The Murder of Sandra Birchmore
A Sordid Tale of Grooming, Sexual Exploitation, Staged Suicide, and a Botched Investigation
What does a murder look like when the accused has a badge, a decade of access to his alleged victim, and intimate knowledge of how death scenes are processed?
On February 4, 2021, in Sandra Birchmore’s Canton apartment, investigators saw suicide, spending just a few hours at the scene before closing their notebooks. The duffle bag strap around her neck, attached to a closet doorknob. The body positioned in what they’d call a “seated partial hanging.” Case closed.
They didn’t document the broken pink flamingo necklace tangled with a clump of her hair. They didn’t question abrasions on her nose or the buckle-shaped imprint on her chest. They didn’t wonder why a woman three months pregnant-who’d been texting about baby supplies and planning her gender reveal-would suddenly end her life.
Most tellingly, they didn’t investigate why Stoughton police officer Matthew Farwell, captured on surveillance entering her building at 9:14 PM on February 1st, was the last person to see her alive.
In August 2024, federal prosecutors would indict Farwell for murder, alleging he strangled Birchmore and staged the scene. He has pleaded not guilty and awaits trial. But the questions his case raises extend far beyond one apartment in Canton-to 115 verified cases I’ve documented where murders were initially ruled suicides, and to the systemic failures that allow those who pledge to protect to become predators instead.
Sandra Birchmore was 23 years old when she died, working as an instructional assistant with dreams of motherhood finally coming true. She was taking courses to become a nurse. But to understand how she ended up dead in her Canton apartment, we need to go back to when she was just 13 years old, a girl who idolized police officers and dreamed of becoming one herself.
Sandra had never known her biological father. Her mother and grandmother raised her, providing what stability they could. Then, in May 2016, everything changed. Her mother, Denise, died at age 52 after a long illness. Less than a month later, Sandra’s grandmother died too. Sandra was just 18 years old.
While no age is the “best” time to lose a parent, research indicates that losing a parent during adolescence or young adulthood can be particularly devastating. At this developmental stage, young people are still forming their identities and often lack the emotional resources to process such profound loss. The grief feels “off-time,” arriving before it should. For Sandra, losing both maternal figures within weeks left her utterly alone at one of the most vulnerable points in human development.
“She had a lot of dreams and a lot of goals,” her cousin Barbara Wright would later say. “She was just trying to make her way in this world, just like the rest of us.”
But Sandra’s dream had always been law enforcement. She’d joined the Stoughton Police Explorer program in 2010 at age 13, when her mother was still alive to write thank-you letters to the officers who ran it. The program, operating under the Boy Scouts of America’s Learning for Life, promised to teach leadership and provide positive role models for teens interested in police careers.
For a girl who idolized police officers, it must have seemed like a dream come true.
This is exactly what predators count on. A perpetrator’s primary goal is to separate young people from their safe and protective networks. They identify vulnerable targets-children lacking stable family structures, seeking belonging, craving adult approval. They position themselves as the safe adult who meets those needs, creating dependence that the child mistakes for care.
By the time Sandra’s mother died in 2016, the grooming was complete. According to federal prosecutors, Matthew Farwell had been sexually abusing Sandra since she was 15; he was 27. Text messages recovered after her death would show them discussing how he had taken her virginity-statutory rape under Massachusetts law.
The alleged officers involved-Matthew Farwell, his twin brother William, and veteran officer Robert Devine-had transformed from the heroes Sandra idolized into the predators who controlled her. According to the Marshall project, teaching colleagues described Sandra as an ambitious but immature teen who “came across like a child without parents that needed help.”
She was exactly what she appeared to be: a young woman who’d been systematically groomed from childhood, lost her only family supports as a teenager, and remained psychologically bound to the very people who’d exploited her vulnerability.
By early 2021, despite everything, Sandra was building a life. She worked with children as an instructional assistant. She maintained friendships. And she was three months pregnant, ecstatic about finally creating the family she’d lost. She believed Matthew Farwell was the father.
