BOSTON (Court TV) — Attorneys for a former police officer charged with killing a woman he’s accused of grooming into a sexual relationship pointed to the alleged victim’s own writing as evidence their client is innocent.
A photo shows Matthew Farwell and Sandra Birchmore when she was in the police department’s youth program. (court exhibit)
Matthew Farwell, 39, is standing trial in federal court on charges of killing Sandra Birchmore, 23, and her unborn child. Prosecutors have said Farwell, who was married, began a sexual relationship with Birchmore when she was 15 and he was 26, after years of grooming her.
This week, jurors saw a photo of a young Birchmore when she first met Farwell. At the time, Farwell was a police officer with the Stoughton Police Department, and Birchmore had joined the department’s “Youth Explorers” program. While DNA testing later found that Birchmore’s baby was not fathered by the defendant, investigators said both she and Farwell believed the child was his at the time of her death.
Birchmore’s body was found Feb. 4, 2021, inside her apartment, but prosecutors said she actually died days before, on Feb. 1, when Farwell was spotted on surveillance video going into her apartment building. Photos shown to the jury as evidence showed Birchmore’s body hanging from a strap tied around a doorknob in her apartment.
A sonogram photo is seen on Sandra Birchmore’s refrigerator. (court exhibit)
While the medical examiner ruled Birchmore’s death a suicide, prosecutors have said there’s no indication she wanted to take her own life. Evidence from Birchmore’s apartment, shown to the jury, included a poster that announced, “Congrats we are going to be parents,” a calendar with doctor’s appointments scheduled for later that month and a photo of a sonogram attached to the refrigerator with a magnet.
Farwell’s defense team showed the jury Birchmore’s own writing from years before her death, which suggested she had struggled with mental health. A handwritten journal entry dated July 1, 2017, read, in part, “I’m so sorry to those of you that may be hurt by this. I’m sorry to put you through this. I do not feel as though I have a place here any longer. … Please don’t grieve me but celebrate my life.”
Another note, dated June 30, 2017, titled “ways to do it,” appeared to list several different methods by which Birchmore could take her own life. Beneath that, she had written, “why do it?” The bullet-pointed list below included, “been told to before,” “used,” and “no good/not worth it.” A second page had a list titled, “why not to,” and it listed “career ahead,” “friends/family” and “work hard.” “I’m wonderful” and “I’m amazing” also appear, but in different handwriting.
Handwritten note found in Sandra Birchmore’s journal. (court exhibit)
One of Birchmore’s friends testified this week that she appeared to be in one of the happiest periods of her life before her death, WCVB reported. The same friend said that Birchmore and Farwell had been fighting because he did not want to sign the child’s birth certificate and said that during one argument over the issue, Farwell had pushed Birchmore to the ground.
In their opening statement, Farwell’s attorneys conceded that their client had an affair with Birchmore, but claimed any odd behavior he exhibited around the time of her death — such as arriving at her home on Feb. 1 wearing a mask over his face — was the result of wanting to hide his relationship from his wife.
