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Hi, it's Katie. I'm excited to let you know that you can watch video episodes of Crime House Daily Night Watch on Spotify. It's the same gripping true crime stories you've been getting here now with added videos and photos that give you even more depth and detail into each case. Search Night Watch on Spotify and hit follow so you never miss an episode. This is Crime House. Sandra Birchmore's death had officially been ruled a suicide, and Matthew Farwell probably thought he was in the clear. But little did he know investigations into the mysterious circumstances surrounding Sandra Birchmore's death were far from over. Last episode, we dove into all of the details surrounding the Canton PD and Massachusetts State Police investigations into Sandra Birchmore's death. Tonight we'll talk about the Internal affairs investigation and the federal investigation that led to huge breakthroughs in this case. So without further ado, let's get into it.
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We allege that Sandra Burchmore survived years of grooming, statutory rape, and then sexual.
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Violence, all at the hands of Matthew Farwell. She tells a friend that suddenly he.
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Was doing weird things like inspecting areas.
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Of her apartment where she would later be found dead. Birch Moore was eight to 10 weeks pregnant when she died. Hi, I'm Katie Ring, a true crime analyst, self defense instructor, and fierce advocate for victims. And this is Crime House Daily, your essential true crime companion. Every weekday morning and night here at Crime House Daily, we dig into the true crime stories making headlines right now, where justice is unfolding, arrests are happening, and new evidence is emerging. Every morning, First Watch gets you up to speed on the biggest cases. Every night, Night Watch takes you deeper. If you want to follow a case from the first 911 call to the final verdict, this is the place for you. Follow Crime House Daily wherever you get your podcasts, leave a review and for ad free listening, subscribe to Crime House plus on Apple Podcasts. For video, check out our YouTube channel Rimehouse Daily or on Spotify by searching Night Watch True Crime Cases Daily in the Search tab. This episode discusses active criminal cases and breaking news. The information we share is based on what's publicly available at the time of recording and may change as new evidence comes to light. We aim to inform, not to decide, guilt or innocence, so everyone mentioned is presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.
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Welcome back to part three of our five part series on the death of Sandra Birchmore, a young woman who is found dead in her apartment after she told the police officer who had groomed her for years that she was pregnant with his baby. Sandra was discovered in her apartment on February 4, 2021 after her co workers called the Canton Police Department and asked them to do a wellness check. Unfortunately, when they arrive at her apartment they discover Sandra on the floor of her bedroom in a seated position. A duffel bag strap was wrapped around her neck and the other end of it was tied to her closet door handle. She had dried blood around her mouth and the officers noticed lividity, which is the discoloration of the skin after death and a rigor about her body's extremities which led them to believe that she had been dead for a while. They believe Sandra killed herself with a partial suspension Hanging Suicides using this method are quite rare because when people are in this position, their survival instincts usually kick in and prevent them from going through with it. In a typical hanging, the victim is completely suspended and dies relatively fast. But in a partial suspension, the victim is supported by the ground, which means they have to lean forward or to the side and hold themselves in that position until the noose is tight enough to restrict their airway and make them pass out and eventually die. For someone who was over the moon about her pregnancy, this just doesn't make sense to Sandra's family. She was making plans for the future. She had a photo shoot and a big pregnancy announcement planned. Boxes of baby items kept arriving even after her death and she was known for being a chronic oversharer who they believe would have shared her struggles if she was actually thinking about taking her own life. Her therapist said she saw her days before her death and said she didn't show any signs of suicidal ideation. And when they get to Sandra's apartment, they find her favorite necklace on the floor. The chain is broken and there's a tuft of her hair in the necklace. Her family believes that this is a sign of a struggle. From what I've learned about Sandra, I definitely think she is someone who would have found a safe place for her cats before she acted on something like this as well. But more than anything, they believe Officer Matthew Farwell had something to do with her death. Sandra had told her family about her married police officer boyfriend named Matthew, who she was about to have a baby with. She disclosed how she was pressuring him to sign the baby's birth