# Birchmore murder trial

True crime · Heat 4.8 / 10 · 4 shows · 11h 12m airtime

Sandra Birchmore, 23 and pregnant, was found dead in her Canton apartment on February 4, 2021, initially ruled a suicide. Former Stoughton officer Matthew Farwell was arrested on August 28, 2024 and charged with killing a witness and causing the death of an unborn child; he has pleaded not guilty. Surveillance puts him in her building from 9:14 to 9:43 p.m. on February 1, 2021, and his sperm was on the noose, but the DNA link came through YSTR testing that cannot separate identical twins. The death record was amended to asphyxia with the manner undetermined, and the officer who first ruled suicide admitted he did not collect the ligature. The defense argues investigators pressured the medical examiner to change…

Page: https://boilpoints.com/point/birchmore_murder_trial_1037312782

## Segments

- [Hidden Killers With Tony Brueski](https://boilpoints.com/u/hiddenkillerswithtonybrueski), 2026-10-01, 2:03 to 18:00: **Retells Birchmore's life from department findings**. Narrated retelling of Birchmore's life built on the Stoughton department's own findings, adding detail the file did not carry: the Explorers' single surviving Learning for Life agreement, no record any officer took youth protection training, and Devine's fake Facebook name Marty Riggs. New angle: Stoughton could produce only one Learning for Life agreement, and no record any officer took youth protection training.
- [Hidden Killers With Tony Brueski](https://boilpoints.com/u/hiddenkillerswithtonybrueski), 2026-10-02, 2:04 to 18:38: **Retells the state investigation and the federal case**. Retells the whole state investigation into Birchmore's death and the federal case against Farwell: the day-one suicide ruling, the missed necklace and phone data, the internal report, the wrongful death suit, the Brady listing and the rulings ahead of trial. The phone searches are already on the record.
- [Law&Crime Sidebar](https://boilpoints.com/u/lawcrimesidebar), 2026-10-06, 0:51 to 3:46: **Opens with the backstory and the affidavit's allegations**. Opens the trial coverage with a backstory read: the February 2021 death in Canton, the suicide ruling, the 2024 federal arrest, the two charges, the not-guilty plea, and Bondi's decision to drop the death penalty. Reads the indictment and a detention-memo affidavit alleging grooming from age 15 and a February 1, 2021 strangulation staged as suicide. New angle: The detention-memo affidavit alleges Farwell killed Birchmore to stop her disclosing a wire fraud scheme.
- [Law&Crime Sidebar](https://boilpoints.com/u/lawcrimesidebar), 2026-10-06, 3:46 to 5:03: **Reads the detention memo's DNA and grooming details**. Reads the detention memo affidavit in detail: the grooming began when Birchmore was 15 and Farwell 27, DNA excluded him as the father of her unborn child, and his DNA is linked to the ligature and her clothing. New angle: DNA testing excluded Farwell as the father of Birchmore's unborn child; his DNA is linked to the ligature and her clothing.
- [Law&Crime Sidebar](https://boilpoints.com/u/lawcrimesidebar), 2026-10-06, 4:59 to 6:25: **Reads the digital evidence and post-arrest searches**. Reads the 2024 affidavit's digital evidence: Birchmore's last outgoing text at 9:10 p.m., surveillance of Farwell entering at 9:14 and leaving at 9:43, and his post-arrest Google searches about deleting iMessage and revoking consent. New angle: Farwell searched whether deleted iMessage can be recovered and whether consent can be revoked in Massachusetts.
- [Law&Crime Sidebar](https://boilpoints.com/u/lawcrimesidebar), 2026-10-06, 6:59 to 9:14: **Walks the affidavit's planning and surveillance timeline**. Walks the affidavit's planning evidence: Farwell asked for a key and inspected the closet in the week before, got the building passcode on January 29, and surveillance puts him inside her building from 9:14 to 9:43 p.m. on February 1, 2021. New angle: Surveillance shows Farwell entering Birchmore's building at 9:14 p.m. and leaving at 9:43 p.m. on February 1, 2021.
