A federal jury in Boston convicted former Stoughton police detective Matthew Farwell on Tuesday of killing 23-year-old Sandra Birchmore and causing the death of her unborn child, closing a case that began as a ruled suicide in Canton nearly five years ago.
Farwell, 41, was found guilty on two federal counts: killing a witness or victim and causing the death of an unborn child. He faces up to life in prison at sentencing.
The eight-man, four-woman jury deliberated for roughly 14 hours over the course of the trial, which lasted nearly four weeks. On Monday afternoon, jurors sent a note indicating they were deadlocked before returning Tuesday with a verdict.
Prosecutors told jurors that Farwell, a married father, killed Birchmore inside her Canton apartment and staged the scene to look like a suicide in order to keep her from exposing their relationship and her pregnancy. Birchmore had reportedly told Farwell she intended to come forward about years of sexual abuse that prosecutors said began when she was just 15.
Farwell’s defense attorneys argued instead that Birchmore took her own life on the same night Farwell told her he was ending their relationship.
According to prosecutors, Farwell killed Birchmore the day before his wife gave birth to the couple’s third child. They said Birchmore, jealous of the pregnancy, had pressed Farwell to father a child with her or she would tell his wife about the long-running affair. Farwell agreed, and Birchmore became pregnant with a boy in December 2020, just months before her death. Both believed Farwell was the father, but prosecutors said DNA testing later showed the fetus belonged to another man.
Jurors heard testimony from numerous witnesses, including Stoughton police dispatcher James Fitton, who said Farwell instructed him to “never talk about this again” after Fitton relayed a call from a woman alleging Farwell was having an affair with her friend. Prosecutors argued that call, made 13 days before Birchmore’s death, was the trigger that led Farwell to decide to kill her.
Farwell and Birchmore first met when she was 14 years old and participating in the Stoughton Police Department’s “Explorers” youth program, where Farwell served as an instructor. Birchmore, who aspired to become a police officer herself, was allegedly groomed by Farwell for roughly a year before he began sexually assaulting her at age 15.
Birchmore died on Feb. 1, 2021. State investigators initially ruled her death a suicide. Federal authorities reopened the case years later and arrested Farwell for murder more than three years after her death.
