On Tuesday, a former Massachusetts police officer was charged with murdering a pregnant lady and staging her demise to appear to be a suicide to forestall her from revealing that he had groomed her beginning when she was simply 15.
Matthew Farwell, now 38, allegedly strangled 23-year-old Sandra Birchmore in 2021. Based on prosecutors, Farwell killed Birchmore weeks after she informed him she was pregnant together with his little one. Farwell was allegedly apprehensive that Birchmore would inform different Stoughton, Massachusetts, law enforcement officials about their relationship.
“Birchmore was a weak particular person,” Stoughton Police Chief Donna McNamara stated in 2022, after an investigation revealed Farwell’s relationship with Birchmore. “One fixed in her life since childhood: her unwavering admiration of law enforcement officials….The admiration led her to type relationships with males who had been keen to benefit from her.”
Based on courtroom paperwork, Birchmore utilized to the Stoughton Police Explorers Academy, a police division program geared toward youth fascinated by working in regulation enforcement, when she was 12. There, she met Farwell, who allegedly groomed her and finally had intercourse together with her when she was 15 and he was 27. Their relationship continued for years, with the pair finally agreeing in 2020 that Farwell would assist Birchmore grow to be pregnant, in alternate for her maintaining their relationship a secret.
Based on a Wednesday press convention, after Birchmore knowledgeable Farwell she had conceived his little one in December 2020, he turned more and more violent and controlling, pushing her, shoving her, and placing her in a chokehold.
“Mr. Farwell was dropping management in late 2020, early 2021, and the knowledge that Sandra Birchmore possessed about his unlawful conduct was in peril of slipping out,” appearing U.S. Legal professional Joshua Levy stated on Wednesday. “The truth is, phrase began to get out about their relationship. Lower than two weeks earlier than she was discovered lifeless, somebody referred to as the Stoughton Police Division and disclosed that Matthew Farwell had had a relationship with Sandra Birchmore. When Mr. Farwell discovered about that, that decision, he turned visibly indignant.”
Prosecutors declare that, after killing Birchmore, Farwell staged her demise to appear to be a suicide—a tactic that initially fooled investigators, who dominated her demise a suicide after a 2021 post-mortem.
In 2022, 10 Boston, an area information station, reported that 4 former Stoughton Police Division staff—together with Farwell and his twin brother William—had additionally had “inappropriate” relationships with Birchmore. All 4 officers resigned earlier than the 2022 investigation.
“Giving voice to the unvoiced, guaranteeing that nobody is above the regulation, defending the weak individuals of Massachusetts, that is the very best calling of individuals in regulation enforcement,” Levy stated on Wednesday. “Mr. Farwell violated these rules, and now he faces very grave penalties.”
Farwell has pled not responsible to the costs. If convicted, he faces a minimal sentence of life in jail.
