More witnesses to testify in trial of ex-Massachusetts police officer charged in Sandra Birchmore death
Testimony in the trial of former Stoughton, Massachusetts police officer Matthew Farwell resumed for a second day Wednesday at federal court in South Boston.
Farwell is accused of killing 23-year-old Sandra Birchmore and her unborn baby in her Canton apartment in February 2021. Her death was initially ruled a suicide, but friends didn't believe it.
Farwell was later charged in 2024 with a federal count of killing a witness or victim. In 2025, he was also charged with causing the death of an unborn child. If convicted, he faces a mandatory sentence of life in prison. He has pleaded not guilty to both charges.
Massachusetts State Police Trooper Matthew Dunne was back on the witness stand Wednesday. He's one of the investigators who initially looked into Birchmore's death and ruled it a suicide. Jurors can also expect to hear from a friend of Birchmore, a Stoughton police detective and the former Stoughton police chief.
The first day of testimony Tuesday featured several witnesses who were close to Birchmore and surveillance video from her apartment building the day she died.
Investigators said Farwell started sexually abusing Birchmore when she was 15 and he was 27. They met when she joined the police department's explorers' program.
Prosecutors said Birchmore learned she was pregnant in December 2020 and told Farwell he was the father. The defense said DNA testing confirmed Farwell was not the father.
The video played in court Tuesday showed Farwell, wearing a hood and mask, entering the lobby of Birchmore's apartment building and getting on an elevator at 9:28 p.m. on February 1, 2021. Prosecutors said Farwell strangled Birchmore and staged it as a suicide. He left about a half-hour later.
Farwell's attorney did not deny her client and Birchmore had an affair, but she said Farwell never thought the baby was his and when he broke up with Birchmore, she killed herself.
The trial is expected to last about five weeks. No cameras are allowed in federal court so it is not being broadcast or livestreamed.
