Show Notes
Before Matthew Farwell's federal trial begins on October 5, 2026, this is Sandra Birchmore's whole story in one place, both parts of the Hidden Killers series combined. It opens on the handmade sign her family found when they cleaned out her apartment, the one she'd made for the man she said was the father, and on what she'd put on it. Who she was. What the Stoughton Police Department's own investigators found was done to her. What the state did with the evidence of her death. And who finally forced the case into a federal courtroom. Sandra was raised by a chronically ill mother and a great-aunt she called Grandma, and by 19 she'd buried both. She joined the Stoughton Police Explorers at 12 because she wanted to be a police officer. The department's internal report, released in September 2022, found Farwell's inappropriate relationship with her began in the spring of 2013, and that William Farwell and Robert Devine had inappropriate relationships with her as an adult. All three left the department on their own terms and none has been charged by the state. In December 2020 Sandra sent Farwell a homemade poster announcing she was pregnant. Prosecutors say his answer was that he had nothing to say, and that he later called her the worst person on the face of the earth. Someone who cared about her reported him to the Stoughton Police Department on January 20, 2021, and the FBI says that report was handed to Farwell. On February 1 she told him the door would be open. The building's camera has him inside for 29 minutes, and her phone's last recorded movement is eight steps at 9:40 p.m. The state ruled it a suicide. Sandra's family, the Boston Globe, Dr. Michael Baden, and the FBI got the case reopened. Farwell has pleaded not guilty; his defense says she took her own life. The medical examiner changed the death certificate to undetermined in 2026. Listen Anywhere You Get Podcasts: https://pod.link/1655749292 Want to comment and watch this podcast as a video? Check out our YouTube Channel. https://www.youtube.com/@hiddenkillerspod?sub_confirmation=1 Join Our SubStack For AD-FREE ADVANCE EPISODES & EXTRAS!: https://hiddenkillers.substack.com/ Instagram https://www.instagram.com/hiddenkillerspod/ Facebook https://www.facebook.com/hiddenkillerspod/ Tik-Tok https://www.tiktok.com/@hiddenkillerspod X Twitter https://x.com/tonybpod This publication contains commentary and opinion based on publicly available information. All individuals are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. Nothing published here should be taken as a statement of fact, health or legal advice. #SandraBirchmore #MatthewFarwell #JusticeForSandra #HiddenKillers #StoughtonPolice #NorfolkDA #FarwellTrial #PoliceExplorers #Massachusetts #TrueCrime
More from The Murder Of Sandra Birchmore
The chief who exposed the officers connected to Sandra Birchmore says she was told to destroy the evidence of a second investigation — and when she refused, she was the one placed on leave. Chief Donna McNamara was the first female officer and first female chief in Stoughton’s history. She allegedly opened a second probe into the department after the officers were identified. Town Manager Robin Calter allegedly demanded the report be destroyed. Someone inside the department had already tipped Matthew Farwell that he was being discussed. Psychotherapist Shavaun Scott, author of Nightbird, examines what this pattern of retaliation reveals about the institution Sandra was allegedly harmed inside. The second investigation reportedly identified another unnamed former employee. Scott asks what it means for the women serving in law enforcement right now who are watching one of their own get punished for doing what was right. Listen Anywhere You Get Podcasts: https://pod.link/1655749292 Want to comment and watch this podcast as a video? Check out our YouTube Channel. https://www.youtube.com/@hiddenkillerspod?sub_confirmation=1 Join Our SubStack For AD-FREE ADVANCE EPISODES & EXTRAS!: https://hiddenkillers.substack.com/ Instagram https://www.instagram.com/hiddenkillerspod/ Facebook https://www.facebook.com/hiddenkillerspod/ Tik-Tok https://www.tiktok.com/@hiddenkillerspod X Twitter https://x.com/tonybpod This publication contains commentary and opinion based on publicly available information. All individuals are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. Nothing published here should be taken as a statement of fact, health or legal advice. #SandraBirchmore #DonnaMcNamara #HiddenKillers #StoughtonPolice #PoliceCoverup #ShavaunScott #TrueCrime #TrueCrimePodcast #RobinCalter #JusticeForSandra
What William Farwell did while Sandra Birchmore was pregnant with his twin brother’s baby is one of the details that tells psychotherapist Shavaun Scott how this group of officers allegedly functioned. William allegedly participated even knowing Sandra was carrying Matthew’s child. Robert Devine, who ran the youth program that first gave officers access to Sandra, mentored both brothers as teenagers. After Sandra was dead, Devine sat at his own hearing and called her a liar. Scott, author of Nightbird, examines the psychology of men who allegedly operate in groups — how one officer’s behavior can create a model that others follow, and why attacking the credibility of a dead woman was Devine’s first instinct when his own conduct was under review. Three officers connected through one program, involved with one girl for years. Scott explains what that structure does to the person trapped inside it. Listen Anywhere You Get Podcasts: https://pod.link/1655749292 Want to comment and watch this podcast as a video? Check out our YouTube Channel. https://www.youtube.com/@hiddenkillerspod?sub_confirmation=1 Join Our SubStack For AD-FREE ADVANCE EPISODES & EXTRAS!: https://hiddenkillers.substack.com/ Instagram https://www.instagram.com/hiddenkillerspod/ Facebook https://www.facebook.com/hiddenkillerspod/ Tik-Tok https://www.tiktok.com/@hiddenkillerspod X Twitter https://x.com/tonybpod This publication contains commentary and opinion based on publicly available information. All individuals are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. Nothing published here should be taken as a statement of fact, health or legal advice. #SandraBirchmore #RobertDevine #HiddenKillers #WilliamFarwell #ShavaunScott #StoughtonPolice #TrueCrime #TrueCrimePodcast #ExplorersProgram #JusticeForSandra
