BOSTON (Court TV) — The former police officer accused of killing his mistress and attempting to stage the scene to look like a suicide has been ordered to stay behind bars as he awaits his trial.
This photo provided by the Stoughton, Mass., Police Department shows Matthew Farwell, a former police officer who pleaded not guilty Wednesday, Aug. 28, 2024, to charges of killing a woman he is accused of sexually exploiting when she was underage and then trying to stage the death as a suicide after she told him she was pregnant. (Stoughton Police Department via AP)
Matthew Farwell, 39, has pleaded not guilty to federal charges of killing a pregnant witness or victim in an ongoing investigation. Prosecutors say Farwell began a relationship with the victim, Sandra Birchmore, when she was 15 years old and then killed her when she was 23 because he believed she was pregnant with his child. Birchmore had told the defendant that she was carrying his child; DNA testing later revealed that Farwell was not the father.
In an order denying Farwell’s request for pretrial release, Judge M. Page Kelley found the government “met its burden on risk of flight and danger to the community and obstruction and orders.”
Much of the evidence in the pending federal case remains under seal; the order alludes to evidence but does not specify what said evidence shows.
Prosecutors have publicly said that Birchmore and Farwell met when the victim was part of the Stoughton Police Explorers Academy, “a quasi-military program designed to expose young people to policing.” Birchmore was 12 years old in 2010 when she enrolled and Farwell served as an instructor in the program. By 2012, investigators said, Farwell was 26 to Birchmore’s 15, and the two were communicating online. Text messages allegedly establish that the two began having sex that year; the encounters allegedly continued until the time of her death in 2021.
MORE | Matthew Farwell’s DNA on murder weapon that killed Sandra Birchmore: Prosecutors
Sandra Birchmore was found dead in her home on Feb. 4, 2021. (Canton Police)
Farwell’s attorneys have challenged the findings alleging that Birchmore was killed and instead argued at the pretrial detention hearing that the victim took her own life. “At this stage of the case, and emphasizing that this court does not have the benefit of cross-examination of witnesses and the full record which will be developed at trial, the court concludes that the evidence against Farwell is very strong, if not overwhelming,” Kelley wrote in her order.
While a pretrial services report compiled by the probation department acknowledged that the defendant has long-standing personal and family ties to Massachusetts, has no criminal history and served honorably in the U.S. military, it did not recommend release, finding that Farwell “presents multiple risk factors for non-appearance and danger to the community.”
Farwell faces a mandatory life sentence if he’s convicted, which is part of what led Kelley to deny the motion for release.
Farwell’s trial is scheduled to begin in October.
