Sandra Birchmore was killed 4 years ago today. Here’s how her case sparked outrage

Despite the snow and chilling cold that blanketed Canton the night before, nothing could deter Sandra Birchmore’s supporters on the fourth anniversary of her killing.

“Today is a GO,” read a post in the “Justice for Sandra Birchmore” Facebook group at 8:55 a.m. on Saturday.

And go, they did.

About 30 people gathered on the front lawn of the Canton Police Department from 1 p.m. until 3 p.m. on Saturday, Feb. 1, as Canton police cruisers and detective cars circled the parking lot.

The protesters clutched homemade signs that read, “Justice for Sandra Birchmore and her baby,” and, “How many more Sandras are there?”

Some were former police officers and residents of the Stoughton and Canton area. A few others came from out of state.

With their thick winter coats accented with blue ribbons pinned by silver angel wing brooches, the group hollered and waved as passing drivers honked

At 2:30 p.m., they shared speeches in Birchmore’s memory.

“This is the first year that we can say that she was officially murdered on February 1st — we’ve all known that. But because of Matthew Farwell’s arrest, the FBI says she was murdered on the first,” protest organizer Melissa “Mizzy” Berry, of New Hampshire, said.

“We felt like we had to come out today to pay homage to her, and bring notice to the public to let them know today’s the anniversary,” Berry said. Berry has been organizing protests for Birchmore’s case since she began the Birchmore Facebook group in 2023.

• Read more: Sandra Birchmore timeline: from Stoughton Explorer to arrest of Matthew Farwell

Birchmore was 23 and pregnant when she was found dead in her Canton apartment on Feb. 4, 2021. The Canton officers who responded first at the scene immediately ruled her death a suicide, Berry said.

It took more than three years — with a push from Berry and other supporters — for former Stoughton police officer Matthew Farwell to be indicted in connection with her death.

Farwell is now accused of grooming Birchmore after she, at 12 years old, joined the Stoughton Police Department’s Explorers Program in 2010.

According to court records, he began sexually exploiting Birchmore in 2013 when she was 15 years old and he was 27, the indictment stated.

After she became pregnant, Farwell killed Birchmore and made her death look like a suicide, an indictment reads.

Farwell’s hearing in Boston is set for Feb. 10.

The power of the people

When Berry first learned of Birchmore’s death in September 2022, she was struck by law enforcement’s lack of action, and what appeared to be the open-and-shut nature of the case.

Berry began looking into what happened to Birchmore in early 2023.

She’s a content creator who advocates for homicide victims through interviews with loved ones,

Berry connected first with Birchmore’s cousin, Barbara Wright, 68, of North Easton, a close confidante of Birchmore during her short life.

Birchmore never told Wright the name of the married man she’d been seeing.

But she was so excited about her pregnancy that she woke Wright up with a call in the middle of the night to share the news, Wright told MassLive during an October 2024 event at the Stoughton Police Department.

“I don’t want to see this happen to another family,” Wright had said.

“I want parents to understand — just because it’s Boy Scouts, church, or a babysitter — find out where your kids are going. Don’t just send them off into a program, find out what it’s all about,” she said.

Together, Berry and Wright “hit the ground running” to create the “Justice for Sandra Birchmore” Facebook group in 2023, Berry said.

The group gained about 6,000 followers in its first year. It more than doubled in size just before Farwell was indicted on Aug. 28, 2024.

Before the protest on Saturday, Berry met with five of Birchmore’s cousins for a small memorial outside Birchmore’s apartment, located right by the Canton and Stoughton town lines.

“They’re very proud of what we’re doing, and it means a lot to them. They’re thankful that we’ve been keeping her name out there and keeping her case alive,” Berry said.

“That touched my heart, because… you know, I’m not trying to get money or anything like that. That is my payment, to know that it means a lot to the family that we’re doing this,” Berry said.

And over the past four years, other people utilized their online platforms to help call attention to Birchmore’s case.

Plympton couple Dana Leonard and Tracey Murray started a YouTube channel with a Facebook platform in January 2024 called “Resistant to Silence.”

Focused on the First Amendment right to the freedom of speech, it has over 6,000 followers across several platforms. It focuses on what they say is the “corruption” of the Norfolk District Attorney’s Office, State Police, and other law enforcement in Massachusetts.

