Could Sandra Birchmore’s Accused Killer Also Be Charged with Larceny?
Records newly obtained by Boston suggest state investigators have explored the possibility.
Sandra Birchmore. / Courtesy of Justice for Sandra Birchmore/Facebook
Three months after former Stoughton police officer Matthew Farwell’s arrest in Revere for the alleged murder of Sandra Birchmore, new details have come to light about the investigation into the 23-year-old’s death and Farwell’s relationship with the former Police Explorers trainee.
Through a Freedom of Information Act request, Boston has gained access to hundreds of email records from state police and other state officials, which provide new insight into the case—including an FBI affidavit by State Police Lieutenant John Fanning, who leads the Norfolk District Attorney’s Homicide Unit and is one of the lead investigators on the Birchmore case. The November 28, 2023 affidavit sought a search warrant for evidence that former Stoughton Police detective Farwell had sex with Birchmore on duty—a query filed in the explicit pursuit of potential larceny charges against Farwell for using his paid patrol time for personal use.
In February 2021, after Birchmore was found dead in her Canton apartment, officials quickly ruled the death a suicide, overlooking evidence at the scene consistent with a struggle. Nearly two years later in a court filing, Fanning requested a search warrant for Farwell’s Verizon cell phone data. In it, Fanning repeated the Commonwealth’s official story about Birchmore’s February 2021 death: It was suicide, he wrote, based on “physical evidence” at the scene, “personal notes discovered, as well as the medical examiner’s findings and medical determination.”
In his affidavit, Fanning alleged that messages showed Farwell had met Birchmore while on duty, suggesting the possibility of potential additional charges, including larceny by false pretenses. The evidence of Farwell pursuing these encounters on taxpayer dime had surfaced back in December 2022, the same month Birchmore’s aunt, Darlene Smith, filed a bombshell civil lawsuit alleging that three Stoughton police groomed and sexually exploited Birchmore. The allegations were supported by an internal Stoughton police department investigation, which stated that many of these encounters occurred while the officers were on duty.
Fanning’s affidavit lists 17 alleged meetings between Farwell and Birchmore while he was on duty, spanning from October 2020 through late January 2021—just before federal prosecutors now allege he killed her and made it look like suicide. According to the affidavit, “There were numerous text messages back and forth between the two that showed M. Farwell and Birchmore coordinated different clandestine places to meet, including a Costco, hotel, Birchmore’s family home in Stoughton, and her apartment in Canton. Many of the exchanges would include follow-up text messages indicating that they had completed their sexual encounter.” (As of now, Farwell has not been charged with larceny.)
The search warrant was initially sealed at the request of Norfolk County DA Michael Morrissey by the Stoughton District Court on December 19, 2023. In his motion, Morrissey cited an ongoing investigation into “false written reports and fraudulent claims for payment or benefit, larceny and misleading police” as reason to impound the documents. The documents remained sealed until March 2024, and Boston subsequently obtained a copy through a public records request.
Michele McPhee can be reached at michele@michelemcphee.com.
