What we lose in the Shadows (A father and daughter True Crime Podcast)
What we lose in the Shadows (A father and daughter True Crime Podcast)
A Young Life Stolen: The Tragedy of Sandra Birchmore
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Could a trusted figure of authority exploit their power to commit unthinkable crimes? That's the chilling question we unravel as we kick off this episode of "What We Lose in the Shadows. Today we navigate the devastating case of Sandra Birchmore, a young girl with aspirations for a career in law enforcement, whose life was tragically cut short. Prepare for a gripping discussion that includes trigger warnings for grooming, trafficking, and murder, focusing on the disturbing actions of Detective Matthew Farwell and the ongoing quest for justice by Sandra's family and Dr. Michael Baden.
Follow us on Instagram at "What We Lose in the Shadows" to stay informed on this ongoing case and share your thoughts. Join us next Tuesday as we return to explore another harrowing tale that lurks in the shadows.
Former Officer Charged With Killing Sandra Birchmore, Whose Death Was Ruled a Suicide - The New York Times (nytimes.com)
Sandra Birchmore's family files suit against 3 ex-Stoughton police officers (boston.com)
Contact us at: whatweloseintheshadows@gmail.com
Background music by Michael Shuller Music
Good morning and welcome to what we Lose in the Shadows a father-daughter true crime podcast. My name is Jameson Keys.
Speaker 2I'm Caroline, hello, hello, how are you Caroline? I'm good. How are you?
Speaker 1Very good, good, it is a beautiful day.
Speaker 2You should have been a weatherman.
Speaker 1I know that does sound like a weatherman Funny story. I actually I was living in a place in Pennsylvania and decided to move back home and I had put in a you know kind of a tape of me doing the weather. I wasn't a meteorologist or anything, but they did invite me back for an interview but I thought, damn, I'm going home instead, so I could very well have been a weatherman.
Speaker 2That would be so funny.
Speaker 1Yeah, it's certainly within my personality right.
Speaker 2That would have been hilarious. How's the book going?
Speaker 1You know, thanks for asking. The Vanishing Ballerina has done pretty well. I've sent a few thousand copies and it is doing well both on Amazon and if you would like to buy the book and get a discount, it is also available at jamesonkeyscom or you could buy the book directly there, get a discount and listen to past episodes of this show.
Speaker 2That's amazing. Trigger warnings for today are grooming, trafficking and murder.
Speaker 1That's right. You know certain stories, caroline, often affect me and you know, sitting across from me, that sometimes during these stories I get teary-eyed.
Speaker 2I mean, yeah, like I feel like that's an appropriate response, though, for sure, for these crazy stories.
Speaker 1For sure, and I'm empathetic to the point. Sometimes it's kind of embarrassing. I'll be in a theater, I don't think that's embarrassing at all. Well, I know, but it is, it's toxic masculinity Right.
Speaker 1But anyways, yes, sometimes it pops up at an inopportune moment, but yeah, so I'm often very affected by these stories and this case is going to be. That we're covering today doesn't leave me sad, it leaves me absolutely positively. Livid Sutter Birchmore was an impressionable young girl who was interested in law enforcement and in fact she was a member of the Stoughton Massachusetts Explorers Program, which provides kids a chance to explore law enforcement careers and interact with police officers. She was only 12 when she first joined this program. She interacted with several members of the police department over the years and that included, I think, the deputy police chief, and she was also being mentored by a police officer, and later a detective, by the name of Matthew Farwell. Farwell allegedly because this is being adjudicated as we speak began a relationship with Birchmore when she was 15. The child when she was 15 years old. Now, keep in mind, in the state of Massachusetts, the age of consent is 16.
Speaker 2That doesn't matter. The age of consent is like the age for you to consent under age it's still like illegal. Yeah, right it's still statutory rape in a lot of places. For sure, it's still statutory rape even if the age of consent is 16. Because it's like they're allowed to consent to be sexual with like other, like teenagers. That's really what that means.
Speaker 1OK, that's good to know, that's interesting.
Speaker 2At least I think so.
Speaker 1But the relationship itself continued after she became adult, with Birchmore eventually becoming pregnant, and in December of 2020, she told Farwell that she was pregnant with his child. On February 4th 2021, Sondra was 23 at the time and that's when they found her lifeless body in her apartment. The local coroner ruled that she was the apparent victim of a suicide, but her family and her friends vehemently challenged that and that the death was accidental or through suicide. They refused to accept that verdict and the Boston Globe reported recently that Birchmore's family had hired Michael Baden. Do you know that name?
