SANDRA BIRCHMORE: 2021 murder and cover-up *ARREST*

I used to start a fair amount of case threads but life has me not doing so in quite awhile. The title will likely need more info, date, etc. and an intro.

I don't know enough yet to have an opinion but keep running into this case. Of course it jump started due to being the same area as Karen Read with LE involvement and yet nothing about them is similar. Night and day different.

An issue I have with cases of suicides or drownings, some various things like that is when they rule such accidental or suicide when it cannot be known. Not saying they aren't right in a lot of cases but short of solid proof it is such, I think they should in many cases be ruled undetermined.

It seems this one is heating up and I think a thread should be started but a mod may have to tweak my title and intro.

 

[SheWhoMustNotBeNamed]

Stoughton police officer accused of murdering Sandra Birchmore asks to move trial out of state - Boston News, Weather, Sports | WHDH 7News

BOSTON (WHDH) - Former Stoughton police officer Matthew Farwell appeared in court Tuesday for the first time since he was arrested in 2024, asking a<a class="excerpt-read-more"...

whdh.com

Stoughton police officer accused of murdering Sandra Birchmore asks to move trial out of state​

Former Stoughton police officer Matthew Farwell appeared in court Tuesday for the first time since he was arrested in 2024, asking a judge to move his murder trial out of state.

Farwell’s attorney told the judge that news reports about her client’s case have been biased; she argues the publicity prevents Farwell from getting a fair trial in Massachusetts. She suggested the case be moved to Rhode Island.

“Yeah there’s been publicity, but Providence is just 20 minutes away. It’s a train stop away for all intents and purposes,” said Peter Murphy, a supporter of Birchmore. “What’s not gonna get conveyed in the next nine months to Providence?”


“On February 1 it will be five years since she died,” Wright said. “It’s been a long time coming. We’ve been waiting for justice for a long time.”

The judge said she would issue a ruling at a later date. The trial is set to begin in October.

 

[Guess Who]

Stoughton police officer accused of murdering Sandra Birchmore asks to move trial out of state - Boston News, Weather, Sports | WHDH 7News

BOSTON (WHDH) - Former Stoughton police officer Matthew Farwell appeared in court Tuesday for the first time since he was arrested in 2024, asking a<a class="excerpt-read-more"...

whdh.com

Stoughton police officer accused of murdering Sandra Birchmore asks to move trial out of state​

Former Stoughton police officer Matthew Farwell appeared in court Tuesday for the first time since he was arrested in 2024, asking a judge to move his murder trial out of state.

Farwell’s attorney told the judge that news reports about her client’s case have been biased; she argues the publicity prevents Farwell from getting a fair trial in Massachusetts. She suggested the case be moved to Rhode Island.

“Yeah there’s been publicity, but Providence is just 20 minutes away. It’s a train stop away for all intents and purposes,” said Peter Murphy, a supporter of Birchmore. “What’s not gonna get conveyed in the next nine months to Providence?”


“On February 1 it will be five years since she died,” Wright said. “It’s been a long time coming. We’ve been waiting for justice for a long time.”

The judge said she would issue a ruling at a later date. The trial is set to begin in October.

I knew they could change counties, but was not aware that they could change states.

 

[GrandmaBear]

I knew they could change counties, but was not aware that they could change states.

It's federal is what I think I heard on a show and it isn't nearly as hard for the feds to move jurisdiction they said. Not nearly as big of a deal.

 

[Kimster]

It's federal is what I think I heard on a show and it isn't nearly as hard for the feds to move jurisdiction they said. Not nearly as big of a deal.

Ah, okay. It's federal. I was wondering how that was going to work, too.

 

[SheWhoMustNotBeNamed]

Judge denies venue change in Farwell, Birchmore case

“Farwell has not met the high burden of demonstrating that pretrial publicity would prevent him from receiving a fair trial in this district,” the judge wrote.

www.wcvb.com

Federal judge denies Matthew Farwell's change of venue motion for Sandra Birchmore case​

The trial of a former Stoughton police officer will be held in Massachusetts, against the officer's request to move it out of state.

In a ruling released Friday afternoon, Chief U.S. District Judge Denise J. Casper wrote that the media coverage of the charges against Matthew Farwell didn’t warrant moving the upcoming trial.

“Farwell has not met the high burden of demonstrating that pretrial publicity would prevent him from receiving a fair trial in this district,” Casper wrote.

 

[Cousin Dupree]

Judge denies venue change in Farwell, Birchmore case

“Farwell has not met the high burden of demonstrating that pretrial publicity would prevent him from receiving a fair trial in this district,” the judge wrote.

www.wcvb.com

Federal judge denies Matthew Farwell's change of venue motion for Sandra Birchmore case​

The trial of a former Stoughton police officer will be held in Massachusetts, against the officer's request to move it out of state.