certificate and how he had become aggressive with her in response. So even before Sandra was discovered, they were worried about her safety. Then there is the surveillance footage. A large man wearing a black hoodie pulled up over his baseball cap and a medical mask is caught entering Sandra's apartment building at 9:15pm the night of her death. And he is clearly trying to avoid the cameras. He goes up the elevator and 28 minutes later, he is seen rushing out the front door. While the man is in Sanders apartment, her phone captures eight steps and then all phone activity goes dark and Sandra is never heard from again. Authorities receive multiple tips about Sandra and Matthew's relationship and give Officer Farwell a softball interview in the parking lot of an elementary school. We later find out that he told multiple lies in this unrecorded and very cordial and casual interview. He even admits that it was him on the cameras, but he says that he was just there to break up with her. And the MSP officers at the time believe everything he says. The officers who reviewed the crime scene wrote that the place was a mess and cited this as a clear sign that she was depressed. They also note that there were no signs of a struggle and no defensive wounds. So they sent over the report to the ME's office, and three months later, on March 21, 2021, the medical examiner officially rules her death a suicide. It seems like a few of the MSP officers may have wanted to continue investigating Farwell. But after this determination, the da, Michael Morrissey, drops the case and it's closed. But there are a lot of people who are not satisfied with that result. One of these people is Donna McNamara, Stoughton's first female police chief. She had worked with Farwell for a long time and had also watched Sandra grow up. And she wasn't going to let him get away with it or tolerate this kind of misconduct on her force. Chief McNamara didn't have jurisdiction over this case since it happened in the neighboring town of Canton, Massachusetts. Which means she didn't have control over the criminal investigation. But one thing she could do is launch an internal investigation. Before we get into her findings, I will say that misconduct is not a New thing to this police department. Despite not being a large police force, Stoughton PD had a reputation in Massachusetts as the very worst department in the state. As far back as the 1970s, there were concerns that the town's officers were corrupt, especially the Chief. In 1976, Chief John Donahue was convicted of knowingly receiving stolen goods. But this wasn't a shock to the community. In fact, there was even a running joke that if you told the chief you were going on vacation, your house would get robbed while you were away. Twenty years later, another Stoughton chief landed in hot water. Chief David Young was fired for using department resources for non police business. His successor, Chief Manny Cachopa, was even worse. Under him, the department was flagrantly corrupt and targeted people of color at one of the highest rates in the state of Massachusetts. Despite being indicted and removed from office for his actions, the town select board voted to reinstate Cachopa in 2004. The chief then spent months getting revenge on the officers who he felt had turned against him. And at one point, he tried to run a lieutenant over with his car in a parking lot. Cachopa was finally removed from office in 2009 after being convicted of being an accessory after the fact that to attempted extortion. But the scandals didn't end there. There was also a case where a Stoughton officer left his patrol car to take a picture with a porn star while he was in uniform. And one random fact that I found particularly interesting is that the town is named after Justice Stoughton, the judge who proceeded over the Salem witch trials. Talk about a long history of corruption. After decades of this kind of corruption, the town of Stoughton finally had enough of its bad reputation. And the citizens were counting on Chief Donna McNamara to turn the department around and keep it free from scandal. And things were good for a while. Until Sandra Birchmore's death. After Sandra's body is discovered, Chief McNamara is immediately suspicious of Matthew Farwell, even if he wasn't involved in her death. A former police explorer and a current Stoughton police officer, being romantically involved doesn't sit right with her. On February 5, 2021, the day after Sandra's body is discovered, Chief McNamara directs her deputy Chief Brian Holmes, to investigate Matthew's relationship with Sandra. Whatever resources or leeway Holmes needs for the investigation, McNamara gives it to him. She wants the truth to come out, no matter how bad it might make the department look. At the same time, McNamara places Matthew on indefinite paid suspension pending the result of the investigation. Unlike the State Police investigation. Deputy Chief Holmes isn't looking to solve a crime. All he needs to do is find out whether Matthew had violated any of Stoughton's PD's rules and regulations. To get to the bottom of it, Holmes hires two private detectives and an IT expert who were all former state troopers to help him dig into Matthew and Sandra's communications. The MSP hands over Sandra's and Matthew's devices, and what they find is shocking. One thing that has been really bugging