Farwell's DNA Sat in Evidence for Years Because Investigators Did THIS

SPEAKER_1 (0:01)

This is Hidden Killers Live with Tony Brueski and Robin Drake.

Tony Brueski (0:08)

Well, if you're not angry yet this morning, you're gonna be. If you have any sense of decency and morality, and you hear about what was going on in the Stoughton Police Department, holy shit.

The murder trial for Matthew Farwell is underway for that of his alleged victim, Sandra Birchmore. The federal case against Matthew Farwell exists because the FBI reopened an investigation that local and state agencies had already shut the door on. Sandra Birchmore was found dead on February 1st, 2021 And within months, a medical examiner ruled it an ass, unaliving of herself. Well, DNA sat untested, interviews went on recorded, and witnesses who reported threats were never followed up on. Today, we're going to get into where all of this untelevised trial is at. We're doing a couple of segments. We're going to talk about the failures of the investigation in our first segment. Then we're going to talk about the cover up in our second segment.

They're very closely aligned, but there's a difference in what was going on in the initial piece of this thing to, oh shit, there's a lot of people that could be implicated here. Then how the hell do you defend Farwell? We're going to talk about all that. Bob Motta, Defense Diaries. He is here with us as well as Robin Drake, retired FBI Special Agent, Chief of the Counterintelligence Behavioral Analysis Program, and master class instructor to help us break this shit show down. Bob, I know you guys have been covering it. It's extremely detailed over on Defense Diaries. Thank God because there's obviously no cameras and no audio. So having folks like you that are able to put the pieces together in the best order we can after the box has been shooken up and dumped out, it makes it so much easier to absorb this. And it's an important case. It's an important case because there is it really points to the level of corruption that was existing in this department. In my opinion, leading up to all this, through all of this and how it not only went unchecked, it went ignored, it was just kind of a way of life, it seemed. What's been your, and we'll get into all the details, but just you as a human being, what's been your reaction as now that this thing has made it to trial and we're hearing the nitty gritty details of the things that happened to Sandra Birchmore and the lack of care that seemed to exist within that Stoughton Police Department?

Bob Motta (2:52)

Yeah, it's a tragic case. I mean, the thing that strikes me the most is I look at this young woman who was pregnant and living on her own and had been groomed by this asshole. She was a child going to this explorers program within the police department in order to maybe carve herself out a career and she gets preyed upon. And this thing lasts for a decade and this guy's married with two kids. Everything about it makes me physically ill.

And Tony, you know I am a die in the world defense attorney. This is one case where I would prosecute the fuck out of this guy.

Robin Drake (3:40)

Yeah. Absolutely.

Tony Brueski (3:43)

Oh my God. I mean, when we look at this case, I'm baffled. I'm baffled that I'm not because I'm more jaded now because we've been doing this for several years and you've enlightened me in so many ways on what to look out for from shady officers and things of that nature. And this thing is just filled with it.

From a defense perspective, what should have triggered a full homicide workup in that apartment before anyone even walked out? This clearly was sus from the drop.

Bob Motta (4:17)

The short answer is everything in that room.

Tony Brueski (4:19)

Yeah.

Bob Motta (4:19)

Everything in that room. You have a ligature that is a duffel bag strap, and that's kind of an odd thing to use for someone with a closet full of belts and cords. You've got the broken pendant, which she wore religiously, which would to me, if I'm a cop, would suggest force that was applied to her neck. From somewhere other than her own body's weight, you've got the fact that she's a pregnant woman. You have a decedent with a documented relationship with a cop who had been grooming her. Whether at that point they knew that he was grooming her, it wouldn't have taken too much to figure out if it wasn't already a buzz around that department, which I find hard to believe that it wouldn't be, that he was in a relationship with this girl and had been for an awfully long time.