Suicide, or murder? Trial begins for Massachusetts ex-cop accused of killing his pregnant lover

EDITOR’S NOTE: This story involves discussion of suicide that some readers may find upsetting. If you feel you are in crisis, call or text 988 to reach the 24-hour Suicide Crisis Lifeline.

The trial of a former police officer accused of killing his young lover five years ago in her suburban Boston apartment opened Friday with two vastly different accounts of Sandra Birchmore’s final days.

Birchmore, 23, was found slumped on her bedroom floor in Canton, Massachusetts, with a duffel bag strap looped around her neck and tied to a closet door handle. Local and state authorities ruled her February 1, 2021, death a suicide, but federal prosecutors took up the case three years later and charged former Stoughton police officer Matthew Farwell with killing her. He has pleaded not guilty.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Torey B. Cummings told jurors that Farwell was supposed to be a mentor to Birchmore but first had sex with her when she was 15 and he was 27. Cummings said he exploited her for years – sometimes meeting Birchmore for sex while he was on duty – and ultimately killed her after she became pregnant and he feared exposure of their secret relationship.

“She could end his life with the information she had, so he decided to end hers first,” Cummings said.

But defense attorney Kimberly Stevens portrayed Birchmore as an anxious, lonely and struggling young woman who had less than $3 in her bank account and became suicidal after Farwell broke up with her. Stevens conceded that the married Farwell had an affair with Birchmore and had made mistakes, but insisted to jurors that he didn’t kill her.

Instead, Stevens told jurors, Birchmore killed herself in an “impulsive act of despair” after Farwell broke up with her that night.

Birchmore’s family pressured investigators to reconsider the suicide ruling, saying she was planning her future and excited to be a mother. A federal investigation led to Farwell’s indictment in 2024, and in April the medical examiner’s office changed the manner of Birchmore’s death to “undetermined.”

Farwell, 40, is charged with killing a witness or victim – essentially, to stop Birchmore from potentially incriminating him. (It’s a federal offense to engage in a sexual act with someone under the age of 16 if the other person is at least four years older.) He also faces a second charge – related to Birchmore’s pregnancy – of violating a federal law protecting unborn children.

From Sandra Birchmore

DNA testing later ruled Farwell out as the father of Birchmore’s unborn baby. But prosecutors have said he believed the child was his at the time of her death.

Farwell has been decertified as a police officer and barred from working in law enforcement in Massachusetts. He has been in jail since his August 2024 arrest, and if convicted faces a potential sentence of life in prison.

His trial, at the John J. Moakley Courthouse in Boston, is expected to last about a month.

Cummings portrayed Birchmore as a vulnerable young woman who grew up idolizing police officers, only to be groomed by one who used and discarded her.

A stoic-looking Farwell sat between his two female attorneys in a charcoal gray suit and mostly stared at a computer screen on the defense table as Cummings presented the prosecution’s case. Occasionally, he glanced to his right at the jury box, where 16 jurors– including four alternates and six women – sat watching.

Cummings referred to Farwell as “the defendant” throughout, in sharp contrast to Stevens, who called him “Matt” during her opening statement and at one point put her arm on his shoulder.

Six of Birchmore’s cousins were in the courtroom Friday for opening statements, a family member told CNN.

Birchmore’s mother had faced a series of health problems and Birchmore’s father was not in the picture, Cummings said. So in 2010 Birchmore’s mother enrolled her daughter in the Stoughton Police Department’s Explorers program for local youths, hoping she’d get structure and meet positive role models.

The teen had struggled in school, was diagnosed with ADHD and found it difficult to make friends, Cummings told jurors. The prosecutor displayed a group photo of kids in the Explorers program, and pointed out that at 5 feet, Birchmore was the littlest.

Birchmore was “enamored” with police officers and spent many hours at the police department, Cummings said. Farwell was one of the officers she trusted, and in late 2012, when Birchmore was 15, he sent her a Facebook friend request and later started tutoring her at a local library, according to the prosecutor. But what started as a mentoring relationship quickly turned sexual, Cummings said.

