00:00:01
What I'm about to brief you on is something deeply troubling to me as a human being
00:00:10
and as a police chief. On February 4th, 2021, 23-year-old Sandra Birchmore was found deceased in her apartment
00:00:23
in Canton. [music] What I am here to talk about today is her life and how she was failed by,
00:00:31
manipulated by, and used by people of authority that she admired and trusted right up until her final days.
00:00:43
Ms. Birchmore was a vulnerable person who had one constant in her life since childhood.
00:00:54
Her unwavering admiration of police officers, of those serving the military, people in uniform,
00:01:05
people with oaths and duties to protect and serve. The admiration led her to form relationships
00:01:14
with men who were willing to take advantage of her. I stand before you today as a civil
00:01:22
servant who is heartbroken >> [clears throat] >> and incensed by what has transpired
00:01:30
and who pledges to this that this chapter in the Stoughton Police Department and the town of Stoughton
00:01:41
is over. It must never repeat. The revolving door is closed. There are so many stories we tell that
00:01:55
involve corruption, cover-ups, or just downright incompetence or negligence that it makes me lose complete faith
00:02:02
[music] in the system. A system that is put in place to protect us. And doing the show for as long as I have, I've
00:02:08
seen a lot more bad than good. The problems are systemic and at times I've even caught myself thinking like, what
00:02:16
is the point? Like we might as well just give up because the problems are so big
00:02:20
and have been there for so long that maybe I'm the delusional one and this is just how the world is, evil. And the
00:02:27
evil is so like deeply rooted that we're never going to win or never going to make a difference.
00:02:33
But then, when I need it the most, I get a glimpse [music] of the good ones. The
00:02:38
people who are fighting from the inside to make things better and fair and just.
00:02:43
People who believe in right and wrong and know that no one is above the law. >> [music]
00:02:48
>> And those people give me hope all over again to keep fighting myself. And I felt all of those feelings when covering
00:02:56
today's story. Despair that an entire agency could look the other way when so much evidence was
00:03:02
at their fingertips suggesting [music] a boy in blue might have killed a young woman to protect his reputation.
00:03:09
And then this fire to kick ass and take names [music] and get behind those people like Donna McNamara, the chief of
00:03:17
the Stoughton PD who you just heard at the top. She didn't just sit back [music] and let it be. She found her own
00:03:24
way to expose the truth and she lit a spark that other good people out there doing the right thing [music] fanned
00:03:31
into a flame to get justice for Sandra Birchmore. So let me tell [music] you how that
00:03:37
happened. February 4th, 2021, 23-year-old Sandra Birchmore was found dead in her Canton,
00:03:50
Massachusetts apartment. Police discovered her body while responding to a welfare check requested by someone at
00:03:56
the school where she worked because she hadn't shown up in days. Now, Sandra was found in a seated
00:04:02
position on the floor by her bedroom closet with this [music] duffel bag strap wrapped tightly around her neck
00:04:08
and fixed to the handle of the closet door. The Massachusetts State Police didn't note any signs of forced entry to
00:04:15
her apartment. The door was actually locked and they had to get a key from the property manager just to get [music]
00:04:20
in. And once they were inside, they didn't see any signs of a struggle at all in the bedroom or anywhere else in
00:04:27
the apartment. The walls didn't have any indentations or scuff marks and there were no drag marks on the floor or
00:04:34
anything like that even though the apartment was cluttered with baby items still in boxes for the child that Sandra
00:04:40
was 8 to 10 [music] weeks pregnant with. Nothing seemed to be knocked over or moved and surveillance footage from her
00:04:48
apartment complex's lobby shows Sandra coming and going [music] alone on Monday, February 1st, which is the last
00:04:54
day she appears on camera and the day that officials believe she died. So, the suicide determination came quickly. Even
00:05:02
before the medical examiner's official ruling, all the Canton PD reports discussed this case as a suicide.
00:05:10
And the Massachusetts State Police seem to agree. Cuz I'm sure the more they learned about
00:05:15
Sandra, like it just began to confirm their theory >> [music] >> because she grew up struggling. Dad
00:05:21
wasn't in the picture, mom had chronic health challenges often times not being able to work so they struggled to make
00:05:27
ends meet. And from a young age, Sandra sort of took on the role of caretaker. And then in 2016, when Sandra was just
00:05:34
19 years old, her mom died of a stroke and then just weeks later her grandmother passed away, too.
00:05:40
According to an unnamed source in a Boston Globe article, after these back-to-back tragedies, Sandra began
00:05:45
[music] expressing suicidal thoughts in her journal entries. And she tried living with other family
00:05:50
members after this but she never really had that stable home base. And there was an instance like 8 or 9
00:05:57
months before her death where Sandra got in a fight with the family member that she was living with and stormed out.
00:06:03
That person called 911 concerned that Sandra might be at risk of hurting herself.
00:06:08
Now, at the time of her death, she was about 2 and 1/2 months pregnant with what investigators would quickly find
00:06:14
out was a married man's baby. So, it must have all just been too much. How sad. And when a pathologist from the
00:06:23
office of the chief medical examiner agrees and rules this case as suicide, that's that.
00:06:29
And there is a world where it would have ended right there. But not this one. Not this time.
