A Massachusetts cop has been accused of murdering a pregnant 23-year-old he allegedly began sexually abusing when she was just a 15-year-old volunteer with his police department.
Matthew Farwell, formerly of the Stoughton Police Department, was indicted for allegedly strangling Sandra Birchmore in her Canton apartment in February 2021, and then staging the scene to make it appear as if she’d committed suicide, court documents obtained by NBC Boston show.
Birchmore was three months pregnant at the time of her death, and had recently informed Farwell that she thought he was the father.
She was just 13 years old when she met Farwell in 2010 while serving in the Stoughton Police Department’s youth program, called “Explorers.”
After her death, an internal police probe determined that Farwell began abusing her when he was 27 and she was 15.
He denied the allegations, but acknowledged having sex with her when she was over the Massachusetts 16-year-old age of consent, according to the Boston Globe.
Farwell is just one of three members of the police department accused of molesting her.
His brother, William Farwell, along with Robert Devine, were all accused in a wrongful death suit brought by Birchmore’s family.
All three cops resigned from the department in 2022, but until now no criminal charges have been brought against them.
Farwell is the last known person to have seen Birchmore alive.
Just three days before her body was discovered, surveillance footage from Birchmore’s lobby showed him arriving with a hood over his face and then leaving alone some time later.
The indictment charges Farwell with killing Birchmore “with malice aforethought, willfully, deliberately, maliciously, and with premeditation.”
