Ex-Stoughton police officer accused of murdering pregnant woman asks to be released from jail

BOSTON — Former Stoughton police officer Matthew Farwell is making a new push for bail while he awaits his murder trial.

Farwell is asking to be released on $50,000 bail. His lawyers argue that he has demonstrated he’s not a danger to the community or a flight risk.

Boston 25 Legal expert Peter Elikann said getting bailed granted on these kind of charges is tough but the defense has good arguments when it comes to being a flight risk or a danger to the community.

“Concerning risk of flight, the idea that he has such strong ties to the community, a lifelong resident with three children and a wife and mother, and ties to the community, the risk of flight might not be that great. And of course, the argument from the prosecutor’s side would be, but if he’s facing a life sentence, anybody might want to run. Under the law, that isn’t strong enough, though, that’s just the fact that the charges are so serious,” Elikann said.

The new court filing also said an unidentified person is the biological father of Sandra Birchmore’s unborn child, not Farwell or his brother, who is a named defendant in the civil lawsuit.

Elikann added, “Originally, that was one of the motives why he might have allegedly killed her, that he was the father of the unborn child, and therefore he had a motive to get rid of her. The fact that the motive is gone would certainly help his defense a bit. I mean, it doesn’t set him home free against all the charges and the evidence. But that was a strong argument by the prosecution for why he had the motive that it was his child.”

The motion outlined that Farwell would live with his mother and added conditions to his release, including confinement to the home except for legal, medical, mental health, or employment reasons; location monitoring; surrendering his passport; no contact with witnesses; and refraining from possessing a gun.

Farwell is accused of killing Birchmore by strangling her on February 1, 2021, and then staging her apartment to make it look like a suicide after she informed him he was the father of her unborn child. He was also a married father of three at the time.

Farwell has been in prison since August 2024, and is charged with her murder and causing the death of Birchmore’s unborn child.

A previous court filing requested that Farwell’s trial be moved out of Boston. In late 2025, federal prosecutors announced that they wouldn’t seek the death penalty.

Farwell has pleaded not guilty to both deaths.

The judge presiding over the case has scheduled the start of Farwell’s trial for Oct. 5, 2026.

Read the new filing:

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