Friend of woman allegedly killed by Massachusetts police officer: ‘It was total exploitation, 100%’

Lauren Andrews says she was almost like a secondary parent to Sandra Birchmore, who was would have been killed by Matthew Farwell, then a police officer, and that Birchmore had a difficult upbringing.

Andrews told CBS News that she spoke with Birchmore just two weeks before her death in February 2021 and never believed the medical examiner’s initial conclusion that Birchmore had killed herself. The medical examiner later changed the cause of death to “undetermined.”

Andrews said Birchmore told her she was pregnant and that she saw no signs that Birchmore would harm herself when she was home for the last time.

“Absolutely not,” Andrews told CBS News. “She was excited and thrilled to have a baby. She was going to go to nursing school. She was ready to move on and she wanted this baby, she wanted a life for this baby.”

Farwell, who was a police officer in Stoughton, Massachusetts, is currently on trial for killing Birchmore and her unborn baby. The 23-year-old was found dead in her apartment in neighboring Canton, a suburb of Boston, and is believed to have been pregnant with Farwell’s child at the time, according to authorities.

“It was over, it was 100 percent exploitation,” Andrews told CBS News. “It was grooming.”

Testimony The case began Tuesday, following opening statements Friday.

Federal prosecutors said Farwell met Birchmore when she was 13 and a member of the police department’s youth program. Investigators said he groomed Birchmore for years and began having sex with her when she was 15 and he was 27.

Andrews, the mother of one of Birchmore’s best friends, remembers Birchmore as a family member. When she first learned that Birchmore had committed suicide in his apartment, she just couldn’t believe it.

“We thought it was a lie,” Andrews said. “We felt like an injustice had happened.”

Andrews said she immediately suspected Farwell was behind the death. She said she reported her suspicions to Canton police, but they did nothing.

“We talked to the officer, and you know he didn’t even act like he was taking this seriously,” she said.

After years of growing public pressure, federal prosecutors accused Farwell of murder in 2024. A separate internal affairs investigation by the police department found that Farwell shared hundreds of explicit text messages and exchanges over the course of several years.

The investigation also revealed that at least two other Stoughton police officers had inappropriate relationships with Birchmore, including Farwell’s twin brother, William, who was not criminally charged. William Farwell admitted to having a sexual relationship with Birchmore for two years when she was an adult when interviewed during the internal police investigation.

All three resigned from the force after the investigation was published in August 2022.

Birchmore discovered she was pregnant in December 2020 and told Farwell he was the father, prosecutors said. The following February, prosecutors say, he strangled Birchmore and made it look like a suicide. DNA testing later confirmed Farwell was not the father, but prosecutors say he thought he might have been at the time. Farwell’s lawyers say he never believed he was the father.

Farwell has pleaded not guilty to charges of murder of a witness or victim and failure to protect an unborn child. If convicted, he faces life in prison.