The State Police were accused of bungling the Sandra Birchmore investigation. Here are takeaways from the trial.

Résumé détaillé

It took federal authorities to launch an investigation into Matthew Farwell and charge him in the death of Sandra Birchmore.

The broken necklace left on the floor of Sandra Birchmore’s apartment, found not by investigators but by family members who went to clean up the place after her death. The string of people, including Birchmore’s therapist, who called the State Police and said they couldn’t imagine her taking her own life, as the state investigators believed.

Then, there’s the significant evidence that State Police did not pass along to the medical examiner: Such as former Stoughton police detective Matthew Farwell’s sexual relationship with Birchmore, and that he’d visited her the night of her death.

State officials would never charge Farwell, and it took federal authorities to launch their own investigation and charge him in the February 2021 killing of Birchmore, a 23-year-old pregnant woman he met years earlier through a Stoughton police youth explorers program.

Now, following Farwell’s conviction Tuesday on charges that he killed Birchmore and her fetus to cover up other crimes, including that he began sexually exploiting her when she was 15 years old, state authorities have faced renewed criticism and questions over how they bungled the case. '

State Police have refused to comment on characterizations of its investigation into Birchmore’s death.

Here are examples from Farwell’s trial of evidence the State Police never saw, ignored, or otherwise failed to report.

One repeated topic was the pendant she wore around her neck. Photos of Birchmore’s body hanging from a strap attached to her closet doorknob, as she was found in her Canton apartment, show it on her attached to a necklace, but somewhere along the way, according to testimony, it fell off before her body was taken to the medical examiner’s office.

That was significant evidence, the medical expert who testified for the prosecution said, as the broken necklace indicated a struggle, and that she didn’t hang herself.

According to testimony, a family member found the necklace and gave it to authorities.

Début de l'article, extrait de The Boston Globe. Pour lire la suite, ouvrez l'article chez le média.