Detention hearing for ex-Stoughton police detective accused of killing Sandra Birchmore canceled

BOSTON — A former Stoughton Police detective accused of killing Sandra Birchmore in 2021 will remain behind bars after a detention hearing planned for this week has been canceled, court documents show.

Matthew Farwell, 38, of North Easton, pleaded not guilty to a charge of killing a witness or a victim in federal court in Boston on Wednesday, shortly after an FBI Boston SWAT team arrested him in Revere on Wednesday morning.

A federal indictment alleges that the married father killed the 23-year-old Birchmore, who was pregnant with his child, by strangulation in her Canton apartment on or about Feb. 1, 2021, and then staged her death as a suicide.

A detention hearing that had been planned for Thursday for Farwell was canceled at the request of his defense attorneys, court documents show.

In a decision filed Monday, U.S. Magistrate Judge M. Page Kelley ordered that Farwell be detained in a corrections facility pending the resolution of the matter.

Farwell is accused of using his authority to groom and sexually exploit Birchmore as a teenager and then continuing a sexual relationship with her until her death in 2021, Acting U.S. Attorney Joshua Levy said Wednesday.

Farwell was an instructor for the Stoughton Police Department’s Explorer’s Program, a program for youths explore careers in law enforcement. Court documents showed that Birchmore joined the program in 2010 when she was 12 years of age.

25 Investigates: Sandra Birchmore’s death initially investigated by state law enforcement

Then 27, Farwell began having sex with Birchmore when she was 15, which is statutory rape, Levy said.

“He continued to have sex with her until her death, meeting her for sex regularly while he was on duty and paid by the Stoughton Police Department,” Levy said Wednesday.

Prosecutors and experts said if convicted, Farwell could face the death penalty.

The criminal indictment came after Birchmore’s family suggested in a new report that the young woman was the victim of a homicide, not a suicide as first announced by authorities following her death in 2021.

This is a developing story. Check back for updates as more information becomes available.

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