Pregnant woman who accused three cops of sexually abusing her as teen may have been killed — despite initial suicide finding: pathologist
A pregnant Massachusetts woman who accused three cops of grooming and sexually abusing her as a teenager did not commit suicide and may have been killed, a high-profile pathologist hired by her family has claimed.
Sandra Birchmore’s death had been ruled a suicide by a state medical examiner after the 23-year-old was found hanging in her Canton apartment back in February 2021.
The medical examiner and investigators had said at the time that the young woman’s autopsy — which also determined she was three months pregnant — had shown no evidence of foul play.
But former New York City chief medical examiner Dr. Michael Baden, who was hired by her family amid an ongoing civil legal battle against the three cops, has since rejected those findings, the Boston Globe reported.
“I must disagree,” Baden wrote in a June 18 letter to a lawyer for Birchmore’s estate.
“Ms. Birchmore did not die of suicidal hanging … The cause of Ms. Birchmore’s death is ‘Strangulation’ and the manner of death is ‘Homicide.'”
Baden said the extent of Birchmore’s injuries, as well as the placement of a ligature found on her body, were among the reasons for his determination.
He noted that Birchmore had suffered a fracture to a small U-shape bone in the neck, known as the hyoid bone, which fractures “rarely, if at all, in suicidal hanging” but does in “half of homicidal strangulation of women.”
The bombshell developments are the latest in a long-running case that has plagued the area and sparked multiple probes by the FBI and state and local authorities ever since the grooming and abuse allegations surfaced.
The three Stoughton police officers — Matthew Farwell, his brother William Farwell, and Robert Devine — are accused of abusing and exploiting Birchmore for a decade after meeting her when she enrolled in the department’s Explorer youth program when she was 13 in 2010.
In the wake of Birchmore’s death, an internal Stoughton Police Department probe found that Matthew Farwell had allegedly started sexually abusing her when she was 15.
The other two cops were also accused of having inappropriate relationships with the girl in the years that followed, according to the investigation.
Before her apparent suicide, Birchmore had also allegedly told friends that Matthew Farwell was the father of her baby — a claim the officer has denied.
All three cops, who have long denied the allegations, resigned from the department in 2022.
No criminal charges have ever been brought against them.
Birchmore’s family filed a wrongful death lawsuit against them all in late 2022, alleging that the “near decade-long scheme of grooming and repeated assaults” led to her demise.
Baden was hired by the family to look again at the young woman’s autopsy report as part of the suit.
The officers, who have also denied the wrongful death claims, haven’t commented publicly on the forensic pathologist’s new findings.
Stoughton Police Chief Donna McNamara, however, said she was “profoundly disturbed” by the fresh claims.
“I was profoundly disturbed and troubled by what I read,” McNamara said of Baden’s determinations.
“While I am not a trained medical examiner, and I am not qualified to draw any direct conclusions, the findings certainly warrant further examination at the highest level. As always, we will continue to assist with any effort to ensure that truth and justice prevail.”
Reps for the Massachusetts State Police and the medical examiner who issued the initial suicide autopsy ruling declined to comment due to ongoing investigations.
Baden has been involved in a slew of prominent cases over his five-decade career — including leading a US House committee that reinvestigated the assassinations of President John F. Kennedy and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
He was also hired by George Floyd’s family to conduct an autopsy in the wake of his death in 2020.
If you are struggling with suicidal thoughts, you can dial the 24/7 National Suicide Prevention hotline at 988 or go to SuicidePreventionLifeline.org.