Friends described her ordering baby supplies, scheduling prenatal appointments, planning a gender reveal party. “She was sharing her joy about the pregnancy with everyone she met,” one friend would later tell investigators.
This was not a woman contemplating ending her life. This was a woman who’d survived profound loss and exploitation to reach a moment of hope, preparing to become the loving parent she’d lost too soon.
The Timeline of Exploitation The Grooming Years (2010–2013)
In 2010, 13-year-old Sandra Birchmore walked into a meeting of the Stoughton Police Explorer Post 9110. The department had weathered years of scandals-whistleblower retaliation, lies to the FBI, witness intimidation-but Sandra didn’t know that. She saw heroes in uniform.
Deputy Chief Robert Devine ran the program. Supervisors would later describe how he’d transformed it from a mentoring initiative into a “paramilitary-style youth program.” He brought in former Explorers as guest instructors: brothers Matthew and William Farwell, both in their mid-20s. Devine was in his late 30s.
The program gave these men extraordinary access to Sandra and other teenagers. While the Boy Scouts required “two-deep leadership,” two adults present at all times, they’d carved out an exception for police ride-alongs. Explorers could ride alone with officers for hours.
By April 2013, according to texts federal prosecutors would release, 15-year-old Sandra and Matthew Farwell were having sex. Under Massachusetts law, this was statutory rape-anyone who has sex with someone under 16 commits a felony. But no one intervened. No one reported it. No one protected her.
The Exploitation Continues (2013–2020)
After Sandra aged out of the Explorer program, the relationships didn’t end-they evolved. What had begun as criminal abuse of a minor transformed into what the officers could frame as “consensual” adult relationships, though the power dynamics and psychological control remained.
Internal police investigations would later reveal that all three men-Matthew Farwell, William Farwell, and Robert Devine-had separate sexual relationships with Sandra. While on duty, they would arrange meetings. Facebook messages showed Devine discussing meeting Sandra for sex while he was supposed to be protecting and serving the community.
In February 2019, a particularly revealing text exchange between Sandra and Matthew Farwell showed the depth of his psychological control. They discussed their sexual history, including the moment he had taken her virginity years earlier. Sandra expressed that she was “happy” it had been him-the voice of a young woman who’d been groomed to see her abuser as her protector.
But Farwell was getting paranoid. Throughout 2019, he repeatedly urged Sandra to delete their text messages and Facebook exchanges. “Delete everything,” he would tell her. He knew what those messages represented: evidence of a crime that began when Sandra was a child.
In 2016, between the time Sandra’s mother and grandmother died, Devine was demoted from deputy chief to patrolman after photos of an extramarital affair caused a scandal. One superior later described him as “exploitative, misogynistic and risk seeking.” Yet he remained on the force, still with access to Sandra.
The Stoughton Police Department would later be unable to locate any records showing that Devine or the Farwell brothers had completed required Youth Protection Training. There were no evaluations from Learning for Life, no oversight, no accountability. The very system designed to protect teenagers like Sandra had failed at every level.
The Final Months (Late 2020-February 2021)
For years, Matthew Farwell had maintained absolute control over Sandra Birchmore through a disturbing pattern of sexual manipulation and psychological dominance. Text messages recovered after her death revealed the depth of his depravity. He forced her to engage in role-play scenarios where she would pretend to be 13 years old while he raped her-reenacting the crime he’d actually committed years earlier. He demanded she call him “big brother” during sex, fulfilling his incest fantasies. When she turned off her location tracker or made poor grades in school, he would “punish” her with violent sex.
Digital evidence showed Farwell had sent her memes about choking and necrophilia. He controlled when and how they met, often summoning her for sex while he was on duty, in uniform, supposedly protecting the community. His wife, pregnant with their third child, had no idea Sandra existed. Farwell had perfected the art of compartmentalization-respected officer and family man by day, sexual predator exploiting his victim whenever he chose.