me while researching this case is that it's not clear who found what evidence. What I know for sure is is that Trooper Nicholas Guarino from the Massachusetts State Police was tasked with running cellebrite reports on Sandra and Matthew's devices. And he initially reports that he doesn't find communications between the two. But it is later discovered that Sandra and Matthew had over 32,000 texts spanning years. This became a huge scandal in the Karen retrial and something that Karen's lawyers petitioned to be let in because Trooper Guarino was the person assigned with the Celebrate extraction for the Karen Reed case as well. But of course, Auntie Bev didn't let it in. In the federal indictment, it just says that after Birchmore's death, law enforcement agents obtained Birchmore's cell phone, both Apple iPhones, and a laptop and reviewed the data on those devices. During that review, agents discovered messages between Farwell and Birchmore. The messages confirm that Farwell frequently communicated with Birchmore over the years. The messages also indicate that Farwell had sex with Birchmore when she was a minor, starting in or around April 2013, when Birchmore was 15 and Farwell was 27. Since it just says law enforcement, I can't find a definitive answer to whether or not the MSP had all of these communications before the suicide determination. Regardless, when they handed the devices over to McNamara's team for examination, all of the communications were exposed and it was way worse than expected. While reading the over 32,000 messages, it becomes clear that Matthew had been grooming Sandra since the moment he met her. He had taken her virginity when she was 15, which in reality was actually just statutory rape. He had coerced her into engaging in his disturbing fantasies, including rape, role playing as a minor, violent sex, and strangulation. He had emotionally and physically abused her for years, and he had sex with her while he was on duty. In total, the extraction of Sandra's data, including text messages, Facebook messages, and some other data, was 50,000 pages long. And when they start combing through this data, they realize that Matthew is not the only officer who had been taking advantage of Sandra. Matthew's twin brother, William Farwell, had been sleeping with Sandra as well, and both brothers knew about it. They also discovered that the officer who ran the police Explorers program, Robert Devine, had not only turned a blind eye to the brothers behavior, but but had also become involved with Sandra himself. Even after Sandra's death is officially ruled a suicide in May 2021, the investigation keeps going. Regardless of how Sandra died, there are mountains of evidence that Robert and the Farwell brothers engaged in extremely inappropriate behavior, to say the least. By the spring of 2022, Holmes has everything he needs. Now it's time for him to talk to Matthew. William and Robert, they're all looking for ways to avoid him though. But they can't run for long. Welcome to Walgreens. Looking for a holiday gift?
- [16:24]
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Once Brian Holmes has collected plenty of evidence against Robert Devine and Matthew and William Farwell, he decides it's time to sit down with him. He's set to talk to Matthew first in early April of 2022. However, just a few days before his scheduled interview, Matthew resigns from the department, putting him out of reach for any punishment from Internal Affairs. And it looks like he might actually be able to get away with everything by this point. Matthew's been on leave for over a year and has collected more than $89,000 in salary during that time. And he uses that money to obtain a commercial trucking license and start his own company. So even though he's no longer a police officer, his professional life keeps going strong. And his personal life doesn't seem all that impacted either. Despite the investigation against him and the threat of statutory rape and larceny charges, Matthew and his wife are still together. Personally, infidelity alone is a deal breaker for me, but staying by your husband's side, who was accused of murdering the woman he thought was pregnant with his child the day you were giving birth to your third child, is wild to me with how well this tactic of resigning works for Matthew. William and Robert take a page out of his playbook. And just three days after Matthew resigns, William and Robert are placed on paid leave too. Just like Matthew. William and Robert can see the writing on the wall. They can deny their relationships with Sandra all they want, but the truth is going to come out when William is suspended. He's actually already on leave for a National Guard deployment serving in the Middle East. So Brian Holmes never gets the chance to talk with him. After William gets back, he and his wife move from Massachusetts to Maryland. He makes a career change as well and becomes a TSA officer on August 1, and then resigns from the Stoughton PD, just like his twin brother. In his resignation letter, William writes, I do not have confidence in the independence of the town's investigation. He denies that he had done anything wrong and swears that he hasn't violated any police guidelines. For now, the Stoutin PD won't get a chance to actually put that to the test. However, while the Farwells are out of reach, Robert Devine