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Former Stoughton cop Matthew Farwell convicted in Sandra Birchmore's 2021 death
A federal jury found ex-Stoughton Police Officer Matthew Farwell guilty Tuesday of killing Sandra Birchmore in her Canton apartment in 2021 and causing the death of her unborn child. He faces a mandatory life sentence.
A federal jury on Tuesday convicted former Stoughton Police Officer Matthew Farwell of murdering Sandra Birchmore, a young woman found dead in her Canton apartment in February 2021, and of causing the death of her unborn child.
The jury of eight men and four women returned the verdict on the third day of deliberations, following a trial that had briefly appeared headed toward a mistrial when jurors reported a deadlock on Monday.
Federal prosecutors argued that Farwell killed Birchmore inside her Canton apartment and then staged the scene to make her death appear to be a suicide. The government's case relied in part on forensic evidence, including testimony about a small bone in Birchmore's neck that prosecutors said pointed to strangulation rather than a self-inflicted death. Defense attorneys sought to refute the DNA evidence and challenged the medical conclusions.
Farwell, who served with the Stoughton Police Department, now faces a mandatory sentence of life in prison. A sentencing date was not immediately announced.
Outside the federal courthouse Tuesday, Birchmore's cousin Barbara Wright and Anne Jones were seen reacting to the verdict, according to a photograph published by the Boston Herald.
The case has drawn intense scrutiny to how local law enforcement handled Birchmore's death in the months and years before federal charges were brought. Birchmore's family and supporters had long questioned the initial investigation, which treated her death as a suicide. The federal prosecution effectively rejected that conclusion, with prosecutors telling jurors that Farwell â who had a prior relationship with Birchmore â killed her to prevent her from revealing damaging information.
The conviction marks a rare federal murder prosecution of a former police officer in Massachusetts and is likely to renew calls for greater accountability and transparency in how departments investigate allegations involving their own personnel. For Canton and Stoughton residents, the verdict closes a chapter in a case that has lingered for more than five years and raised uncomfortable questions about trust in local policing.
Farwell's defense team rested its case on November 4 after presenting witnesses aimed at undermining the government's forensic evidence. Jurors began deliberating late last week and reported they were deadlocked on Monday before returning Tuesday with a unanimous guilty verdict on both counts.