Microscope on Norfolk County as feds investigate deaths of Sandra Birchmore, John O'Keefe
STOUGHTON – The arrest of a former Stoughton police officer on allegations he killed a pregnant woman has again tightened the microscope on Norfolk County.
On Wednesday, Acting U.S. Attorney Joshua Levy announced federal charges against Matthew Farwell. Farwell is accused of grooming Sandra Birchmore from a young age through a police program, raping her, impregnating her, then later killing her, and staging it to look like a suicide.
The case, from a legal perspective, is a surprising federal one, experts say. "It's really unusual for the federal government to swoop in and take over what otherwise would be a [state] murder investigation," said WBZ Legal Analyst Jennifer Roman.
When WBZ's Kristina Rex asked Joshua Levy why his office got involved, he answered, "When someone comes to our office with credible information that a police officer may have been involved in a murder…we're going to investigate that case every time."
Death of Officer John O'Keefe in Canton
Levy's office has already been investigating a different case in Norfolk County: the death of police officer John O'Keefe in Canton in 2022. The trial of a woman accused of killing O'Keefe, his then-girlfriend Karen Read, recently ended in a mistrial due to a hung jury.
The federal investigation into O'Keefe's death was revealed through court filings by Read's attorneys, and expert witnesses brought in during her testimony. They testified about accident reconstruction for a "third party," but jurors were not allowed to know that the third party was federal investigators. In addition, several lay witnesses in the Read trial testified about having been part of a federal grand jury in Spring 2023.
Levy has never answered questions about when, why, or how his office got involved in Read's case, and no indictments have been filed.
However, public outcry about the two cases has been prominent, with protesters and residents connecting the two.
Both Sandra Birchmore's death and John O'Keefe's death were investigated initially by some of the same Canton police officers and state troopers, as well as the Norfolk County District Attorney's office.
"An unfortunate coincidence"
Beyond that, legal analyst Jennifer Roman believes the feds' involvement with both is likely a coincidence. "I think it's an unfortunate coincidence for the Norfolk County District Attorney's office, but I think the two investigations going on by the feds on the state level coming out of Norfolk County really is a coincidence and nothing more," she said. "But it is a real problem for the Norfolk [DA's} office because their credibility, their police, the police work of the Canton police and the state troopers has been called into question with the Karen Read case" already, she said.
In Birchmore's case, the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner in Massachusetts ruled Birchmore's 2021 death a suicide. Investigators at the state level later discovered tens of thousands of text messages between Farwell and Birchmore, many of which implied an inappropriate relationship, as well as surveillance video showing him entering and exiting her apartment.
The DA's office told WBZ the investigation remains open and active, but no state charges have been filed against Farwell or the other two former Stoughton police officers accused of wrongdoing.
Chief Medical Examiner statement
In a statement to WBZ, the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner said, "The Massachusetts Office of the Chief Medical Examiner is aware of the federal indictment related to the tragic death of Sandra Birchmore. The Medical Examiner's Office has fully cooperated with the U.S. Attorney's Office on this investigation and will continue to do so. To uphold the integrity of this active federal investigation and prosecution, the OCME respectfully declines to publicly comment on this matter at this time."