Sandra Birchmore was already dead when Matthew Farwell texted his desk mate from his wife's hospital room, asking if anything was going on and saying he was bored. Detective Daniel Barber testified that in eight years, Farwell had never once reached out off duty like that. Rebecca Chandler read Sandra's texts to the jury. She read the night Sandra wrote that Farwell looked around her closet, and the morning Sandra wrote that he asked for a key and said he'd always be around if she stayed quiet. The last thing Chandler ever got from Sandra was baby clothes, sent January 31. Detective Barrett knew Farwell's walk and his jeans on the lobby video. Donyea Holloway testified Sandra wanted the baby to have police benefits in case the father wasn't around. Karlie Williams was going to dig her car out for Thursday, February 4. That's the day Sandra was found. Listen Anywhere You Get Podcasts: https://pod.link/1655749292 Want to comment and watch this podcast as a video? Check out our YouTube Channel. https://www.youtube.com/@hiddenkillerspod?sub_confirmation=1 Join Our SubStack For AD-FREE ADVANCE EPISODES & EXTRAS!: https://hiddenkillers.substack.com/ Instagram https://www.instagram.com/hiddenkillerspod/ Facebook https://www.facebook.com/hiddenkillerspod/ Tik-Tok https://www.tiktok.com/@hiddenkillerspod X Twitter https://x.com/tonybpod This publication contains commentary and opinion based on publicly available information. All individuals are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. Nothing published here should be taken as a statement of fact, health or legal advice. #SandraBirchmore #MatthewFarwell #SandraBirchmoreCase #FarwellTrial #StoughtonPolice #BirchmoreTrial #FederalMurderTrial #JusticeForSandra #TrueCrime #HiddenKillers
Matthew Farwell allegedly drove to his wife’s hospital room from Sandra Birchmore’s apartment building — still wearing the same clothes. Psychotherapist Shavaun Scott examines what that transit reveals about the mind of a man who allegedly maintained two separate worlds and watched them collide. Farwell had never worn a mask before the night Sandra died, according to prosecutors. That night, he allegedly covered his face for the first time. Scott, author of Nightbird, explains what triggers that kind of behavioral shift and what it means when someone who has operated without concealment suddenly needs to hide. The interview covers how Farwell used his position and on-duty hours to access Sandra, the crisis when her pregnancy and her friend’s phone call threatened his double life, and the defense argument that now treats the psychological damage done to Sandra as proof she ended her own life. Listen Anywhere You Get Podcasts: https://pod.link/1655749292 Want to comment and watch this podcast as a video? Check out our YouTube Channel. https://www.youtube.com/@hiddenkillerspod?sub_confirmation=1 Join Our SubStack For AD-FREE ADVANCE EPISODES & EXTRAS!: https://hiddenkillers.substack.com/ Instagram https://www.instagram.com/hiddenkillerspod/ Facebook https://www.facebook.com/hiddenkillerspod/ Tik-Tok https://www.tiktok.com/@hiddenkillerspod X Twitter https://x.com/tonybpod This publication contains commentary and opinion based on publicly available information. All individuals are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. Nothing published here should be taken as a statement of fact, health or legal advice. #SandraBirchmore #MatthewFarwell #HiddenKillers #ShavaunScott #StoughtonPolice #TrueCrime #TrueCrimePodcast #Nightbird #JusticeForSandra #TrueCrimeCommunity
A psychotherapist who specializes in the kind of damage allegedly done to Sandra Birchmore examines what the legal case alone cannot show — how completely Sandra’s mind was reshaped by officers she trusted. Shavaun Scott, author of Nightbird, looks at the unsent text to Farwell’s wife, the friend who saw what Sandra couldn’t, and the DNA revelation that Farwell was not the biological father. Sandra entered the Stoughton police Explorers program as a grieving child with no father figure. The officers who ran that program allegedly became substitutes for every form of protection and love Sandra had lost. Scott explains how a badge functions differently than any other form of authority in a child’s psychology and why Sandra’s inability to see what was being done to her was not a failure of intelligence — it was the product of years of alleged targeting by men she was taught to trust. Listen Anywhere You Get Podcasts: https://pod.link/1655749292 Want to comment and watch this podcast as a video? Check out our YouTube Channel. https://www.youtube.com/@hiddenkillerspod?sub_confirmation=1 Join Our SubStack For AD-FREE ADVANCE EPISODES & EXTRAS!: https://hiddenkillers.substack.com/ Instagram https://www.instagram.com/hiddenkillerspod/ Facebook https://www.facebook.com/hiddenkillerspod/ Tik-Tok https://www.tiktok.com/@hiddenkillerspod X Twitter https://x.com/tonybpod This publication contains commentary and opinion based on publicly available information. All individuals are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. Nothing published here should be taken as a statement of fact, health or legal advice. #SandraBirchmore #MatthewFarwell #HiddenKillers #ShavaunScott #StoughtonPolice #TrueCrime #TrueCrimePodcast #ExplorersProgram #JusticeForSandra #Nightbird