00:06:37
You see, even though Canton PD was the agency originally called and Massachusetts State Police eventually
00:06:43
took over, the Stoughton Police Department opened an internal affairs investigation the day after Sandra was
00:06:49
[music] found. >> And where in relation to all this is Stoughton? It's just a town over from
00:06:53
Canton. But the reason they're in the mix is because of who Sandra's baby daddy allegedly was.
00:07:00
You see, Chief Donna McNamara heard from the Massachusetts State Police that one
00:07:05
of her officers, a man named Matthew Farwell, may have been having an affair with Sandra. [music]
00:07:11
And that would have violated department policies because I mean, put him married
00:07:16
with kids aside, Matthew Farwell was an officer who worked with their police explorers program.
00:07:23
And Sandra, in her youth, was an explorer. And Brett, I know you know all about the program cuz it came up in our
00:07:29
live show but for the newbies out there, do you want to give them the lowdown? Yeah, this will be very surface level
00:07:34
but the explorers program is basically like an extracurricular program run by local law enforcement agencies and it's
00:07:41
open to anyone from the ages of [snorts] like what, 6th grade to 20 years old who are interested in joining law
00:07:48
enforcement one day. It's sort of like a junior police academy. They wear little
00:07:51
uniforms, learn about investigations, do ride-alongs, even apparently search for
00:07:56
evidence sometimes. [laughter] Usually the program is led by actual officers from the local department so
00:08:01
the kids who sign up get really [music] close to them which can be a really great thing in some cases but
00:08:09
potentially really dangerous in others. >> You are correct. Okay, so I was about to
00:08:15
ask if the state police knew about this but if they're the ones who told the chief in Stoughton, then they had to
00:08:20
have. >> Yeah, they did. And they were looking into it, too. Despite many files that
00:08:25
refer to Sandra's death as a suicide, it does seem like they were still doing some legwork, like checking boxes,
00:08:32
making sure they didn't miss anything big like the affair with a married officer.
00:08:36
>> Right. And they even talked to him, collected his and Sandra's phone data. And in
00:08:40
their interview with him, which takes place on February 6th in a school parking lot for some reason,
00:08:46
Matthew admits that he was at Sandra's apartment that night. I'm sorry, what? >> Yeah, so remember the surveillance video
00:08:55
that showed her apartment lobby, right? She's coming and going. >> coming and going by herself.
00:08:58
>> Mhm. Well, it didn't just show her coming and going. And just a quick FYI, the footage was found to be 13 minutes
00:09:05
off so the times I'm going to be telling you have been adjusted for accuracy but
00:09:09
basically, Sandra gets home early from school because they had closed for a snow day on the 1st. A few hours later,
00:09:15
after 5:00 p.m., she's caught on camera again picking up a food delivery. And then at 5:31 p.m., she's seen one last
00:09:22
time stepping outside briefly to brush the snow off her car and then heading back upstairs.
00:09:26
And that's it for Sandra. But they did look at the rest of the footage to see if there was [music] anyone else
00:09:32
suspicious on it. And the maintenance supervisor at the apartment building tells officers that he recognizes
00:09:38
everybody who enters the lobby that night except for one person. [music] This tall, burly man wearing boots,
00:09:46
jeans, a black jacket with a hood up, and what looks like a COVID mask which almost entirely covers his face.
00:09:54
Now, he entered the building at 9:14 p.m. and then left at 9:43. And the police report notes that the man
00:10:02
wasn't wearing gloves and appeared to be white. And that's Matthew. I mean, we know now that it was Matthew
00:10:10
because he is admitting it to police on the 6th, but at the time it's a little hard to tell what they knew because this
00:10:17
part of the police report is pretty heavily redacted. All I know is that one of the building worker says that they
00:10:22
had seen this guy with Sandra before, but they didn't know who he was. And the leasing manager starts giving
00:10:28
them at that point some information about a police officer [music] that Sandra had been in a relationship with
00:10:33
and how there was something that he was unhappy about that Sandra was nervous about. But honestly, it truly is almost
00:10:39
impossible to make sense of this person's account with all of the redactions to the file.
00:10:44
>> Right, you're kind of just like barely able to kind of almost connect the dots.
00:10:48
>> Right. So, they were probably suspicious, but now they like know, now it was him,
00:10:53
right? And his story seems to again confirm their original hypothesis because he says that he met Sandra in
00:11:00
the Explorer program. She was 13 when she joined, he was 24, but he says that like nothing untoward happened. Matthew
00:11:07
says that he knew Sandra had a troubled life and he felt bad for her, so he would like keep tabs on her over the
00:11:13
years. But according to him, the relationship didn't become sexual until early 2020 when Sandra would have been
00:11:19
21. And that only happened because he says he got drunk one night and quote ended
00:11:25
up meeting up with her and having sex. And then he says that they had sex two or three more times after that with the
00:11:30
last time being in October of 2020. So, does he say that they were like dating? Like, how did he classify the
00:11:39
relationship? Were they together? Well, so like I said, so he's married with two
00:11:43
kids at that time. So, at least on his end this was very much not a public like relationship situation. But he goes on
00:11:50
to say that in December of 2020, Sandra told him that she was pregnant and that he was the father. Now, in his
00:11:57
interview, Matthew says that that wasn't possible and that the timeline didn't make any sense and just basically
00:12:03
adamantly denies that he was the father of Sandra's unborn child. >> Okay, so then cut to the chase, Matthew.