But in late 2020, the dynamics had begun to shift. Sandra had moved into her own apartment in Canton. She’d enrolled in nursing classes. For the first time since she was 13, she was building an independent life. When she found out Farwell’s wife was pregnant with their third child, (not from Farwell) Sandra felt ambushed. She was hurt and angry. Emotionally, Matthew had been her whole life; here was confirmation once again that she was just a small part of his. And, perhaps for the first time in their relationship, she didn’t take the news lying down.
She told Matthew that she, too, wanted a baby. With him. She wanted the two of them to be parents together. When Farweel he made it abundantly clear that he didn’t want a child with her, she pushed back. She threatened to tell his wife that the two of them had been having sex since before Farwell married.
I’ve read much criticism of Sandra’s use of “blackmail” to have a baby. The heartbreaking irony is that her version of “breaking free” was actually tightening the chains, making them visible, permanent, biological. Sandra thought a baby would equalize the power dynamic, not understanding that you can’t build equality on a foundation of exploitation. She was using his own manipulation tactics against him, but like a knife that’s been turned around, she was still holding the blade.
While I agree that no one should be pressured into having a child, I also think this criticism misses the tragic heart of Sandra’s actions. They see blackmail where there was actually a desperate attempt at alchemy-trying to transform a decade of exploitation into something resembling love. The glitter on her “Congratulations, we’re going to be parents!” poster wasn’t manipulation; it was magical thinking. She wasn’t trying to destroy him; she was trying to manifest a different reality through sheer force of hope.
Sandra approached their pregnancy like a child playing house, complete with glitter and baby name discussions, because she’d been frozen at fifteen when the grooming began. She hadn’t learned adult relationship dynamics; she’d learned that love meant secrets, control meant care, and being chosen for abuse meant being special. The pregnancy wasn’t her weapon; it was her wish upon a star.
When she asked him to be on the birth certificate, she wasn’t threatening; she was pleading for legitimacy. When she insisted they talk about baby names, she wasn’t manipulating; she was desperately trying to normalize what could never be normal. Every gesture that looked like blackmail was actually an invitation: “Look, if we just act like a real couple, maybe we can become one.”
The critics who call it blackmail fail to understand trauma bonding. After eight years of grooming, her entire concept of love was shaped by him. She didn’t want to hurt him or blow up his life; she wanted to be worthy of him finally choosing her openly. She wanted someone to love openly and fully, not in secret and around someone’s schedule. The pregnancy was her trying to force a fairy tale ending onto a horror story, not recognizing that no amount of glitter could transform a predator into a prince.
She was like someone who’s been kept in darkness so long they mistake a candle for the sun. Her version of equality wasn’t freedom. It was being allowed to suffer in the daylight instead of the shadows.
But while Sandra saw herself trying to interact as an equal partner, Farwell saw an existential threat. His victim was no longer following the script. She threatened to tell his wife about their relationship. She was making demands instead of following orders. His carefully maintained double life was one conversation away from collapse.
The Trigger
On January 20, 2021, one of Sandra’s friends called the Stoughton Police Department about Sandra’s relationship with Farwell. Within hours, another employee notified Farwell about the call. Sandra had just become a threat that could blow up Mathew’s life.
In late January, Sandra told friends that Farwell had suddenly become “nicer” to her. He visited her apartment. he brought her ginger ale. “He’s coming around,” she told a friend, interpreting his behavior as acceptance of their future together. She couldn’t see what prosecutors would later argue: this “kindness” was a predator’s tactic to lower her guard.
According to the federal affidavit, Farwell then began taking concrete steps to kill Sandra. He asked Sandra for a spare key to her apartment, but only “if [she’d] keep it secret.” He obtained her building’s entry code. On January 24, Walmart records show he purchased a key copy. Witnesses reported he inspected her apartment, paying particular attention to the closet and bathroom.