Speaker 2I do not.
Speaker 1He's a former medical examiner for the city of New York and he examined a lot of high profile cases. He did the autopsy on Jeffrey Epstein and has raised different thoughts about that was not an accident, that was not a suicide. He also did things like he looked at the case in terms of John F Kennedy. Wow, yeah, so he's been around for a while. Very experienced, very, very experienced. He basically said in a June letter that he disputed the original determination that this was suicide, claiming that she had been in fact, strangled to death.
Speaker 2That's crazy. The US attorney but her small town, where was this?
Speaker 1This was in a small town outside of Boston.
Speaker 2OK. And so, like her small town place where she was dating, one of the cops was like oh, it's a suicide. But then this like well-known, like amazing person in his trade, it was like no.
Speaker 1Well, I'm not sure how small Staunton is. I mean, they did have multiple members of the police. It might be a small to medium sized town. It's certainly not a tiny town, but it's certainly not Boston either. And one of the interesting things he said was there is a bone in the throat, a hyaloid bone, something like that. I think it is, and it was fractured.
Speaker 2And that's like typically what they look for with strangle victims right or asphyxiation.
Speaker 1Yes, now the crime scene was such that she had had a belt wrapped around her neck and she was hanging from like the door, or something like that. What this gentleman said, mr Baden, dr Baden, was that that bone is normally not harmed in a hanging, or something like that. That bone is not damaged in a hanging per se.
Speaker 2Only strangulation.
Speaker 1Only strangulation. It's normally a sign of a manual strangulation.
Speaker 2Because of the pressure right, it doesn't have that same pressure if you're hanging.
Speaker 1So it deals more or less with where it is. It's called that because it's sort of like a bird's nest, is what they call it, kind of a bone in the throat and where strangulation happens and where hangings normally happen, is different and affects that area differently.
Speaker 2Okay, that makes sense.
Speaker 1If you remember the young lady her last name was Gilbert Shannon Gilbert that was killed in the Gilgo Beach. She also had that bone fractured. So there's some real questions about that sort of thing, and what I read up on a little bit was the fact that the only time that bone ever gets fractured was when the United States and other places were doing public hangings. Wow. And the reason that would be harmed at that point is because it was a drop and it would affect the neck in a different way. It would hit the different spot in a different way. But people that are hanging themselves or typically don't do that. So there really is a lot of questions about the fact that, uh, the coroner said this young woman was was um hanged herself and when was this?
Speaker 1this was in uh 2020 okay, this happened in 2021.
Speaker 2I'm sorry. 2021, right, I'm sorry 2021.
Speaker 1Right, so now the United States Attorney's District of Massachusetts has announced an indictment against Matthew Farwell, who's 38, on charges of killing a witness or a victim. Oh my God, farwell was arrested on August 28th by the Justice Department. Now you're probably asking okay, this is a Massachusetts case. Why isn't this being brought locally? Why isn't this being?
Speaker 2brought Because he's a cop.
Speaker 1Well, yes, he is a cop, but one of the things that they noticed is he was taking time off. He was having having sex with this young girl a lot of times when he was on duty. So he would sign in and he would go where he would have sex with this young girl a lot of times when he was on duty. So he would sign in and he would go where he would have sex with this young girl she was underage she was.
Speaker 1She was underage for part of it. He started a relationship when she was 15.
Speaker 2It's rape right disgusting.
Speaker 1But later, when she was in her 20s, it was consensual, and but I don't think you're allowed to.
Speaker 2Maybe maybe I'm making this up, oh yeah, because they're not working together, but wait, I don't think. I thought I read something. Someone can correct me if I'm wrong, but um, I thought I read something that like officers aren't allowed to like have sex in their uniform because it's like technically also statutory rape because they have like a level of power. You know what I mean well, yeah, there's a.
Speaker 1There's a wide variety of reasons that that's yeah, that's a no-no for sure.
Speaker 2Good point. I didn't even think about that the rest of the reasons.
Speaker 1But no, this is one of the things that it's actually, technically speaking, because he was supposed to be on duty, he was paid for being on duty and somehow it's a problem with like wire fraud or it's a fraudulentulent thing, and that is one of the reasons that the federal government stepped in and said hang on here, this is definitely wrong yeah, I mean definitely if you meet someone as a child.
Speaker 2Oh god, and how old is this man?
