Police Officer Killed Pregnant Woman To Shut Her Up From Revealing He raped Her: Feds

A former Massachusetts police officer, Matthew Farwell, has been indicted by a federal grand jury for the murder of 23-year-old pregnant woman, Sandra Birchmore, authorities said.

Farwell, who was with the Stoughton Police Department, is accused of killing Birchmore on February 1, 2021, at her apartment in Canton, Massachusetts. The motive behind the murder, according to authorities, was to silence Birchmore from revealing the statutory rape that happened when she was just 15 years old.

Josh Levy, the acting U.S. Attorney for the District of Massachusetts, disclosed that Birchmore had endured years of grooming, statutory rape and sexual violence at the hands of Farwell.

As Birchmore began confiding in friends about the abuse and their yearslong affair, Farwell allegedly sought to prevent her from exposing their illicit relationship, according to Levy.

The grim story began in 2010 when Birchmore, then 12, joined the Stoughton Police Explorers, a program for youth interested in law enforcement. Farwell, who became an instructor for the program in 2012, developed a relationship with Birchmore that turned sexual by the time she was 15 years old.

Prosecutors allege that Farwell would sneak away while on duty to have sex with her, a relationship that continued into her adulthood.

As their relationship progressed, Farwell became increasingly controlling and abusive. He tracked Birchmore’s location using his cellphone and subjected her to sexual violence, as documented in numerous text messages.

Some of these messages revealed Farwell’s disturbing fantasies involving sexual assault and an interest in minors. In one text from 2020, Farwell described how he wanted to pin Birchmore down during sex, asking her to pretend she was 13 years old.

Towards the end of 2020, Birchmore expressed a desire to have a child with Farwell. The two reportedly agreed that he would impregnate her in exchange for her silence about his criminal conduct.

However, when Birchmore became pregnant in December 2020, Farwell became physically violent. Birchmore confided in friends that Farwell had pushed and shoved her, taken things from her hands, and put her in a chokehold.

In January 2021, Farwell learned that someone had tipped off the Stoughton police about his inappropriate relationship with Birchmore when she was a minor. He also discovered that Birchmore had told a friend about the statutory rape.

As a result, Farwell began planning her murder. He obtained a key to her apartment and scoped out potential places to kill her, including her bathroom and closet.

On February 1, 2021, with a blizzard approaching Boston and his wife about to deliver their third child, Farwell went to Birchmore’s apartment. Wearing a face mask to conceal his identity, he strangled her and staged the scene to make it appear as though she had committed suicide.

He left her body in a seated position with a strap around her neck and the doorknob. Her body was discovered by Canton Police on February 4 during a welfare check after she failed to show up for work.

An initial investigation by Massachusetts State Police concluded that Birchmore had died by hanging, and her death was ruled a suicide. However, inconsistencies in the findings led to a second examination by a different medical examiner, who suspected strangulation. Federal investigators also uncovered incriminating text messages and Google searches that Farwell had tried to delete.

Following Birchmore’s death, Stoughton police launched an internal investigation into Farwell. He was placed on leave and eventually resigned in April 2022.

Stoughton Police Chief Donna McNamara condemned Farwell’s actions, calling Birchmore’s death a “horrific injustice” and the “single worst act of not just professional misconduct but indeed human indecency” she had witnessed in her nearly three-decade law enforcement career.

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Federal authorities arrested Farwell on Wednesday on charges of killing a witness or victim. If convicted, he faces a potential life sentence.