On the night of February 1, 2021, Sandra texted someone that her apartment door was open. At 9:14 PM, surveillance cameras captured Matthew Farwell entering her building, his face covered by a mask-unusual for a man who typically refused to wear them. Twenty-six minutes later, at 9:40 PM, Sandra’s Apple Health app recorded her last movement. Three minutes after that, at 9:43 PM, Farwell exited the building.
He would later tell investigators he’d gone there to end their relationship, that they’d had a “pretty nasty argument.” But prosecutors allege something far different happened in those 29 minutes; that Matthew Farwell murdered the pregnant 23-year-old woman who threatened his carefully constructed life, then staged the scene to look like suicide.
The Evidence That Screamed Murder The Scene Analysis
When police entered Sandra Birchmore’s Canton apartment on February 4, 2021, they saw what they expected to see: a suicide. The 23-year-old’s body was on her bedroom floor, a duffle bag strap around her neck attached to a closet doorknob in what investigators termed a “seated partial hanging.” Within hours, they’d made their determination and closed their notebooks.
But the scene told a different story to those who looked closer.
The medical examiner found a fractured hyoid bone in Sandra’s neck, an injury that can occur in both hanging and strangulation, but whose presence demands careful investigation. There were nasal abrasions consistent with suffocation. A broken necklace lay tangled with a clump of Sandra’s hair, evidence of violent resistance, not the peaceful surrender of someone taking their own life. Most tellingly, her chest bore an imprint that matched a buckle forced downward, suggesting pressure applied during a struggle.These details, overlooked or dismissed in the initial investigation, would later become central to the federal murder case.
Dr. William Smock, a forensic expert who reviewed the case for federal prosecutors, would ultimately conclude that Sandra died from manual strangulation-that someone had killed her and then positioned her body to mimic suicide. The staging was careful but imperfect, betraying itself in the very details meant to deceive.
Digital Forensics
While the physical evidence spoke of violence, the digital trail revealed premeditation and motive. Surveillance footage from Sandra’s apartment building captured Matthew Farwell entering at 9:14 PM on February 1st, his face obscured by a mask. This detail stood out to investigators; witnesses repeatedly said Farwell hated wearing a mask during the pandemic and refused one whenever possible. Why wear one now unless he was trying to conceal his identity?
Sandra’s iPhone provided a precise timeline of her final moments. Her Apple Health app recorded movement until 9:40 PM-26 minutes after Farwell entered the building. Then nothing. No movement. No activity. At 9:43 PM, surveillance cameras captured Farwell leaving the building.
The digital evidence extended far beyond that night. Investigators recovered more than 30,000 messages between Sandra and Farwell spanning from December 2019 until her death. These messages revealed not just their sexual relationship, but Farwell’s years-long campaign to control evidence. His paranoia about maintaining their secret created an ironic paper trail of consciousness of guilt.
After Sandra’s death, Farwell’s digital behavior became even more revealing. He turned his personal phone over to State Police as required, but investigators found he’d used his work phone to search for information about defeating iPhone data recovery tools like Cellebrite. He researched about whether he could revoke consent for the search. These weren’t the actions of a grieving friend. They were the actions of someone trying to cover his tracks.
Psychological Autopsies and the Red Flags of a Predator
Perhaps the most damning evidence against the suicide ruling came not from the scene or the phones, but from Sandra herself-or rather, from the life she was living in her final days.
In my work researching 115 cases of murder staged as suicide, I’ve found some surprisingly consistent patterns. One; people who die by suicide rarely interrupt routine activities to carry out their final act. They don’t leave one load of laundry in the washer and one in the dryer. Yet investigators initially ruled Sandra’s death a suicide without considering what she’d been doing in her final moments.
The case reminded me of Ellen Greenberg, the Philadelphia teacher whose 2011 death was initially ruled suicide despite being found with 20 stab wounds and a knife in her chest-in the middle of making a fruit salad. Like Sandra, Ellen had been engaged in mundane daily activities when she allegedly decided to end her life in a violent, unusual manner.
