Defense Diaries
@defensediaries · Podcast
Latest segments
- Birchmore murder trial, 2026-10-27
Reads Birchmore's January 2021 texts
Reads the January 2021 texts into the record: Birchmore tells Farwell she was scared he would hit her and take things from her hands, and tells Joshua Heal she would go to court if he kept putting his body weight on her. Establishes she was seeking legal advice. - Birchmore murder trial, 2026-10-27
Reads the letter written as the unborn baby
Walks through the December 29, 2020 exhibits: the morning after the argument Birchmore books a maternity shoot and baby shower, then sends Farwell a letter written in the voice of her unborn child calling him daddy. The hosts read the letter as grooming, not as a suicide note. - Birchmore murder trial, 2026-10-27
Adds the extortion and self-harm texts
Reads the December 28 and 29, 2020 texts into the record: Birchmore tells Farwell she is pregnant, he accuses her of extorting and blackmailing him, and she says she might hurt herself. The exchange is new to the file, which until now only had the pregnancy confirmation text. - Birchmore murder trial, 2026-10-27
Cross-checks the November lab summary
Reads through the November and December 2020 texts: a November 20 lab summary saying she is not pregnant, the birth-certificate exchange, the fertile-window agreement and the December blood test. The hosts argue over who sent which line, and land on the role-play character Joey being literal. - Birchmore murder trial, 2026-10-27
Reads the ovulation calendar into the record
Walks through the text messages read into the record, including the pregnancy exchanges: Farwell asking why she wouldn't 'just take care of it' and Birchmore sending an ovulation calendar with the conception window highlighted. The hosts react; the substance is the exhibits themselves. - Birchmore murder trial, 2026-10-24
Puts the first responding officer on the record
Puts the first responding officer on the record: Cotard describes finding Birchmore seated by the closet door with the strap around her neck, says he saw no signs of a struggle, and was inside about eight minutes before handing the scene to state police. The hosts press the angle of the body and the locked door. - Birchmore murder trial, 2026-10-24
Adds the fast camera clock and the spare key
Walks through the property manager's testimony about the February 4, 2021 wellness check: the untouched snow on Birchmore's car, the spare key, the officer opening the door. Adds that the Canton Woods camera clock ran 13 minutes fast and that Porter relayed a tip about a Stoughton detective to Canton police. - Birchmore murder trial, 2026-10-24
Interviews the principal about the father
Puts Sandra Birchmore's principal on the stand: she hired Birchmore at East Elementary in Sharon, heard in December 2020 that the father was a married man who would leave his wife, and says Birchmore told staff the father was a cop. Cross-examination draws out the sick days and a 2024 Facebook group. - Birchmore murder trial, 2026-10-24
Runs the full cross of Detective Cheever
Runs the full cross and redirect of Detective Cheever: her midnight-shift contact with Birchmore, the Facebook request, the group text that told her of the death, and her testimony that Farwell never wore a mask. The defense's memory-picking draws the hosts' scorn; the substance is Cheever's own account of the department's ties to the Farwells. - Birchmore murder trial, 2026-10-24
Recaps Cheever's mentoring and the 2020 check
Walks through the first witness, Detective Heather Cheever, who met Birchmore through the Explorers at 15 and mentored her. Cheever describes the 2016 deaths of Birchmore's mother and grandmother and a May 14, 2020 well-being check that ended in a Section 12 hospital trip, and says she did not think Birchmore was suicidal. - Birchmore murder trial, 2026-10-24
Reads the motion for a curative instruction
Reads the government's motion for a curative instruction filed over the defense opening, which it says misstated jury unanimity and the federal nexus under Section 1512, and walks through the proposed instruction language the government wants read before testimony. - Birchmore murder trial, 2026-10-24
Reads the motion to admit other affair partners
Reads the government's motion to admit testimony from three other affair partners, arguing the defense opening opened the door by calling the mask an affair-hiding habit. The hosts agree the door is open and that the anti-mask contrast is relevant. - Birchmore murder trial, 2026-10-24
Performs the defense opening in full
Performs the defense opening in full, walking through Birchmore's texts and searches on the day she died, her psychiatric history and money troubles, and the medical examiner's suicide finding. It puts on the record the defense's own account of the science, including a force threshold for the hyoid break and a four-contributor DNA mixture on the strap. - Birchmore murder trial, 2026-10-24
Reads the government's opening at length
Reads the government's opening statement at length: the grooming from age 12 in the Explorers, the April 2013 rape, the strangulation texts, and the October 2020 ultimatum. It puts the prosecution's theory on the record in its own words, including the alleged motive and the staged scene. - Birchmore murder trial, 2026-10-24
Recaps the case and the suicide ruling
Cold open recaps the case: Birchmore found dead and pregnant in Canton in February 2021, the suicide ruling, the grooming from the Explorer program, and the federal charge. It stays inside the established facts and adds only the defense's affair-but-no-killing line. - Philly snuff film case, 2026-10-12
Adds the SNP method behind the sewer dig
Adds the forensic method behind the plumbing dig: labs are running SNP technology on residue pulled from the sewer line to build profiles, a detail the earlier plumbing coverage did not name. - Eugene Horsch's Independence Mall arrest, 2026-10-12
Walks through the ranger stop affidavit
Walks through the affidavit's account of ranger Paul Schultz's stop: the hydrant parking, the woman's cry, the sores and twitchiness, the butane lighter. Flags a conflict the card does not carry - the affidavit puts the stop at about 8 a.m., local reporting at 8 p.m. - Eugene Horsch's Independence Mall arrest, 2026-10-12
Walks through the federal firearms affidavit
Walks through the federal firearms affidavit itself: sworn by telephone on June 26, 2026 by DEA agent Curtis McCoy, who was not at the stop and relied on two park rangers, and charging one count under 18 U.S.C. 922(g)(1). Notes the affidavit never mentions the Olney house, and flags a time conflict with local reporting. - Eugene Horsch's Independence Mall arrest, 2026-10-12
Sorts the case into three buckets
Sorts the case into three buckets - the federal gun charge against Eugene, the police allegations about the house, and what is still unknown - and stresses that no one is charged with harming the women. A framing recap that stays inside the record. - Eugene Horsch's Independence Mall arrest, 2026-10-12
Frames the case from the June 19 stop
Opens the case at the June 19 park ranger stop, then lays out the three buckets: the federal firearms charge, the allegations from the search, and what nobody knows. A framing recap that stays inside the arrest and the search already on the record.