- [Law&Crime Sidebar](https://boilpoints.com/u/lawcrimesidebar), 2026-10-06, 9:14 to 10:38: **Reads the affidavit's scene evidence against suicide**. Reads the affidavit's scene evidence: laundry mid-cycle, a congratulations sign with an ultrasound photo, a packaged stroller and onesies - the state's case against suicide. Also notes the allegation of a history of choking. New angle: Family found laundry in progress, a congratulations sign with an ultrasound photo, a new stroller and onesies in the apartment.
- [Hidden Killers With Tony Brueski](https://boilpoints.com/u/hiddenkillerswithtonybrueski), 2026-10-09, 1:33 to 19:57: **Previews the trial and the diary fight**. Previews the trial and works the confrontation-clause fight over Birchmore's diary and her statements to a long-time mental health counselor, arguing the diary may come in redacted because it was not written with prosecution in mind. New angle: Birchmore's long-time mental health counselor is named as a source of statements prosecutors may admit.
- [Hidden Killers With Tony Brueski](https://boilpoints.com/u/hiddenkillerswithtonybrueski), 2026-10-12, 3:21 to 17:18: **Walks the 29-minute window with new forensics**. Walks the 29-minute window minute by minute and adds two forensic details not yet on the record: Birchmore's phone registered its last movement at 9:40 p.m., and Farwell's sperm was found on the noose as well as her underwear. Also flags the broken hyoid and the prosecution expert's meta-analysis of 8,523 hangings. New angle: Birchmore's phone last moved at 9:40 p.m., and Farwell's sperm was on the noose as well as her underwear.
- [Hidden Killers With Tony Brueski](https://boilpoints.com/u/hiddenkillerswithtonybrueski), 2026-10-12, 2:34 to 24:46: **Walks the fight over the medical examiner**. Walks the death certificate's two versions and the fight over the medical examiner: the record was amended to asphyxia with manner undetermined, both sides want her on the stand, and the defense says it will call her if prosecutors do not. New angle: The death record was amended to asphyxia with the manner undetermined, and both sides want the medical examiner to testify.
- [Hidden Killers With Tony Brueski](https://boilpoints.com/u/hiddenkillerswithtonybrueski), 2026-10-12, 2:21 to 5:47: **Asks why no cover-up charges followed**. Turns to the internal affairs finding that three Stoughton officers - Matthew Farwell, his twin William and Deputy Chief Robert Devine - had inappropriate relationships with Birchmore, and asks why no cover-up charges followed. Also notes the judge is letting Birchmore's journal in and that her mental health records show a prior suicide attempt. New angle: The department's internal affairs investigation named three officers - Matthew Farwell, his twin William and Deputy Chief Robert Devine.
- [Hidden Killers With Tony Brueski](https://boilpoints.com/u/hiddenkillerswithtonybrueski), 2026-10-13, 20:00 to 47:02: **Cross-checks the fracture against 8,523 hangings**. Retired FBI agents walk the 29-minute window and the five-year suicide ruling, then go to the prosecution's medical examiner: Dr. Smock's review found no case in his hundreds of hangings where this fracture occurred, and a meta-analysis of 8,523 hangings never showed this fracture pattern. New angle: A meta-analysis of 8,523 hangings found fracture rates all over the map, and this fracture was never among them.
- [Crime Stories with Nancy Grace](https://boilpoints.com/u/crimestorieswithnancygrace), 2026-10-13, 4:06 to 5:51: **Notes the witness list and trial start date**. Notes that witness testimony opened October 13 at the Moakley courthouse and that William Farwell, who admitted a two-year sexual relationship with Birchmore, is on the witness list alongside Farwell's wife Angela. A short trial-status update that otherwise recaps the grooming and staging allegations. New angle: William Farwell and Farwell's wife Angela are named on the witness list.
- [Hidden Killers With Tony Brueski](https://boilpoints.com/u/hiddenkillerswithtonybrueski), 2026-10-14, 4:03 to 5:51: **Compares the grooming failures to Epstein**. Recaps the grooming allegations and the failure of anyone to report them, comparing the case to Epstein. Reaction and frustration rather than a new development in the trial.
- [Hidden Killers With Tony Brueski](https://boilpoints.com/u/hiddenkillerswithtonybrueski), 2026-10-14, 5:51 to 8:24: **Speculates about the unborn child's father**. Speculates about the father of Birchmore's unborn child, floating an Army recruiter Farwell allegedly passed her to, and admits the identification has not been put on the record in open court. Reaction and conjecture, not a development in the case.