00:12:09
Why are you at her apartment the day she died? Yeah, so he says that that night he asked Sandra if he could come over
00:12:14
because he wanted to end things with her once and for all. He says that he hadn't
00:12:19
seen her in about a week because he'd been trying to distance himself, but that was before he learned that Sandra
00:12:24
was now telling people that he was the father of her child. So, he went over that night and said that he told Sandra,
00:12:31
quote, she was crazy and that there was no way he could be the father of her baby based on her timeline and that he
00:12:37
was just done with her. He said that the two of them kind of got into this pretty nasty argument, not
00:12:42
anything like yelling or physical, but just like really tense. And before he left, he told her it was
00:12:47
really over and he was blocking her on everything, which he did. And Matthew says Sandra was definitely upset, but
00:12:53
that she didn't say anything about wanting to hurt herself. And he told police that she was very much alive and
00:12:59
standing in the kitchen when he [music] walked out. Now, they asked him to take a polygraph and submit to a DNA test,
00:13:06
presumably to verify his claim about the baby not being his. But none of those things end up
00:13:10
happening because Matthew gets an attorney who steps in. And this attorney, Patrick Hanley,
00:13:16
actually writes a letter to an MSP sergeant saying that these requests don't make any sense for the
00:13:21
investigation of a witness, which is what MSP had said [music] Matthew was. I actually have a quote from Patrick. It
00:13:27
says, "I advise my client to decline these requests and the request for further interview that accompanied them. I did
00:13:35
so because they are far outside the norm for mere witnesses in an investigation.
00:13:40
I was a prosecutor for 14 years and participated in hundreds of interviews with state police detectives like
00:13:45
yourself. I cannot recall one seeking a polygraph interview. And I can only recall seeking DNA of persons that the
00:13:51
investigators and I considered targets. Mr. Farwell has already provided highly personal information. In my opinion,
00:13:58
providing DNA is a step too far." End quote. The lawyer also underscores that Matthew
00:14:05
had nothing to do with Sandra's death, that he never encouraged her to harm herself or believed that she might. And
00:14:12
according to him, Sandra's death by suicide was a complete shock to Matthew. The thing Matthew does comply with is
00:14:19
turning over his phone, but he warns that he deleted all the communications with Sandra. Okay, that's fishy, right?
00:14:26
Like, they see that that's at least sus, right? They don't say. We just have a report that is very black
00:14:34
and white and I I even brought this one. So, it just says, "On February 9th, 2021, Matthew Farwell consented to a
00:14:43
data extraction of his personal iPhone 11, which was then extracted by Trooper Nick Garrino. On April 26th, 2021, I
00:14:51
received Matthew's work cell phone from Stoughton Police Department. Through Matthew's attorney, consent was given
00:14:56
for a data extraction, which was performed by Trooper Nick Garrino. I analyzed both of these phones and did
00:15:01
not find any communication with Sandra Birchmore. Matt has said in a previous interview that he had deleted all
00:15:07
communications with Sandra. So, there's no like, oh, we think this was weird or not.
00:15:11
>> well, didn't see anything. Right. So, Trooper Nick Garrino went through this,
00:15:16
we know this, but another state police sergeant had started combing through Sandra's laptop that was collected from
00:15:23
her apartment. >> The other end of the communication. >> Right. And so, he finds in that
00:15:28
thousands of text messages between Sandra and Matthew [music] in the 12 months or so before her death.
00:15:34
Now, the state police write that the text messages make it clear that Matthew and Sandra were in a sexual
00:15:39
relationship, but they concluded that there was nothing threatening [music] at all.
00:15:44
So, they must just be assuming that he deleted the messages to hide the affair. Nothing murdery here, so
00:15:51
case closed, right? Wrong. Cuz Stoughton PD was running their internal affairs investigation
00:15:58
alongside this one. >> [music] >> And in reviewing over 32,000 messages between Sandra and Matthew in the 14
00:16:06
months leading up to her death, they see a far more disturbing picture of Sandra's case.
00:16:17
Some cases fade from headlines. Some never made it there to begin with. I'm Ashley Flowers and on my podcast [music]
00:16:24
The Deck, I tell you the stories of cold cases featured on playing cards distributed in prisons designed to spark
00:16:31
new leads and bring long overdue justice because these stories deserve to be heard and the loved ones of these
00:16:38
victims still deserve answers. Are you ready to be dealt in? Listen to The Deck now wherever you get your podcasts.
00:16:47
So, the chief of Stoughton PD, Donna McNamara, opened that internal affairs investigation into Matthew Farwell the
00:16:54
day after Sandra was found because she had heard from MSP about Matthew potentially having an illicit affair
00:17:00
with Sandra violating department policies. So, she put Matthew on paid leave starting February 24th. And again,
00:17:07
just to be 100% clear, her internal investigation was only meant to look into Matthew's misconduct, [music]
00:17:14
not Sandra's death. >> Right. Chief McNamara and MSP had an understanding that MSP basically still
00:17:20
maintained the jurisdiction over any criminal [music] activity, even like anything that comes up in the internal
00:17:25
investigation. And if the chief found any criminal culpability, she would basically pass all of that off to MSP.
