STOUGHTON, MASS. (WHDH) - A former Stoughton police officer who is charged with murder was called to court on Tuesday, asking to be released.
Matthew Farwell is accused of killing Sandra Birchmore, 23, and her unborn child in 2021 to cover up their sexual relationship.
Farwell’s attorneys said he does not pose a flight risk or a danger to community, but federal prosecutors disagree.
Officials say phone data shows Farwell accessed pornography indicating a sexual interest in teenage girls after Birchmore’s death. They also say the former officer wrote a goodbye letter to a friend when people suggested the case could have been a homicide.
Farwell’s attorneys say he has no prior criminal record, and they say he conducted himself like an innocent man in the years after Birchmore’s death, which they maintain is a suicide.
“I’m looking forward to justice for them and for this to be over so we can start the grieving process because right now we’re in limbo,” Barbara Wright said, Birchmore’s relative.
Farwell has been held at a detention center in Rhode Island since the FBI arrested him in August 2024. Prosecutors said he began sexually exploiting Birchmore when she was 15 in the Stoughton Police Department’s mentoring program.
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