BOSTON (WHDH) - The former Stoughton police officer accused of killing 23-year-old Sandra Birchmore has agreed to remain behind bars, for the time being, as he awaits trial in the Birchmore case.
Police arrested 38-year-old Matthew Farwell in Revere on Aug. 28. Farwell appeared in court hours after his arrest and was scheduled to face a judge again on Thursday of this week for a detention hearing where the judge would decide whether to release him while he waits for his trial.
In a motion filed Saturday, though, Farwell’s attorneys asked the judge in his case to enter a voluntary order of detention and cancel the detention hearing.
Farwell’s attorneys asked that the order be issued without prejudice, allowing Farwell to request a new hearing and potentially still get out of jail at a later date “when his counsel has had additional time to review materials relating to this case and prepare for such a hearing.”
The US Attorney’s Office for the District of Massachusetts addressed the motion in a post on X on Monday, confirming Farwell agreed to voluntary detention.
“This week’s detention hearing is therefore cancelled,” the US Attorney’s Office said.
Farwell has been indicted on a charge of killing a witness after prosecutors said he killed Birchmore in February 2021.
Officials in Massachusetts initially ruled Birchmore’s death a suicide. After federal authorities launched their own investigation, though, prosecutors said they found “critical new evidence” leading to Farwell’s indictment.
Prosecutors said Farwell first met Birchmore more than a decade before her death, when she was 12-years-old.
Farwell groomed Birchmore, according to his indictment, and started sexually abusing her when she was 15-years-old.
Prosecutors said Birchmore learned she was pregnant in December 2020 and told Farwell he was the father.
Birchmore asked Farwell to be involved in the child’s life, according to the indictment. Farwell became angry and violent, prosecutors said.
“When it became clear to Mr. Farwell that he could no longer control Sandra Birchmore, he allegedly silenced her permanently,” said Acting US Attorney Joshua Levy while announcing Farwell’s indictment. “And he used his knowledge and experience as a law enforcement officer to stage her death to look like a suicide.”
Though she died on Feb. 1, Birchmore’s body was not found until Feb. 4.
Birchmore’s death and the investigations surrounding it prompted outrage before and after Farwell’s arrest.
Among reactions, Stoughton Police Chief Donna McNamara said she has been determined since 2021 “to ensure that justice was served.”
“…Sandra Birchmore received no justice during her life,” McNamara said in a statement. “It is imperative that justice be served in her death, and today’s actions appear to bring our society one step closer to justice.”
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