isn't. He is fighting back, but in a bit of an unorthodox way. While all this has been going on, Robert's been going to law school. And when Holmes interviews him on April 8, 2022, Robert has graduated and passed the bar in Massachusetts. It doesn't make him immune from any punishment, but theoretically, Robert's newfound law knowledge could help him in the investigation. But if he thinks he can talk his way out of this one, he's wrong. When he first sits down with Holmes, Robert denies knowing anything about Sanders relationship with Matthew until Matthew was put on leave. But almost immediately, he changes his answer, saying that Sandra had told him about it. However, Robert swears that any sex that happened between her and Matthew was between consenting adults, not a violation of any police guidelines. As for his own relationship with Sandra, Robert is being a bit cagey. He says she was a troubled kid who was obsessed with police officers, but that he'd purposefully kept his distance. From her, even when she offered to bring him coffee. That claim doesn't hold up either. When Holmes asks about other kids in the Police Explorers program, Robert admits that, yes, he had flirted with him, but he hadn't done anything illegal. And Robert's answers about his involvement with the Farwell twins are just as shaky. When Holmes brings up the time William impersonated an officer, Robert denies any knowledge of it. He says it must have been before his time, even though there are interdepartmental records of him counseling William in the aftermath. But even though this looks very bad, there's no indication that Robert broke any rules. At least not yet. When Holmes mentions they hadn't found any communication between Robert and Sandra, Robert fires back, because you won't find it. But Robert was sorely mistaken, because a month later, Holmes team discovers explicit Facebook messages between Sandra and a man named Marty Riggs, which is a reference to Mel Gibson's character in the movie Lethal Weapon. And it turns out that that fake profile has a lot in common with Robert, and they end up officially linking the account to him. But Robert claims that he got hacked and that the profile isn't actually his and that he won't discuss it further with Holmes. The clock against him is ticking though, and in August 2022, two weeks after William Farwell resigned from the Stoughton Police Department, Robert follows suit and retires. And he threatens to put his attorney's license to use if the department disparages him. But Holmes isn't holding back. Sure, Robert and the Farwells can no longer be disciplined by the department. However, Holmes can still release everything he's learned about them. And just a few days after Robert retires, that's exactly what holmes does. After 19 long months, he releases his report about their misconduct. And it doesn't paint a pretty picture. Holmes says he doesn't think Robert Devine is a credible person and that he violated the public's trust. The report describes Matthew and William as Robert's understudies who learned the same kind of exploitive, misogynistic and risk seeking behavior that superseded his professional responsibilities. The report also highlights additional misconduct from within the department. According to Holmes, after some of Sandra's friends came forward to speak about her relationship with Matthew, other members of the department made threatening phone calls and accused them of lying. Additionally, they found that William Farwell had conducted multiple unauthorized searches of his and Sandra's names in the DCJIS database at least 26 times between 2017 and 2021. Many cops who do unauthorized searches in this database, use it to stalk their exes. And William could have been stalking Sandra, but the fact that he searched himself as well leads me to believe that he was most likely checking if anyone had opened an investigation into his relationship with Sandra. Ultimately, the report finds all three of the officers had violated multiple departmental regulations in their relationships with Sandra. And Chief Donna McNamara wants to make clear that the department is no longer going to cover for that kind of behavior. On September 23, 2022, Chief McNamara holds a press conference to discuss the report. She says, quote, all three men, the Farwell brothers and Divine, violated their oaths of office and should never have the privilege of serving any community as a police officer. Through a sustained and deliberate combination of lies, deceit, and treachery, they violated the policies and core values of the Stoughton Police Department, not to mention human decency. At the end of her press conference, Chief McNamara apologizes that members of her department had hurt Sandra so badly. McNamara says that Sandra was, quote, failed by, manipulated by and used by people of authority that she admired and trusted right up until her final days. And even though the Stoughton PD can't discipline them, McNamara says that she's recommending that the state decertify all three as police officers, barring them from ever serving in law enforcement again. A number of Sandra's family members are in attendance at the press conference. They are horrified at the actions of people Sandra trusted so deeply. But now they have evidence against Robert and the Farwells. And Sandra's loved ones aren't going to let them get away with it.
