Ex-Stoughton officer now charged with death of Sandra Birchmore’s unborn baby

The former Stoughton police detective accused of killing 23-year-old Sandra Birchmore while she was pregnant now faces an additional charge. 

Matthew Farwell, 39, was charged with causing the death of a child in utero in a superseding indictment filed Tuesday by a federal grand jury. 

Birchmore was carrying a male fetus that was between eight and 10 weeks old at the time of her death, according to the document. This is the first time authorities have identified the gender of Birchmore’s unborn child. 

Prosecutors say Farwell groomed Birchmore from the time she was a high school student, committing statutory rape and engaging in a yearslong sexual relationship with her. She became pregnant in late 2020 and told Farwell that he was the father. He allegedly killed her in February 2021 to prevent the truth about their relationship from coming to light, strangling her in her apartment and staging it to look like a suicide. 

In June, news broke in The Boston Globe that DNA testing showed that Farwell was not the father of Birchmore’s child. It is unclear if law enforcement officials have determined who the father of the child was. 

Farwell has pleaded not guilty and is being held without bail at a detention center in Rhode Island. Farwell’s first charge, of killing a witness, carries the possibility of the death penalty. The Department of Justice is set to make a decision about seeking capital punishment by Jan. 20. Farwell’s trial is not expected to begin until October 2026. 

Farwell met Birchmore when she was in the Stoughton Police Explorers Academy, a program for local kids who aspired to work in law enforcement. Birchmore joined when she was 12, in 2010. Farwell became an instructor in the program in 2012, according to the indictment. 

Farwell hid his relationship with Birchmore, sometimes engaging in sex acts with her while he was supposed to be on duty, according to prosecutors. 

Birchmore’s friend contacted Stoughton police in January 2021 and told an employee about the sexual relationship between Farwell and Birchmore. Prosecutors say that the call angered Farwell and he began planning Birchmore’s murder. 

Norfolk District Attorney Michael Morrissey and the state medical examiner’s office declared Birchmore’s death a suicide a few months after she died, and no criminal charges were filed at the time. 

It wasn’t until last August that FBI agents arrested Farwell and detailed the allegations against him. 

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