Sandra Birchmore trusted the people who were supposed to protect her. She was twenty-three, pregnant, and full of life when she was found dead — and for five long years, the official story was that she did it to herself. Her family never believed it. They fought. And now, finally, the record has changed.

This community has stood with Sandra from the start, and this is the update so many of you have been waiting for. Months before the trial of the former police officer accused of killing her, the state amended her death certificate — taking away the word suicide and replacing it with undetermined. Experts say medical examiners almost never do that. It happened for Sandra.

And the news kept coming. A judge refused to let the accused out on bail, writing that the evidence against him is very strong, if not overwhelming. The man prosecutors say strangled her and staged the scene is staying behind bars until trial.

We sat down with an attorney and legal analyst to talk through what this all means for the family — why the changed death certificate matters so much, why the defense keeps losing, and the one piece of testimony waiting at trial that could finally give Sandra the truth her loved ones have demanded for half a decade.

For everyone who refused to accept the first version of this story — this one's for you, and for Sandra.

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Sandra Birchmore believed things were getting better. Matthew Farwell brought ginger ale to her apartment. She texted a friend that he was coming around. She was contacting lawyers. She was building a plan for child support. She was preparing for a future with the child she was carrying — a future she believed was finally within reach.

Farwell was allegedly having different conversations entirely.

According to federal prosecutors, he told one person that if Sandra did not end the pregnancy, he would "take care of the problem himself." He told another he needed to "put crazy back in the bag." He told a third that "the problem was going to take care of itself." Three people. Three conversations. All allegedly pointing toward a man who had decided that a pregnant twenty-three-year-old — the same girl he allegedly began a relationship with when she was fifteen and enrolled in his police youth program — was a problem to be eliminated.

On January 20, 2021, Sandra's friend called the Stoughton Police Department and reported Farwell's involvement with Sandra. The employee who took the call told Farwell. Eleven days later, Sandra was dead.

At 9:27 PM on February 1, Farwell entered her Canton apartment building. At 9:56 PM, he left. Twenty-nine minutes. Sandra's phone recorded its final movements while he was still inside. She was found three days later in the same clothes. Her death was classified as something other than homicide for years.

The forensic evidence prosecutors have since assembled tells a different story. Farwell's DNA on the duffel bag strap they say was used to strangle her. His sperm cells in her underwear — contradicting his claim of months without contact. An injury to her right clavicle sustained while she was alive, matching a buckle behind her head. A broken pink flamingo necklace — one Sandra wore regularly — tangled in her hair on the bedroom floor. And a reenactment at a private gathering where an inebriated Farwell reportedly demonstrated how she supposedly died, describing details no one outside the investigation should have known.

DNA testing confirmed Farwell was not the biological father of Sandra's unborn son. But both he and Sandra believed he was. Prosecutors say that belief — combined with Sandra's growing willingness to tell the truth about how their relationship began — is what made her a threat he allegedly could not allow to speak.

Sandra put her trust in the police. They allegedly broke it in every way a person can be broken.

Farwell has pled not guilty. His defense maintains Sandra took her own life.

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For years, Sandra Birchmore’s family held vigils outside buildings that didn’t want them there. They held signs at the Stoughton Police Department. They demanded answers from a system that had already decided Sandra did this to herself. Then the FBI came.

On August 28, 2024, agents arrested Matthew Farwell and charged him with killing Sandra to prevent her from exposing his crimes. A superseding indictment added a charge under the Unborn Victims of Violence Act for the death of her unborn baby boy. Farwell has pleaded not guilty. His trial begins October 5, 2026 in Boston federal court.

The defense has tried everything. They moved to dismiss the charges. Denied. They moved to relocate the trial. Denied. They sought bail, presenting Farwell as a war hero. Prosecutors responded with new DNA evidence: Farwell’s genetic material on the strap used to strangle Sandra, his sperm cells in her underwear contradicting his statements. Their filing also revealed that months after Sandra’s death, Farwell allegedly bought a drink for a woman at a bar who woke up naked while he searched her room for his keys.

All three officers connected to Sandra’s exploitation have been permanently barred from law enforcement. The DA who oversaw the initial investigation won’t seek reelection. Sandra’s family has endorsed his potential replacement. The political fallout has been seismic.

Sandra Birchmore was born in 1997. She lost her mother, grandmother, and aunt before turning twenty-three. She worked with children. She was studying nursing. She wanted to be a police officer. She wanted to be a mother. Everything taken from her began with trust. The trial begins in October.

This is Part 5 of a five-part series on the Sandra Birchmore case.

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