Former Stoughton Police Dispatcher Testifies Matthew Farwell Flew into Rage Over Affair Tip Leading Up to Sandra Birchmore’s Murder

BOSTON — A former Massachusetts police dispatcher testified in federal court that he was ordered to "never talk about this again" after relaying a phone call from an individual claiming that married Stoughton police officer Matthew Farwell was having an affair with a young woman named Sandra Birchmore.

Stoughton police dispatcher James Fitton took the stand at the John Joseph Moakley United States Courthouse in Boston to recount the tense series of events that prosecutors argue served as the ultimate catalyst for murder. According to Fitton’s testimony, he tracked down Farwell on January 20, 2021, to inform him about a troubling tip received at the department from a woman alleging that Farwell was intimately involved with the 23-year-old Birchmore.

Instead of receiving a professional response or an inquiry into the nature of the report, Fitton told jurors that Farwell became instantly irate and launched into a tirade filled with cursing.

"He got visibly and audibly upset with me," Fitton testified. "His facial expression changed to anger and he told me — including expletives — to never talk about this again."

Fitton added that his supervisor subsequently told him to "forget about" the report entirely. Later that same evening, Farwell allegedly sent a direct text message to Fitton reinforcing his fury, writing that both the tipster and Birchmore were "fucking insane." Faced with direct hostility from a sworn officer and a dismissal from his own chain of command, Fitton ultimately relented and agreed to drop the matter, keeping the interaction quiet until federal investigators began probing the circumstances surrounding Birchmore’s death.

Farwell, 41, is currently on trial facing federal charges, including killing a victim or witness and causing the death of an unborn child. Prosecutors allege that the frantic call relayed by Fitton on January 20, 2021, panicked the married officer and pushed him to decide to eliminate Birchmore just 13 days later. The government’s theory is that Farwell sought to permanently silence Birchmore to keep her from exposing their multi-year affair, as well as the explosive reality that he had allegedly sexually abused her beginning when she was a minor.

According to federal prosecutors, Farwell carried out the killing on February 1, 2021, strangling a pregnant Birchmore inside her apartment in Canton, Massachusetts. He then allegedly staged the gruesome crime scene to make it appear as though she had taken her own life. Adding to the gravity of the timeline presented in court, prosecutors noted that the alleged murder took place just a single day before Farwell’s wife gave birth to the couple’s third child.

The intricate and deeply troubled entanglement between the former officer and the young victim dated back years. Birchmore had first crossed paths with Farwell when she was an aspiring law enforcement officer participating in the Stoughton police department’s "Explorers" youth program, which Farwell helped run. Prosecutors asserted during the trial that Farwell systematically groomed Birchmore for a year before beginning to sexually assault her when she was only 15 years old. In the state of Massachusetts, the legal age of consent is 16.

As the years progressed, the relationship transformed into a volatile secret affair. Court documents and trial testimony indicate that Birchmore eventually grew intensely jealous of Farwell’s wife and the life he maintained outside of their clandestine relationship. Prosecutors claimed that Birchmore ultimately demanded that Farwell have a child with her, threatening to expose their long-term entanglement and the statutory sexual abuse to his wife if he refused.

Faced with the threat of professional ruin and personal devastation, Farwell begrudgingly agreed, according to federal allegations. Birchmore became pregnant with a son just months before her death, in December 2020. Both Farwell and Birchmore initially believed that the officer was the biological father of the unborn child. However, post-mortem DNA testing conducted after the deaths of both Birchmore and her fetus ultimately disproved that assumption.

Despite the mounting evidence and the dark portrait painted by prosecutors regarding the power dynamic and the threats of exposure, Farwell has maintained his innocence. He has pleaded not guilty to all charges against him. Meanwhile, Farwell’s defense attorneys have vigorously contested the prosecution’s narrative, arguing instead that Birchmore tragically died by suicide. To support this defense, Farwell’s legal team has pointed to Birchmore’s alleged past struggles with mental health in an effort to convince the jury that the young woman took her own life rather than being murdered by a corrupt officer desperate to keep his secrets buried.

The trial in federal court continues as prosecutors press forward with witness testimonies, digital communications, and forensic evidence to dismantle the defense’s suicide theory and prove that the January phone call to the Stoughton police department sealed Birchmore’s fatal fate.