Testimony is set to begin Tuesday in the trial of Matthew Farwell, the former Stoughton police detective accused of killing Sandra Birchmore and staging her death as a suicide. Birchmore was 23 and 8 to 10 weeks pregnant when she died in February 2021.
The jury was seated last Friday, and opening statements have already been delivered. Farwell faces charges that could bring life in prison if jurors accept the prosecution’s theory that he killed Birchmore to keep her quiet.
Stoughton Police Department Explorers Program
Prosecutors say Farwell and Birchmore met after she enrolled in the Stoughton Police Department Explorers Program in 2010, when she turned 13. They also say he stayed involved in the program as a volunteer instructor after joining it as a youth.
The government’s case centers on a relationship it says started when Birchmore was 15 and Farwell was 27. Prosecutors allege that relationship included sexual abuse for years, and that Farwell met her for sex while on duty.
Torey B. Cummings opening statement
Torey B. Cummings told jurors, “The evidence will show that he was not happy about [having a baby with her], but he was trying to appease her in order to keep her quiet.” Prosecutors say Farwell told Birchmore he was the father of her unborn child, then used that pregnancy as part of a plan to stop her from exposing what they describe as prior sexual exploitation.
DNA evidence ruled out Farwell as the father, and prosecutors say that evidence will matter when jurors weigh whether the pregnancy was part of the motive or a separate fact in the case. The charge also includes causing the death of Birchmore’s fetus.
April suicide ruling
The case changed after the state medical examiner initially ruled Birchmore’s death a suicide. That opinion was withdrawn in April, and the cause of death is now listed as undetermined.
Federal authorities brought charges in 2024 after an expert they worked with said Birchmore’s injuries were not consistent with suicide. Norfolk District Attorney Michael Morrissey would not prosecute the case after the state authorities treated the death as a suicide, but the FBI arrested Farwell on Aug. 28, 2024, and he has been held without bail at a Rhode Island detention facility since then.
Kim Stevens defense
Kim Stevens told jurors Farwell made “regrettable mistakes” but did not kill Birchmore. Stevens said Birchmore killed herself while alone and in financial dire straits, setting up the defense’s answer to the government’s theory that the death was staged.
What jurors hear next will turn on whether the medical and forensic proof points to strangling in Canton or to suicide, and whether the government can connect that evidence to a motive to silence Birchmore before she could report what prosecutors say Farwell did.