00:17:31
So, like, sure, fine, whatever. That's the deal. >> not looking for it, but if she sees it,
00:17:35
she'll hand it over. >> Yeah, I'm not going to take it. So, her team starts looking at the phone
00:17:40
data and the laptop that was previously analyzed by state police Trooper Nick Garrino. [music] And these messages,
00:17:46
which appear in federal and court documents, don't only suggest that Sandra and Matthew's sexual relationship
00:17:52
began way before he originally said, but also that Matthew had disturbing sexual
00:17:59
fantasies involving [music] violence against women, choking, incest, pedophilia, necrophilia, and rape.
00:18:08
And I want everyone to hear some of these messages so you guys can get an idea of the tone of the communication
00:18:13
between Sandra and Matthew. So, I'm going to have a voice actor reading them because they are really disturbing, so
00:18:19
like fair warning to everyone listening. >> [music] >> And also, I don't want to look you in
00:18:23
the eyes while I say feel him inside me. But I think this shows the full extent of Matthew's behavior. So, in a couple
00:18:31
of exchanges, Matthew [music] and Sandra talk about the beginning of their sexual
00:18:36
relationship. What was the first day you said, "OMG, I want this guy to be my first. I want to
00:18:42
feel him inside me." Yeah, so 2012 I finally decided that I was going to try and find a way to you
00:18:49
and just wasn't sure how. I had butterflies so bad the day you took my virginity.
00:18:54
Me, too. It was such a big day. It was April 10th, 2013. Best day of my life. Me, too.
00:19:02
So, the sexual relationship actually began 7 years before Matthew told police that it began. Yes, and he actually even
00:19:12
says that he wishes they'd done it sooner. I wish it had been a year sooner after
00:19:17
helping you study at the library. I didn't even make you wait a year after that. I absolutely would have you in 12.
00:19:24
In 12? 2012. And in 2012, Sandra would have been like, what? >> like 14 or 15. And he knows that this
00:19:35
would have been bad for anyone else to find out, so he asked her to get rid of their messages.
00:19:41
Clear that pod out, baby. I did. Good girl. Again, I know how disturbing these are,
00:19:48
but I really think it's important for our listeners to understand the power that Matthew knew he had over Sandra,
00:19:54
mentally and physically, by the way, because Sandra was 4'10", Matthew was 6'4". So, in one exchange, he says,
00:20:03
"lol, if I pushed, I absolutely could have you without condoms from day one." "I was kind of scared to say no in the
00:20:10
beginning, not knowing how you'd take it. So, yeah, you would have gotten no condoms."
00:20:16
Other messages from Matthew revealed even more disturbing desires. "Maybe I'll choke you a little. I'll
00:20:23
grab your throat and say, 'You won't say a word to anyone.' Will you say, 'Matt, stop. I'm 13. I'm
00:20:29
not ready for this. Oh, I'm FG, please stop.'" According to sources cited in the Boston
00:20:36
Globe, in the year leading up to her death, there are at least 20 times that Matthew texted Sandra about grabbing her
00:20:43
throat, squeezing her throat, or choking her during sex. In another exchange, Sandra asked,
00:20:50
"Do you want me to just take what you do, or try and say no? I know being told no is your favorite." "Say no."
00:20:58
Now, of course, all of these messages are from [music] 2019 onward. So, we have no way of knowing what Sandra and
00:21:05
Matthew's communication was like before that. But, in December of 2020, things took a notable turn.
00:21:13
That's when Sandra texted Matthew about her pregnancy. That's when she sent him a photo of a colorful poster that she'd
00:21:18
made with the word "Congrats, we're going to be parents." >> [music] >> And this is how he responded.
00:21:24
"I literally have nothing to say right now. How could you express that in text when I said I don't appreciate it?" "I'm
00:21:30
mad you're acting how you are over a choice we both made." "I'm mad you act like you gave anyone a choice. You are
00:21:38
truly the worst person on the face of the earth." Matthew also asked how far along Sandra
00:21:44
was. "Regardless of how far, we're keeping it. But, 3 and 1/2 weeks, which means I
00:21:51
conceived this month." "Okay. Well, we need to talk, then." "No [ __ ] that's obvious."
00:21:59
And on December 29th, 2020, they did talk. This conversation was in person, so we have no way of knowing exactly how
00:22:06
it went. But, [music] afterwards, Sandra texts Matthew this. "It made me really uncomfortable and
00:22:12
stressed out and scared when you were next to me, because I thought you were going to hit me after you said what you
00:22:18
said and took things out of my hand. That's why I was crying." "I know you wouldn't, but it still scared me."
00:22:25
So, clearly, he's not happy about the pregnancy. >> I mean, yeah. It's a lot harder to hide
00:22:31
from your wife than just an affair. Well, and [music] at an especially bad time, because I didn't mention this yet,
00:22:38
but when Matthew left Sandra's apartment that night, February 1st, guess where he
00:22:43
went? The delivery room, because his wife was in labor with their third baby. So, yeah, he's about to have a new baby
00:22:51
with his wife, and Sandra is telling him she's pregnant, too. Now, maybe he would
00:22:56
have found some way to keep this under wraps, [music] but on January 20th, Matthew found out that Sandra had been
00:23:02
telling people about their affair. Apparently, he had been under the impression that [music] it was like
00:23:07
their little secret, but it was far from it in Sandra's circles. And apparently,
00:23:12
leading up to her death, this friend, who we're going to call Jill, tried to use that to her advantage. Jill said
00:23:19
that her and Sandra got into an argument about some money that Sandra owed her, and Jill told Sandra that if she didn't
00:23:25
start to pay up, she was going to go file a police report, which she did on January 20th, just weeks before Sandra's
00:23:32
death. When Stoughton PD told Jill that this was a civil matter, Jill got upset,
00:23:38
and in her anger, she, over the phone, basically said, well, like, you can tell whatever police officer, detective, that
00:23:44
Sandra's in a sexual relationship with, that he can tell her to pay back the money.
