The murder trial of former Stoughton Police Officer Matthew Farwell began Friday with a brief 9 a.m. hearing, following jury selection earlier in the week. Farwell, 40, is accused of killing his pregnant mistress, Sandra Birchmore, 23, and staging her death to look like a suicide.
Once jurors were seated, the proceedings moved into opening statements, with testimony expected from Stoughton Detective Heather Cheever and a local elementary school official.
Birchmore died in February 2021, and her death was initially ruled a suicide. The FBI arrested Farwell in August 2024 after internal affairs and federal investigations pointed to a different explanation. He has pleaded not guilty and has remained jailed since his arrest.
Prosecutors say Farwell began grooming Birchmore when she was a teenager enrolled in the Stoughton Police Department’s explorers program, which she joined at age 12. Farwell, then 27, volunteered with the program and is accused of exploiting his role to begin a sexual relationship with her after she turned 15. That relationship, prosecutors allege, continued into her adulthood, including instances while Farwell was on duty.
According to prosecutors, Farwell killed Birchmore on Feb. 1, 2021, after learning she was pregnant and intended to keep the baby. They allege he told her she was “the worst person on the face of the earth.” Birchmore was between eight and ten weeks pregnant at the time of her death, which came roughly two weeks before Valentine’s Day — when prosecutors say she had planned to publicly announce the pregnancy.
Court filings indicate Farwell believed he was the father based on text messages exchanged with Birchmore between Dec. 28, 2020, and Feb. 1, 2021, the day she died. In those messages, prosecutors say, Birchmore shared updates about her due date, ultrasounds, doctor’s appointments and a planned gender reveal. Both sides have agreed that DNA testing later excluded Farwell as the biological father.
Stoughton is a suburb roughly 20 miles south of Boston. The trial is ongoing.