“He gave her the attention she craved,” she said. Cummings described an illicit sexual relationship that continued for some eight years. It was built on secrecy and control and included rape fantasies and rough sex initiated by Farwell, the prosecutor said.

Authorities discovered some 40,000 messages between Farwell and Birchmore on her electronic devices that offered a digital trail of a relationship that started when she was a minor.

“He told her the day he took her virginity when she was 15 was the best day of his life,” Cummings told the jury, referring to one text-message exchange. “Sandra’s first sexual experience involved a crime,” she added.

Farwell got married in May 2013, about a month after he and Birchmore first had sex, Cummings said. After Birchmore learned that Farwell was expecting his third child with his wife in February 2021, she began pressuring him to have a baby with her and threatened to tell his wife, the prosecutor added.

“She was going to expose his crime … for the last 10 years,” Cummings said.

The prosecutor said Farwell agreed to her demands to appease her and keep their relationship a secret. But “she kept asking for more, she kept changing the terms of the deal,” Cummings told jurors. “The defendant was not happy about it.”

Cummings said that in January 2021, a friend of Birchmore’s called Stoughton police and told a dispatcher about the illicit relationship, infuriating Farwell.

She also said Birchmore had told a few people she planned to share the news about her baby publicly on Valentine’s Day and had prepared a poster for social media saying, “I’m expecting a new little one to love.”

Cummings told jurors that on the evening February 1, 2021, Farwell texted Birchmore and asked whether he could come over. She told him she’d leave the door unlocked. It was the final outgoing message on her phone.

Farwell arrived four minutes later wearing a dark hoodie and a medical mask, the affidavit said. Surveillance video, which Cummings played for jurors, showed him entering her building and then leaving about half an hour later.

Cummings told jurors that Farwell staged his crime to look like a suicide and believed that people would accept that finding because Birchmore was a vulnerable young woman.

But authorities found his DNA on the duffel strap around Birchmore’s neck, she said.

Stevens, the defense attorney, offered a different explanation for Farwell’s visit that night. In her opening statement, she said he went to Birchmore’s apartment to break up with her.

She portrayed Birchmore as an unstable woman who texted Farwell relentlessly, including on the day she died. Stevens read some of the texts aloud to jurors:

“I’m sorry, I’m needy today. Can I text you tomorrow before the snow comes?”

“I took my medicine just to let you know.”

“I wish you were here with me tonight, sad face.”

“I couldn’t sleep last night.”

David L. Ryan/The Boston Globe/Getty Images

Stevens said the barrage of text messages showed a young woman who was struggling with anxiety.

“She fantasized about having a relationship that would produce a child and a home she never had,” she told jurors.

“That’s a window into her mental state. Thanksgiving alone, Christmas alone, no family,” she added. Birchmore couldn’t afford her rent and had expressed fears that she was spotting and that her pregnancy was at risk, Stevens said.

When her body was found Birchmore was wearing turquoise leggings and a dark puffy jacket, and neither showed tears or other signs of a struggle, Stevens said. She also said that Farwell’s DNA was not found under Birchmore’s fingernails, and that the ligature found around her neck contained DNA from several people – not just Farwell.

“Mixture evidence is never evidence,” Stevens told jurors. “At the close of evidence, you’ll find that the government has not met its burden beyond a reasonable doubt.”

