A federal jury in South Boston convicted former Stoughton police officer Matthew Farwell on Tuesday of killing Sandra Birchmore and her unborn child. Farwell was found guilty of killing a witness or victim and causing the death of an unborn child. The verdict follows a four-week trial involving testimony from 50 witnesses.
The case originated in February 2021, when 23-year-old Birchmore was found dead in her Canton apartment with a strap around her neck. While her death was initially ruled a suicide, prosecutors alleged that Farwell strangled her and staged the scene to look like a suicide. Federal authorities arrested Farwell more than three years later, and the medical examiner subsequently changed the manner of death from suicide to "undetermined."
Evidence at trial indicated that Farwell and Birchmore met when she was a 13-year-old cadet in a police youth explorers program. Prosecutors stated that Farwell began a sexual relationship with her when she was 15 and that at the time of her death, Birchmore was pregnant with a child she believed was his. To reach a guilty verdict on the charge of killing a witness, jurors were required to find that Farwell killed Birchmore specifically to prevent her from reporting his actions to federal authorities.
The conviction affects the family of Sandra Birchmore, who had sought justice for nearly six years, as well as the Stoughton Police Department and the Norfolk District Attorney’s Office. The case drew attention to the Stoughton Police Department’s youth explorers program, where the relationship between the officer and the teenager began. The verdict concludes a federal prosecution that began after local authorities did not file state charges.
Farwell faces a mandatory sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole. While the Department of Justice had the option to pursue the death penalty in this federal case, the agency announced last year that it would not do so. For the Norfolk District Attorney's Office, the verdict follows public scrutiny regarding its initial handling of the death investigation, which the office defended by citing the medical examiner’s original ruling of suicide.
The verdict prompted statements from local police leadership, with Stoughton Acting Police Chief James O’Connor stating the case represented a "profound betrayal" of public trust. The next step in the legal process is the sentencing hearing, which the judge has scheduled for Feb. 3, 2027. Under federal law, the life sentence is mandatory, meaning there is no opportunity for the defendant to be released on parole.