00:23:49
And how did the officer on the phone respond to that? They went straight to Matthew,
00:23:54
and they're like, um, "What's this about?" And according to investigative files, Matthew got really rattled and
00:24:01
told that person, {quote} not to speak about this to anyone, and to never talk about it again. {end quote}
00:24:08
And whoever he told that to must have kept their code of silence, since we know the internal affairs investigation
00:24:14
did not start then. >> Right. But, that day, after Matthew was approached about the affair, he texted
00:24:20
Sandra. "Dude, your [ __ ] friend called my job, Sandra. WTF? You also told me that
00:24:28
no one knew about us, yet she claimed we are fucking." "It's literally nothing."
00:24:33
"It's not nothing. She called my job. That's insane. Like, you have no idea how bad what she did is.
00:24:40
I literally can't believe this is even real life. Like, what else do I have to worry about now? Which other friend will
00:24:46
do something tomorrow?" And what's so weird is after this interaction, Matthew just, out of
00:24:54
nowhere, completely changes his tune [music] and starts to speak really positively to Sandra about their whole
00:25:01
situation. And Sandra actually texted her friend about it. "So, the father came by last night. It
00:25:08
was like a complete 360 change." "180?" "Yeah, lol." "Good or bad?" "Good, but unexpected. [music] So, it kind of threw
00:25:18
me off and made me a little uncomfortable, but that's cuz of how things were going. But, it was like a
00:25:24
complete 180 from where we were at." On this same night, along with having a heart-to-heart, Matthew also asked
00:25:33
Sandra for a key to her apartment and [music] the code to her building's entrance.
00:25:38
But, even with him seemingly doing everything right, like saying the perfect things,
00:25:44
there were moments where Sandra felt uneasy, like something wasn't quite right. The day of that 180-degree change
00:25:51
conversation, on January 24th, Sandra texted a friend about something weird. "Last night, he opened my closet door
00:25:59
for something, and then he went in my bathroom looking at my bathroom. And then, I have a dolly in my living room
00:26:05
that he asked why I had it. It was just really odd. He started looking around. I
00:26:10
don't know. It was really weird." Then, on January 29th, Sandra reminded Matthew what the code to enter her
00:26:17
apartment complex was, and Matthew asked her to confirm that it was a general code for the entire building, not just
00:26:24
like a personal code for Sandra. And that basically brings us to February 1st. >> that Sandra died.
00:26:31
>> Yes. Matthew texted Sandra at around 9:00 p.m. asking if he could come by for
00:26:37
a second. She responded that she would leave her door open for him. And that was the last known message that
00:26:44
Sandra would ever send. I I guess I'm confused right now. Like, MSP had these messages from Sandra's laptop, right?
00:26:53
Like, are they just ignoring them? It's really bizarre. So, listen, hang on. I'm just going to read you exactly what
00:27:03
they say about the laptop messages in the report. >> [music] >> Keep in mind, again, lot of redactions
00:27:07
here. But, it says this. "Over the next several weeks, I analyzed data from Sandra's laptop. In
00:27:15
particular, I was investigating any criminal conduct related to Sandra's death, and something redacted here.
00:27:22
Sandra's laptop gave me access to approximately 12 months of iMessages, social media content, and other
00:27:28
documents/databases. Matt and Sandra had texted thousands of times over the year, as well as
00:27:34
communication with many other friends and family of Sandra. It was clear, based on texts with Matt,
00:27:40
that he and Sandra had a sexual relationship, as he told us in his previous interview.
00:27:45
Then, there's this big redacted chunk, followed by this. All of these conversations were flagged
00:27:50
in the forensics report of her laptop. Sandra communicated often with friends and family. It appeared Sandra had
00:27:57
sexual relationships with other men in the months leading up to her death. There were no threats of harm by any of
00:28:02
these individuals, including Matt. {end quote} That's it? That's literally the last
00:28:08
sentence on the last page of the MSP report that we received. No threats of harm.
00:28:15
So, no criminal culpability. >> [snorts] >> But, clearly, there is a crime here, right?
00:28:22
Well, put possible murder aside. >> Okay. >> Chief McNamara can't look into that,
00:28:28
right? Because that's not her jurisdiction. >> Mhm. But, yeah, the sexual abuse of an
00:28:32
Explorer within the department she now is chief of, move out the way. Like, she is charging full steam ahead. Cuz here's
00:28:41
the thing, along with now being sure that Matthew abused a minor in the program, other witnesses come forward
00:28:49
and say that Sandra told them he wasn't the only one. According to people who knew Sandra, and
00:28:58
I want to preface this by saying much of this information is unconfirmed, but they say that Matthew Farwell wasn't the
00:29:06
only Stoughton Police Department employee who Sandra had a sexual relationship with. She also had one with
00:29:13
William Farwell, [music] Matthew's twin brother. What? When? How? And did did the brothers know about each other's
00:29:23
relationships with Sandra? >> So, William is also an officer with the Stoughton Police Department. They also
00:29:29
met through the Explorers program, because he was a guest instructor. So, when they talked to him, he admits it,
00:29:36
but like, bad case of déjà vu, he says that he had, {quote} been with Sandra sexually maybe two to three times, and
00:29:44
[music] the last of which was sometime in December of 2020. But that was when she was also seeing Matthew. Apparently.