- [Hidden Killers With Tony Brueski](https://boilpoints.com/u/hiddenkillerswithtonybrueski), 2026-10-14, 36:35 to 44:51: **Recaps the case for listeners new to it**. Recaps the Birchmore case for listeners new to it: the 23-year-old found dead in her Canton apartment with a duffel-bag strap around her neck, the suicide ruling, the federal trial of Matthew Farwell, the phone going quiet three minutes before he left, and the DNA on the ligature. Background and retelling, with no new development.
- [Hidden Killers With Tony Brueski](https://boilpoints.com/u/hiddenkillerswithtonybrueski), 2026-10-14, 44:51 to 51:24: **Sets the counselor's account against the no-fear theory**. Puts the defense's no-fear theory against the counselor's account: Birchmore said Farwell shoved her when he learned she was pregnant and put her in a chokehold and a headlock. Notes no public record of prior charges or other reported victims. New angle: Birchmore told her counselor Farwell shoved her over the pregnancy and put her in a chokehold and headlock.
- [Hidden Killers With Tony Brueski](https://boilpoints.com/u/hiddenkillerswithtonybrueski), 2026-10-14, 51:30 to 57:21: **Reads the defense opening and the ribbon searches**. Covers the defense opening: Kimberly Stevens calls the relationship an affair, puts an arm around Farwell and points to Birchmore's searches for mental health awareness ribbons on the day she died. The hosts read the searches as the opposite of suicidal intent and widen out to the department's culture of silence. New angle: Defense opening cited Birchmore's searches for mental health awareness ribbons on the day she died.
- [Hidden Killers With Tony Brueski](https://boilpoints.com/u/hiddenkillerswithtonybrueski), 2026-10-14, 57:21 to 1:05:33: **Adds the paternity name and autopsy dispute**. Turns to the paternity question and the autopsy fight: reporting pretrial notes name Army recruiter Jason Picard as the baby's biological father, a name not yet on the record in open court, and the hosts argue the broken neck bone outweighs the Commonwealth's original suicide finding. New angle: Reporting pretrial notes name U.S. Army recruiter Jason Picard as the biological father of Birchmore's baby.
- [Dateline NBC](https://boilpoints.com/u/datelinenbc), 2026-10-15, 2:22 to 12:45: **Walks through the Birchmore opening statements**. Dateline's producer walks through opening statements in Boston: the prosecution's grooming timeline and the claim Farwell dropped his wife at a scheduled C-section before going to Birchmore's apartment, against a defense that says Birchmore took her own life. Adds the birth timing and the absence of a suicide note. New angle: Farwell dropped his wife at the hospital for a scheduled C-section before going to Birchmore's apartment; their third child was born about 12 hours after the killing.
- [Hidden Killers With Tony Brueski](https://boilpoints.com/u/hiddenkillerswithtonybrueski), 2026-10-16, 4:13 to 5:07: **Adds Davis's 25-minute call on February 1**. Day five testimony: Lesley Davis says she spoke with Birchmore for 25 minutes the evening of February 1 and the call was normal, with no mention of ending her life. A first-hand witness account of Birchmore's last hours, set against the defense's suicide claim. New angle: Lesley Davis testified she spoke with Birchmore for 25 minutes on the evening of February 1, 2021, and Birchmore never mentioned ending her life.
- [Hidden Killers With Tony Brueski](https://boilpoints.com/u/hiddenkillerswithtonybrueski), 2026-10-16, 7:24 to 11:44: **Reports Kuhn identifying Farwell by his gait**. Adds the identification witness: Sgt. Robert Kuhn, who served with Farwell for a decade, told the jury the masked man in the building video was Farwell, spotted by his gait, clothing and demeanor, and called the mask very odd because Farwell refused to wear one on duty. New angle: Sgt. Robert Kuhn identified Farwell on the surveillance video by his gait, clothing and demeanor.
- [Hidden Killers With Tony Brueski](https://boilpoints.com/u/hiddenkillerswithtonybrueski), 2026-10-16, 11:44 to 12:25: **Adds the 2019 hanging slideshow at a conference**. Adds a new piece of trial evidence: prosecutors showed that Farwell and Sgt. Robert Kuhn attended an October 2019 Wellesley conference featuring a medical examiner's slideshow on suicidal hangings, 16 months before Birchmore died in what the state first called a suicidal hanging. New angle: Farwell and Kuhn attended an October 2019 conference that included a medical examiner's slideshow on suicidal hangings.
