BOSTON (Court TV) — Federal prosecutors have revealed new evidence in their case against a former Massachusetts police officer accused of killing his mistress as part of their fight to keep the defendant behind bars.
This photo provided by the Stoughton, Mass., Police Department shows Matthew Farwell. (Stoughton Police Department via AP)
Matthew Farwell, 39, is charged in federal court with killing a pregnant witness or victim in the death of Sandra Birchmore, who was killed in Feb. 2021. Birchmore was 23 when she died, but prosecutors say Farwell initiated sexual contact with her when she was 15 years old. At the time, he was an officer with the Stoughton Police Department and Birchmore was a member of the department’s youth program.
“Farwell raped Birchmore as a child, continued to have sex with her when she became an adult, believed she was pregnant with his child and killed her on Feb. 1, 2021, staging the crime scene to make it look like Birchmore committed suicide,” prosecutors said in a filing on Monday.
The new filing opposes Farwell’s latest petition for release ahead of trial, in which he challenged much of the evidence prosecutors have said they have in the case. Farwell argued, for example, that the DNA found under Birchmore’s fingernails was not matched to him, and that DNA proved he was not the father of his mistress’ unborn baby. “While Farwell correctly states in his memorandum that his DNA was not found under Birchmore’s fingernails, he fails to mention that Farwell’s DNA was found on the ligature that tied Birchmore’s neck to a closet door handle,” prosecutors said. “The presence of Farwell’s DNA on the murder weapon — i.e., the strap used to asphyxiate Birchmore — is, of course, highly inculpatory.”
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Sandra Birchmore was found dead in her home on Feb. 4, 2021. (Canton Police)
Prosecutors said they also found Farwell’s DNA on multiple locations in the underwear Birchmore was wearing when she was found. That DNA made it likely, prosecutors said, that Farwell lied to the Massachusetts State Police when he said he had last had sex with Birchmore in October 2020.
Urging the judge to keep Farwell behind bars, prosecutors said they have additional evidence to prove that Birchmore’s murder was premeditated. In the weeks before her death, Birchmore’s text messages revealed she “had a plan to obtain Farwell’s financial support for the child they both believed he fathered. And those communications indicate that Birchmore was willing to use her role as a victim of Farwell’s crimes to ensure that she and her unborn child would be financially secure.”
The FBI interviewed Farwell’s former co-workers at the Stoughton Police Police Department, who said they noted Farwell dealing with mounting stress in the beginning of 2021. Two weeks before Birchmore’s death, one coworker was eating with Farwell at a restaurant and noted that he looked stressed. Farwell allegedly responded that he was having relationship problems with a woman other than his wife. “When this witness asked if they could help, Farwell said, ‘The problem was going to take care of itself,'” prosecutors said.
Other witnesses told the FBI they never saw any remorse from Farwell after Birchmore’s death, with one witness saying that Farwell joked about his mistress’ death. Two others reported that at a gathering, Farwell was drunk and “sat down under a doorknob and demonstrated the position in which Birchmore was found, assuring the skeptical witnesses that it was possible to commit suicide in that manner. At the time, it had not been publicly revealed that Birchmore was found hanging from a doorknob.”
Farwell faces a potential life sentence if he’s convicted. His trial is scheduled to start on Oct. 5.
