BOSTON (WHDH) - Matthew Farwell’s defense team Monday called their own expert to counter a prosecution expert, and a key prosecution argument, that a broken bone in Sandra Birchmore’s neck points to strangulation, not suicide.
Forensic Anthropologist Dr. Heather Garvin testified that the specific broken bone in Birchmore’s neck proves nothing. Looking at hundreds of studies, Garvin said, “It’s highly variable, it’s inconsistent, you cannot draw any conclusions.”
Farwell is charged with killing 23-year-old Birchmore and her unborn child and staging the death to look like a suicide. Her body was found in a seated position with a strap around her neck and tied to a doorknob. 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 maintains Birchmore took her own life.
As to whether her manner of death was suicide or strangulation, Garvin testified, “There is nothing to indicate one mechanism or another, you cannot say.”
The prosecution expert and state medical examiner previously testified that they’d never seen that specific broken bone in a seated hanging with someone under the age of 30 like Birchmore, when the bone is generally softer.
During cross-examination, the prosecutor asked Garvin whether the studies she looked at involved that combination.
“None of those studies identify a single case where there is a fractured hyoid bone under the age of 40 from a seated hanging. Correct?” The prosecutor asked.
“They don’t analyze that. Correct,” Garvin answered.
The prosecutor pressed Garvin to find any case where a young person suffered a fractured hyoid bone in a seated hanging.
Garvin answered, “There’s a table that looks at age and frequencies. I’m having a difficult time locating where it has the combination of both.”
The prosecutor responded, “That’s because there is not, right?”
“They may not have analyzed it,” Garvin replied.
The defense is expected to wrap up their case Wednesday, and the judge plans to send it to the jury on Friday.
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