- [Hidden Killers With Tony Brueski](https://boilpoints.com/u/hiddenkillerswithtonybrueski), 2026-10-16, 12:25 to 13:34: **Reports Kuhn saying the friendship ended instantly**. Picks up the Kuhn cross-examination: defense attorney Joanne Daly asked whether Farwell had received a COVID vaccine, and Kuhn said the friendship ended the minute the allegation was made. A small but new beat from the trial day. New angle: Kuhn testified his friendship with Farwell ended the minute the allegation was made.
- [Hidden Killers With Tony Brueski](https://boilpoints.com/u/hiddenkillerswithtonybrueski), 2026-10-16, 13:34 to 17:30: **Adds Davis's account of meeting Birchmore at a gym**. Returns to Lesley Davis's testimony with more of it: how she met Birchmore at a Stoughton gym, that Birchmore first named Farwell at 15, encounters in his cruiser and truck including choking, and that Birchmore asked her to be godmother. New angle: Davis testified Birchmore said Farwell shoved her down when she asked him to sign the birth certificate.
- [Crime Stories with Nancy Grace](https://boilpoints.com/u/crimestorieswithnancygrace), 2026-10-16, 0:55 to 1:27: **Retells the case basics and the contested ruling**. Opens the episode with the case's basics: Birchmore found dead in her Canton apartment on February 4, 2021, the strap around her neck, the initial suicide ruling, and the family and federal prosecutors who contested it. A retelling that stays inside the record.
- [Crime Stories with Nancy Grace](https://boilpoints.com/u/crimestorieswithnancygrace), 2026-10-16, 1:29 to 2:17: **Recaps the body's discovery and suicide reading**. Recaps the discovery of the body and the initial police response: the 911 call, the duffel bag strap around her neck, the untidy kitchen and no sign of a break-in, and officers reading the scene as a suicide. Background the file already holds.
- [Crime Stories with Nancy Grace](https://boilpoints.com/u/crimestorieswithnancygrace), 2026-10-16, 2:17 to 4:36: **Adds Birchmore's ADHD and Explorers entry at 12**. Background segment on Birchmore's childhood: ADHD, special education, and her mother enrolling her in the Explorers at 12 to find role models. Adds the age of entry and the ADHD and special-education detail, then hands off to a psychoanalyst's grooming discussion. New angle: Birchmore was 12, had diagnosed ADHD and was in special education when her mother enrolled her in the Explorers.
- [Crime Stories with Nancy Grace](https://boilpoints.com/u/crimestorieswithnancygrace), 2026-10-16, 6:59 to 8:25: **Reads the April 2013 butterflies texts**. Reads the texts themselves: Birchmore writes she had butterflies the day Farwell took her virginity, and he replies 'me too,' with the exchange dated April 10, 2013. The defense concedes the texts are damning and argues they can still be kept out of evidence. New angle: The April 10, 2013 text has Birchmore saying she had butterflies the day Farwell took her virginity; he replied 'me too.'
- [Crime Stories with Nancy Grace](https://boilpoints.com/u/crimestorieswithnancygrace), 2026-10-16, 8:25 to 9:37: **Explains why YSTR testing cannot separate twins**. Explains the DNA problem at the heart of the case: the testing was YSTR, which traces only the paternal line and cannot separate identical twins, so the link to the ligature does not by itself single out Matthew over William. New angle: The DNA link was found through YSTR testing, which cannot distinguish identical twin brothers.
- [Hidden Killers With Tony Brueski](https://boilpoints.com/u/hiddenkillerswithtonybrueski), 2026-10-17, 1:40 to 11:38: **Questions the officer who ruled suicide**. Pulls apart the original investigation through the officer who ruled the death a suicide: he admits he never collected the ligature or recorded Farwell, and calls it a tactical decision. The panel argues the botched scene may hand the defense its reasonable doubt. New angle: The officer who ruled the death a suicide admitted he did not collect the ligature or record Farwell, calling it a tactical decision.