00:29:51
So clearly there is something bigger happening here. So Chief McNamara's agency hires multiple PIs and outside
00:29:59
consultants and over the course of nearly 19 months they go down every rabbit hole you can think of.
00:30:06
And guess what? It didn't even end there. Implicated in the internal affairs investigation was another man
00:30:13
named Robert Devine who was a former deputy chief of the Stoughton Police Department and the officer in charge of
00:30:20
the Explorers program. Robert is actually the man that brought Matthew and his twin brother into the
00:30:25
program as guest instructors. In interviews Robert first claims to have no knowledge of the Farwell brothers
00:30:32
relationships with Sandra, but then he later clarifies that Sandra did bring it up to him as a consenting adult and
00:30:39
Robert didn't believe her. According to Robert, while he and Sandra were never formally in touch, she would often seek
00:30:45
him out while he was on duty offering coffee, hanging around to talk, and showing what he described as an
00:30:51
obsession with police officers. He said this happened about once a week. So, you
00:30:57
know, she's just obsessed with them. What What could they have done? What could they possibly do, Ashley?
00:31:03
>> I It's a gross implication to me that like she was the problem. All because she wanted to be a police officer.
00:31:10
Because she really did love that program. I mean, Sandra joined the Explorers program in 2010 when she was
00:31:16
13 years old and apparently she was drawn to police officers from a very young age. They represented everything
00:31:24
she wanted. Safety, stability, the things that she didn't have growing up. Family members have said that Sandra
00:31:30
deeply respected police, even idolized them. >> [music] >> According to reporting from Boston
00:31:34
Magazine, she joined the Explorers program not only to fulfill her dreams of becoming an officer herself, but also
00:31:41
to find the mentorship and direction that she craved. But instead she was preyed upon. Chief McNamara's
00:31:47
investigation found that Sandra and Robert had been formally in touch and communicating by Facebook Messenger from
00:31:53
2020 up until her death. According to the report, Robert explains this by quote, "Outrageously making claims about
00:32:02
accounts being hacked." End quote. >> In McNamara's investigation, multiple witnesses interviewed also described a
00:32:08
pattern of inappropriate conduct within the Explorer program, including hugging,
00:32:13
kissing, even encounters in a closet involving Robert and the Farwell brothers, as well as comments like,
00:32:20
"Come back and see me after you turn 18." One witness recalls Sandra talking about the stress officers were under and
00:32:26
the way that they looked for outlets. In the end, McNamara recommends that Robert, William, and Matthew all have
00:32:35
their police certifications revoked and be entered into the national decertification index. And there is at
00:32:42
least one other officer from another department found to be complicit as well. I mean, so what now? The men just
00:32:48
get like a slap on the wrist? Well, they actually all resigned before any sort of
00:32:54
action can even be taken. Of course. And in September 2022, Chief McNamara holds
00:33:00
a press conference about her investigation where she publicly addresses >> [music]
00:33:05
>> the entire situation for the first time. What I'm about to brief you on is something deeply troubling
00:33:14
to me as a human being and as a police chief. On February 4th 2021 23-year-old Sandra Birchmore
00:33:28
was found deceased in her apartment in Canton. I'm not here today to talk about the subsequent
00:33:36
investigation into Miss Birchmore's death. Her death was investigated by the Norfolk District Attorney's Office.
00:33:45
What I am here to talk about today is her life and how she was failed by manipulated by
00:33:54
and used by people of authority that she admired and trusted right up until her final days.
00:34:04
Miss Birchmore was a vulnerable person who had one constant in her life since childhood.
00:34:15
Her unwavering admiration of police officers of those serving the military people in uniform
00:34:26
people with oaths and duties to protect and serve. The admiration led her to form relationships
00:34:35
with men who were willing to take advantage of her. The Farwell brothers and Devine
00:34:42
violated their oaths of office and should never have the privilege of serving any community as a police
00:34:53
officer. Through a sustained and deliberate common combination of lies deceit and treachery
00:35:04
they violated the policies and the core values of the Stoughton Police Department.
00:35:11
Not to mention human decency. I stand before you today as a civil servant who is heartbroken
00:35:20
>> [clears throat] >> and incensed by what has transpired and who pledges to this
00:35:31
that this chapter in the Stoughton Police Department and the town of Stoughton is over.
00:35:40
It must never repeat. The revolving door is closed. Chief McNamara turns all her
00:35:49
findings over to the Norfolk DA's office. I assume for prosecution based on her agency's findings of what would
00:35:57
be statutory rape. >> Mhm. But they declined to press any charges. I I'm sorry. What in the
00:36:06
good old boys club is happening here? Well, in a 2022 statement, a spokesperson for the DA says that
00:36:13
statutory rape would be difficult to prove given that Sandra, the main witness, was dead.
