Just minutes before Matthew Farwell was caught on camera leaving Sandra Birchmore's apartment back in 2021, her phone recorded its "last movement," a detail that, along with evidence suggesting her death was staged as a suicide, may prove pivotal in linking Farwell to her alleged murder, according to court documents.
The Department of Justice released an affidavit where Special Agent Chenee Castruita, who has been with the FBI since June 2022, provided a statement in support of the government's motion to detain former Stoughton police officer Matthew Farwell prior to his trial, who was arrested Wednesday by FBI Boston's SWAT team for the alleged murder of Sandra Birchmore.
"I have reviewed the data on Birchmore's phone," Agent Castruita revealed in the affidavit.
"Health data on Birchmore's phone indicates that the last movement recorded by the phone on February 1, 2021, occurred at 9:40 p.m., just three minutes before Farwell was captured on surveillance video leaving her apartment," Special Agent Chenee Castruita stated in the affidavit.
"The data shows that the mechanism Apple uses to record movement registered eight steps at approximately 9:40 p.m.," she added.
"These recorded steps occurred while Farwell was still in Birchmore's apartment. The phone recorded no additional steps between 9:40 p.m. and the time it was recovered by first responders on February 4, 2021," the affidavit states.
"As noted, first responders found the phone next to Birchmore's body. Based on my review of the frequency of Birchmore's phone use in the weeks, months, and years leading up to her death, her failure to access her phone is inconsistent with her usual habits when alive and awake," Special Agent Chenee Castruita explained in the affidavit.
Matthew Farwell, a 38-year-old former police officer, is also alleged to have had a sexual relationship with Birchmore for several years, including when she was under 16, as stated in court documents.
He is currently in custody.
Birchmore, who was three months pregnant at the time, was found dead in 2021. Although her death was initially ruled a suicide, a pathologist hired by her family determined it was actually a homicide, according to the Boston Globe.
The indictment accuses Farwell of killing a witness or victim. It claims that he strangled her on or around February 1, 2021, and "staged" her apartment in Canton "to make it appear as if Birchmore had committed suicide," the Globe also revealed.
Farwell is charged with killing Birchmore "with malice aforethought, willfully, deliberately, maliciously, and with premeditation" to stop her from sharing information about potential federal crimes with law enforcement. According to the indictment, the crimes Farwell might have been implicated in include deprivation of Birchmore's rights, coercion and enticement, and wire fraud. This charge could lead to the death penalty.
