For years, Sandra Birchmore’s family held vigils outside buildings that didn’t want them there. They held signs at the Stoughton Police Department. They demanded answers from a system that had already decided Sandra did this to herself. Then the FBI came.

On August 28, 2024, agents arrested Matthew Farwell and charged him with killing Sandra to prevent her from exposing his crimes. A superseding indictment added a charge under the Unborn Victims of Violence Act for the death of her unborn baby boy. Farwell has pleaded not guilty. His trial begins October 5, 2026 in Boston federal court.

The defense has tried everything. They moved to dismiss the charges. Denied. They moved to relocate the trial. Denied. They sought bail, presenting Farwell as a war hero. Prosecutors responded with new DNA evidence: Farwell’s genetic material on the strap used to strangle Sandra, his sperm cells in her underwear contradicting his statements. Their filing also revealed that months after Sandra’s death, Farwell allegedly bought a drink for a woman at a bar who woke up naked while he searched her room for his keys.

All three officers connected to Sandra’s exploitation have been permanently barred from law enforcement. The DA who oversaw the initial investigation won’t seek reelection. Sandra’s family has endorsed his potential replacement. The political fallout has been seismic.

Sandra Birchmore was born in 1997. She lost her mother, grandmother, and aunt before turning twenty-three. She worked with children. She was studying nursing. She wanted to be a police officer. She wanted to be a mother. Everything taken from her began with trust. The trial begins in October.

This is Part 5 of a five-part series on the Sandra Birchmore case.

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Within one hour of finding Sandra Birchmore’s body, officers told the medical examiner there had been no foul play. That call shaped everything. The medical examiner never visited the scene. Canton police misidentified the murder weapon as a scarf. Investigators never compelled a DNA sample from the man seen on surveillance entering Sandra’s building the night she was last seen alive. They let him keep his phone for days. They never searched his home.

Federal prosecutors later wrote it plainly: at no point was Matthew Farwell seriously considered as a suspect in a homicide. He was a decorated police detective, a union president, a veteran. He had the kind of standing that makes people not ask uncomfortable questions. Sandra was a twenty-three-year-old with documented emotional challenges. His credibility was assumed. Hers was dismissed.

Sandra’s family refused to accept the official story. They said she was looking forward to being a mother. She was making plans. She was not in crisis. They filed a wrongful death lawsuit and hired an independent forensic pathologist. Dr. Michael Baden determined Sandra’s death was a homicide. A fractured hyoid bone supported the finding. The FBI’s own expert, Dr. William Smock, reached the same conclusion. Two independent analyses overturned what the state had decided in an hour.

Norfolk County DA Michael Morrissey has since announced he won’t seek reelection. Sandra’s family has endorsed a former federal prosecutor to replace him. The Birchmore case didn’t just expose a murder. It exposed the infrastructure that allowed it to be buried.

This is Part 4 of a five-part series on the Sandra Birchmore case.

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At 9:27 PM on February 1, 2021, Matthew Farwell entered Sandra Birchmore’s apartment building. At 9:56 PM, he left. Twenty-nine minutes. Sandra was never seen alive again. When her body was found three days later, she was wearing the same clothes. Federal prosecutors allege that inside those twenty-nine minutes, Farwell strangled Sandra and her unborn son, then staged the scene.

The forensic evidence prosecutors have assembled is devastating. Farwell’s DNA was found on the duffel bag strap used to strangle Sandra. His sperm cells were found in her underwear, contradicting his claim that he hadn’t been intimate with her in months. Sandra’s right clavicle showed an injury that occurred while she was alive, matching the buckle behind her head — evidence prosecutors say proves she could not have died in the position she was found. A broken pink flamingo necklace Sandra regularly wore was discovered tangled with her hair on the bedroom floor. Her phone recorded its final movements while Farwell was still inside the apartment.

Then there’s the reenactment. At a private gathering after Sandra’s death, an inebriated Farwell demonstrated how she supposedly died, positioning himself beneath a doorknob. The details he described had not been publicly revealed. He knew because, prosecutors allege, he staged the scene himself.

DNA testing later confirmed Farwell was not the biological father of Sandra’s unborn son. But both he and Sandra believed he was — and prosecutors say that belief is what drove him to kill her. Every piece of physical evidence points to homicide. And yet, for years, it was ruled something else entirely.

This is Part 3 of a five-part series on the Sandra Birchmore case.

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Sandra Birchmore believed Matthew Farwell was coming around. He brought ginger ale to her apartment. She texted a friend that things were getting better. She was pregnant, making plans, contacting lawyers, preparing for a future she would never see. Farwell was making different plans entirely.

According to federal prosecutors, Farwell told one person that if Sandra didn’t end the pregnancy, he would “take care of the problem himself.” He told another he needed to “put crazy back in the bag.” He told a third that “the problem was going to take care of itself.” Three different people. Three different conversations. All pointing toward a man who viewed a pregnant woman as a problem to be eliminated.

Sandra wasn’t just talking to friends. She had contacted lawyers. Prosecutors say she was developing a plan for child support and was prepared to disclose that Farwell had abused her since she was underage. For a married detective with a pregnant wife at home, Sandra had become an existential threat to everything he’d built.

