Sandra Birchmore Case Takes Disturbing Turn As Other Officers Come Under Scrutiny

The trial of Matthew Farwell, a former Stoughton, Massachusetts, police detective accused of murdering Sandra Birchmore, is ongoing, and it’s become a disturbing rabbit hole. Farwell has pleaded not guilty.

Prosecutors allege that Farwell strangled Birchmore in February 2021 and staged her death to look like a suicide. They argue that he killed her to prevent her from exposing his years-long sexual relationship with her. The defense maintains that Birchmore died by suicide.

The Police Explorers Program

Birchmore joined the Stoughton Police Explorers Program in 2010 when she was 12 years old. Prosecutors say Farwell later used his position in the program to groom her and began having intimate realtions with her when she was 15 and he was 27.

The relationship allegedly continued until shortly before her death in 2021.

Boston.com cited Assistant U.S. Attorney Torey Cummings as saying that “they exchanged more than 40,000 messages over the years.” The outlet also noted that prosecutors described Farwell’s sexual contact with Birchmore when she was 15 as “statutory rape.”

After Sandra Birchmore became pregnant, prosecutors allege that the possibility of their relationship being exposed gave Farwell a motive to silence her. A later DNA test showed that Farwell wasn’t the biological father of the baby.

What’s disturbing beyond that was covered by Brian Entin on his Brian Entin Investigates podcast on Thursday. Chatting with Los Angeles Magazine reporter Michele McPhee, he took viewers deeper into what’s happening in court and behind the scenes.

Were Other Officers Involved?

The allegations surrounding the case go much further than Farwell’s relationship with Sandra Birchmore. Brian Entin asked:

To what extent were other police officers involved? I mean, were there other police officers also having sex with her?

The response was long, but essentially, yes, there were possibly others involved.

McPhee also discussed a lawsuit filed by Stoughton Police Chief Donna McNamara. According to McPhee, McNamara alleges that she was told to delete damaging evidence concerning Stoughton officers involved in the case and was later placed on administrative leave after refusing.

Allegations involving other Stoughton officers surfaced after Sandra’s body was found, and McPhee said, “Donna McNamara hired some retired investigators who were very well respected, some of whom were in the Mass State Police, and asked them to do a thorough investigation.”

A Phone Call To Police

Apparently, someone had a beef with Sandra over a debt, and the friend “decided to get even with Sandra by calling the Stoughton Police Department and saying, ‘Guess what? My friend Sandra Birchmore is having an affair with Stoughton Police Detective Matthew Farwell and he’s married and his wife is pregnant.'”

McPhee added, “All of those things were apparently true.”

Instead of pushing the report higher up the chain, the officer who took the call allegedly told Matthew Farwell. Michele added, “According to the dispatcher and the FBI, Matthew Farwell loses his mind.”

Allegedly, Farwell contacted Sandra about it in 2021, and by then she was pregnant with a child he believed he had fathered.

McPhee said Farwell faced the possibility of criminal charges as well as the destruction of his marriage if the relationship became known.

But Who Else?

According to McPhee’s account, “Matthew Farwell wasn’t the only one. According to the Stoughton PD internal affairs report, now they find out that his twin brother, Billy Farwell, was having inappropriate relationships with her.”

McPhee also discussed former Stoughton deputy chief Robert Devine. Investigators concluded that Devine communicated with Birchmore through a Facebook account using the alias “Marty Riggs.”

Devine has denied allegations of an inappropriate relationship and challenged the evidence against him.

A 2022 Stoughton Police internal affairs investigation concluded that Matthew Farwell, William “Billy” Farwell, and Devine had inappropriate relationships with Birchmore.

McPhee said, “Federal prosecutors could possibly argue in the future that they were doing it on the taxpayers’ dime, which makes it a crime, a fraud.”

Entin asked, “So Farwell’s twin brother was also having sex with Sandra according to that report, that internal affairs report?”

Grooming Allegations

Next, Michele discussed attitudes within law enforcement, alleging that she knew cops who would argue that Sandra was termed a “5150,” which in cop speak means “crazy.”

Another expression used was “badge bunny,” which McPhee described as “a derogatory term for women who like to, you know, date law enforcement.”

Instead of finding support and guidance as a teen, Sandra “was groomed,” McPhee said, and that’s what federal prosecutors “plan to prove in this case.”

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