Two; they aren’t ordering baby supplies off of Amazon or, at less than three months pregnant, scheduling a newborn baby shoot. She had pre-natal appointments scheduled. She was planning a gender reveal party. She’d been telling everyone about her pregnancy with joy and excitement. Sandra was in the middle of creating a life, not ending one.
This points to a critical concept in forensic psychology: suicide risk is a d ynamic assessment, not a static state. The most important factors are recent behaviors and current circumstances. Yes, Sandra had experienced trauma. Yes, she’d lost her mother and grandmother as a teenager. But in January 2021, Sandra was future-oriented and making plans.
Dynamic risk factors are the cornerstone of modern suicide prevention. These factors can fluctuate wildly in both duration and intensity, often in response to immediate life events or clinical interventions. They represent the acute, changeable conditions that can elevate a person’s risk from a baseline propensity to an immediate crisis state.
Key examples of dynamic risk factors include:
- Recent Suicidal Ideation, Communication, and Intent
- Hopelessness: A pervasive sense of pessimism about the future
- Active Psychological Symptoms: Acute symptoms of mental illness
- Substance Use: Increased or current use of alcohol or drugs
- Psychosocial Stress: Recent, acute stressors
- Treatment Adherence: A lack of engagement with mental health treatment
Sandra had none of these. Friends unanimously told investigators variations of the same theme: “She would never.” This chorus of disbelief from those who knew Sandra best should have been a red flag. In genuine suicides, loved ones can often identify warning signs in retrospect. But Sandra’s friends saw only her excitement about becoming a mother.
On the other hand, Matthew had many risk factors for interpersonal homicide:
He had a history of coercieve control dating back to the early days of their relationship. He had a tracker on her phone. He used violent sex to punish her for “infractions” such as making bad grades, turning the tracker off of her phone, or dating other men. He intitiated choking during sex as well as rape erotica. He sent her memes about strangulation and necrophilia. This fascination with death and violence during sex revealed someone who eroticized having complete, even lethal, control over his victim.
The violence escalated in the months before Sandra died. According to witness statements in the federal affidavit, he had put her in a headlock and shoved her during arguments about the pregnancy. This documented history of strangulation-type violence is particularly significant; research shows non-fatal strangulation in domestic relationships increases the risk of homicide by 750%.
A triggering event occurred on January 20, 2021, when Sandra’s friend called the Stoughton Police Department about the relationship. This was Farwell’s worst nightmare: external scrutiny of his secret life. The timing-just 12 days before Sandra’s murder-cannot be ignored.
These psychological inconsistencies painted a picture completely at odds with suicide. They suggested instead that Sandra’s death came as a sudden, violent interruption to a life she was actively living.
But it would take three years and federal intervention before anyone officially acknowledged what the evidence had been screaming from the beginning: Sandra Birchmore did not kill herself.
The Cover-Up and Institutional Failure
The initial response to Sandra Birchmore’s death revealed a system designed to protect itself rather than seek truth. Within hours of discovering her body on February 4, 2021, investigators had determined Sandra’s death was a suicide. They spent minimal time at the scene.
They didn’t document the broken necklace tangled in her hair. They didn’t question the facial abrasions or the buckle-shaped chest imprint. They didn’t investigate why the last person to see her alive was a fellow officer with whom she’d had a decade-long relationship that began when she was a child.
They simply closed their notebooks and moved on.
This was institutional failure at every level. The Stoughton Police Department was investigating the suspicious death of a woman who’d been groomed and sexually abused by multiple officers from their department. The conflict of interest was breathtaking, yet they proceeded as if they could objectively investigate themselves.
The Family’s Fight for Truth
It was Sandra’s family who refused to accept the neat narrative of suicide. As they cleaned her apartment-a task that fell to them because investigators had already released the scene-they discovered what trained detectives had missed or ignored. They found evidence of her pregnancy. They saw the baby supplies, the plans for the future, the signs of a life being built rather than abandoned.