00:36:20
O- Okay, but she's dead because he might have killed her. Like this This can't be the
00:36:27
loophole. Yeah, Sandra's family is furious over this. I haven't even spoken much about them yet, but they were
00:36:34
fighting for her every step of the way. I mean, from the second that her aunt was notified on day one about Sandra's
00:36:41
quote unquote suicide, she knew something was up. I mean, not only did she know that Sandra was actually in a
00:36:47
really happy place before her death, but also when her and other relatives went to Sandra's apartment after her death,
00:36:53
the place gave all the signs of someone who did not take their life. When they started going through her things,
00:36:59
everything that they saw made it seem like Sandra's passing was extremely abrupt. There was still wet clothes in
00:37:05
the washing machine and unopened packages, plus more deliveries on the way. She even had cats that she had left
00:37:12
unattended when police finally found her, which made zero sense because she had actually already started making
00:37:18
plans to have somebody look after those same cats while she gave birth, which would have been like seven months later.
00:37:24
But one of the most telling things I think is what her family finds in the bedroom.
00:37:29
They found Sandra's necklace, this keepsake from her grandmother. It was this thin gold chain with like a pink
00:37:36
flamingo charm and it was laying on the floor. The chain had snapped in the middle and then there was this clump of
00:37:43
hair tangled in it. >> to me that feels like a a sign of a struggle. Did police not see it?
00:37:50
Well, apparently the necklace was broken and like hanging off of her neck when they found her, which is documented with
00:37:56
photographs, but it wasn't collected. So, I guess officers didn't think it was relevant. So, when it fell to the floor
00:38:02
as they're I assume like moving her body, they either didn't notice it or like didn't care and collect it.
00:38:07
>> the family show them? Oh yeah, they handed over the necklace to police right away, but that apparently didn't change
00:38:13
anything for them. So, the family members took it upon themselves to galvanize the community on social media
00:38:19
getting people who knew Sandra to come forward and share stories. So many stories that pointed to the Explorer
00:38:26
program and stories that helped build out McNamara's internal investigation. So now to hear that nothing was going to
00:38:33
come of it, like that was infuriating. So, in December of 2022, Sandra's family tries a different approach. They file a
00:38:42
wrongful death suit in Norfolk County Superior Court accusing Matthew, William, and Robert of grooming and
00:38:48
sexually abusing Sandra from a young age and implicating them in her death. The family alleges wrongful death, negligent
00:38:55
supervision, negligent retention, pain and suffering, and emotional distress among other things. And they
00:39:02
specifically mention an ongoing scheme of grooming and misconduct which they say led to Sandra's death. So, that
00:39:09
litigation is still ongoing and a judgment date is set for May of 2026. >> So, Sandra's family members are really
00:39:17
the only ones actually looking into her death as anything other than a suicide. >> So, this is what I was saying. Where you
00:39:26
get this like moment where you're like the system is not working. Everything's broken.
00:39:32
But there are good eggs within it. So, we've got Chief McNamara who has this investigation exposing her officers for
00:39:40
their abhorrent behavior. And then maybe because of her, maybe because of something else like another big case
00:39:50
involving Canton PD and MSP that happens in 2022. >> John O'Keefe. Yeah, maybe because of all
00:39:57
the pressure and the spotlight combined, at some point other good people step in
00:40:03
and say, "Nah-uh, not on our watch." And that's the FBI. Now, it's not really clear how the FBI investigation timeline
00:40:12
unfolded. They haven't been very public about that. >> known to be very public >> [laughter]
00:40:17
>> about anything. But on August 28th, 2024, Special Agent Shanique Castrida releases a 45-page
00:40:25
affidavit with all of her findings. And it details exactly what they think happened and why.
00:40:34
Agent Castrida confirms what we already know about Matthew grooming Sandra when she was a child and lays out Matthew's
00:40:42
motive for murder in clear terms. She writes that in October of 2020, when Sandra heard about Matthew's wife's
00:40:48
pregnancy, she went to him with an ultimatum. She wouldn't expose their years-long sexual relationship,
00:40:54
including the fact that it began when she was underage and that they'd been meeting while Matthew was on duty if he
00:41:01
agreed to try and get her pregnant. Their texts even show Sandra sending Matthew her ovulation schedule. And the
00:41:07
two of them planning sexual encounters around it. But when Sandra got pregnant, she started telling people about it. And
00:41:15
that wasn't part of the deal. The affidavit actually puts forward that on January 20th, when that friend Jill
00:41:20
called Stoughton PD and spilled the beans about Matthew and Sandra, causing that officer to question Matthew, that
00:41:27
is the very moment that Matthew hatched a plan to kill her. And all those heart-to-hearts after that
00:41:34
Agent Castrida says were, quote, "His attempt to appease Birchmore until he could kill her." End quote. And they
00:41:42
have physical proof, they say. The FBI analyzed the data from the health app on Sandra's iPhone. Her last movements were
00:41:51
recorded at 9:40 p.m. That is 3 minutes before Matthew was seen leaving her building. So, it's likely this data
00:42:00
shows exactly when Sandra died and Matthew was still inside the apartment. And when he left, he could have used the
00:42:08
key that [music] he had to lock up behind him. >> Right. And Agent Castrida backs this up
00:42:14
by tapping expert forensic physician Dr. William Smock. He specializes in asphyxiation cases and testified in the
00:42:20
Derek Chauvin trial about George Floyd's murder. According to the affidavit, Smock's findings directly contradict
00:42:27
what state police concluded. He pointed out that the fracture in Sandra's hyoid bone, which is at the top of the neck,
00:42:35
didn't line up with the position that she was found in. Smock explained that when someone is found seated, it is
00:42:41
considered an incomplete hanging, meaning that only part of the body's weight is actually pulling on the neck.
