Investigator says Farwell admitted visiting Sandra Birchmore's apartment the night she died

What the investigator told jurors

Massachusetts State Police Trooper Matthew Dunne testified on Wednesday, October 14, that former Stoughton police officer Matthew Farwell volunteered during a 2021 interview that he had gone to Sandra Birchmore's apartment on the night of February 1, 2021. According to The Boston Globe, Dunne said Farwell described the visit as an attempt to end their relationship and to tell Birchmore that the child she was carrying was not his. "That detail he was truthful about," Dunne said. ^[1]

Dunne testified that the February 6, 2021 interview, held in an elementary school parking lot, was not recorded and that no one took notes. He said Farwell told investigators the relationship began in 2020 and that he had unfriended Birchmore and deleted their communications. Dunne said investigators later found the account of when the relationship started to be inaccurate, because phone evidence pointed to an earlier start. ^[1]

Under questioning, Dunne said he did not interview neighbors and did not flag the death as suspicious, Boston 25 News reported. He also told jurors no one could establish when Farwell left the apartment because there were no cameras outside the unit or in the stairwell, and that he saw no signs of forced entry or a struggle. ^{[2] [1]}

Cross-examination and redirect

On cross-examination, Dunne said Birchmore's coworkers had mentioned anxiety and possible depression and that a relative reported a bipolar diagnosis and past suicidal statements, the Globe reported. On redirect, prosecutors challenged his description of the apartment by pointing to water bottles, sandals and bobby pins on the floor. ^[1]

Dunne also said he did not notice a broken flamingo-pendant necklace at the scene and did not collect a duffel bag that was later linked to the ligature, according to the Globe. ^[1]

Earlier witnesses

Testimony began on Tuesday, October 13. Stoughton police Det. Heather Cheever, who had mentored Birchmore, said Birchmore "never expressed to me that she was ever suicidal," Boston 25 News reported. Cheryl Carlson, who hired Birchmore as an instructional assistant in Sharon Public Schools, said, "It didn't make sense to me because she was so excited to have that baby." ^[2]

Canton police officer Ensley Cotard testified that he found Birchmore's body in a bedroom with a duffel bag strap around her neck when he responded to a welfare check after she missed work following a snowstorm. Boston 25 News reported that a judge was also weighing a motion over testimony from three women who had affairs with Farwell. ^[2]

The case so far

Birchmore, 23, was found dead in her Canton apartment in February 2021. The medical examiner first ruled her death a suicide and later changed the cause to undetermined. Federal prosecutors charged Farwell in 2024, and he has pleaded not guilty. He faces life in prison if convicted, CBS News reported, and has been held without bail since his August 2024 arrest, according to the Globe. Chief U.S. District Judge Denise J. Casper is presiding at the Moakley Federal Courthouse in Boston. ^{[3] [1]}

Prosecutors say Farwell met Birchmore when she was 13 through a police youth program, groomed her for years and began a sexual relationship when she was 15. They allege he strangled her after she told him he was the father of her child and staged the scene as a suicide. DNA testing later showed he was not the father; his lawyers say he never believed he was. An internal affairs investigation released in August 2022 found at least two other Stoughton officers had inappropriate relationships with her, and all three officers resigned, CBS News reported. ^[3]