Barbara Wright, Sandra’s cousin, would later say she learned many details about Sandra’s relationships with the officers only through news reports after her death. The family had been kept in the dark about the exploitation Sandra had endured, and now they were being told to accept that she’d simply decided to end her life.
The family pushed for answers. They demanded a real investigation. Their advocacy would prove crucial in preventing Sandra’s case from disappearing into a filing cabinet marked “suicide.”
The Slow Wheels of Justice
The day after Sandra’s body was found, Stoughton Police Chief Donna McNamara-the department’s first female chief-ordered an internal investigation. But this investigation would focus on administrative violations, not murder. It would take over a year for the department to release its findings.
In September 2022, at a news conference, Chief McNamara announced the results. The investigation had sustained findings of “conduct unbecoming,” “untruthfulness,” and policy violations against Matthew Farwell, William Farwell, and Robert Devine. All three had engaged in “inappropriate relationships” with Sandra.
“All three men violated their oath of office and should never have the privilege of serving any community as a police officer,” McNamara declared. “Through a sustained and deliberate combination of lies, deceit and treachery, they violated the policies and the core values of the Stoughton Police Department. Not to mention human decency.”
Strong words, but they came too late for Sandra. And notably absent from the chief’s statement was any mention of murder.
The internal investigation revealed damning facts that should have triggered a homicide investigation from day one. Yet even with these revelations, the death remained classified as suicide. The three officers resigned or were fired. Matthew Farwell surrendered his law enforcement certification. William Farwell and Devine fought to keep theirs. The system protected itself by cutting loose three bad actors while avoiding the deeper questions about Sandra’s death.
Federal Intervention
It would take federal authorities to do what local investigators wouldn’t or couldn’t. The Norfolk County District Attorney’s Office had begun investigating after Sandra’s death but handed it over to the Massachusetts Attorney General’s Office in fall 2022. Progress remained glacial.
Meanwhile, an independent forensic pathologist hired by Sandra’s family reached a different conclusion: homicide by strangulation. Online communities of true-crime enthusiasts and advocates for justice began spotting the inconsistencies that professional investigators had missed. A Facebook group called “Justice for Sandra Birchmore” grew to thousands of members. Podcasts, YouTube videos, and Reddit threads dissected the case.
The pressure mounted. The questions multiplied. How could a woman excited about pregnancy, making future plans, suddenly decide to end her life? Why was the last person to see her alive, a police officer who’d been sexually involved with her since she was 15, never treated as a suspect? Why did the initial investigation ignore clear signs of violence?
Finally, in August 2024, three and a half years after Sandra’s death, federal prosecutors acted. A grand jury indicted Matthew Farwell on charges of killing a witness or victim under 18 U.S.C. §1512, alleging he murdered Sandra to prevent her from exposing his federal crimes, including the sexual exploitation that began when she was a minor.
Chief McNamara claimed there was “no evidence that other police officers were involved with Sandra or knew about the actions of the three other officers.” But in a department where three officers could openly exploit one vulnerable young woman for a decade, where rumors circulated but no one intervened, where a friend’s warning call immediately got back to the alleged perpetrator-the entire system was complicit.
Sandra Birchmore needed protection from the very people sworn to protect and serve. Instead, the institution that failed to protect her in life also failed to seek justice for her in death. It would take her family’s persistence, public pressure, and federal prosecutors to finally acknowledge what had been clear from the beginning: Sandra Birchmore did not kill herself.
The Broader Pattern: Murders Staged as Suicides
In my years as a forensic psychologist and private investigator, I’ve studied 115 verified cases where murders were initially misclassified as suicides. These aren’t anomalies-they represent a pattern of investigative failures that allow killers to walk free while families are left believing their loved ones chose to die.