00:42:47
And in his deep dive through forensic research, he could not find a single documented case of a woman fracturing
00:42:53
her hyoid bone in that kind of scenario. Instead, those fractures overwhelmingly
00:42:59
show up in cases of manual strangulation or when the full weight of the body is suspended. So, he concludes with, quote,
00:43:06
"A reasonable degree of medical and scientific certainty that the cause of Ms. Birchmore's death is asphyxia and
00:43:13
that the manner of her death is homicide." End quote. And something else really interesting that Agent Castrida
00:43:20
writes is that after Matthew consented to handing his personal cell phone over to state police, he used his work phone
00:43:28
to search and then immediately delete searches for >> Right, right. >> whether deleted iMessages can be
00:43:35
recovered and whether someone can revoke consent in Massachusetts. [music] And it's on the last page of this
00:43:41
document that Agent Castrida writes this. Quote, "The information set forth above supports the government's motion
00:43:49
to detain Matthew Farwell pending trial in [music] this case." And that is how on the very date Agent
00:43:57
Castrida files her report, Matthew Farwell is arrested. So, how did the FBI get jurisdiction of the case in order to
00:44:06
make the arrest? Like, do they just like Trump state agencies by default? >> No, the FBI makes an ingenious move to
00:44:13
charge Matthew with one count of killing a witness or [music] victim, which is a
00:44:18
federal crime charge that often appears in connection with other federal charges, like sometimes in mob cases or
00:44:25
crime rings that span like multiple states. >> But in this case, it allowed the FBI to
00:44:30
step in without involving MSP. >> Exactly. And this charge also happens to be punishable by death. [music] So, that
00:44:38
same day, Matthew pleads not guilty at an arraignment. And as of this recording, Matthew has been indicted by
00:44:45
a federal grand jury and his trial is currently scheduled to begin on October 5th, 2026.
00:44:52
Until then, he's being held without bail at a detention facility in Rhode Island.
00:44:56
And our reporter, Nicole Kegan, actually reached out to his attorney for comment,
00:45:00
but as of this recording, we have not heard anything back. There is news still breaking in this case, though. The
00:45:06
strangest thing to me was broken by the Boston Globe earlier this year. They wrote that people familiar with the
00:45:13
investigation who spoke on the condition of anonymity said that DNA testing showed Matthew was not the biological
00:45:22
father of Sandra's unborn baby. Okay, first of all, who are these sources? I like need to know.
00:45:29
>> but I have no idea. >> And secondly, the motive still makes sense for me, though, cuz if Matthew
00:45:34
thought he was the father, which it really seems like he did from the text messages, like that's
00:45:40
your motive. And also, he refused to give his DNA at first, right? >> Well, also, he had a twin brother who
00:45:47
admitted to sleeping with Sandra at the same time. And like my own PSA, I no longer trust adult twins who work at the
00:45:55
same place if that place gives them access to children. I know that sounds specific, but I just listened to the
00:46:00
newest season of Dig and like oh hell no, there is a pattern here. But there is also another pattern that I found,
00:46:08
one with the Explorers program. Sandra's story is one that did get a decent amount of attention [music] and
00:46:15
had been kind of like living in the back of my brain since 2022-ish when I first
00:46:20
heard about it. And in digging into that, this local article from here in Indianapolis popped up and grabbed my
00:46:28
attention. It was from April 14th, 2022. It said, "IMPD officer tied to teen suicide ordered to write weekly journal
00:46:37
in rare sentence." And that's kind of like Crime Junkie clickbait. And when I began reading, I had this
00:46:45
weird déjà vu. Deleted text messages, the police Explorers [music] program. So, I began to wonder, maybe
00:46:52
William and Matthew and Robert weren't a couple of bad apples in the system. What
00:46:58
if the program is designed in a way that actually attracts predators and puts children at risk? Like, parents are
00:47:06
sending their kids off to work with the police because like you couldn't be safer, right? Wrong. The more I looked,
00:47:15
the more I found. And our reporter, Nina and I, have spent months, the better part of a year, uncovering systematic
00:47:23
issues with the Explorers program. And next week, we are going to be releasing an entire episode with every twisted
00:47:31
detail we found. [music] So, for those of you who don't want to wait, you can actually listen to that
00:47:36
episode right now in our fan club app. I think everyone needs to know about it. But it is truly required listening for
00:47:43
anyone considering the program or for any parent who has a kid in it. Like this is something that we can't just
00:47:49
look away from and like hope stuff that stops happening. We have to shine a light directly on it. So, tell everyone
00:47:55
you know, next week's episode of Crime Junkie is required listening for everyone so you know what is there and
00:48:02
how you can keep your kids and your friends safe. You can find all of our source material for this episode on our
00:48:08
website crimejunkie.com. And don't forget, if you want to listen to more episodes like this, all of our
00:48:13
episodes completely ad-free and next week's episode early, be sure to join our fan club. You'll get early access to
00:48:19
new episodes every week and bonus [music] content every month. And you can follow us on Instagram
00:48:24
@crimejunkiepodcast. >> We'll be back next week with a brand new episode.