Since the arrest of Matthew Farwell, the former Stoughton police officer charged in the killing of Sandra Birchmore, prosecutors say they have gathered even stronger evidence.
In new court filings on Monday, prosecutors say there is DNA evidence tying Farwell to the killing of Birchmore and her unborn child. Investigators also uncovered additional corroboration that indicates that Farwell committed statutory rape, as well as more evidence of Farwell’s state of mind in the weeks and days before Birchmore died.
“All of which indicates that Farwell planned the killing well in advance,” prosecutors wrote in court filings.
New DNA evidence “conclusively” ties Farwell both to the crime scene and a weapon used in her killing, prosecutors wrote.
In May 2021, the Massachusetts State Police Crime Laboratory conducted tests and found DNA on several items that state investigators gathered from Birchmore’s apartment in Canton.
Although state investigators learned that a ligature around Birchmore’s neck tested positive for male DNA, no meaningful conclusions were drawn in 2021 because investigators did not obtain DNA from Farwell or anyone else, according to court filings, according to court filings.
As part of the federal investigation, however, the FBI obtained a federal search warrant in August 2024 to obtain a sample of Farwell’s DNA, which was compared to the DNA found on the ligature used in Birchmore’s death.
Farwell’s DNA was found on the strap used to asphyxiate Birchmore that tied her neck to a closet door handle, according to federal prosecutors.
DNA testing also found that his sperm cells were in multiple locations on the underwear that Birchmore was wearing when she was found dead on Feb. 4, 2021. This contradicts what Farwell told Massachusetts State Police on Feb. 6, 2021, when he claimed the last time he had sex with Birchmore was in October 2020.
Through DNA testing, federal investigators excluded Farwell as the father of Birchmore’s unborn son. Yet in text messages between Farwell and Birchmore between Dec. 28, 2020, and Feb. 1, 2021 there are no text messages where Farwell denied or expressed doubts about the paternity of the child, according to federal prosecutors.
“Rather, the evidence indicated that Farwell believed that he was the father of Birchmore’s unborn son,” federal prosecutors wrote. “It is the fact that Farwell held this belief — and not the fact that he was mistaken — that will be most relevant at trial.”
Prosecutors also included new statements from witnesses, including one from a former co-worker of Farwell’s who told FBI agents that he looked stressed two weeks before Birchmore’s death. The witness and Farwell were at a restaurant, and Farwell said that he was having relationship troubles with a woman other than his wife.
When the witness asked if he could help, Farwell said, “The problem was going to take care of itself,” according to prosecutors.
The latest disclosures from federal prosecutors on Monday follow an attempt by Farwell’s lawyers to release him from detention before his trial, which is set for Oct. 5. Prosecutors argue he is a “clear and convincing” danger to the community and that he is a risk of obstruction and flight.
Farwell was arrested on Aug. 24, 2024, and he faces federal charges of killing a witness or victim and violating the protection of unborn children statute.
Birchmore, 23, was pregnant when she was killed in her Canton apartment in 2021. Prosecutors say Matthew Farwell, 40, began sexually exploiting her when she was 15 and strangled her to death to keep her from reporting him for federal crimes.
The former Stoughton police officer then staged the apartment to appear as if Birchmore had killed herself, according to prosecutors. The state Chief Medical Examiner’s Office ruled her death a suicide.
Farwell’s lawyers last week requested that a federal judge allow his release from detention on an unsecured $50,000 bond and to live at his mother’s house, among other conditions. His lawyers argue that he has conducted himself “like the innocent man this Court presumes him to be” amid a state police investigation and press coverage of Birchmore’s death.
His lawyers — Joanne Daley, Kimberly Stevens and Sandra Gant — maintain that Birchmore died by suicide. In their court filings, they wrote that Birchmore had a “substantial and documented history” of suicidal ideation and that the state’s Office of the Chief Medical Examiner’s Office has not updated its conclusions that Birchmore died by suicide.
Birchmore met the former detective through a Stoughton Police Department youth program when she was a teen. Prosecutors say he began planning her killing in January 2021 after a department employee told him a friend had reported his sexual relationship with Birchmore.
Farwell was the last person known to have seen Birchmore alive on the night she died, according to an internal Stoughton police report. Security footage from that night shows him entering and exiting her apartment building, prosecutors say.
More news about the Sandra Birchmore case
Read the original article on MassLive. Add MassLive as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
