Forensic pathologist determines Massachusetts woman Sandra Birchmore who claimed she was groomed and sexually abused by three cops did not die by suicide

A prominent forensic pathologist has determined that a pregnant Massachusetts woman who claimed she was groomed and sexually assaulted by three officers was murdered — and did not commit suicide, as the state’s medical examiner reported.

Sandra Birchmore, 23, was found dead in her apartment on February 4, 2021, with Massachusetts State Police Trooper Matthew Dunne saying he found no signs of physical abuse or evidence of a struggle.

The Office of the Chief Medical Examiner subsequently ruled in May 2021 that Birchmore – a former participant in the Stoughton Police Department’s youth program – committed suicide by hanging.

But former New York City Chief Medical Examiner Dr. Michael Baden has since determined that Birchmore was actually murdered. according to the Boston Globe.

‘Mrs. Birchmore did not die by suicidal hanging,” he wrote in a June 18 letter to an attorney for Birchmore’s estate.

“The cause of Ms Birchmore’s death is ‘strangulation’ and the manner of death is ‘homicide’.”

Baden – who previously led a US House of Representatives investigation into the assassinations of John F. Kennedy and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and who performed autopsies on George Floyd – cited the extent of Birchmore’s injuries and the placement of a ligature as factors in his determination.

He noted that Birchmore had broken her right hyoid bone – a small U-shaped bone in the neck – which “rarely, if at all, breaks in suicidal hangings” but occurs in “half of the homicidal strangulations of women.”

The doctor also referred to autopsy photos, which showed that a piece of a ligature was tangled in Birchmore’s hair — which, Baden said, “happens when there is resistance during homicidal strangulation.”

He concluded that Birchmore would have lost consciousness ‘within seconds’ after the ligature was tied around her neck, and would have died ‘within a few minutes’.

Baden also wrote that the ligature was found tied to a doorknob, adding that he believes this was done to “create the appearance of a suicidal hanging,” even though she was happy with her pregnancy and had left no suicide note .

The former medical examiner was asked by attorney Steven J. Marullo, who is representing her estate in a wrongful death lawsuit, to review the records of Birchwood’s death.

Marullo said he examined the autopsy himself and “saw certain things in the autopsy report that were inconsistent with the conclusion that it was a suicide.”

“I decided at that time that we needed to hire our own expert pathologist,” he said.

The shocking report comes as Birchmore’s family sues Matthew G. Farwell, 38, his twin brother William, and Robert C. Devine, 52, accusing them of grooming and sexually abusing Birchmore from the time she was 16. started Explorer’s youth program. 13.

It is alleged that they ‘undertook to engage in inappropriate relationships with [Birchmore]who was a minor at the time of the sexual relations, took advantage of her trust and admiration for law enforcement, ultimately causing her to commit suicide due to their undue and undue influence,” according to the Globe.

Prior to her death, Birchmore reportedly told her friends that Matthew Farwell was the father of her unborn child – a claim he has repeatedly denied.

But he was also the last person to see Birchmore alive.

Farwell was caught on surveillance footage entering Birchmore’s apartment on February 1, 2021. His wife would give birth to a boy the next day.

During a subsequent investigation with state police, Farwell said he told Birchmore that night that he was not the child’s father, “it was all over” and that he “blocked her from all forms of communication,” according to the Globe.

“Matt said Sandra was upset, but she made no suicidal statements whatsoever,” State Police Lt. John Fanning wrote in his report at the time.

“Matt said he was leaving and Sandra was in the kitchen.”

As the investigation continued, police found hundreds of explicit messages sent between Birchmore and Matthew Farwell over several years. NBC Boston reports.

His twin brother is also accused of sending explicit text messages while on duty.

In 2023, Fanning even wrote in an affidavit that investigators were looking into whether Matthew Farwell could be charged with aggravated statutory rape because evidence showed he began a relationship with Birchmore when she was 15 and he was 27.

And in a decision in the wrongful death lawsuit earlier this year, Superior Court Judge Brian A Davis wrote that Devine and William Farwell had sex with Birchmore in their patrol cars when she was an adult, citing an unredacted copy of a report on Stoughton Police Department Internal Affairs. .

But Baden noted in his letter this month that the state medical examiner “apparently did not send any fetal tissue for DNA analysis to determine who the father was.”

State police records show investigators asked Farwell to provide DNA samples in 2021, but he declined.

Swabs from Birchmore’s body, hair and fingernails, and the clothing she was wearing were used for a sex abuse kit, but Baden said it “appears” the evidence had not been tested.

He now believes the kit and fetal tissue can still be examined.

But in a statement to the Globe, David Traub, a spokesman for Norfolk County District Attorney Michael Morrisey, said that “DNA testing has been conducted on items that have the potential to provide evidence of the possible crimes being investigated, and other items have been preserved.”

He declined to provide more details “as multiple agencies continue to investigate.”

The officers were never charged with any wrongdoing, but the Stoughton Police Department announced that its internal affairs investigation found the officers violated their oath and rendered them “unfit to serve.”

All three officers subsequently resigned from the force in 2022.

In March, the Peace Officers Standards and Training Commission also approved an agreement with Matthew Farwell that bans him from working as a police officer in Massachusetts and added him to a national database of sanctioned officers.

As part of the agreement, Farwell did not admit to any wrongdoing.

The committee is also seeking to decertify William Farwell and suspend or decertify Devine.

These proceedings are still pending.

In the meantime, Stoughton Police Chief Donna McNamara has called for Birchmore’s cause of death to be re-examined.

“I was deeply troubled and disturbed by what I read,” she said in a statement about Baden’s letter posted on the police website on Monday.

‘While I am not a trained medical researcher and am not qualified to draw direct conclusions, the findings certainly warrant further investigation at the highest level.’

She vowed to continue cooperating with investigators — noting that she had previously released information about “the horrific injustices, including grooming and sexual abuse inflicted on Sandra Birchmore by a rogue and corrupt former police officer and additional inappropriate sexual relationships by other former police officers.” .

“Sandra did not receive even an ounce of justice in her lifetime, and we will not cease in our efforts to ensure our duty to deliver justice, and she will not be forgotten in the aftermath of her death.”

McNamara said every “good and decent police officer” should be aware and angry about the injustice done to Birchmore.

She added, “Sandra idolized police officers and what police stood for in America, and as a result, she became a victim.

“The one mantra of good police officers should be: never again, and never, never on my watch.”