Testimony in the trial of former Stoughton, Massachusetts police officer Matthew Farwell resumed for a second day Wednesday at federal court in South Boston, with jurors hearing about a police interview with him after Sandra Birchmore was found dead.
Farwell is accused of killing the 23-year-old Birchmore and her unborn baby in her Canton apartment in February 2021. Her death was initially ruled a suicide, but friends didn't believe it.
Farwell was later charged in 2024 with a federal count of killing a witness or victim. In 2025, he was also charged with causing the death of an unborn child. If convicted, he faces a mandatory sentence of life in prison. He has pleaded not guilty to both charges.
Massachusetts State Police Trooper Matthew Dunne was back on the witness stand Wednesday. He's one of the investigators who initially looked into Birchmore's death and ruled it a suicide. Jurors can also expect to hear from a friend of Birchmore, a Stoughton police detective and the former Stoughton police chief.
Jurors saw more graphic photos of Birchmore in her apartment, hanging from the closet door with a duffle bag strap. They also a photo of an ultrasound image that was on her refrigerator.
"No suicide note was located," Dunne testified.
He also told prosecutors that he did not speak to anyone who lived next door or preserve certain items in the apartment. He said he did not report the incident as a suspicious death.
Dunne testified that he went to Birchmore's school where she worked and learned through interviews that she was in a relationship with Farwell. He interviewed Farwell on Feb. 6 in the parking lot of a Stoughton school. It was not recorded on body camera and no one took notes.
"These were tactical decisions to prevent the defendant from just telling us he wasn't going to talk to us," Dunne said.
Farwell said his sexual relationship with Birchmore had been going on for about two to three years.
"I believe he said he was intoxicated at some point and they encountered each other," Dunne said.
Farwell also acknowleged going to Birchmore's apartment before her death.
"The account he provided was that he went over there to break up with her," Dunne said.
Dunne said that he did not interview any of Farwell's coworkers in Stoughton because "our investigation was more focused on the Birchmore side of things."
"So you were more interested in looking into Birchmore than the man at her apartment in a mask?" the prosecutor asked.
The defense objected to the question, and the judge said it would not be answered.
A second interview of Farwell happened again in a parking lot on Feb. 11. Neither Dunne or his supervisor, Sgt. John Fanning, took notes, Dunne said.
The prosecutor asked Dunne if he was aware that data showed Birchmore's phone had stopped moving before Farwell left her apartment. Dunne said yes.
"This piece of information was given weight, but it's got to be factored in with everything else we know about the investigation as well," he said.
Dunne was also asked if Farwell's false statements about when he started having sex with Birchmore were factors in the investigation.
"All of this has to be taken into context with the full investigation, but they were definitely given weight," he said.
During cross-examination, Farwell's defense attorney Kimberly Stevens asked Dunne about what he saw in the bedroom.
"Did you see signs of the struggle in the room?" she asked.
"No," Dunne replied.
He also testified that coworkers at Birchmore's school told police that she suffered from anxiety and depression, and the principal told police that he decided she would not be brought back last year because of poor attendance.
Birchmore's aunt also told police that she had taken medication for bipolar disorder when she was young and that she said she was going to kill herself when the home she once shared with her mother and grandmother were being sold.
Dunne said that Farwell volunteered on his own accord that the had been at Birchmore's apartment on Feb. 1. He said he was there to tell Birchmore it wasn't his child, Dunne said.
Dunne also said investigators found a suicide note authored by Birchmore that was dated in 2017, along with a list that appeared to reference ways in which to commit suicide, including rope.
In the afternoon, the prosecution called Stoughton Police Sgt. Robert Kuhn to the stand. He said he was friends with Farwell outside of work.
Kuhn met Birchmore when she was in the youth explorers program and also interacted with her as the resource officer at Stoughton High School. He described her as "incredibly impressionable."
"She really looked up to police officers and had an affinity for law enforcement," Kuhn said.
Testimony finished for the day at 4 p.m., and Kuhn will be back on the stand Thursday.
The first day of testimony Tuesday featured several witnesses who were close to Birchmore and surveillance video from her apartment building the day she died.
Investigators said Farwell started sexually abusing Birchmore when she was 15 and he was 27. They met when she joined the police department's explorers' program.
Prosecutors said Birchmore learned she was pregnant in December 2020 and told Farwell he was the father. The defense said DNA testing confirmed Farwell was not the father.
The video played in court Tuesday showed Farwell, wearing a hood and mask, entering the lobby of Birchmore's apartment building and getting on an elevator at 9:28 p.m. on February 1, 2021. Prosecutors said Farwell strangled Birchmore and staged it as a suicide. He left about a half-hour later.
Farwell's attorney did not deny her client and Birchmore had an affair, but she said Farwell never thought the baby was his and when he broke up with Birchmore, she killed herself.
The trial is expected to last about five weeks. No cameras are allowed in federal court so it is not being broadcast or livestreamed.
