BOSTON (WHDH) - Matthew Farwell’s defense team called more witnesses to the stand Thursday, after the prosecution rested their cast Wednesday afternoon. They called a former boyfriend of Sandra Birchmore to talk about Birchmore’s history with threats of suicide.
William Kilroy said he and Birchmore dated from 2016 to 2018, three years before she died. He testified that Birchmore had talked of killing herself around the time her mother and grandmother died, and while he and Birchmore were breaking up.
The defense asked Kilroy, “Did she say she was going to take her life?”
He replied, “Yes. She told me she would, and she would write a note, and put me as one of the reasons.”
The prosecution pointed out that was at least three years before Birchmore died in February 2021.
Kilroy testified under prosecution questioning that he was never worried Birchmore would actually go through with her suicide threats, saying, “She was strong. She was a fighter. She was a person who always pulled through.”
There were no mentions of Matthew Farwell during Kilroy’s testimony.
Farwell is charged with killing 23-year-old Sandra Birchmore and her unborn child and staging the death to look like a suicide. Prosecutors allege Farwell killed her to stop her from exposing federal crimes, including sexual exploitation of a child. They claim Farwell had been grooming her for sex since she was 15-years-old and part of the Stoughton Police Explorers mentoring program.
Farwell’s defense argues Birchmore took her own life.
The defense Thursday also called a state medical examiner who helped take Birchmore’s body from the scene. They called Caitlin Bulger to counter prosecution arguments that investigators locked on Birchmore’s death as a suicide, ignoring evidence of a possible murder.
Bulger testified, “I believe it was called in as a standard suspected suicide,” adding, “they did say it was still under investigation.”
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