In a ruling released Friday afternoon, Chief U.S. District Judge Denise J. Casper wrote that the media coverage of the charges against Matthew Farwell didn’t warrant moving the upcoming trial.

“Farwell has not met the high burden of demonstrating that pretrial publicity would prevent him from receiving a fair trial in this district,” Casper wrote.

 

[SheWhoMustNotBeNamed]

Farwell’s lawyer file motion to dismiss federal Birchmore murder case

Former Stoughton police officer Matthew Farwell’s lawyers filed a motion to dismiss the federal murder charges against him late last week.

www.bostonherald.com

Farwell’s lawyer file motion to dismiss federal Birchmore murder case​

Matthew Farwell's lawyers filed a motion to dismiss the federal murder case against him for the death of Sandra Birchmore.

Former Stoughton police officer Matthew Farwell’s lawyers have asked a judge to toss the federal murder charges against him.


Farwell’s defense attorneys said in their filing late last week that the government has failed to state a federal offense and present essential facts in their charging documents and evidence submitted through discovery so far.

“Specifically, the indictment fails to allege a fact essential to establishing federal jurisdiction: that there was a reasonable likelihood that any communication the defendant allegedly prevented would have been to a law enforcement officer or judge of the United States,” the motion read.

Murder is only a federal crime under certain circumstances, including when a person is murdered to prevent them or someone else from sharing information with federal authorities.

Farwell’s attorneys said facts around potential communication to federal law enforcement officers are missing from the government’s allegations against Farwell, and thus it shouldn’t be a federal case.

“It fails to allege facts essential to establishing federal jurisdiction and, therefore, fails to state a federal offense,” the motion said.

The ex-cop’s attorneys stated that the government’s charging documents also weren’t clear whose communication Farwell prevented by allegedly killing Birchmore. They noted that the government has to prove that the prevented communication would have been to a federal law enforcement officer, specifically, not someone on the state or local level, to fall under federal jurisdiction.

“The statute’s requirement that the communication be to a federal law enforcement officer is a necessary element of the offense,” the motion said. “It is neither surplusage nor is it redundant with the requirement that the subject of the communication be a federal crime.”

“Even when taken together with the discovery provided thus far, the charging document fails to provide the necessary details to enable Mr. Farwell to prepare a defense,” Farwell’s lawyers argued.

Because the second count of the death of a child in utero is predicated on the first charge, his lawyers said the court should dismiss that, too.

The motion to dismiss noted that the government objects.

A federal judge will hear arguments on the motion to dismiss at a hearing on March 5.

 

[Cousin Dupree]

Farwell’s lawyer file motion to dismiss federal Birchmore murder case

Former Stoughton police officer Matthew Farwell’s lawyers filed a motion to dismiss the federal murder charges against him late last week.

www.bostonherald.com

Farwell’s lawyer file motion to dismiss federal Birchmore murder case​

Matthew Farwell's lawyers filed a motion to dismiss the federal murder case against him for the death of Sandra Birchmore.

Former Stoughton police officer Matthew Farwell’s lawyers have asked a judge to toss the federal murder charges against him.


Farwell’s defense attorneys said in their filing late last week that the government has failed to state a federal offense and present essential facts in their charging documents and evidence submitted through discovery so far.

“Specifically, the indictment fails to allege a fact essential to establishing federal jurisdiction: that there was a reasonable likelihood that any communication the defendant allegedly prevented would have been to a law enforcement officer or judge of the United States,” the motion read.

Murder is only a federal crime under certain circumstances, including when a person is murdered to prevent them or someone else from sharing information with federal authorities.

Farwell’s attorneys said facts around potential communication to federal law enforcement officers are missing from the government’s allegations against Farwell, and thus it shouldn’t be a federal case.

“It fails to allege facts essential to establishing federal jurisdiction and, therefore, fails to state a federal offense,” the motion said.

The ex-cop’s attorneys stated that the government’s charging documents also weren’t clear whose communication Farwell prevented by allegedly killing Birchmore. They noted that the government has to prove that the prevented communication would have been to a federal law enforcement officer, specifically, not someone on the state or local level, to fall under federal jurisdiction.

“The statute’s requirement that the communication be to a federal law enforcement officer is a necessary element of the offense,” the motion said. “It is neither surplusage nor is it redundant with the requirement that the subject of the communication be a federal crime.”

“Even when taken together with the discovery provided thus far, the charging document fails to provide the necessary details to enable Mr. Farwell to prepare a defense,” Farwell’s lawyers argued.

