeditation.
Sandra was twenty-three, pregnant, and making plans. She believed Farwell was coming around. She had contacted lawyers. Prosecutors say she was preparing to disclose that the former Stoughton police detective had been involved with her since she was fifteen — when she was enrolled in the department's Police Explorers youth program and he was an instructor. For a married detective whose wife was also pregnant, that disclosure would have ended everything.
On January 20, eleven days before Sandra's death, her friend reported Farwell's relationship with Sandra to the Stoughton Police Department. The employee who took the call told Farwell. The institution Sandra trusted delivered the warning directly to the man prosecutors say killed her.
The forensic evidence prosecutors have assembled targets Farwell specifically. His DNA on the duffel bag strap they say was used to strangle Sandra. His sperm cells in her underwear, contradicting his claim of months without contact. An injury to Sandra's right clavicle sustained while she was alive, matching the buckle found behind her head — evidence prosecutors say proves the scene was staged. Her phone recording its final movements while Farwell was still inside her apartment during a twenty-nine-minute window on February 1. A broken pink flamingo necklace tangled in her hair on the bedroom floor.
At a private gathering after Sandra's death, Farwell reportedly demonstrated while inebriated how she supposedly died — describing details that had not been publicly released. Prosecutors allege he knew those details because he staged the scene.
DNA testing later confirmed Farwell was not the biological father of Sandra's unborn son. But prosecutors say both he and Sandra believed he was — and that belief is what made Sandra a threat he allegedly decided to eliminate. Her death was classified as something other than homicide for years before federal prosecutors intervened.
Farwell has pled not guilty. His defense maintains Sandra took her own life, citing the state medical examiner's determination.
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