Former police officer accused of killing pregnant woman now faces charges in death of unborn child

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BOSTON (AP) — A former Massachusetts police officer who earlier pleaded not guilty to killing a woman he is accused of sexually exploiting when she was underage was charged Tuesday with causing the death of her unborn son.

Matthew Farwell, 39, of Easton, is accused of strangling Sandra Birchmore in early 2021 after she told him that she was pregnant and that he was the father. Birchmore was 23 at the time.

Farwell worked as an officer for the Stoughton Police Department from 2012 until 2022.

Farwell, who was arrested and charged in August 2024, remains in federal custody. He was scheduled to go on trial next year on the initial charges.

He is being represented by several federal public defenders who could not be reached for comment Tuesday.

Birchmore began participating in the police explorers program when she was 12 years old, according to the indictment in U.S. District Court in Massachusetts.

Court documents say that Farwell, who was a police explorers volunteer, used his authority and access to groom, sexually exploit and then sexually abuse Birchmore when she was 15 and that he continued to have sex with her when she became an adult.

“During some of the shifts when Farwell was supposed to be performing his duties as a Stoughton police officer, he was instead engaged in sex acts with Birchmore,” according to the indictment.

In late 2020, Birchmore found out she was pregnant and told Farwell, according to the indictment.

Farwell allegedly strangled Birchmore on or about Feb. 1, 2021, and then used his police knowledge to stage her apartment to make it look as though she had died by suicide, according to the indictment.

When Farwell was indicted on the initial charges, Stoughton Police Chief Donna McNamara said that the department had worked with other agencies, including the FBI, to investigate.

“The day after Sandra Birchmore was found dead in her Canton apartment, I ordered a lengthy and aggressive internal affairs investigation, the instructions of which made it clear that no stone should be left unturned,” McNamara said in a statement.

“The alleged murder of Sandra is a horrific injustice,” McNamara said. “The allegations against the suspect, a former Stoughton Police Officer, represent the single worst act of not just professional misconduct but indeed human indecency that I have observed in a nearly three-decade career in law enforcement.”