A former Stoughton, Massachusetts, police detective this week was charged with killing a pregnant lady whom he had allegedly sexually exploited since she was 15 and a part of a youth vocational program.
The dying of 23-year-old Sandra Birchmore in 2021 was initially dominated a suicide, however her household and supporters spoke out about her dying for years, claiming to native media, in posts on-line and in a lawsuit that Matthew Farwell — allegedly the daddy of her unborn little one — was accountable.
Then on Wednesday, federal authorities dropped the bombshell that Farwell had been indicted on a depend of killing a witness or sufferer and alleged that he had staged Birchmore’s dying as a suicide to maintain her from talking up about his potential fee of crimes.
Farwell was taken into custody; his attorneys didn’t instantly reply to JHB’s requests for remark.
“Matthew Farwell’s gun and badge didn’t grant him authority to violate the Structure, and it actually didn’t entitle him to sexually exploit, abuse and rape a toddler earlier than killing her and her unborn child in an try and cowl up his alleged crimes,” Stephen Kelleher, an FBI assistant particular agent in cost, advised reporters.
Justice For Sandra Birchmore
In accordance with a bail movement obtained by JHB, Birchmore first utilized for a neighborhood “Police Explorers” program in March 2010 when she was 12. Farwell was a volunteer for the vocational program earlier than becoming a member of the Stoughton Police Division in 2012, after which turned a Police Explorers teacher.
Prosecutors stated that Farwell started speaking with Birchmore on-line by 2012, when he was 26 and she or he was 15, and would meet her on the Stoughton Public Library “the place he would sexually groom her beneath the guise of offering tutorial tutoring.” His sexual abuse started in 2013, prosecutors stated, however a textual content message cited within the bail movement appeared to indicate Farwell telling Birchmore that he would have favored to have intercourse together with her when she was even youthful.
And when Birchmore turned a authorized grownup, Farwell allegedly cultivated a “controlling and typically abusive relationship.”
Some sexual encounters occurred whereas he was on responsibility, in response to prosecutors, who stated that Farwell’s acts may very well be violations of federal legal guidelines together with coercion and enticement, deprivation of rights beneath shade of legislation and wire fraud.
In October 2020, Birchmore advised Farwell that she needed to have a toddler. The 2 got here to an settlement for Farwell to impregnate Birchmore in alternate for her silence concerning the legal sexual encounters, prosecutors stated. However when Birchmore advised him that she was pregnant that December, the bail movement stated that he “responded poorly.”
“He turned bodily violent with Birchmore,” prosecutors wrote. “She advised a number of pals that Farwell had pushed and shoved her, grabbed objects from her palms, and put her in a chokehold.”
One in every of Birchmore’s pals known as the Stoughton Police Division in January 2021 and allegedly spoke up concerning the sexual abuse. An worker with the division later knowledgeable Farwell of the decision, with prosecutors saying that he then “angrily demanded that the worker by no means inform anybody concerning the info.”
Farwell allegedly confronted Birchmore, texting her: “what else do I’ve to fret about now? Which different pal will do one thing tomorrow.” It was at this level that prosecutors stated he started plotting to kill her.
On Feb. 1, 2021, Farwell advised Birchmore that he was going to her condominium and he then entered sporting a face masks, prosecutors stated. He allegedly strangled Birchmore earlier than repositioning her physique. First responders later “discovered Birchmore in a seated place with a strap round her neck and door knob,” the bail movement stated. The state medical expert’s workplace dominated her dying a suicide months later.
However her members of the family believed Farwell was accountable, and hundreds of individuals joined a Fb web page about Birchmore’s dying. Her household filed a wrongful dying lawsuit in December 2022, accusing Farwell and two different Stoughton officers — Robert Devine and Farwell’s brother William Farwell — of pushing the 23-year-old to suicide. The household alleged within the swimsuit that the lads engaged in intercourse acts with Birchmore whereas she was a minor and a part of the Police Explorers program.
In response, all three both denied or claimed to not have sufficient information to verify or deny their accountability within the dying. Litigation stays ongoing. The three males voluntarily left their jobs with Stoughton police in 2022, The Boston Globe reported.
Earlier this 12 months, a forensic pathologist employed by Birchmore’s household stated that her dying was a murder, in response to the Globe.
A message on a “Justice for Sandra Birchmore” web site described this week’s indictment of Matthew Farwell as an vital transfer.
“This isn’t the top. It’s only the start to getting Sandra and her unborn little one the justice they deserve. Additionally it is vital to notice that this indictment may save numerous different ladies from the evil of Matthew Farwell,” the positioning stated. “And what concerning the others? Solely time will inform if William Farwell and Robert Devine will likely be charged, as properly.”
Donna McNamara, the chief of Stoughton police, praised the federal indictment of Matthew Farwell, calling Birchmore’s dying “a horrific injustice.”
“The allegations in opposition to the suspect, a former Stoughton Police Officer, characterize the only worst act of not simply skilled misconduct however certainly human indecency that I’ve noticed in an almost three-decade profession in legislation enforcement,” McNamara stated.
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