Disturbing texts Boston police officer sent underage cadet who he groomed for years before ‘passing her around’ with twin brother…now one of them is accused of staging her murder as a suicide

Published: 11:23 EDT, 9 October 2026 | Updated: 11:23 EDT, 9 October 2026

‘I had butterflies so bad the day you took my virginity… Thats [sic] not a date I’ll ever forget…,’ Sandra Birchmore texted her lover Matthew Farwell.

She remembered the date not only because it was the ‘best day of my life,’ but because, according to court documents, it was also five days before the Boston Marathon bombing.

Farwell was a 27-year-old Stoughton police officer and volunteer instructor in the department’s Explorers program, a police academy for young people where Birchmore had enrolled aged 12.

After allegedly grooming the teen, who was raised by a disabled single mother, prosecutors assert in a criminal affidavit that Farwell raped her for the first time that day.

For nearly eight years, court documents allege the abuse continued, until February 1, 2021, when Farwell allegedly strangled Birchmore in her apartment in Canton, Massachusetts, and staged the scene to look like a suicide.

At that time, the affidavit alleges Farwell’s control over Birchmore, who was then 23 and pregnant, was crumbling and his twisted secrets were at risk of being exposed.

Just 13 hours after her alleged murder, he played the doting husband and father as his wife gave birth to their third child.

Sandra Birchmore was found dead in her apartment in Canton, Massachusetts, on February 4, 2021

For more than three years, Birchmore’s death was treated as a suicide and to the outside world, the case looked like a personal tragedy.

Then, in August 2024, Farwell was arrested and the manner of death was changed to undetermined.

Now, in a federal courthouse in Boston, Farwell is on trial accused of murdering Birchmore to cover up how he used his position of power to sexually abuse and exploit her from the age of at least 15.

Charged with killing a witness or victim and causing the death of an unborn baby, the 40-year-old faces life in prison if convicted.

Farwell has pleaded not guilty, claiming Birchmore died by suicide after he ended their relationship. The Daily Mail has contacted his lawyer for comment.

His defense argues she had prior suicide attempts and that there is no evidence they had sex before her 16th birthday – the age of consent in Massachusetts. In a police interview, he admitted having an affair with Birchmore, but claimed it began when she was 22 and lasted less than a year.

Prosecutors, meanwhile, point to thousands of texts between Birchmore and Farwell in the years, months and days before her death – a digital trail that is expected to be key evidence in the case against the disgraced officer.

The graphic messages, revealed in a 45-page FBI affidavit, allegedly reveal how the police officer subjected her to rape and choking fantasies, role-played that Birchmore was 13 or 14 and used violent sex to punish her for disobedience or bad grades.

The pair also discussed her skipping school and prom for sexual trysts, sometimes in his police car while he was on duty, according to the criminal affidavit.

When she died, Birchmore was around two months pregnant with a baby boy and they both believed he was the father.

Inside a federal courthouse in Boston, former Stoughton police officer Matthew Farwell is going on trial for killing Birchmore and her unborn baby and staging it to look like a suicide

There are furious messages from Farwell to Birchmore, showcasing his intense anger over the pregnancy – followed by a sudden ‘180’ days before her death.

It’s a case that has fueled outrage around Boston, with protesters staging rallies demanding justice for Birchmore and her unborn child.

That fury has been amplified by allegations that Farwell’s twin brother William, also a Stoughton officer, and Deputy Police Chief Robert Devine also had sexual relationships with Birchmore while she was in the Explorers program.

An internal police investigation concluded that the three officers had ‘inappropriate’ relationships with Birchmore, while an attorney for her family accused them of ‘passing her around like a toy.’

A DNA test done after Farwell’s arrest showed the baby was ultimately not Matthew Farwell’s.

In 2022, both Farwell brothers resigned and Devine retired in disgrace. All three were stripped of ever working in law enforcement in the state of Massachusetts.

Devine denies any sexual relationship with Birchmore, while William claims she was a consenting adult when they had sex.

Neither has been charged. Devine now works as an attorney.

The handmade pregnancy announcement poster that Birchmore sent a photo of to Farwell on December 28, 2020

The alleged grooming and murder of a young woman by a police officer, and what many see as a years-long reluctance to properly investigate, has deepened distrust of law enforcement in a town already bitterly divided by the Karen Read case – which unfolded in Canton one year after Birchmore’s death.

