Her estate questions actions of state investigation

The personal representative of Birchmore’s estate is Darlene Smith, the twin sister of Birchmore’s mother, who died in 2016. After Farwell’s arrest by federal authorities last week, Smith and a few other family members connected to the estate agreed to respond to written questions from the Globe. The estate filed a wrongful death suit against Farwell and other former Stoughton police officers in 2022.

In response to Globe questions, the estate said they were aware that Birchmore knew Farwell through a Stoughton police youth program. Birchmore enrolled in the program when she was 12 and Farwell was an adult instructor. But the estate said it did not know the extent of the relationship.

“We were under the impression that Sandra was in a safe and nurturing environment,” the estate said.

Last week, the US attorney’s office in Boston charged Farwell, 38, with killing a witness, alleging he strangled a pregnant Birchmore, 23, on Feb. 1, 2021 and then staged her body and apartment to make her death look like a suicide. Federal prosecutors allege Farwell, a married father, killed Birchmore so she couldn’t divulge that he committed statutory rape against her when she was 15, and that during her adulthood they sometimes met for sex while he was on the clock as a police officer.

Both alleged acts could be prosecuted as federal crimes under laws prohibiting coercion and enticement and wire fraud, federal prosecutors said. Birchmore was 10 weeks pregnant when she died and had been telling some friends and relatives that Farwell had fathered her unborn child, court records show.

Farwell has reluctance not guilty and is being held pending a detention hearing set for next week. His lawyer declined to comment Wednesday.

Governor Maura Healey, who was state attorney general when Birchmore died, called the case “horrifying” while speaking with reporters Tuesday.

“The idea that someone in a position of power preyed on her, it disgusts me,” she said. “The Birchmore family deserves justice. We can’t bring Sandra back, but it’s very important that there be accountability and that justice be done.”

The initial investigation into Birchmore’s death at her home in Canton was directed by Norfolk District Attorney Michael W. Morrissey with State Police and the state Office of the Chief Medical Examiner. The offices didn’t respond Wednesday to inquiries about the remarks from Birchmore’s estate.

The estate said Canton police first told them in a call about Birchmore’s death that “it was a suicide.”

“Immediately, (we) couldn’t believe it because Sandra had been so happy and excited about being pregnant and becoming a mother. “She had been purchasing items for the baby over the weeks leading up to her death and making all sorts of plans,” the estate said.

As relatives cleaned out Birchmore’s apartment, they said their suspicions about whether she died by suicide escalated as they noticed “things were not consistent” with someone taking their own life.

In an affidavit, the FBI listed evidence from Birchmore’s apartment suggesting she did not kill herself. There was a sonogram image decorated with glitter and affixed to a homemade sign that read, “Congratulations you’re going to be a father.” Family members also found Birchmore was doing laundry when she died with loads in the washer and dryer, the affidavit said.

On Feb. 5, 2021, the day after Birchmore’s body was found, Stoughton Police Chief Donna McNamara ordered an internal investigation to examine the department’s interactions with her. Nineteen months later, in September 2022, McNamara announced the investigation had found that Farwell and two other former Stoughton police officers had engaged in “inappropriate” relationships with Birchmore.

She identified the other two officers as Farwell’s twin brother, William, and Robert C. Devine, 52, a former deputy chief in Stoughton and a mentor to the Farwell brothers who oversaw the department’s youth program from 2002 to 2014. All three men voluntarily left Stoughton police in 2022.

The report on the internal affairs investigation was heavily redacted and didn’t reveal specifics about the misconduct. Records in the wrongful death suit and proceedings brought by the state’s law enforcement agency later revealed Matthew Farwell had initiated sexual contact with Birchmore in April 2013 when she was 15 and he was a 27-year-old police officer, an act that could be prosecuted in state court as aggravated statutory rape.

The civil litigation and administrative proceedings by the Peace Officers Standards and Training Commission (POST), the state’s police oversight agency, also revealed that William Farwell and Devine met Birchmore for sex in their Stoughton police patrol cars when she was an adult. William Farwell and Devine have denied the allegation in the wrongful death suit and both are challenging POST’s efforts to discipline them.

Birchmore’s estate said it would be “difficult for anyone (even those who did not know Sandra) not to question whether investigators held any biases” after internal investigators in Stoughton unearthed evidence about her relationships with multiple officers.

“Anyone would question police investigating police, and the fact that the police had sexual relationships with the victim increases the concerns of bias,” the estate said. “In a situation like this, we don’t know who else could be involved, or what the relationships between the specific police officers and the state investigators were.”

Birchmore’s estate thanked the FBI and US attorney’s office for getting involved with the investigation.

“This is a big step in the right direction, but we have a long road ahead before we have justice for Sandra and her baby,” the estate said.

The relatives described Birchmore as a “vivacious young woman who was excited about becoming a mother” and had “big dreams” for herself and her unborn child.

“We sorely miss Sandra and will always grieve tragically losing her and the baby we will never meet,” they said.

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Laura Crimaldi can be reached at [email protected]. Follow her @lauracrimaldi.