On February 4, 2021, three days after the murder, members of the Canton Police Department went to Birchmore’s apartment to conduct a well-being check. When police officers entered Birchmore’s apartment, they found her body. A paramedic determined that Birchmore was dead, and her body was transported to the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner (hereinafter, the “OCME”).

In early May 2021, an OCME pathologist ruled Birchmore’s manner of death to be suicide.

Matthew Farwell started sexually exploiting Sandra Birchmore no later than 2013, when she was 15 years old.1 At that time, Birchmore was enrolled in the Police Explorers. Matthew Farwell used his position of trust and authority as a sworn police officer and instructor in the Police Explorers to groom Birchmore. Ultimately, Matthew Farwell sexually abused Birchmore, including by engaging in sexual intercourse with her.

The Explorer Program is a vocational education program that enables youth to explore career paths, such as careers in law enforcement. Police departments throughout the country partner with the Explorer Program to create what are commonly known as local Police Explorers Programs. The Stoughton Police Department chartered and facilitated the Stoughton Police Explorers. It was a quasi-paramilitary program designed to expose youth participants to various aspects of policing.

2008 Matthew Farwell became a sworn member of the Wellesley Police Department.

On March 27, 2012, he was hired by the Stoughton Police Department, where he worked until he resigned on April 1, 2022. Prior to joining Stoughton Police Department in 2012, he was a Police Explorers volunteer. After joining the Stoughton Police Department, he served as a Police Explorers instructor. He had several roles as an instructor, including teaching firearms and explosives safety and conducting canine demonstrations. At the time, Matthew Farwell was already familiar with the Police Explorers because he had also been a participant as a teenager.

In March 2010, Sandra Birchmore applied to be a Police Explorers participant. At the time, Birchmore was 12 years old. She began participating in the program in the spring of 2010, and she remained in the program through 2016.

Matthew Farwell began to groom Birchmore when she was a child. This grooming culminated in Matthew Farwell raping Birchmore in April 2013, when she was only 15 years old. At the time of this assault, Matthew Farwell was 27 years old. Matthew Farwell continued to sexually abuse Birchmore prior to her eighteenth birthday. After Birchmore turned 18 years old, Matthew Farwell continued cultivating a sexual relationship with her that lasted until her death on February 1, 2021.

After Birchmore’s death, law enforcement agents obtained Birchmore’s cell phones, both Apple iPhones, and laptop and reviewed the data on those devices. During that review, agents discovered messages between Matthew Farwell and Birchmore. The messages confirmed that Matthew Farwell frequently communicated with Birchmore for years. The messages also indicate that Matthew Farwell had sex with Birchmore when she was a minor, starting in or around April 2013, when Birchmore was 15 and Matthew Farwell was 27.

Data from Birchmore’s Facebook account reveals aspects of the beginning of Matthew Farwell and Birchmore’s online communications. Specifically, Facebook data indicates that Matthew Farwell sent Birchmore a Facebook “friend request” on October 28, 2012. At that time, Birchmore was 15 years old and a participant in the Police Explorers. Matthew Farwell was her 26year-old instructor.

On February 21, 2019, Birchmore and Matthew Farwell had a text message conversation about Matthew Farwell taking Birchmore’s virginity. Birchmore told Matthew Farwell that she was happy that he “took it.” Later in the same conversation, Matthew Farwell acknowledged that it was “a big thing to get to be the first.”

In the same text conversation, Matthew Farwell also reminisced about the first time he digitally penetrated Birchmore’s vagina. Discussing the day that occurred, Matthew Farwell asked Birchmore what she would have done if he (Matthew Farwell) told her he wanted her that day. Birchmore responded that she would have told him that he could have sex with her “after school.” She also recalled the specific class and seat that she was in when she realized that she was going to lose her virginity to Matthew Farwell. Based on my investigation, I believe that this occurred during the 2012-2013 school year when Birchmore was 15 years old.

February 21, 2020, Birchmore and FARWELL reminisced about when they first became sexually active:

• BIRCHMORE: I listened better back then tho FARWELL: I wish it had been a year sooner after helping you study at the library
• FARWELL: You still listen and give me whatever I want baby
• BIRCHMORE: I didnt even make you wait a year after that
• BIRCHMORE: And good. But I dont think your gonna get what you want next time so
• FARWELL: Of course I will I’ll just take it
• BIRCHMORE: That’s what you think. Good luck with that
• FARWELL: What was the first day you said omg I want this guy to be my first I want to feel him inside me
• BIRCHMORE: Yeah so 2012 I finally decided that I was gonna try and find a way to fuck you and just wasnt sure how. BIRCHMORE: How did you feel when I asked to make your dream come true
• FARWELL: Amazing! BIRCHMORE: Good
• FARWELL: I absolutely would’ve fucked you in 12
• BIRCHMORE: In 12?
• FARWELL: 2012

Additionally, on March 19, 2019, Matthew Farwell asked Birchmore, “what would you have done if we never used a condom and I never pulled out . . .” Birchmore reassured Matthew Farwell that she “would’ve [sic] still finished school :)” Birchmore then told Matthew Farwell, “I loved prom night! It was worth not going to prom.”