- [Hidden Killers With Tony Brueski](https://boilpoints.com/u/hiddenkillerswithtonybrueski), 2026-10-17, 47:24 to 51:32: **Recaps day four and the trooper's omissions**. Recaps day four of the Farwell trial: the DNA on the duffel bag strap, the masked man on surveillance, the 40,000 texts and the grooming allegation, then dwells on the trooper who admitted he never collected the weapon or recorded the suspect. It stays inside the botched-investigation thread already on the record.
- [Hidden Killers With Tony Brueski](https://boilpoints.com/u/hiddenkillerswithtonybrueski), 2026-10-17, 51:32 to 54:13: **Debates how the defense uses the botched probe**. Faddis and the hosts argue over how the defense will use the botched first investigation - that Farwell had no duty to make police work by the book, and that jurors may punish law enforcement betrayal harder. Argument and prediction, no new record.
- [Hidden Killers With Tony Brueski](https://boilpoints.com/u/hiddenkillerswithtonybrueski), 2026-10-17, 54:21 to 56:52: **Checks the witness lists for Farwell's wife**. Checks the witness lists and finds Farwell's wife is named only as a spouse, not listed by either side, and asks what her absence means for the jury. Faddis notes Farwell's own messages could still come in as admissions without her. New angle: Farwell's wife is named as a spouse but appears on neither side's witness list.
- [Hidden Killers With Tony Brueski](https://boilpoints.com/u/hiddenkillerswithtonybrueski), 2026-10-17, 58:24 to 1:00:03: **Explains how a defense humanizes a client**. Panel discussion on how a defense humanizes a client with a bad history. Faddis explains character-for-peaceableness witnesses and the rebuttal risk; the segment stays inside the trial's opening-statement framing and adds no new development.
- [Hidden Killers With Tony Brueski](https://boilpoints.com/u/hiddenkillerswithtonybrueski), 2026-10-17, 1:00:03 to 1:02:44: **Speculates on obstruction charges for other officers**. Speculates about whether other officers could face obstruction charges if Farwell is convicted. Faddis and Drake lay out the legal theory - poor police work is not a crime, willful evidence manipulation could be - and stay inside the trial's already-reported gaps.
- [Hidden Killers With Tony Brueski](https://boilpoints.com/u/hiddenkillerswithtonybrueski), 2026-10-18, 2:46 to 3:47: **Opens the trial coverage with the setup**. Opens the trial coverage with the setup: the charge, the five years the state called it a suicide, and the 29-minute window from the 9:07 text to the 9:43 exit. A recap of the timeline already on the record, with opening statements noted as due that day.
- [Hidden Killers With Tony Brueski](https://boilpoints.com/u/hiddenkillerswithtonybrueski), 2026-10-18, 3:47 to 5:10: **Debates the defense answer to the 29-minute timeline**. Walks through the prosecution's 29-minute timeline - the 9:07 text, the 9:14 entry in hood and mask, the 9:40 phone movement, the 9:43 exit - and debates how the defense answers it. A retelling of facts already on the record, plus opinion on guilt.
- [Hidden Killers With Tony Brueski](https://boilpoints.com/u/hiddenkillerswithtonybrueski), 2026-10-18, 13:30 to 14:44: **Recaps the hyoid-fracture argument**. Recaps the hyoid-fracture argument: Dr. Smock's prosecution review, the 8,523-hanging meta-analysis, and a prediction that the defense will call its own medical examiner. It stays inside the fracture debate already on the record.
- [Hidden Killers With Tony Brueski](https://boilpoints.com/u/hiddenkillerswithtonybrueski), 2026-10-18, 14:32 to 15:56: **Previews the defense's likely medical strategy**. Speculates about the defense's likely strategy: concede the hanging was an anomaly but argue it can happen, and call its own medical examiner. The paternity point is a retelling of what is already on the record, framed as a pretrial theme.
- [Hidden Killers With Tony Brueski](https://boilpoints.com/u/hiddenkillerswithtonybrueski), 2026-10-18, 17:37 to 19:40: **Questions who else could face cover-up charges**. Poses the question of whether anyone besides Farwell will face cover-up charges, noting William Farwell and Robert Devine kept working as officers for years. Coffindaffer says the state police would have jurisdiction and calls the medical examiner the biggest initial problem. Speculation, no new development.