Speaker 1in his 30s disgusting exactly for sure not that it would have been any better if he was younger, but yeah, but but um, in this case, like I said, this is all alleged because this case has Disgusting, exactly For sure. Not that it would have been any better if he was younger, but yeah. But in this case, like I said, this is all alleged because this case has it's. It's being put before the jury soon. He was indicted recently, so I think later this year, I believe, is when the case will start. But yeah, that's. Another thing is one of her friends had actually called what kind of set this whole thing off? Yeah, was, she told her friends and her family and she was very excited about the pregnancy. All right, she was happy to have a baby. She was buying baby clothes.
Speaker 2So that part's not alleged.
Speaker 1What.
Speaker 2Her having his baby.
Speaker 1She was having a baby.
Speaker 1Oh, so it's not confirmed who whose it was it hasn't been confirmed, uh, whose it was okay, but but their affair is confirmed yes, okay, even he admits that he doesn't admit the timing of it but, he admits the fact that it was happening. Yeah, so she told him. He became very, very upset, tried to end relationship, tried to walk away from the whole thing, and she was explaining to him that she was going to put his name on the birth certificate. Now he's married and has several children of his own.
Speaker 1Oh, ok, and he's also a police detective, I believe, at this time. So one of her friends called the police station and said listen, I don't know if you know this or not, but this is what's going on. That drove him into a rage and potentially that's what caused the entire situation I mean besides his poor actions right that was like the conductor.
Speaker 2That's crazy.
Speaker 1So inklings of this were were in the, you know, in the year kind of before, that the police department itself, uh, previously allegedly said that as many as three officers in the department were engaged with inappropriate relationships with birchmore this is horrible beginning when she was 15 years old I'm so disgusted.
Speaker 1Prosecutors claim that Farwell killed Birchmore to prevent law enforcement from learning about the Farwell's commission and possibly the commission of federal offenses. According to a press release, as I said before, Birchmore's death was originally ruled a suicide, but prosecutors say that the federal investigation results in the probe. Birchmore's death was originally ruled a suicide, but prosecutors say that the federal investigation results and the probe that was done have renewed the case against Matthew Falwell and that's why he was charged and arrested.
Speaker 2Good.
Speaker 1The Stoughton Police Chief, donna McNamara, released a statement in June regarding the recent attention focused on the Birchmore death. Released a statement in June regarding the recent attention focused on the Birchmore death. She said that every good and decent police officer should be aware and be angry of what happened and the injustice inflicted upon Sondra Birchmore. I would hope so she said Sondra Birchmore idolized police officers and what policing stood for in America and she was victimized as a result of that.
Speaker 2It's disgusting.
Speaker 1Now? At the moment, neither of the other two officers on the police force who allegedly engaged in inappropriate relationships with Birchmore are currently facing charges what the fuck One of which is Falwell's brother.
Speaker 2Ew, you know I think it's time, men you got to go. You know I think it's time men, you got to go Fall.
Police Grooming and Murder Investigation
Speaker 1Fall was was an officer for the police department in Staunton, which is south of Boston, for about 10 years, between 2012 and 2022. It was not immediately clear why he left the department, but I think we know Birchmore began participating in the police explorers program when she was 12 years old. According to the indictment in the US District Court of Massachusetts, court documents say that Farwell was a police explorer volunteer and he used his authority to gain access to groom and sexually exploit and sexually abuse Birchmore when she was 15.
Speaker 2That's horrible. Who are these fucking people? That's horrible. Who?
Speaker 1are these fucking people? The indictment also says that Falwell committed murder, at least in part, to prevent Birchmore from disclosing to authorities the information regarding the commission, of the possible commission of these crimes, and deprived the victim of the rights in an ongoing fraud scheme and that's why the FBI special agent wrote in the affidavit. At a news conference a few weeks back, fbi special agent Stephen Kelleher said that Birchmore was excited when she found out she was pregnant and texted Farwell a poster that she made celebrating her pregnancy. She had also reached out to family and friends about baby clothes, about photographs. According to Kelleher, matthew Farwell's gun and badge did not grant him the authority to violate the Constitution.
Speaker 2No.
Speaker 1And it certainly didn't entitle him to sexual exploits or raping of a child before he killed her.
Speaker 2Absolutely not.
Speaker 1After telling him. The next month, as I said, a friend of Farwell's called the Staunton Police Department to tell the officials there that he was having sex with Birchmore. Farwell allegedly strangled Birchmore on or about February 1st and then used his police knowledge to stage her apartment to make it look as though she had killed herself. According to the indictment, that's insane.
Speaker 2That's so horrible. That poor girl.
