An FBI agent testifying in Matthew Farwell’s ongoing murder trial revealed the text Sandra Birchmore sent to the former Massachusetts police officer in which she announced to him that she was pregnant.
Farwell, 40, a former Stoughton officer, is accused of killing Birchmore, 23, and staging her death as a suicide in February 2021 to prevent her from speaking out about his alleged sexual exploitation of her beginning when she was a minor, according to federal prosecutors.
On Monday, October 19, FBI Special Agent Heidi Kelsch testified that after Birchmore found out she was expecting in December 2020, she texted Farwell, believing he was the father, writing, “Congrats, we are going to be parents in 2021,” per The Boston Globe.
Around the same time, she also shared the news of her pregnancy with at least eight others, according to Kelsch.
Farwell responded to Birchmore’s text hours later, according to the newspaper, writing: “I literally have nothing to say right now.”
Farwell, whose trial began October 6, allegedly had a yearslong extramarital affair with Birchmore after grooming and sexually abusing her since she was 15.
Following Birchmore’s death, DNA testing revealed Farwell wasn’t the biological father of her unborn son, The Boston Globe reported.
Prosecutors have argued Farwell strangled Birchmore to death in her Canton apartment in February 2021 weeks after she discovered her pregnancy. Birchmore had been around 10 weeks pregnant when she died.
Farwell has maintained his innocence and pleaded not guilty to one count of killing a witness or victim, in relation to Birchmore, and one count of causing the death of her unborn child, records show.
On Monday, Kelsch returned to testify in Farwell’s trial after previously reading several explicit text messages exchanged between Farwell and Birchmore, including a discussion about Farwell allegedly taking Birchmore’s virginity when she was 15 years old in April 2013, according to MassLive. Farwell was 27 at the time, according to prosecutors.
A few years earlier, Birchmore had joined the Stoughton Police Department’s Explorer’s Program, an educational law enforcement program, when she was 12 in 2010, according to prosecutors. Farwell had been an instructor for the program at the time.
“He was supposed to be mentoring her in an after-school program run by the police department, but, instead, he was having sex with her when she was underage,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Torey B. Cummings said on October 9, during opening statements at trial.
“The defendant continued to meet Sandra for sex over the next eight years, often when he was on the clock and supposed to be working as a police officer,” Cummings continued.
Birchmore later threatened to tell Farwell’s wife about their relationship when she discovered his wife was pregnant with their third child in October 2020, according to The Boston Globe.
That fall, according to prosecutors, Farwell agreed to try to impregnate Birchmore in exchange for her keeping the details of their relationship private.
In court on Monday, Kelsch said Birchmore “really wanted a baby” while Farwell was “less enthusiastic,” according to Boston 25 News.
If Farwell is found guilty, he’d face a mandatory sentence of life in prison, according to prosecutors.
Farwell’s defense has contended Birchmore died of suicide.