This pattern has finally gained legislative recognition through California’s groundbreaking Senate Bill 989, known as “ Joanna’s Law,” signed by Governor Gavin Newsom in September 2024. Named for Joanna Hunter, whose 2011 death was quickly ruled suicide despite clear evidence of domestic violence, this law represents “the first statute in the country to set standards for addressing and investigating suspicious death cases where the victim dies after a prior history of domestic violence.”
The 10 Red Flags
The law codifies ten research-based red flag factors that, when present, suggest a staged suicide scene:
- The decedent died prematurely or in an untimely manner.
- The scene of the death gives the appearance of death due to suicide or accident.
- The decedent had an identifiable history of domestic violence.
- There was a recent separation or breakup, or the decedent had indicated intent to leave.
- The decedent had made plans for the future.
- The decedent expressed fear of the partner.
- There is a history of being victimized by domestic violence that includes strangulation or suffocation.
- The current or previous partner of the decedent, or child of the decedent or the decedent’s current or previous partner, is the last to see the decedent alive.
- The partner had control of the scene before law enforcement arrived.
- The body of the decedent has been moved or the scene or other evidence is altered in some way.
All ten suspicious death factors existed in Joanna Hunter’s case, but the case was never investigated as a homicide by the Solano County Sheriff’s Department.
Sandra Birchmore’s case hits nearly every red flag on this list. She died prematurely at 23. The scene was staged to look like suicide. She had a history of sexual abuse and violence from Farwell, including recent strangulation. She’d made extensive plans for her baby’s future. Farwell was the last to see her alive and had opportunity to control the scene before discovery.
The Impact of Joanna’s Law
SB 989 requires that our statewide law enforcement training institute (Cal POST) begin reasonable efforts to train officers, both in service and at the academy level. The law mandates that first responders:
- Try to determine whether the decedent had an identifiable history of domestic violence
- Interview family members regarding whether the decedent had been victimized by domestic violence
- Consider all 10 red flags before determining manner of death
Patricia Hunter, Joanna’s mother, who fought for years to have her daughter’s death properly investigated, put it simply: “I would like the officers to know that it is their obligation, their moral and legal duty, to check for a history of domestic violence when arriving upon the scene of a person who dies a sudden, untimely death. If there is a history of domestic violence, they must proceed as if it is a possible homicide.”
What This Means for Cases Like Sandra’s
The passage of Joanna’s Law validates what families like Sandra’s have known all along-that initial investigations too often fail when domestic violence is involved. Casey Gwinn and Gael Strack, co-founders of the Alliance for Hope International, note that “In the police academy, we don’t train our dispatchers, we don’t train our patrol officers or paramedics to look for the signs of a staged crime scene.”
This lack of training explains how Sandra’s death could be ruled suicide within hours despite clear evidence of violence.
Sandra was doing laundry when she died. This detail, overlooked by investigators, speaks volumes. People experiencing suicidal crisis don’t pause mid-chore to end their lives. They don’t stop folding clothes, preparing dinner, or-as in Ellen Greenberg’s case-making a fruit salad.
These cases underscore a critical principle: suicide risk is dynamic, not static. Sandra’s recent actions painted a picture of someone building a future, not ending one.
Moving Forward
Laws like Joanna’s Law represent the systemic change we desperately need. These laws help “ensure that investigations into suspicious deaths are handled properly” and help investigators “understand when a crime scene has been staged.”
For Sandra Birchmore, these changes came too late. But her case, like Joanna Hunter’s, can help ensure that future victims aren’t failed by the very systems meant to seek justice. Every staged suicide that succeeds represents not just a murder hidden, but a truth denied to grieving families.
The 10 red flags aren’t just investigative tools-they’re a validation of what families have long known: that their loved ones didn’t choose to die, and that the signs were there all along for those willing to see them.
As of September 2025, Matthew Farwell awaits trial on federal charges of killing a witness or victim, having pleaded not guilty. The case continues through the federal court system as Sandra’s family seeks the justice that was denied for over three years.
Originally published at https://joniejohnstonpsyd.substack.com.