Speaker 1Currently, three Stoughton police officers were accused of having sex with her, including Farwell. The case was initially, as we said, ruled a suicide. Officially Family hired Dr Baden, who was a nationally renowned pathologist who'd worked on the JFK assassination, the Jeffrey Epstein case. Baden alleges that the case was strangulation, was not self hanging. It was indeed strangulation. As I said before, the hyloid bone was broken, indicative of manual strangulation, is not hanging. Very similar to the Epstein case. Very similar to Shannon Gilbert, mm-hmm. I was able to look online and I found security camera footage from the young lady's apartment. Oh, and so it shows. On February 1st 2021, the girl is seen talking with a figure just outside the apartment door of the complex, and that's at 514. At 544, the victim goes out to clear the snow from her car. At 546, she's seen entering with a car scraper. At 2127.
Speaker 2Can you interpret that for?
Speaker 1those of us At 927. Thank you. There's a man said to be far well, but his face was covered with a mask and his he had a hat on is seen, entered the lobby his head down his mask covered, his face covered with a mask, as I said, and entering the elevator. He had, a couple weeks before, asked for a key to her apartment, and that's's at 927. At 956, the same man is seen quickly leaving the lobby and looking down to avoid the camera.
Speaker 2How many minutes is that? I didn't pay attention to the minutes.
Speaker 1So just 27, or so it's that's crazy, that's so.
Speaker 2Think about that, right?
Speaker 1I mean, it was obviously premeditated, just by, like, the sheer amount of time that it took In just under 30 minutes, though this man has a confrontation with her. That's what I mean Murders her. Stages her death to look like a suicide.
Speaker 2That's insane. So I don't know. I mean but murders, like the woman that he got pregnant, right, that's crazy. I mean obviously, obviously, like she was a victim of, like grooming before that. So like I'm not trying to make this out as like a love story. It's not a love story. It's disgusting from the beginning, but it's very interesting to me when, like men can like dissociate from their children too. You know what I mean. Right, it's very weird. Not just men, women too. I know, I know, I know.
Speaker 1So in that internal affairs investigation, three police officers were accused of having inappropriate relationships with Birchmore.
Speaker 2Yeah, and how? When was that? When were these like inappropriate things happening simultaneously, or?
Speaker 1I don't know this and this is purely speculative. And I just want to say this is allegedly, and this is my guess so it's not? Oh, okay, so. So basically, I think that he started this relationship with this young girl, that he did indeed groom her and that he that he started passing her around, pimping her out. That's fucking horrible brother yeah, who was matthew Matthew? Matthew Falwell and his brother, william Farwell and Robert divine who was also named who was also named in this investigation, and that was September of 2022.
Speaker 1The internal fair reports says that past participants in the Stoughton police officers program saw inappropriate behavior by divine and Farwell twins.
Speaker 1The witness reported hugging and kissing, an inappropriate contact in the closet in a statement and they would come back and see, and one of them actually said he'd come back and see me when you're 18 to a different person to this young girl, same young girl oh, the same young girl who said that, that, he said that I know it's an undisclosed member of the explorers program, so probably one of the other children that was involved in it that's disgusting it was disgusting it's like when they try to do, like when someone tries to set up something nice for children, for them to learn and explore.
Speaker 2It's like then someone has to come and make it like perverted.
Speaker 1Right, what the Well? So Matthew Falwell told investigators that he went to Birchmore's apartment on February 1st 2021 to end the relationship and had a pretty nasty argument. He said with her she was found three days later, but her she had died, probably the corner things on that same night. Yeah, probably, but her she had died, probably the corner things, on that same night.
Speaker 2Yeah, probably Her life was snuffed out by some fucking creepy ass pedophile Right. It's insane why.
Speaker 1And the other guy in the situation, devon, who had once served as deputy chief of the police department but was demoted back to patrol officer for abusing his power.
Speaker 2It's a red flag. Why is he still working there?
Speaker 1Devon, for his part, was demoted and received a 60-day unpaid suspension in 2016. That's bad. After an internal affairs investigation found inappropriate action, what kind of inappropriate actions. That there was a possible violation of harassment orders using Department of Research and Technology. This wasn't related to, apparently, this case, but there's some abuse of power that supposedly he had.
Speaker 2But I don't understand why these people keep their jobs Like this is obviously not a good person, like I know. There's, like you know, hr tape to go through or whatever. But it's like get these people out like, if they're not good people, why do they hold positions of power over the community?
Speaker 1that's a good point. Um, you know what they say about power. You know absolute power corrupts and power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely, yes, some of these small to medium-sized towns. I mean, if you are a police officer or if you are a person in power, that sometimes can be abused yeah, I just yeah, it's just, it's an awful, awful situation. I'm I'm very happy that her family like think about this for a minute. Here she is, she, their child's been taken away from them.