Read, who was accused in 2022 of killing Boston police officer John O’Keefe with her car, faced two high-profile trials before being acquitted at the second in 2025. Her defense argued that O’Keefe was instead attacked by other officers inside the home of a fellow police officer and that they then formed a blue wall of silence to protect each other.

No one else has ever faced charges over O’Keefe’s death.

Birchmore, who had always looked up to law enforcement and dreamed of one day joining its ranks, was just 12 when she joined the Explorers in spring 2010.

Facebook photos show her smiling at academy events, looking even younger than her years.

Soon, Farwell began meeting her to help with her schoolwork.

In 2020 texts cited in court filings, Farwell told Birchmore he wished he had not waited so long to take her virginity.

‘I wish it had been a year sooner after helping you study at the library… I absolutely would’ve f**ked you in 12,’ he allegedly wrote, clarifying he meant 2012, when Birchmore would have been 14.

Birchmore with Stoughton Deputy Police Chief Robert Devine. He retired after an internal probe found that he also had an ‘inappropriate relationship’ with her

Farwell’s twin brother and fellow Stoughton police officer William Farwell is also accused of having a sexual relationship with Birchmore

In other messages, Farwell allegedly instructed Birchmore to act out his rape fantasies and to pretend he was her older brother coming into her room at night to have sex with her.

‘Will you say, ‘Matt stop, I’m 13, I’m not ready for this omfg please stop,’ read one alleged message.

All the while, to the outside world, Farwell was a respected police officer and family man.

He married in 2013 and, by the fall of 2020, his wife was pregnant with their third child.

Yet, it was around this time that federal prosecutors allege Birchmore became seemingly more difficult for Farwell to control.

Birchmore wanted to have his child and, according to the affidavit, gave him an ultimatum: let her try to get pregnant with his child and she would continue to keep their relationship a secret.

On December 28, 2020, Birchmore announced that she was pregnant.

She drew a colorful poster reading, ‘Congrats we are goin [sic] to be parents – 2021,’ and sent a photo to Farwell.

‘You are truly the worst person on the face of the earth…’ came his furious reply over text.

When the pair met the following day, things allegedly turned violent, with Birchmore confiding in friends that he told her he ‘wished [she] would just die,’ put her in a headlock and shoved her.

By January 2021, Birchmore was demanding he be present in the child’s life, sign the birth certificate and that the child have his last name. She also threatened to spill his dark secrets.

Sandra Birchmore always looked up to law enforcement and wanted to join the ranks one day

On January 20, Birchmore’s friend called Stoughton police and told Farwell’s colleague about their relationship, the affidavit states.

When Farwell found out, court records show he sent furious messages to Birchmore: ‘Dude your f***ing friend called my job Sandra wtf.’

But four days later, texts detailed in the affidavit reveal a sudden change of heart, asking for a key to her apartment and promising to give her what she wanted.

Birchmore told friends the U-turn ‘kinda threw me’ and allegedly described his ‘weird’ behavior at her apartment, where he opened her closet door and looked inside.

Prosecutors allege in court filings that his plot to silence her was already in motion.

On February 1, as a snowstorm swept through Canton, Birchmore stayed home, contacting a photographer about a newborn shoot.

At 9.10pm, she messaged Farwell to say she had left the door open for him. It was the last sign of life from the pregnant 23-year-old.

Surveillance footage captured Farwell entering her building at 9.14pm and leaving around 30 minutes later.

Surveillance footage captured Farwell entering her apartment building on the night she died

The 23-year-old had been over the moon about the next chapter in her life: becoming a mom

The suspected grooming and murder of a vulnerable young woman at the hands of a police officer has sown further distrust in law enforcement, in the same town that remains grossly divided by the controversial trials of Karen Read

Three days later, Birchmore was found hanging by a duffel bag strap from the same closet Farwell had appeared to be inspecting.

Birchmore’s family and friends have never believed she killed herself.

She had been overjoyed at the prospect of becoming a mom. In her final days, she was picking out baby clothes, shopping for strollers, planning a baby shower and even deciding who would care for her cats while she was in labor.

She had drafted a pregnancy announcement to share on social media on Valentine’s Day.

It was never posted. Her baby boy was never born. Instead came a tragic end to the life of a young woman who, for years, was allegedly used, abused and exploited by the officers she had once looked up to.