Matthew Farwell
Introduction
Matthew Farwell is a 40-year-old former Stoughton, Massachusetts police detective who goes on trial in Boston federal court charged with killing 23-year-old Sandra Birchmore β a woman he met when she was 12 and he was a volunteer instructor in the Stoughton Police Explorers youth program β and staging her February 2021 death to look like a suicide. Federal prosecutors allege Farwell sexually exploited Birchmore from the time she was 15 and strangled her in her Canton apartment on February 1, 2021, when she was roughly ten weeks pregnant and believed he was the father. Jury selection was underway this week, with opening statements expected as early as Friday; he faces life in prison. Farwell has pleaded not guilty and maintains Birchmore killed herself.
Background Information
Farwell joined the Stoughton Police Department in March 2012 after serving with the Wellesley Police since 2008, and signed on as an instructor for Stoughton’s Explorers program β a cadet-style youth program he had participated in himself as a teenager, according to the Boston Globe. Birchmore, a law-enforcement-obsessed 12-year-old raised by her mother and grandmother, had enrolled in the program in the spring of 2010. Farwell’s twin brother, William Farwell, later joined the Stoughton force as well; the program’s longtime director was Officer Robert Devine. The department shut the Explorers program down after a 2016 internal probe found Devine lied during an investigation into harassment allegations connected to an affair.
The Controversy or Incident That Led to Their Cancellation
Charged, not adjudicated. The claims in this section come from a federal indictment, prosecutors’ statements and sworn filings as described in press coverage. Farwell has pleaded not guilty and maintains Birchmore died by suicide; nothing here is a finding of guilt, and he is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty in a court of law.
Prosecutors allege the grooming began in a program built for children. On April 10, 2013, the 27-year-old Farwell allegedly had sex with 15-year-old Birchmore β below Massachusetts’ age of consent β one month before he married his wife, according to the arrest affidavit. Text messages the two exchanged years later became evidence: in 2019 exchanges cited by prosecutors, Farwell allegedly asked Birchmore what age she would pretend to be during role-play, smiled at her answer of “14,” and in February 2020 described pinning her down during sex; other records indicated he enjoyed choking her, prosecutors said.
By late 2020, prosecutors say, Farwell feared he was losing control of the relationship. Birchmore had drafted β but not sent β a text to Farwell’s wife disclosing the affair, learned the wife was pregnant with the couple’s third child, and began threatening to expose the relationship unless Farwell impregnated her, prosecutors allege. On December 28, 2020, Birchmore texted Farwell that she was pregnant; text messages from the next day suggested she feared he would hurt her when they met to discuss the child. Both believed Farwell was the father, though post-mortem DNA testing concluded he was not.
On February 1, 2021, surveillance cameras captured Birchmore entering her apartment building’s elevator at 5:33 p.m. At 9:14 p.m., Farwell β dressed in a hoodie and medical facemask β entered the same elevator; he left the building at 9:43 p.m., and his wife gave birth hours later. Birchmore’s phone recorded no movement after 9:40 p.m. She was found dead on February 4 after co-workers requested a wellness check, hanging from a doorknob in the same clothes she had worn before Farwell arrived. Local authorities ruled her death a suicide that May; Farwell, interviewed two days after the body was found, acknowledged visiting the apartment but said it was to deny paternity and end the relationship.
The case reopened in 2022. Farwell resigned from the Stoughton police on April 1, 2022; William Farwell resigned by August and Devine retired that month, all three denying allegations connected to Birchmore. A 19-month internal investigation released that September found the three officers had “inappropriate” relationships with Birchmore, violated “human decency,” and “should never have the privilege of serving any community as a police officer” again. In March 2024, Dr. Michael Baden β New York City’s former chief medical examiner β concluded Birchmore most likely died by strangulation, not hanging, citing a fractured hyoid bone rare in suicidal hangings. On August 28, 2024, a federal grand jury indicted Matthew Farwell, the only one of the three criminally charged.
Public Reaction and Consequences
The case drew one of the largest jury pools Boston’s federal court had seen: 411 prospective jurors reported to the Moakley courthouse on October 6, 2026, to fill out questionnaires as Chief U.S. District Judge Denise Casper warned them to set aside heavy media coverage of the case. Prosecutors allege Farwell killed Birchmore because he “intended to prevent the communication about a federal offense to a federal officer” β her disclosure of years of sexual abuse that began when she was a minor. In October 2025, a superseding indictment added a charge under the federal unborn-children law, alleging Birchmore was eight to ten weeks pregnant with a baby boy when she died; that count carries a mandatory life sentence. In December 2025, the Justice Department announced it would not seek the death penalty. Birchmore’s family has also sued the Farwells, Devine, the town and the police department in a wrongful death suit now on hold until the criminal case ends.
Current Status
As of October 9, 2026, Farwell is on trial in the John Joseph Moakley U.S. Courthouse after three days of jury selection. Sixteen jurors β twelve deliberating plus four alternates β are being seated, with peremptory challenges scheduled for Friday morning and opening statements expected to follow that day; the trial is expected to last about five weeks, into the second week of November. Farwell has been in custody since his August 2024 arrest at the Wyatt Detention Facility in Rhode Island. He has pleaded not guilty, his lawyer saying “the science is on Mr. Farwell’s side” and that the state medical examiner still classifies the death as a suicide; prosecutors countered at a bail hearing that data from Farwell’s phone showed searches for pornography involving teenage girls. The charges remain accusations, and the burden of proof rests entirely on the government.
Impact on Their Career/Life
Farwell’s law-enforcement career ended in disgrace years before the trial: placed on administrative leave after Birchmore’s body was found, he resigned on April 1, 2022, and his own department’s internal investigation concluded he should never again serve any community as a police officer. Conviction would send him to prison for life, with the unborn-child count alone mandating that sentence. The case has also stained the institutions around him β the Explorers program is long gone, his twin brother and the program’s former director resigned or retired under denial of the same allegations, and testimony is expected to revisit whether police adequately investigated Birchmore’s 2021 death.
Sources
- New York Post, “Mass. cop faces trial in Sandra Birchmore case after she was ‘groomed starting at 12 β then killed’ when she got pregnant,” Oct. 9, 2026 β source
- MassLive, “Sandra Birchmore case: Matthew Farwell trial starts Tuesday,” Oct. 2026 β source
- Boston.com, “Matthew Farwell appears in court as potential jurors are questioned in the Sandra Birchmore case,” Oct. 8, 2026 β source
- Boston 25 News, “Opening statements in Matthew Farwell trial expected to begin Friday,” Oct. 9, 2026 β source
- CBS News Boston, “Matthew Farwell, ex-Stoughton police officer accused of killing Sandra Birchmore, seeks bail at hearing,” 2026 β source