The couple found out about Birchmore in January 2024 and began to use their page as another local voice in the case.

On Saturday, Murray kept her iPhone out throughout the entire protest to record every moment for the YouTube channel. The couple credits Berry, and online outreach, for the success in making Birchmore’s case so public.

“Social media is how we all came together, it’s how Mizzy got involved,” Murray said.

“What Mizzy has done here today, representing Sandra Birchmore and the legacy of a poor girl’s life that was cut short, she’s really done amazing things. And I give her a lot of credit,” Leonard added.

And bringing the community into the process is key, the couple said.

“You have to get involved. More people need to get involved [in their towns], it’s important,” Leonard said.

At the end of the protest on Saturday, Berry led the group in chanting Birchmore’s name at those working inside the Canton Police Department’s offices.

They picked the Canton department as the site of the observance because officers there were the first responders and were the first to call Birchmore’s death a suicide.

“Sandra Birchmore! Sandra Birchmore!” they chanted.

Their voices rang out over the cold snow, echoing against the police station’s shingled exterior.

Nobody inside the department responded. But when the chants subsided, as if in answer, sunshine finally broke through the clouds to spill glimmers of warmth across the snow.

A timeline of the case

Farwell was indicted for Birchmore’s death on Aug. 28, 2024. He faces one charge of killing a witness or victim, which carries a minimum sentence of life in prison and a maximum penalty of death.

• Read more: Here’s what evidence convinced federal investigators Sandra Birchmore was killed

Farwell “regularly” met Birchmore for sex from 2013 up until her death, including while he was on duty, said former U.S. Attorney Joshua Levy, whose office is prosecuting the case.

Farwell killed Birchmore to prevent her from divulging information about his potential violation of other federal crimes, Levy had said.

Birchmore became pregnant around December 2020 and told Farwell, who was not as excited as she was, court documents stated.

He was angry when she asked for him to attend doctor’s visits and for information for the baby’s birth certificate, Levy said.

“Mr. Farwell was losing control in late 2020, early 2021, and the information that Sandra Birchmore possessed about his illegal conduct was in danger of slipping out,” Levy said.

Text messages from January 2021 show that Farwell became enraged when he learned that Birchmore shared “incriminating details” about their sexual relationship with multiple friends, court filings show.

• Read more: Evidence in Sandra Birchmore’s death was ‘inconsistent’ with suicide, feds say

Around Feb. 1, 2021, prosecutors said Farwell killed Birchmore by strangulation and staged her apartment to make it look like she committed suicide.

William Smock, an expert hired to assist in the federal investigation into Birchmore’s death, made several conclusions calling into question the finding that Birchmore died by suicide, according to an FBI affidavit.

Smock found an inconsistency with the way Birchmore’s neck was found broken — something “more commonly seen in strangulation assaults,” the affidavit stated.

Prosecutors said Farwell killed Birchmore “with malice aforethought, willfully, deliberately, maliciously and with premeditation,” to prevent her from communicating to law enforcement that Farwell may have broken federal laws.

The crimes Farwell is charged with committing include deprivation of Birchmore’s rights, coercion and enticement, and wire fraud, according to the indictment.

Farwell’s brother, William Farwell, admitted after her death to a sexual relationship with Birchmore in February of 2021.

In September, he entered into a voluntary agreement to permanently revoke his certification to work as a police officer in Massachusetts.

He resigned from the Stoughton force on Aug. 1, 2022, amid an internal affairs investigation.

• Read more: Officer tied to Sandra Birchmore case decertified by POST commission

William Farwell also met Birchmore through the Stoughton Police Department’s Explorers program, where he worked as an instructor.

In the voluntary decertification agreement between William Farwell and the Peace Officer Standards and Training (POST) Commission, the watchdog agency listed several “factual allegations” that William Farwell waived his right to contest.

These included accusations of a sexual relationship between the two that he did not fully admit to the department.

Birchmore’s aunt, Darlene Smith, filed a wrongful death lawsuit last year naming Matthew Farwell and William Farwell, among other defendants, as responsible for her death due to a “near decade-long scheme of grooming and repeated assault” by members of the Stoughton Police Department.

This article contains information from a previous MassLive article dated Oct. 19, 2024.

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