April 5, 2020, Matthew Farwell told Birchmore that he knew he wanted to take her virginity when he “started helping [her] with school work.”

June 17, 2019, the two discuss how Matthew Farwell had helped her “test prep” at the library.

• Matthew Farwell told Birchmore that she should have told him that she was interested in having sex with him that day.
• Sandra Birchmore told him that she was scared to speak up.
• Matthew Farwell then asked her, “did you think I wouldn’t want to fuck you?”
• Sandra Birchmore responded, “Yes and like cause of my age I didnt want you to be like uhhh no wtf.”
• Matthew Farwell then told her, “I understand that.”

On February 11, 2020, Birchmore and Matthew Farwell discussed the exact day that Matthew Farwell took then 15-year-old Birchmore’s virginity:

• BIRCHMORE: I had butterflies so bad the day you took my virginity
• FARWELL: Me too it was such a big day
• BIRCHMORE: Still know the date to this day
• FARWELL: Really?
• BIRCHMORE: Yes.
• FARWELL: 🙂
• BIRCHMORE: Thats not a date I’ll ever forget
• BIRCHMORE: It was april 10, 2013
• FARWELL: 🙂
• BIRCHMORE: Best day of my life [face with heart emoji]
• FARWELL: Me too

On June 19, 2020, Birchmore and Matthew Farwell had the following conversation in which Matthew Farwell reminisced about his past criminal sexual abuse of Birchmore:

• BIRCHMORE: I’m glad you agreed to take my virginity though
• FARWELL: Me too ***
• FARWELL: Lol if I pushed I absolutely could’ve fucked you without condoms from day one
• BIRCHMORE: Probably if you really pushed it.
• BIRCHMORE: I was kinda scared to say no in the beginning not knowing how you’d take it so yeah you wouldve got no condoms [sic] lol.

Text messages between Birchmore and others confirm that Matthew Farwell sexually abused Birchmore as a child and continued a sexual relationship with her until her death. For example, on October 5, 2020, Birchmore texted one of her friends (hereinafter, “Person 1”) that Matthew Farwell had been having sex with her for “the last almost 10 years” and that Matthew Farwell had taken her virginity “before [she] was 16.”

On June 15, 2019, Matthew Farwell and Birchmore exchanged text messages in which they discussed role-playing during their next sexual encounter.

• Matthew Farwell asked Birchmore how old she was going to pretend to be during that encounter.
• When Birchmore responded “14,”
• Matthew Farwell replied with a smiley face emoji.

February 21, 2020 In another conversation between Matthew Farwell and Birchmore on February 21, 2020, Matthew Farwell describes pinning Birchmore down during sex and asks her: “Will you say Matt stop I’m 13 I’m not ready for this omfg please stop.”

In several text messages from 2020 in which Matthew Farwell instructs Birchmore to act as if he were her older brother coming into her room at night to have sex with her.

Sandra friend confirmed that Birchmore would meet Matthew Farwell to “help with her homework.” Friend indicated that Birchmore confided in him/her that she was meeting with FARWELL in early high school to have sex with him in his police car or his truck.

on April 10, 2020, Matthew Farwell wrote, “I’m going to sneak away from work quick.”

On May 20, 2020, Birchmore told another friend that she had lost her virginity five days before the Boston Marathon bombing.

On October 5, 2020, friend told Sandra Birchmore that Matthew Farwell’s wife was pregnant with the couple’s third child. Friend indicated that the baby was due in February 2021. Birchmore responded that she was going to tell Matthew Farwell’s wife that he had been having sex with her (Birchmore) for nearly ten years. That say Sandra Birchmore prepared a draft text message to Matthew Farwell’s wife. Birchmore sent this draft text to Friend.The text states, in part:

• “I am just messaging to inform you that your husband Matthew has been out cheating on you since before you guys were even married.” I am aware that FARWELL and his wife got married in May 2013, shortly before Birchmore turned 16 years old.

There is no known record indicating the draft message was sent to Matthew Farwell’s wife.

On November 24, 2020, Birchmore asked if Matthew Farwell would be on duty when the two were scheduled to meet. FARWELL responded, “Yes I will be on the clock”.  Affidavit of FBI Special Agent – Matthew Farwell