Chilling video has emerged showing a masked ex-police officer who is accused of murdering his pregnant mistress entering and leaving her apartment just hours before she was killed.
Massachusetts woman Sandra Birchmore, 23, was found dead inside her Canton apartment in February 2021.
Prosecutors say her accused killer Matthew Farwell, a former Stoughton detective, staged the scene to make it look like a suicide.
They claim the married ex-cop was attempting to conceal his sexual relationship with Birchmore, which allegedly began when she was 15 and he was 27, from his pregnant wife.
The haunting video shows Farwell entering Birchmore’s apartment building while wearing dark hooded clothing and a covid-19 face mask – before hastily exiting around 30 minutes later.
He was then allegedly pictured wearing the same clothes in a snap of him cradling his newborn son taken the next day, investigative podcast The Case reports.
Chilling video has emerged showing the last hours of expectant mom Sandra Birchmore, 23, who was strangled to death by her ex-cop lover, according to prosecutors
A federal indictment states that Farwell ‘resisted’ wearing a face mask during the pandemic and would only do so when mandated by his employers, making his choice to sport one to visit Birchmore as unusual.
The detail is one of several unexplained aspects which prosecutors say were overlooked when Birchmore’s death was initially ruled as a suicide by hanging.
These include Birchmore’s gold necklace, which was left broken around her neck in a manner indicative of a struggle, according to experts.
The necklace was not taken as evidence and was later found entangled with a clump of hair by Birchmore’s family as they were cleaning her apartment.
The expectant mom, who was around three months pregnant, was found dead on February 4, three days after she was killed.
Despite evidence showing that Farwell was the last person to see her alive, the death was quickly ruled a suicide.
But for her loved ones, this conclusion did not stack up. Birchmore had been excited to become a mom, as evidenced by a home made sign she had made for Farwell announcing he was going to be a dad.
She had been communicating as normal and had been going about her daily chores the day she died. A load of wet laundry was discovered in the machine at the time of her death, Boston Magazine reports.
Video footage showed her accused killer, former Stoughton Police Detective Matthew Farwell entering and leaving her apartment the night she died
Prosecutors said Matthew Farwell murdered his pregnant mistress and staged it as a suicide
It would take four years of campaigning by her family as well as investigation by the FBI to bring about charges against Farwell.
Part of the decision was based on a review of the evidence by federal forensics expert Dr William Smock, which found details to suggest foul play.
Smock pointed out that Birchmore’s beloved gold necklace was broken and hanging around her neck in photographs taken before her body was removed to the mortuary.
‘Dr. Smock noted that Birchmore was in the habit of always wearing a chain necklace with a flamingo pendant,’ the FBI indictment reads.
‘The chain was found broken around Birchmore’s neck. The breaking of Birchmore’s chain necklace is consistent with a struggle.’
Smock also highlighted inconsistencies with the way Birchmore’s neck bone had fractured, which suggested that her neck was broken through a strangulation, rather than hanging.
The abrasions on her body were also inconsistent with the initial narrative which suggested she had killed herself by winding the strap of a duffel bag around her neck and securing it to her closet door, according to Smock.
Birchmore herself made an eerie reference to the same closet in a text message to a friend in which she described how Farwell had come round to inspect it, the indictment states.
Birchmore met her accused killer through the Stoughton Police Explorers and prosecutors allege he groomed her before entering into a sexual relationship with her while she was a minor
She fell pregnant with his child and drew him this handmade card to celebrate
Farwell has denied any involvement and pleaded not guilty to Birchmore’s murder.
A crucial part of the story which appears to have been initially overlooked is their alleged relationship.
The two met when Birchmore was a 12-year-old aspiring police officer and she joined the Stoughton Police Explorers.
Farwell was her mentor throughout the program, but prosecutors say their relationship crossed a line, with him taking her virginity when she was just 15.
Even years later, the accused killer would reference this fact in text messages.
In 2019, ‘Birchmore told Farwell that she was happy that he “took it.” Later in the same conversation, Farwell acknowledged that it was “a big thing to get to be the first,’ the indictment states.
The document also lays bare explicit messages which detail Farwell’s rape and incest fantasies, as well as his controlling nature.
‘Birchmore often journaled about Farwell using sex acts to punish her,’ the indictment states.
‘According to her journal entries, Farwell would engage in forceful oral, vaginal, and anal sex acts to punish her for her mistakes such as getting bad grades, having intercourse with other people, and failing to share her cell phone location with him.’
However, prosecutors say married father-of-three Farwell began to fear he was losing control of Birchgrove and turned to deadly actions to keep the relationship quiet
Former officers William Farwell and Robert Devine were also accused of grooming and sexually assaulting Birchgrove
The sexual encounters often took place while Farwell was on duty, prosecutors stated.
The filing goes on to state that sick memes relating to necrophilia, rape and sexual assault were also found on Farwell’s electronic devices.
All the while, Farwell was a married father-of-two, with a third child on the way.
Boston Magazine reports that his youngest son was born just hours after Farwell left Birchmore’s home on the night of her murder and that the accused killer was pictured wearing the same outfit he had been sporting earlier that evening.
In the run up to the murder, ‘Farwell was losing control of Birchmore and the information she possessed about his past and then-ongoing conduct,’ the indictment states.
A friend had also contacted the force to make allegations about their relationship which were passed onto Farwell, the document states.
Another friend told Boston Magazine that Birchmore had also been involved with Farwell’s brother William ‘Billy’ Farwell.
While Farwell was domineering, Billy presented himself as ‘the sweet one, the best friend with benefits. It was a very sick good cop, bad cop relationship she had with them,’ Hailee Sousa said.
In 2022, 18 months after Birchmore’s death, three officers were publicly reprimanded by Police Chief Donna McNamara for ‘inappropriate’ relationships with the young woman
Multiple law enforcement agencies are continuing to investigate her death
Sousa said that Birchmore was also being manipulated by a third police officer named Robert Devine, who she also met through the explorers’ program.
Devine allegedly used an online profile to elicit sexual content from Birchmore. He had his police certification suspended, but is fighting against having it removed completely.
Devine, who has since retired, said: ‘I had no personal relationship with Sandra whatsoever. She never had access to my phone number and I never socialized with her’, according to the Boston Globe.
But he and Billy were reprimanded in 2022 by Police Chief Donna McNamara for ‘inappropriate’ relationships with the young woman. Neither have been charged with any offence.
‘Sandra is a sex trafficking victim,’ Sousa said. ‘They told her to do things and send pictures, videos of it. Matt knew she would be obedient to him.
‘That was the dynamic. They mentally manipulated that girl until she had no voice.’