Sandra Birchmore

Birchmore was last known alive around February 1, 2021. Canton police found her dead in her apartment on February 4 during a well-being check. A state pathologist initially ruled the manner of death suicide by hanging. Federal prosecutors later alleged Farwell strangled her and staged the scene. Her death certificate manner was later changed to undetermined after federal charges.

Sandra Marie Birchmore was born May 13, 1997, in Boston and grew up in Stoughton, Massachusetts, with a single mother who had serious health problems. Records and reporting describe a childhood shaped by that household and by her mother's hope that structured youth programs would give her steady adult role models.

Around age twelve, in 2010, Birchmore applied to the Stoughton Police Explorers Academy, a vocational program for young people interested in law enforcement. She remained in the program for years. Federal prosecutors later alleged that officer Matthew Farwell began grooming her there and spending time with her outside the program.

According to the federal indictment and related reporting, Farwell first raped Birchmore in 2013 when she was fifteen, shortly before his marriage, and continued a sexual relationship for nearly a decade, at times while on duty. These are allegations in charging documents; Farwell has pleaded not guilty. A Stoughton internal affairs report later found severe misconduct by Farwell, William Farwell, and Robert Devine, who all resigned.

As an adult Birchmore lived in Canton. She worked as a substitute teacher and teacher's assistant in Stoughton and Sharon area schools and enrolled in prerequisite coursework at Massasoit Community College with plans to apply to nursing school. Friends and records portray someone building an ordinary working life after her mother's death in 2016.

In December 2020 Birchmore learned she was pregnant and believed Farwell was the father. Reporting in 2025 stated that a paternity test showed Farwell was not the father of the unborn child. The pregnancy is part of the public timeline prosecutors cite around the weeks before her death.

Birchmore's family filed a wrongful death suit in December 2022. In June 2024, pathologist Dr. Michael Baden concluded the death was a homicide staged as suicide. The FBI arrested Farwell on August 28, 2024. Prosecutors alleged DNA linked him to samples from a ligature and her clothing. A superseding indictment in 2025 added charges related to the death of the unborn child. Farwell has pleaded not guilty.

As of September 2026, Farwell's federal trial in Boston was scheduled for early October. Coverage around that date, including from WCVB and other Massachusetts outlets, renewed public attention to Birchmore's life and to questions of police accountability. She is not a 2026 death; her memorial belongs to 2021.

Those who write about Birchmore beyond the courtroom describe a young woman who wanted education, steady work with children, and a future in nursing. A respectful memorial keeps her personhood at the center while stating, without sensational detail, what reputable reporting and charging documents have placed in the public record.

Her case became a focal point for debate about youth police programs, grooming, and how initial death investigations can fail victims. Memorializing Sandra Birchmore means insisting she is remembered as a person first, not only as a case name.