---
title: "The Sandra Birchmore Trial Opens With a Single Question: Suicide or Strangulation"
description: "Federal prosecutors say a former Stoughton detective killed a pregnant woman and staged the scene"
author: "Nate Ledger"
published: 2026-10-13T09:00:00Z
modified: 2026-10-13T17:05:15Z
url: https://rews.cc/a/the-sandra-birchmore-trial-opens-with-a-single-question-suic-ef7017
language: en
tags: ["politics", "law", "crime", "trump", "fed", "us"]
publisher: "Rews (https://rews.cc)"
---

# The Sandra Birchmore Trial Opens With a Single Question: Suicide or Strangulation

*Federal prosecutors say a former Stoughton detective killed a pregnant woman and staged the scene*

By Nate Ledger · October 13, 2026 · https://rews.cc/a/the-sandra-birchmore-trial-opens-with-a-single-question-suic-ef7017

## In brief

- Matthew Farwell is on federal trial, accused of strangling Sandra Birchmore in 2021 and staging it as suicide
- Prosecutors allege Farwell groomed Birchmore from the police Explorers Program and killed her to conceal years of abuse
- Federal charges came in 2024 after a state suicide finding and no prosecution by the Norfolk DA
- Assistant principal Cheryl Carlson testified Birchmore was excited about her pregnancy and planned to have the baby
- The defense portrays a woman under financial strain, citing less than $3 in her account with rent due

Testimony has begun in the federal trial of Matthew Farwell, the former Stoughton police detective accused of strangling Sandra Birchmore — who was pregnant — in February 2021 and arranging the scene to look as though she had taken her own life. The [Boston Globe is covering the proceedings live](https://bostonglobe.com/2026/10/13/metro/sandra-birchmore-trial-live-updates/), and its account makes clear that nearly everything in this case turns on one dispute: whether Birchmore died by suicide, as state authorities once concluded, or was killed, as federal prosecutors now say.

The history between the two is long and grim. Birchmore joined the Stoughton Police Department’s Explorers Program in 2010, the year she turned 13; Farwell had come through the same program as a youth and stayed on as a volunteer instructor. Prosecutors allege that Farwell groomed her for child sexual abuse, began an illegal sexual relationship with her when he was 27 and she was 15, and met her for sex while on duty — and that he killed her in 2021 to cover those crimes up. Farwell’s defense argues that Birchmore died by suicide, distraught because he was ending the relationship.

The case exists at all because the federal government reached a different conclusion than the state did. Norfolk District Attorney Michael Morrissey declined to prosecute after state authorities deemed the death a suicide, and for years “Justice for Sandra” produced no charges. Then, in 2024, federal authorities brought the case — unusual in a murder matter — after an expert they worked with said Birchmore’s injuries were not consistent with suicide.

![A magnifying glass rests on a cream folder and papers, enlarging a red cord that trails across a dark, textured surface.](https://rews.cc/img/bd38f56d551c2942295d06a8c259f87c0b0eeb8d.webp)

The trial’s early witnesses have been people who knew Birchmore from her ordinary life. Cheryl Carlson, an assistant principal at the Sharon elementary school where Birchmore began working as a teacher’s aide in the fall of 2020, testified that she interacted with her almost daily and described her as “very sweet,” someone who volunteered for new roles and took feedback well. Shortly before the winter break, Birchmore told her she was pregnant. “I noticed that she was really looking excited,” Carlson said. Knowing Birchmore was a single young woman, Carlson asked whether it was good news; the answer came “without hesitation.” Birchmore also told third graders at the school that she was pregnant and that the father, her boyfriend, was a police officer. Even after describing arguments with the father, Carlson testified, Birchmore insisted she would have the child “no matter what,” telling her: “I’m going to have that baby.” She expressed that she wanted a baby to have someone to love.

Carlson last saw Birchmore after an early dismissal on Feb. 1, 2021. When Birchmore didn’t appear at school on Feb. 3 or Feb. 4, Carlson requested a wellness check; that day she was told police had found Birchmore’s body and that she had killed herself. “It didn’t make sense to me,” Carlson testified. “Because she was so excited to have that baby … it didn’t fit with her character.” Prosecutors have framed Birchmore’s Canton apartment — her first, rented in late 2020 after her aunt put the family home up for sale — as a milestone of growing independence. The defense used the same fact differently: attorney Kimberly C. Stevens told jurors the rent brought new stress, noting Birchmore had less than $3 in her bank account with the rent due.

![Red knitted baby booties rest on a folded white crocheted blanket on a wooden chair, with sunlight streaming through an open doorway across the floor.](https://rews.cc/img/8dd15d089f1b5f3c4279f865b9d3cc0191c6e737.webp)

On cross-examination, defense attorney Joanne M. Daley pressed Carlson on Birchmore’s use of sick time — Carlson had once called her the “sickest employee I’ve ever had” — and on whether Carlson had observed signs of suicidal ideation. Carlson said she had not been aware of Birchmore’s mental-health state beyond what Birchmore shared, that “I never knew her to be anything besides sweet and kind and in a good mood,” and that “she was not as effective as I would have liked, but she was very caring with the children.” Prosecutors objected repeatedly over relevance, and the court sustained the objections; the judge struck a question asking Carlson whether she had personally known anyone who had taken their own life.

The other theme of the day was the Stoughton Police Department itself. Assistant US Attorney Elizabeth C. Riley questioned Stoughton detective Heather Cheever in a way designed to spotlight what the prosecution sees as gaps in the original investigation into Birchmore’s death. Asked whether it would be appropriate for a police officer to send a Facebook friend request to a member of the department’s youth explorers program, Cheever said it would not; pressed on whether that was department policy, she answered, “I said it would be inappropriate, I didn’t say it had anything to do with policy.”

![A black peaked cap rests on cracked, textured ground, casting a long dark shadow with a bright red patch near its end.](https://rews.cc/img/3d04354bfaaaba4ca984415d400d1aa393ec32e8.webp)

Hovering over that testimony is Robert Devine, 54, the former Stoughton deputy chief who oversaw the explorers program and supervised both the Farwell brothers and Birchmore. Devine is not expected to testify. In 2025, the state’s Peace Officer Standards and Training Commission stripped him of his law enforcement certification, writing in its ruling that he had communicated with Birchmore while on duty and met her for a “sexual encounter” in late 2020, and that he messaged her on Facebook under the alias Marty Riggs, a character from the *Lethal Weapon* films. Devine denies sending those communications, saying hackers repeatedly attacked his devices and that Birchmore lied about their interactions; he is seeking reinstatement of his certification and now works as an attorney. Birchmore’s estate named him in its wrongful-death lawsuit, and he denies those allegations as well.

What the jury has now is two irreconcilable accounts of the same night. In one, a 23-year-old woman who had just announced her pregnancy to third graders was killed by a man with years of crimes to hide, and the first investigation missed it. In the other, a young woman under financial and emotional strain ended her life, and the state authorities who said so at the time were right. The trial will answer the question that Massachusetts authorities once declined to ask.