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一名曾任警察的男子被控五年前在波士顿郊区的公寓里杀害了他的年轻情人，此案于周五开庭审理，庭审中出现了两个截然不同的关于桑德拉·伯奇莫尔最后几天的描述。

23岁的伯奇莫尔被发现瘫倒在马萨诸塞州坎顿市的卧室地板上，脖子上缠着一个帆布包的带子，带子系在衣柜门把手上。当地和州政府认定她于2021年2月1日的死亡是自杀，但三年后，联邦检察官接手此案，并指控前斯托顿市警官马修·法威尔谋杀了她。法威尔拒不不认罪。

美国助理检察官托里·B·卡明斯告诉陪审团，法威尔本应是伯奇莫尔的导师，但他第一次与她发生性关系时，她只有15岁，而他当时27岁。卡明斯说，他剥削了她多年——有时甚至在执勤时与伯奇莫尔见面发生性关系——最终在她怀孕后，他害怕他们的秘密关系曝光，于是杀害了她。

“她掌握的信息足以让他丧命，所以他决定先杀了她，”卡明斯说。

但辩护律师金伯利·史蒂文斯将伯奇莫尔描绘成一个焦虑、孤独、生活困顿的年轻女子，她的银行账户里只有不到3美元，在法威尔与她分手后甚至产生了自杀倾向。史蒂文斯承认已婚的法威尔与伯奇莫尔有染，并且犯了错误，但她坚称法威尔没有杀害伯奇莫尔。

史蒂文斯告诉陪审团，伯奇莫尔是在法威尔当晚与她分手后，出于“绝望的冲动”而自杀的。

伯奇莫尔的家人向调查人员施压，要求重新考虑自杀结论，称她正在规划未来，并对即将成为母亲感到兴奋。联邦调查导致法威尔于2024年被起诉，今年4月，法医办公室将伯奇莫尔的死因改为“不明”。

40岁的法威尔被控杀害证人或受害者——实质上是为了阻止伯奇莫尔可能对他不利。（与未满16岁的人发生性行为，且对方比自己年长至少四岁，属于联邦犯罪。）他还面临第二项指控——与伯奇莫尔怀孕有关——即违反保护未出生儿童的联邦法律。

来自桑德拉·伯奇莫尔

DNA检测结果后来排除了法威尔是伯奇莫尔未出生孩子生父的可能性。但检方表示，在伯奇莫尔去世时，法威尔一直认为孩子是自己的。

法威尔已被取消警官资格，并被禁止在马萨诸塞州从事执法工作。他自2024年8月被捕以来一直被关押，如果罪名成立，他可能面临终身监禁。

他的审判将在波士顿的约翰·J·莫克利法院进行，预计将持续约一个月。

卡明斯将伯奇莫尔描绘成一个脆弱的年轻女子，她从小就崇拜警察，却被一个利用完就抛弃她的警察诱骗。

神情严肃的法威尔身穿炭灰色西装，坐在两位女律师中间，在卡明斯陈述控方案情时，他大部分时间都盯着辩护桌上的电脑屏幕。偶尔，他会瞥一眼右侧的陪审席，那里坐着16名陪审员——包括4名候补陪审员和6名女性——正在旁听。

卡明斯在庭审中始终称法威尔为“被告”，这与史蒂文斯形成了鲜明对比，史蒂文斯在开庭陈述中称他为“马特”，并且一度将手臂搭在他的肩膀上。

据一位家庭成员告诉 CNN，伯奇莫尔的六位表兄弟姐妹周五到庭听取了开庭陈述。

卡明斯说，伯奇莫尔的母亲一直饱受健康问题困扰，而她的父亲则不在身边。因此，在2010年，伯奇莫尔的母亲将女儿送入斯托顿警察局面向当地青少年的“探索者”项目，希望她能获得规律的生活和积极的榜样。

卡明斯告诉陪审团，这名青少年学习成绩不佳，被诊断患有注意力缺陷多动障碍，而且很难交到朋友。检察官展示了一张“探索者计划”孩子们的合影，并指出身高只有5英尺的伯奇莫尔是其中个子最小的。

卡明斯说，伯奇莫尔“迷恋”警察，经常在警察局待上好几个小时。法威尔是她信任的警官之一。据检察官称，2012年底，伯奇莫尔15岁时，法威尔在Facebook上向她发送了好友请求，后来开始在当地图书馆辅导她。但卡明斯说，这段最初的师徒关系很快演变成了性关系。