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- [28:15]
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The 19 months between Sandra Burchmore's death and the publication of the Stoughton PD's internal affairs report was agonizing for Sandra's family. Throughout that time, her cousin Angelique Perozzi never stopped communicating with the police department and state police, urging them to take some kind of action. But the longer things went on, the less it seemed like anything was going to happen, especially when Sandra's death was ruled a suicide. But the internal affairs report gives him a little, little bit of hope that justice will be served. One of Sandra's other cousins says, quote, she didn't know what love was really, and she was just giving these guys whatever they wanted when they wanted, just to get some kind of attention, affection, whatever it is. She continues on to say they got their hands on her, they groomed her, and they're like, oh, we can just get away with this because she's got no family, she's got no one to care for her. But that's not the case. Sandra's family is ready to fight for her. In December 2022, three months after Stoughton PD's report came out, Sandra's family files a wrongful death suit in civil court, claiming Matthew, William and Robert's abuse drove her to suicide. The suit also names the town of Stoughton and its police department, accusing them of negligence in hiring the Farwell brothers. This isn't criminal court, so unfortunately, Robert Devine and the Farwells won't face jail time if they're found liable. But now they'll still have to show their faces in court and could face severe financial consequences. And that's not their only problem. In 2023, the Farwell brothers certification is rescinded by the state of Massachusetts, banning them from serving as law enforcement officers and placing them on a national registry for problem officers. The Barlows don't fight it, although Matthew doesn't admit to any wrongdoing. But when the state tries to strip Robert of his certification, he does fight it. The back and forth drags on so long that his certification eventually just expires. So Robert won't be serving as a police officer anymore, but he's not placed on the national registry for problem officers. It's still a form of justice, but it's not criminal justice. And soon others help Sandra's family keep up the fight. Kirk Minahan is a Boston area radio and podcast host known better for his loud rants about sports than criminal justice advocacy. But in 2021, he'd started a podcast called the Case, which looked at the mystery surrounding the disappearance of Jennifer Lynn Fay in 1989, and in the show's second season, Kirk and his team dove deep into the details of Sandra's death. They managed to uncover some things that the police had missed, including a photo of Matthew holding his newborn baby in the hospital in which he's wearing the same clothes from the surveillance footage from Sandra's apartment. As a reminder, Matthew was spotted on camera going into Sanders Building the night she died, and he and his wife's third baby was born the next day. Season 2 of the Case, along with continued investigation from the Boston Globe, helps Sandra's story find a nationwide audience. One member of the audience is Melissa Mizzy Berry, a content creator and advocate for the families of homicide victims. Mizzy gets in touch with Sandra's family, who give their blessing for her to keep fighting for Sandra and prove that she didn't actually die by suicide. In February 2023, Mizzy creates the justice for Sandra Birchmore Facebook page, and it quickly gains a passionate audience. Soon enough, their advocacy spills out into the real world. In August 2023, members of the group post flyers outside of the office of the Norfolk District Attorney General Michael Morrissey to protest what they believe is a mishandling of Sandra's case. When they demand to speak to him, they're told he's on vacation, but he won't be able to duck them for long. The group keeps at it, growing their audience day by day, and they end up gaining attention from the justice for Karen Reed movement, which also involves alleged misconduct by the same Norfolk da. Karen's case captured the nation's attention it's one that I personally followed extremely closely. And if you want a comprehensive deep dive on it, you can check out our own five part series on it. And thanks in part to Missy Berry's efforts, Sandra's case is getting a ton of attention too. By the end of 2023, Mizzy's group has more than 14,000 members keeping Sandra's story in the public consciousness. They're working toward a common goal holding Matthew Farwell accountable for his actions. Because even though Matthew has had his certification stripped and has the civil trial looming over him, he's still able to live his life as a free man. But along with the public advocacy happening around Sandra's case, things are moving behind the scenes too. The FBI has been quietly investigating Sandra's death and they agree with Sandra's family. There is a lot more to this story. What did you think of tonight's case? Drop your thoughts and theories in the comments and stay tuned for Part four to see what happens next. See you next time. If you haven't already, subscribe to our YouTube channel @Crime House Daily and follow us on social media rimehouse24 7 for real time updates. Because the pursuit of justice never stops. Looking for your next Crime House listen? Don't miss Crimes of with Sabrina Diana Roga and Corinne Vien. Crimes of is a weekly series that explores a new theme each season from Crimes of the Paranormal, unsolved murders, mysterious disappearances, and more. Their first season is Crimes of Infamy, the true stories behind Hollywood's most iconic horror villains. And coming up next is Crimes of the Paranormal, real life cases where the line between the living and the dead gets seriously blurry. Listen to Crimes of every Tuesday on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, or wherever you listen to your podcasts.