Attorneys for a former Massachusetts police office accused of killing his pregnant girlfriend — and staging it to look like a suicide — are to argue Tuesday to move the trial to Rhode Island.
Attorneys claim that Matthew Farwell cannot get a fair trial in Massachusetts, Boston25 reports.
Farwell was federally indicted in 2024 for the death of Sandra Birchmore on February 1, 2021, after his Stoughton Police Department concluded that Birchmore had committed suicide, as CrimeOnline previously reported.
The department’s investigation, however, led to the resignations of Farwell, his twin brother William Farwell, and Robert Devine when it determined they had all had sexual relations with Birchmore. No charges were filed.
Matthew Farwell began his relationship with her when she was 15 and a member of the department’s Police Explorer’s Academy, the federal indictment said. The relationship continued over the years — sometimes when Farwell was on duty — and then, in late 2020 when Birchmore was 23, she told him she was pregnant and Farwell, a married father of three at the time, was the father.
The indictment accuses Farwell of strangling Birchmore to death and staging her apartment to look like a suicide.
Farwell’s trial is set to begin in October, Boston25 said, and he has pleaded not guilty. Prosecutors announced last month they were not seeking the death penalty.
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[Featured image: Sandra Birchmore/Facebook and Matthew Farwell/handout]