Because the second count of the death of a child in utero is predicated on the first charge, his lawyers said the court should dismiss that, too.

The motion to dismiss noted that the government objects.

A federal judge will hear arguments on the motion to dismiss at a hearing on March 5.

Normal crap defense lawyers pull. Hopefully, it will be ignored, in a legal way.

 

[SheWhoMustNotBeNamed]

https://www.masslive.com/news/2026/03/dismissing-charge-of-killing-sandra-birchmore-relies-on-metaphysical-impossibility-prosecutors-say.html

Dismissing charge of killing Sandra Birchmore relies on ‘metaphysical impossibility,’ prosecutors say​

Federal prosecutors urged a judge not to toss out the indictments against former Stoughton police officer Matthew Farwell, writing in a court filing that his attacks on the indictment don’t show a deficiency requiring dismissal of the case.

Farwell was indicted on a single charge of killing a witness or victim in August 2024 — more than three years after Sandra Birchmore was found dead in her Canton apartment. He was then indicted again last fall, with prosecutors adding a charge of protection of unborn children, accusing Farwell of causing the death of Birchmore’s baby.

The charge of killing a witness or victim accuses Farwell of killing Birchmore, whom he is accused of sexually abusing, beginning when she was a teenager, to prevent her from reporting him for possibly committing a federal crime.

In this case, prosecutors have said Farwell had sex with Birchmore while on duty as a police officer and then covered it up, constituting fraud, and that he committed statutory rape when she was 15.

Farwell’s defense has argued that the indictment itself does not provide sufficient detail about the crimes he is accused of and, as a result, must be thrown out.

But prosecutors wrote that any specificity Farwell seeks about the accusations against him could be solved in discovery. The indictment itself, they argue, meets the requirements under the law.

The government wrote that the judge shouldn’t look into the evidence underlying the indictment and instead should focus on whether it provided enough information to inform Farwell about what he is accused of.

In their motion, Farwell’s lawyers claimed the indictment did not sufficiently detail the specific communication he is accused of killing Birchmore to prevent and did not detail whether that communication would have been to a federal official, as required.

Prosecutors argued that the law, by definition, concerns federal officials and that because Farwell is accused of killing Birchmore before the communication took place, no more specificity is required.

“Farwell’s argument demands a metaphysical impossibility,” prosecutors wrote, adding that he “asks for specific allegations about a communication that never was because of his own conduct.”

The defense argued that because the indictment fails to provide specific detail regarding the first charge, killing a witness or victim, it must be dismissed entirely because the second charge, protection of unborn children, is “inextricably tied” to the first.

Prosecutors said that wasn’t the case, noting that the second charge is a completely separate federal crime. As a result, even if Farwell successfully identified a defect in the indictment on the first charge, the second charge shouldn’t also be dismissed, the filing reads.

A hearing on the motion to dismiss is scheduled for Thursday at 11:30 a.m. in federal court in Boston.

 

[SheWhoMustNotBeNamed]

Judge denies Matthew Farwell's motion to dismiss charges in Sandra Birchmore case

A judge has denied a motion filed by attorneys for former Stoughton Police Officer Matthew Farwell seeking to have the charges against their client in connection with the Sandra Birchmore case thrown out. Farwell’s legal team had filed a motion to dismiss October’s superseding indictment, which...

www.nbcboston.com

Judge denies Matthew Farwell's motion to dismiss charges in Sandra Birchmore case​

A judge has denied a motion filed by attorneys for former Stoughton Police Officer Matthew Farwell seeking to have the charges against their client in connection with the Sandra Birchmore case thrown out.

Farwell's legal team had filed a motion to dismiss October's superseding indictment, which charges him not only with killing Birchmore but with violating a federal law protecting unborn children by causing the death of the child that Birchmore was pregnant with when she was killed.


But in a ruling Monday, Chief U.S. District Judge Denise J. Casper denied Farwell's motion to dismiss the superseding indictment. She said the indictment did state a federal offense and did include sufficient facts to provide Farwell with details about who Birchmore might have told about federal crimes he had allegedly committed.


Farwell's trial is scheduled for October. A motions hearing in the case is scheduled for Thursday at 2 p.m. in federal court in Boston.

 

[SheWhoMustNotBeNamed]

Farwell attorneys point to unnamed person as father of Birchmore's unborn baby

Matthew Farwell, the former Stoughton police officer accused of killing the 23-year-old pregnant woman and staging it as a suicide, is seeking release on bail.

www.nbcboston.com

Farwell attorneys point to unnamed person as father of Birchmore's unborn baby​

Attorneys for Matthew Farwell, the former police officer accused of killing a 23-year-old pregnant woman and staging it as a suicide, say that an unnamed person was the father of her unborn child, as they seek to have their client released on bail.

