Pregnant Sandra Birchmore was eagerly looking forward to becoming a mother before her death.
Matthew Farwell, the former Massachusetts police officer now on trial in connection with her killing, was initially believed to be the father of Birchmore’s unborn child. DNA testing later identified the baby’s biological father as Jason Pickard, a former U.S. Army Reserve recruiter who had been involved with Birchmore.
Pickard told jurors that Birchmore was “ecstatic” about her pregnancy and appeared happier than he had ever seen her. “I had never seen her so upbeat,” he testified Oct. 22, according to CBS News. “So full of joy and happiness. She wouldn’t stop talking about it.”
Farwell, who previously worked for the Stoughton Police Department, is accused of strangling Birchmore in February 2021 and making her death appear to be a suicide. Prosecutors say he wanted to stop the 23-year-old from revealing their sexual relationship, which allegedly began when Birchmore was a minor. They also allege that Farwell was trying to conceal the relationship from his pregnant wife, according to earlier reporting by Oxygen.
Farwell has pleaded not guilty. His defense team argues that Birchmore had struggled with depression and died by suicide.
Pickard testified that his relationship with Birchmore began in December 2019, when he was also married. He said he urged her to report Farwell’s alleged abuse, but she declined. Pickard said he ultimately remained silent because he feared the consequences for his marriage and military career.
“I was afraid. I was a married man,” Pickard told the court. “I was a recruiter and she was a recruit. I knew what it would do to my marriage, I knew what it would do to my children, I knew what it would do to my career. I also respected her request not to tell.”
Pickard said Birchmore told him she was pregnant but insisted that he was not the father.
Farwell’s attorneys, however, pointed to text messages from 2020 in which Birchmore allegedly described Pickard as “super rough” with her, according to CBS News. In those messages, she reportedly characterized Farwell as being “scared of hurting me.”
What Happened to Sandra Birchmore?
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Prosecutors say Farwell met Birchmore when she was 12 and participating in the Stoughton Police Department’s Explorers Program, where he served as an instructor.
“Farwell allegedly used his authority and access to groom, sexually exploit and ultimately sexually abuse Birchmore when she was 15 years old and continued to have sex with her when she became an adult,” the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Massachusetts said. “On several occasions, Farwell allegedly engaged in sex acts with Birchmore while on duty as a Stoughton police officer.”
According to the prosecution, Farwell agreed to have a child with Birchmore in return for her silence about the alleged abuse. But when Birchmore told him she was pregnant in December 2020, prosecutors say Farwell reacted angrily. He allegedly called her “the worst person on the face of the earth” and accused her of blackmail.
Birchmore also allegedly told friends that Farwell had become violent, including putting her in a headlock and saying he wished he were dead.
Surveillance video from the night Birchmore died showed a masked man entering her apartment building in Canton. Prosecutors allege the man was Farwell. Birchmore was later found with a duffel-bag strap around her neck.
Her death was initially classified as a suicide. The Massachusetts Office of the Chief Medical Examiner later changed the manner of death to undetermined.
Farwell was charged in August 2024 with killing Birchmore and her unborn son.
Farwell’s defense team has acknowledged that he was the person shown in the surveillance footage. Attorneys said he wore a disguise to hide the affair, arguing that this “is what people having an affair might do.”
An attorney representing Farwell did not immediately respond to Oxygen’s request for comment.
