A Boston jury is poised to deliberate the fate of Matthew Farwell, a former Stoughton police detective accused of killing Sandra Birchmore, a 23-year-old woman prosecutors say he groomed and sexually abused beginning when she was 15 years old.
Closing arguments in the case were scheduled to begin Friday morning after nearly four weeks of testimony, with each side given 90 minutes before jurors begin deliberating, according to a report by the Boston Globe.
Birchmore was found dead in her Canton apartment on Feb. 1, 2021, while pregnant. Prosecutors allege Farwell, 41, a married father, killed her and staged the scene to look like a suicide in order to silence her about their affair, her pregnancy and the abuse that began when she was a teenager. Farwell’s defense counters that Birchmore took her own life shortly after he visited her apartment to end the relationship.
Farwell did not take the stand in his own defense. His attorneys called 12 of the 50 witnesses who testified during the trial, including a former medical examiner who said Birchmore’s injuries were consistent with suicide rather than homicide. That dispute — suicide versus homicide — has shadowed the case since Birchmore’s death, which was initially ruled a suicide. Norfolk County District Attorney Michael Morrissey, who also oversaw the prosecution of Karen Read, declined to bring charges at the time. A federal investigation followed, resulting in Farwell’s arrest more than three years after Birchmore’s death.
How the relationship began
Prosecutors say Farwell met Birchmore when she was a teenager participating in a youth police program he helped run, and that he began grooming her before starting a sexual relationship with her at age 15. The age of consent in Massachusetts is 16.
Years later, according to prosecutors, Birchmore grew jealous after learning Farwell’s wife was pregnant with his third child and demanded that he father a child with her or she would reveal their relationship. Prosecutors say Farwell reluctantly agreed, but as Birchmore’s pregnancy progressed and word of the affair began to spread, he decided to kill her — the day before his wife gave birth. DNA testing later showed Farwell was not the biological father; the child’s father was a married military recruiter with whom Birchmore was also having an affair.
Testimony from the defendant’s twin
Prosecutors called 38 witnesses in total, including forensic experts, law enforcement personnel, first responders, and Birchmore’s friends and colleagues, several of whom testified she had been excited about having a son and showed no signs of being suicidal.
Among the prosecution’s witnesses was Farwell’s twin brother, William
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