A former Massachusetts police detective accused of strangling a lady who had lately informed him she was pregnant along with his little one after which staging the scene to seem as a suicide has been charged in her 2021 demise, federal prosecutors mentioned Wednesday.
They allege that Matthew Farwell killed Sandra Birchmore years after he started grooming and sexually abusing her as a youth within the Stoughton Police Explorers Academy. Farwell was an teacher in this system designed to foster an curiosity in police work and labored for the Stoughton Police Division from 2012 to 2022.
Farwell, 38, started having intercourse, together with whereas on obligation, with Birchmore when she was 15, appearing U.S. Legal professional Joshua Levy mentioned at a information convention Wednesday.
She “survived years of grooming, statutory rape after which sexual violence, all by the hands of Matthew Farwell,” Levy mentioned.
Farwell befriended her, contacted her on-line and went to the library along with her earlier than he started committing statutory rape, Levy mentioned.
Prosecutors mentioned Farwell killed Birchmore, 23, on Feb. 1, 2021, in her Canton, Massachusetts, residence when he may not management her and as phrase started to get out that he had been having intercourse along with her for years.
“He allegedly silenced her completely,” Levy mentioned.
Authorities initially dominated Birchmore’s demise a suicide.
Farwell has been charged with one rely of killing a witness or sufferer. The FBI arrested him in Revere, Massachusetts, on Wednesday.
A lawyer for Farwell didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.
In October 2020, Birchmore informed Farwell she needed to have a child and he agreed to attempt to impregnate her if she stayed silent about his previous conduct and their relationship, in line with a movement prosecutors filed arguing for pretrial detention.
Birchmore needed to have a baby and was enthusiastic about her being pregnant, however Farwell was not, and his conduct grew extra erratic and harmful, Levy mentioned.
Birchmore informed Farwell the kid was his and started asking him about docs’ appointments, ultrasounds and what info can be on the start certificates.
‘Dropping management’
A month earlier than Birchmore was killed, considered one of her associates informed Stoughton police that Farwell had been having intercourse with Birchmore, the indictment mentioned.
“Mr. Farwell was dropping management in late 2020, early 2021, and the knowledge that Sandra Birchmore possessed about his unlawful conduct was in peril of slipping out. In reality, phrase began to get out about their relationship lower than two weeks earlier than she was discovered useless,” Levy mentioned.
After the good friend got here ahead, 6-foot-4 Farwell allegedly turned violent with 4-foot-10 Birchmore. He pushed her and put her in a chokehold, Levy mentioned.
Prosecutors mentioned Farwell killed Birchmore hours earlier than his spouse delivered their third little one. Birchmore was strangled as a blizzard approached the Boston area, which prosecutors mentioned would give Farwell cowl for Birchmore’s absence from work for days.
Farwell hid proof in Birchmore’s demise, in line with prosecutors, by telling her to delete proof on her cellphone that that they had intercourse earlier than she was 16, repositioning her lifeless physique and staging her residence to seem like the scene of a suicide, the movement mentioned.
He additionally lied to detectives with the Massachusetts State Police, the company that originally investigated Birchmore’s demise, by telling investigators their sexual relationship started in 2020, not seven years earlier, and by saying he had intercourse only some instances, prosecutors mentioned. He additionally allowed solely “restricted consent” to look his cellphone, the detention movement mentioned.
Troubling allegations
Birchmore’s alleged sexual abuse as part of the police Explorers membership was included in a Marshall Challenge investigation, revealed in partnership with NBC Information in Could, about abuse allegations in regulation enforcement Explorer posts throughout the nation. This system, created by the Boy Scouts of America, goals to show teenagers and younger adults about policing.
The information of Farwell’s arrest comes two years Stoughton’s police chief introduced that Farwell and two different former officers on the company, together with Farwell’s twin brother, William, had inappropriate relationships with Birchmore.
William Farwell has denied the allegations.
That conclusion got here from a prolonged inner affairs investigation prompted by Birchmore’s demise, mentioned Chief Donna McNamara, who referred to as the previous officers’ conduct “deeply disturbing.”
“Via a sustained and deliberate mixture of lies, deceit and treachery, they violated the insurance policies and the core values of the Stoughton Police Division,” McNamara mentioned on the time. “To not point out human decency.”
McNamara mentioned the Farwell brothers started as youth members within the Explorers membership underneath Robert Devine, the third former officer accused of getting had an inappropriate relationship with Birchmore. Devine has denied the allegations.
Devine, a former deputy chief on the Stoughton Police Division, had remodeled the Explorers program from a scouting membership right into a paramilitary group that taught elements of policing to younger individuals, McNamara mentioned.
Like Matthew Farwell, William Farwell was additionally an teacher in this system within the city about 25 miles south of Boston, McNamara mentioned.
Earlier than Birchmore entered the Explorers membership as a younger teenager, she’d had a troublesome childhood however developed a deep admiration for police, in line with a wrongful demise go well with her household filed in opposition to the Farwell brothers and Devine in 2022.
“Folks with oaths and duties to guard and serve led her to kind relationships with males who had been prepared to make the most of her,” McNamara mentioned.
McNamara mentioned Matthew Farwell was 27 when is alleged to have begun his sexual relationship with Birchmore when she was 15.
The inner affairs investigation uncovered a whole bunch of messages and express exchanges between them that spanned years, McNamara mentioned. The probe additionally confirmed that William Farwell launched Birchmore to different males, she mentioned.
McNamara mentioned all three males resigned earlier than they could possibly be interviewed.
Requested in regards to the different former officers Wednesday, Levy wouldn’t remark.
The division advisable that their certifications as law enforcement officials be completely revoked so they can not serve in regulation enforcement wherever within the nation, McNamara mentioned.
Attorneys for William Farwell and Devine didn’t instantly reply to requests for remark in regards to the standing of their decertifications.
In an announcement Wednesday, McNamara mentioned it had been her precedence for the final three years to make sure justice within the case.
“Sandra Birchmore acquired no justice throughout her life,” she mentioned. “It’s crucial that justice be served in her demise, and as we speak’s actions seem to convey our society one step nearer to justice.”