“他给了她渴望的关注，”她说。卡明斯描述了一段持续了大约八年的非法性关系。检察官称，这段关系建立在秘密和控制之上，包括强奸幻想和法威尔主动发起的粗暴性行为。

当局在法威尔的电子设备中发现了她和伯奇莫尔之间大约 4 万条信息，这些信息提供了两人关系的数字痕迹，这段关系始于她未成年时期。

“他告诉陪审团，在她15岁那年夺走她童贞的那天，是他一生中最美好的一天，”卡明斯告诉陪审团，她指的是两人之间的一条短信。“桑德拉的第一次性经历与犯罪有关，”她补充道。

卡明斯说，法威尔于2013年5月结婚，大约在他和伯奇莫尔第一次发生性关系一个月后。检察官补充说，伯奇莫尔在2021年2月得知法威尔怀上了与妻子所生的第三个孩子后，开始向他施压，要求他与自己生个孩子，并威胁要告诉他的妻子。

“在过去的十年里，她一直打算揭露他的罪行，”卡明斯说。

检察官称，法威尔为了安抚她并保守两人关系的秘密，同意了她的要求。但“她不断提出更多要求，不断更改交易条款，”卡明斯告诉陪审团，“被告对此很不满意。”

卡明斯说，2021 年 1 月，伯奇莫尔的一位朋友打电话给斯托顿警察局，告诉调度员这段不正当关系，这激怒了法威尔。

她还说，伯奇莫尔曾告诉一些人，她计划在情人节当天公开宣布怀孕的消息，并准备了一张社交媒体海报，上面写着：“我即将迎来一个可爱的小宝贝。”

卡明斯告诉陪审团，2021年2月1日晚，法威尔给伯奇莫尔发短信，问他是否可以过来。伯奇莫尔告诉他，她会把门锁打开。这是她手机上发出的最后一条短信。

据证词显示，法威尔四分钟后到达，当时他身穿深色连帽衫，戴着医用口罩。卡明斯向陪审团播放的监控录像显示，他进入了她的公寓楼，大约半小时后离开。

卡明斯告诉陪审员，法威尔伪造了犯罪现场，使其看起来像是自杀，并且认为人们会接受这一结论，因为伯奇莫尔是一个脆弱的年轻女性。

但她表示，当局在伯奇莫尔脖子上的行李带上发现了他的 DNA。

辩护律师史蒂文斯对法威尔当晚的来访给出了不同的解释。她在开庭陈述中说，法威尔去伯奇莫尔的公寓是为了和她分手。

她将伯奇莫尔描述为一个精神不稳定的女人，不断给法威尔发短信，甚至在她去世当天也是如此。史蒂文斯当着陪审员的面朗读了部分短信：

“不好意思，我今天有点黏人。明天下雪前我能给你发个短信吗？”

“我吃药了，只是想告诉你一声。”

“真希望你今晚能陪在我身边，伤心的表情。”

“我昨晚没睡着。”

David L. Ryan/《波士顿环球报》/Getty Images

史蒂文斯说，这些短信显示，一名年轻女子正在与焦虑作斗争。

“她幻想拥有一段能让她生个孩子、拥有一个家的感情，而她从未拥有过这些，”她告诉陪审团。

“这反映了她的精神状态。独自一人过感恩节，独自一人过圣诞节，没有家人陪伴，”她补充道。史蒂文斯说，伯奇莫尔付不起房租，而且她曾表示担心自己出现出血症状，怀孕有危险。

史蒂文斯说，伯奇莫尔的遗体被发现时，她身穿蓝绿色紧身裤和深色羽绒服，身上没有泪痕或其他挣扎的痕迹。她还说，在伯奇莫尔的指甲下没有发现法威尔的DNA，而且在她脖子上发现的绳索上含有多人的DNA，并非只有法威尔的。

“混合证据永远不能算作证据，”史蒂文斯告诉陪审员。“在证据呈堂结束时，你们会发现政府未能达到排除合理怀疑的举证责任。”