Episode Details

Sandra Birchmore was found dead in her Canton apartment in February 2021. Federal prosecutors allege that former Stoughton officer Matthew Farwell killed her and staged the scene. Now they are asking jurors to assess DNA from the duffel bag strap found around her neck. Tony Brueski and former prosecutor Eric Faddis examine that evidence alongside an unresolved dispute over police records.

Prosecutors say Farwell’s DNA was recovered from the strap. They point to surveillance video of his visit to the apartment building and the timing of the last activity on Sandra’s phone. Their presentation also emphasizes communications they allege were deleted and Sandra’s plans for her unborn child and a nursing career. Defense lawyers say Farwell visited to end their relationship and that Sandra later died by suicide. Farwell denies the charges.

At the same time, Stoughton Police Chief Donna McNamara has accused Town Manager Thomas Calter of demanding that she destroy a second internal affairs report connected to the Birchmore case. Calter disputes the allegation. Reporting indicates that inquiry addressed the way the department handled a friend’s warning call in January 2021. The report’s findings have not been publicly established, and their relationship to the criminal trial remains an open question.

Faddis considers how DNA may support or fail to settle a contested timeline, what jurors can take from surveillance and digital records, and why separate allegations of misconduct by police officials require careful verification. The evidence being tested at trial concerns Sandra’s death; the report dispute concerns how her warnings were handled. Both demand answers, but neither answers the other automatically.

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