- [Hidden Killers With Tony Brueski](https://boilpoints.com/u/hiddenkillerswithtonybrueski), 2026-10-19, 4:12 to 7:38: **Sets up the trial with the broad frame**. Opens the trial coverage with the broad frame: the FBI reopened what local and state agencies closed, the death was ruled a suicide, DNA sat untested and interviews went unrecorded. Sets up the segments to come rather than adding to the record.
- [Hidden Killers With Tony Brueski](https://boilpoints.com/u/hiddenkillerswithtonybrueski), 2026-10-19, 7:52 to 9:45: **Argues a homicide workup was warranted**. Defense attorney Bob Motta walks through the apartment scene and argues a homicide workup was warranted: the duffel bag strap, a broken pendant, her pregnancy and the documented relationship with a grooming cop. Opinion and framing on evidence already on the record.
- [Hidden Killers With Tony Brueski](https://boilpoints.com/u/hiddenkillerswithtonybrueski), 2026-10-19, 9:45 to 15:37: **Pulls on the unrecorded parking-lot interviews**. Pulls on the two unrecorded parking-lot interviews with Farwell - no notes, no body camera, no recorder - and has a former federal agent walk through the prosecution's problem: whatever Farwell said now has to come back through a detective's memory. Notes the defense gets the same silence both ways. New angle: Farwell was interviewed twice in a school parking lot with no notes and no recording.
- [Hidden Killers With Tony Brueski](https://boilpoints.com/u/hiddenkillerswithtonybrueski), 2026-10-19, 15:37 to 20:05: **Walks the scene and the suicide ruling**. Walks through how the scene was processed and ruled a suicide, arguing first responders should not touch anything before crime scene technicians arrive. Notes livor mortis on Birchmore's left hand and the improbability of hanging from a doorknob, and compares the case to Ellen Greenberg. Reaction and retelling, no new record.
- [Hidden Killers With Tony Brueski](https://boilpoints.com/u/hiddenkillerswithtonybrueski), 2026-10-19, 2:21 to 4:19: **Frames the trial as bigger than one man**. Opens the episode by framing the trial as evidence of something bigger than one man: unrecorded interviews, untested DNA and ignored witnesses. Puts the question of deliberate strategy to a defense attorney, but stays inside the parking-lot interview already on the record.
- [Hidden Killers With Tony Brueski](https://boilpoints.com/u/hiddenkillerswithtonybrueski), 2026-10-19, 4:19 to 10:01: **Argues the pendant, then concedes the stats**. Argues the broken pendant points to force, then runs the hanging statistics the other way: a U.S. review of 229 hangings puts partial suspension at 83.4 percent, and Swiss data puts door-handle hangings near 45 percent at home and 70 percent in institutions. Concedes the numbers cut against the staging theory. New angle: A U.S. review of 229 hangings found 83.4 percent were partial, and Swiss data puts door-handle hangings near 45 percent at home.
- [Hidden Killers With Tony Brueski](https://boilpoints.com/u/hiddenkillerswithtonybrueski), 2026-10-19, 10:01 to 13:40: **Speculates on who else could be charged**. Runs through who else could be charged: William Farwell and Robert Devine, both named in civil suits, and the officers who looked away. Motta's read is that lying, not looking away, is the crime, and that the civil courtroom is where accountability lands. Speculation, no new record.
- [Hidden Killers With Tony Brueski](https://boilpoints.com/u/hiddenkillerswithtonybrueski), 2026-10-19, 13:40 to 18:45: **Works the mask detail and the culture**. Anticipates a day of text message testimony and works the mask detail: Farwell ignored the department's COVID mask policy but wore a mask and hoodie the night Birchmore died. Reads it as entitlement, then widens to the department's culture. Stays inside the trial's established facts.
- [Hidden Killers With Tony Brueski](https://boilpoints.com/u/hiddenkillerswithtonybrueski), 2026-10-19, 3:04 to 11:25: **Adds Farwell's 2012 message about Birchmore**. Walks through day six of the trial, where an FBI agent and a prosecutor read the recovered messages aloud. Adds Farwell's own line that he would have started with Birchmore in 2012, when she was fourteen, and the agent's testimony that his age and mandated-reporter status are aggravating factors. New angle: Farwell wrote he absolutely would have started with Birchmore in 2012, when she was fourteen.