A jury in Boston on Tuesday saw gruesome photos of Sandra Birchmore’s body that were allegedly staged to look like a suicide by the police officer accused of sexually assaulting her when she was a teenager and then murdering her when he learned she was pregnant.
The graphic images were shown during the Boston federal trial of disgraced ex-cop Matthew Farwell after the 23-year-old was found dead in her Canton apartment on February 4, 2021, according to a report from NBC 10 Boston.
The photos showed Birchmore, her pregnant belly exposed, in the sparsely furnished apartment she had just moved into.
His body rests near a door, with a visible ligature. Her face is blue-purple and her pregnant belly appears bruised and discolored.
The Post chose not to publish the graphic images, which were made public by the U.S. attorney’s office.
Some jurors appeared uncomfortable, shifting in their chairs and touching their eyes as they were repeatedly shown disturbing photos during the testimony of the officer who found her.
“I saw a dead body in a bedroom,” Canton Police Officer Ensley Cotard told the jury on the first day of his testimony at Farwell’s trial.
Cotard said he saw no signs of a struggle, but he noted that he was not investigating a crime scene but was simply checking to see if Birchmore was OK after her boss reported that she had not shown up for work.
The cop didn’t see a suicide note, he said, and explained that he was only inside for about eight minutes.
“My job was to check on Ms. Birchmore’s well-being,” he said.
Prosecutors claimed during opening statements Friday that Farwell, 40, strangled Birchmore three days earlier, on Feb. 1, because she threatened to reveal their affair to his wife, who had her third child the day after Birchmore’s death.
Birchmore had told Farwell she was carrying his baby — a fact they both believed despite DNA testing after the fact concluding Farwell was not the father, prosecutors said.
Farwell began sexually abusing Birchmore seven years earlier, when she was a 15-year-old aspiring police officer enrolled in a Stoughton police children’s program, which he helped supervise, prosecutors alleged.
The couple continued the relationship into Birchmore’s adulthood and Birchmore eventually asked Farwell to have a baby with her too, otherwise she would talk about their relationship.
Farwell bitterly agreed, and when she excitedly texted him that she was pregnant, he replied viscously: “You are truly the worst person on the face of the Earth,” prosecutors alleged.
Farwell’s lawyers, however, claimed that on the day of the alleged murder, he went to Birchmore’s apartment to tell her he was breaking things off, prompting him to kill himself after she left.
Earlier Tuesday, two witnesses said Birchmore was very happy to be pregnant.
Cheryl Carlson, former assistant principal at Sharon East Elementary School where Birchmore worked as a teaching assistant, said the fact that Birchmore’s death was initially ruled a suicide did not mean it was a suicide.
“It made no sense to me. Because she was so excited to have this baby,” Carlson testified. “It didn’t fit his character.”
And Birchmore even confided in Carlson about her argument with the baby’s father, but she was still determined to have the child “no matter what,” Carlson told the jury, according to a Boston Globe report.
Carlson said she contacted state police who were investigating the case because she was very concerned about Birchmore’s claim that she committed suicide.
Erin Porter, the property manager where Birchmore lived, testified about how Birchmore began renting the apartment a few months earlier, in December 2020.
Porter said Birchmore was “just as excited as any other pregnant woman would be.”
The jury also saw surveillance video footage of Farwell entering Birchmore’s building that night, wearing a hood and mask, despite the fact that he was openly opposed to wearing a mask during COVID, according to testimony.
If you or someone you know is affected by any of the issues raised in this story, call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 800-273-TALK (8255) or text Crisis Text Line to 741741.
If you are having suicidal thoughts, you can call the 24/7 National Suicide Prevention Hotline on 988 or go to SuicidePreventionLifeline.org.
Gn headline