The filing comes months before Matthew Farwell is expected to go on trial.

According to The Boston Globe, the new motion from his defense attorneys says an unnamed person fathered Sandra Birchmore's unborn son.

“According to the government’s own evidence, Mr. Farwell’s brother who is a named defendant in the civil lawsuit, as well as another individual who is the confirmed biological father of Ms. Birchmore’s fetus who has thus far not been publicly named," the filing said.

Defense attorneys filed this new motion, asking for Matthew Farwell to be released on a $50,000 bail.

"We all would rather him stay where he is," said Melissa Berry of Justice for Sandra Birchmore.

Berry's mission is to keep Birchmore's name alive as her alleged killer awaits trial. The idea of him seeking release doesn't sit well with her.

"That's, I think, scary for everyone," she said. "Family, friends and the public at large."

 

[Cousin Dupree]

Farwell attorneys point to unnamed person as father of Birchmore's unborn baby

Matthew Farwell, the former Stoughton police officer accused of killing the 23-year-old pregnant woman and staging it as a suicide, is seeking release on bail.

www.nbcboston.com

Farwell attorneys point to unnamed person as father of Birchmore's unborn baby​

Attorneys for Matthew Farwell, the former police officer accused of killing a 23-year-old pregnant woman and staging it as a suicide, say that an unnamed person was the father of her unborn child, as they seek to have their client released on bail.

The filing comes months before Matthew Farwell is expected to go on trial.

According to The Boston Globe, the new motion from his defense attorneys says an unnamed person fathered Sandra Birchmore's unborn son.

“According to the government’s own evidence, Mr. Farwell’s brother who is a named defendant in the civil lawsuit, as well as another individual who is the confirmed biological father of Ms. Birchmore’s fetus who has thus far not been publicly named," the filing said.

Defense attorneys filed this new motion, asking for Matthew Farwell to be released on a $50,000 bail.

"We all would rather him stay where he is," said Melissa Berry of Justice for Sandra Birchmore.

Berry's mission is to keep Birchmore's name alive as her alleged killer awaits trial. The idea of him seeking release doesn't sit well with her.

"That's, I think, scary for everyone," she said. "Family, friends and the public at large."

Ok, maybe it's not his kid, but evidence supports he killed her.

 

[Guess Who]

Farwell attorneys point to unnamed person as father of Birchmore's unborn baby

Matthew Farwell, the former Stoughton police officer accused of killing the 23-year-old pregnant woman and staging it as a suicide, is seeking release on bail.

www.nbcboston.com

Farwell attorneys point to unnamed person as father of Birchmore's unborn baby​

Attorneys for Matthew Farwell, the former police officer accused of killing a 23-year-old pregnant woman and staging it as a suicide, say that an unnamed person was the father of her unborn child, as they seek to have their client released on bail.

The filing comes months before Matthew Farwell is expected to go on trial.

According to The Boston Globe, the new motion from his defense attorneys says an unnamed person fathered Sandra Birchmore's unborn son.

“According to the government’s own evidence, Mr. Farwell’s brother who is a named defendant in the civil lawsuit, as well as another individual who is the confirmed biological father of Ms. Birchmore’s fetus who has thus far not been publicly named," the filing said.

Defense attorneys filed this new motion, asking for Matthew Farwell to be released on a $50,000 bail.

"We all would rather him stay where he is," said Melissa Berry of Justice for Sandra Birchmore.

Berry's mission is to keep Birchmore's name alive as her alleged killer awaits trial. The idea of him seeking release doesn't sit well with her.

"That's, I think, scary for everyone," she said. "Family, friends and the public at large."

That doesn't mean that he didn't think it was possibly his baby though.

 

[Mel70]

They didn't test for paternity?. I would think that is important. That itself can be a motive.

 

[SheWhoMustNotBeNamed]

They didn't test for paternity?. I would think that is important. That itself can be a motive.

They did. It was not the suspect's child.
Doesn't mean he didn't believe the child was his, though.

 

[Mel70]

They did. It was not the suspect's child.
Doesn't mean he didn't believe the child was his, though.

O.K. Thank you very much. I was trying to find that information because that didn't make sense to me. That seems worse. Killing a child you think is yours.I'm glad they prosecute for death of a fetus.

 

[Guess Who]

They did. It was not the suspect's child.
Doesn't mean he didn't believe the child was his, though.

She might have even told him he was.

 

[Mel70]

She might have even told him he was.

Good point.