Speaker 2She was 20 something years old at the time, but still a child, right I mean, she was definitely a child when she was groomed Right, and so it's like, yeah, she was their child and a young and impressionable adult that got groomed through like some very like impressionable and formidable years of her life.
Speaker 1Right, and you have to wonder and you probably know the answer to this if they did this to one young girl.
Speaker 2Oh, of course, Of course there are more.
Speaker 1There are probably other young girls out there.
Speaker 2If they did this to one young girl, oh of course.
Speaker 1Of course there are more. There are probably other young girls out there, it wasn't just her. So at least the family stuck with it. They got their own independent pathologist to look at the situation and it did bring federal charges. And I think that's important too, because because they're federal charges, the death penalty is on the table for this person Now. Massachusetts state law I don't think allows the death penalty is on the table for this person Now. Massachusetts state law I don't think allows for the death penalty. But federal law does. And the fact that they um that he silenced a witness files a lot of federal statutes. So if this guy isn't found guilty and once again, everyone is presumed innocent until proven guilty in the court of law, but if that's the case, but it seems like yeah, it's definitely seems like he did this.
Speaker 1The feds don't file something.
Speaker 2No, they don't.
Speaker 1Serpticiously, I mean, they don't run into something that they don't think they can win.
Speaker 2Right.
Speaker 1So anyway, so we will keep our eye on this case. But just a terrible, terrible, and it happens so often. I mean, I think even not so long ago, there was a case in virginia about a local police office, uh department, running some sort of a, some sort of a trafficking ring.
Speaker 2It's well, yeah, it's just um, it's just a terrible, terrible situation yeah, and I just I don't know it's like so complicated because it's like there's so many different things that like this goes back to, but like, first and foremost being like the, the lack of respect for females, and like I don't really like the word female because you know, it's just not, I don't know it like has some distance with it compared to women and girls, but they just people do not respect them, people do not respect their witnesses to their own um lives.
Speaker 2You know, like they, they, if they come forward and they report this, it's like, but did you really? But, but, but, but, but, and it's all these questions, and it's like we're not even allowed to witness our own lives. Right, it's crazy and it's like, yeah, it feels, it feels very hopeless. You know to to watch, like so many girls and children also, you know, like boys, when they're children too, sure, um are more vulnerable. Then it does happen to men though too, but it definitely happens to women and girls and children in general more often, right, but yeah, it's, it's, it's so disgusting and like when they're in these positions of power, it's just I think it's really scary for people to come forward, and so it's just unfortunate.
Speaker 1So not only that, but apparently allegedly something I read I think it was in maybe the boston globe, and it said that he had even tried to perpetuate her youthful appearance and the way she kind of behaved as a more like a little girl, and uh, that's sick on a whole.
Speaker 2Nother level I mean yeah, he's a pedophile, for sure it's, it's absolutely it just makes you think like it's crazy, because it's like this pedophile wants to become a cop so he can get away with it, and what? Yeah?
Speaker 1I mean, I mean not not listen. I have the utmost respect for good police officers and I think there are many, many more good police officers bad. You know people can agree with me or disagree with me, but I I honestly believe that, you know. You know, I honestly believe that, but too many times. I mean not only in this case, but if you remember a few cases back about the, the golden state killer oh yeah, he was a cop he was a cop cop and he, kind of you know, hid his crimes for a very, very long time.
Speaker 2It was like 60 years or something crazy. Or no. Maybe he was 60. So maybe it was like 40 years that he got away with that.
Speaker 1Right, and this guy was using his position as a cop probably to intimidate this girl, saying something like no one's going to believe you, yep, right, definitely. And he hid this and he allegedly staged her murder or suicide to make it look like that.
Speaker 2The audacity.
Speaker 1The audacity.
Speaker 2Yeah, there's a there's. You know there's a lot that goes into our current culture with police officers right now, and I don't want to get too deep into it because I know that we do disagree on that, and that's OK, that's right. And I don't want to get too deep into it because I know that we do disagree on that, and that's OK. But I do think that that line of work like law enforcement, it does draw some horrible, horrible, like power hungry and, you know, like this authoritarian type of personality sometimes, and it's just it's like the worst type of person to be in that power and it's like why? Why it's? It's crazy, and I do think that the really bad cops, they are the ones that everyone sees and they make it so much worse for the good ones exactly.
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Speaker 1No, I totally agree with that. So we will be keeping our eye on this case, and I hope everyone else does too.
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