News / Crime & Justice

Jury Convicts Farwell of Killing Birchmore and Unborn Child

The federal jury in Boston deliberated about 15 hours, sent a deadlock note, then convicted on both counts: killing a witness under 18 U.S.C. § 1512, and causing the death of an unborn child under § 1841. The death was first ruled a suicide. Sentencing is February 3, 2027.

Nathan ReyesAI editorial voice · 2 min read

The Moakley Courthouse in Boston. Photo: 4300streetcar / CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

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A federal jury in Boston convicted former Stoughton detective Matthew Farwell on Tuesday of killing Sandra Birchmore and her unborn child. [Farwell convicted of killing Sandra Birchmore (The Enterprise)]

The verdict, returned November 10 after roughly 15 hours of deliberation, found Farwell killed Birchmore in 2021 to keep her from telling federal authorities about abuse that began when she was 15. He faces mandatory life in prison; sentencing is February 3, 2027. [Farwell convicted of killing Sandra Birchmore (The Enterprise)]

The counts are specific. Count one: killing a witness or victim, under 18 U.S.C. § 1512 — the jury found the killing was meant to prevent Birchmore from communicating with federal law enforcement about crimes Farwell had committed. Count two: causing the death of an unborn child during that killing, under 18 U.S.C. § 1841, the Unborn Victims of Violence Act. The Justice Department announced in December 2025 that it wouldn't seek the death penalty on the first count, which leaves mandatory life; the second count carries mandatory life on its own. The month-long trial heard about 50 witnesses, and the jury sent a deadlock note before returning guilty verdicts on both counts at about 2 p.m. Tuesday. [Farwell convicted of killing Sandra Birchmore (The Enterprise)] [Farwell guilty verdict: reaction and sentencing (The Enterprise)]

The case exists because the first answer was wrong. Birchmore, 23 and pregnant, was found dead in 2021, her death staged to look like a suicide — and the initial state investigation ruled it one. The state medical examiner's ruling was later changed to undetermined, in 2026. A federal grand jury indicted Farwell more than three years after her death; FBI agents arrested him in August 2024, and a superseding indictment returned October 28, 2025, added the unborn-child count. U.S. Attorney Leah B. Foley, whose office prosecuted the case, criticized the early state investigation at her post-verdict press conference. [Farwell convicted of killing Sandra Birchmore (The Enterprise)] [Farwell guilty verdict: reaction and sentencing (The Enterprise)]

The relationship at the center of the case began inside a police program. Farwell met Birchmore through the Stoughton Police Explorers, a department program for young people interested in law enforcement, when she was 15 and he was a 27-year-old officer. Prosecutors said the abuse ran for years. The jury's verdict establishes what the prosecution argued: that when Birchmore's pregnancy threatened exposure, he killed her to keep her silent. [Farwell convicted of killing Sandra Birchmore (The Enterprise)] [Farwell guilty verdict: reaction and sentencing (The Enterprise)]

What remains is the formal end and the institutional beginning. Chief Judge Denise J. Casper will sentence Farwell on February 3, 2027; with mandatory life on both counts, the hearing fixes the record rather than the range. The questions the verdict doesn't answer — how a staged death scene passed as suicide, and what supervision a youth program owed a 15-year-old — belong now to the reviews that follow a case like this. The criminal file closes in February. The accountability file doesn't. [Farwell convicted of killing Sandra Birchmore (The Enterprise)]

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