Sandra Birchmore’s death was a murder, says prominent doctor

Editor’s Note: This article vividly and in detail reports on the death of Sandra Birchmore.

The 2021 death of a pregnant Stoughton woman – ruled a suicide by a state medical examiner – was ruled a homicide by a top forensic pathologist hired by the woman’s family, according to a report by The Boston Globe.

Sandra Birchmore, 23, who a wrongful death lawsuit filed in 2022 alleges was sexually assaulted and abused by three former Stoughton police officers for nearly a decade, was found dead in her Canton apartment on Feb. 4, 2021. Each of the officers knew Birchmore because she had participated in a department youth explorer program at age 13, the lawsuit states.

The former officers are Matthew Farwell, his twin brother William and Robert Devine. According to an internal investigation by the agency, all of them had “inappropriate relationships” with Birchmore.

Dr. Michael Baden wrote in a letter earlier this month that Birchmore’s injuries, including the placement of a ligature found on her body, prove she was strangled. globe reported. State investigators had previously determined that she had committed suicide by hanging herself.

“Mrs. Birchmore did not die by suicidal hanging … The cause of Mrs. Birchmore’s death is ‘strangulation’ and the manner of death is ‘homicide,'” Baden wrote, according to the globe.

Baden, the former chief medical examiner of the New York City Medical Examiner, has decades of experience performing autopsies – including those on OJ Simpson and Kobe Bryant. According to his online biography, he also worked with the federal government to reinvestigate the assassinations of Presidents John F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr.

According to the wrongful death lawsuit, Birchmore was pregnant with Matthew Farwell’s child. The lawsuit claims he began having sex with her when she was 15 and he was 27. He was also the last person to see her alive in her apartment, four days before her body was discovered, according to court documents.

A request for comment to lawyers for Birchmore’s estate went unanswered Monday.

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