Then came January 20, 2021. Eleven days before Sandra’s death. Her friend called the Stoughton Police Department to report Farwell’s relationship with Sandra. The department employee who took the call told Farwell. The institution that should have protected Sandra hand-delivered the warning to the man prosecutors say killed her.

On February 1, surveillance cameras captured Sandra walking in and out of her Canton apartment building. At 9:27 PM, Farwell entered. At 9:56 PM, he left. Sandra was never seen alive again.

This is Part 2 of a five-part series on the Sandra Birchmore case.

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Sandra Birchmore wanted to be a cop. She walked into the Stoughton Police Explorers program at twelve years old full of admiration for the badge, looking for belonging, looking for guidance, looking for the kind of structure her difficult childhood hadn’t provided. What she found instead were predators wearing uniforms.

Federal prosecutors allege that Matthew Farwell, an instructor in the program, began grooming Sandra almost immediately. By the time she was fifteen and he was twenty-seven, he had initiated a sexual relationship with her. Text messages uncovered during the investigation show him acknowledging that he took her virginity. One month later, he married his wife. The exploitation continued for nearly a decade.

But Farwell wasn’t the only officer involved. His twin brother William admitted to a sexual relationship with Sandra and allegedly encouraged her to record her encounters with others and send him the material. Their supervisor, Robert Devine, the man who created the Explorers program, communicated with Sandra under the alias “Marty Riggs” and engaged in sexual encounters with her while on duty. A fourth man, former animal control officer Joshua Heal, acknowledged a sexual encounter at the shelter where Sandra came to adopt a cat.

The lawyer for Sandra’s estate said it plainly at a hearing: these officers passed her around like she was a toy. Multiple adults inside one department exploited a vulnerable girl they met through a youth mentoring program, and not one of them reported the other. The internal affairs investigation that revealed these relationships didn’t happen until 2022 — nineteen months after Sandra was found dead.

At his POST Commission hearing, Devine blamed Sandra. He testified that she “pretty much lied about everything” and that she had pursued him. The Commission’s thirty-page ruling found otherwise. All three officers have been permanently decertified. Only one faces a federal murder charge.

This is Part 1 of a five-part series examining the life and death of Sandra Birchmore, the systems that failed her, and the federal case heading to trial in October 2026.

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This is the filing that changes everything heading into October.

Federal prosecutors revealed in April 2026 court documents that Matthew Farwell’s DNA was found on the duffel bag strap tied around Sandra Birchmore’s neck — the strap prosecutors are calling the murder weapon. His sperm cells were found in the underwear she was wearing when she was discovered. He told investigators they were last intimate in 2020. According to prosecutors, the forensic evidence proves that was a lie.

About two weeks before Sandra was found dead, a coworker asked Farwell if he was okay. He said the problem was going to take care of itself. Prosecutors believe that problem was Sandra — a 23-year-old woman who was pregnant, consulting with attorneys, and increasingly willing to hold Farwell accountable for what he had allegedly done to her since she was a child.

The prosecution also detailed how the original state investigation failed Sandra at every step. Local officers told the medical examiner there was no foul play within an hour. Canton police called the ligature a scarf. No DNA was compelled. No devices were seized. Farwell kept his phone for days. His brother was told no one was in trouble. The investigation closed. As prosecutors wrote: Farwell was never seriously considered a suspect.

Farwell has lost every major pre-trial motion. His defense’s own bail filing had to be amended after a footnote error. His investigators showed up at Sandra’s cousin’s apartment unannounced — the family is now seeking a no-contact order. When asked what he hoped would happen to Farwell, Sandra’s cousin said: “I hope he rots.”

Trial begins October 5, 2026. Federal court. Boston. If convicted, Farwell faces life.

Sandra Birchmore deserved better from every institution that touched her life. This channel exists because her story matters. Follow for full coverage through the trial.

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The motion to dismiss has been denied. Former Stoughton police detective Matthew Farwell will stand trial in federal court in October 2026 for the alleged killing of Sandra Birchmore and her unborn child. Chief Judge Denise J. Casper ruled the two-count federal indictment legally sound — and the fight for justice that Sandra's family and supporters have waged for years just cleared one of its biggest legal hurdles.

This channel exists because of Sandra. Her story — from the girl who walked into a police youth program at 12 trusting the people in uniform, to the 23-year-old woman whose death was dismissed without charges — deserves to be told completely, accurately, and without flinching.

Here's where the case stands. Farwell is charged with killing Birchmore and causing the death of her unborn child, with prosecutors alleging he strangled her and staged the scene after learning through internal department channels that her friend had reported the relationship to police. Surveillance footage places him at her apartment the night she was last seen alive. He has pleaded not guilty.

Federal prosecutors allege the exploitation began in 2013 when Sandra was 15, through the Stoughton Police Explorer Program. It allegedly continued for nearly a decade. Farwell is not the only one who has faced consequences — former Deputy Chief Robert Devine was decertified by a state oversight board, and Farwell's twin brother William has lost his law enforcement certification in Massachusetts.

The defense tried to end this before it reached a jury. The judge said no.

October 5, 2026. Federal court. Boston.

Justice for Sandra Birchmore is closer than it has ever been.

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