Jurors found Farwell guilty on both counts against him, agreeing with federal prosecutors that he killed Birchmore and then staged the scene to make it appear she had taken her own life. Prosecutors argued that Farwell went to Birchmore's apartment to silence her the day before his wife gave birth to their third child. They also said he had groomed Birchmore starting when she was a teenager.

"This is absolutely diabolical behavior," U.S. Attorney Leah Foley said after the verdict. "Sandra's death was initially ruled a suicide, and Farwell went on with his life, believing he quite literally had gotten away with murder."

The case remained classified as a suicide for three years before the FBI reopened it. That delay is now central to the family's demand for broader accountability.

"We want to thank the U.S. attorneys for rigorously prosecuting her killer when the Norfolk County district attorney, Mike Morrissey, and the Norfolk County prosecutor, Lynn Beland, would not," said Angelique Pirozzi, Birchmore's cousin.

Another cousin, Barbara Wright, was more blunt. "It is a travesty of justice. It shouldn't have come to this, the state should have done it," she said.

The family's grief was paired with a focus on the life Birchmore and her son never got to live. "If not for Matt Farwell, Sandra would be seeing her son off to kindergarten next year," Pirozzi said.

Wright added, "He's going to spend every day of his life thinking about what he did."

Farwell is scheduled to be sentenced in early February, almost exactly six years after Birchmore was killed. The conviction marks a rare federal intervention in a case that state authorities had closed as a suicide, and it leaves open the question of whether the Norfolk County district attorney's office will face any formal review for its handling of the original investigation.

For Birchmore's family, the verdict is a measure of justice, but not the full accounting they believe the case demands.