May 5, 2023 • 36 mins
In this bonus episode, Melissa talks with Laura Crimaldi — a reporter for The Boston Globe — who is covering a contemporary case with eerie similarities to Sandy Beal.
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Speaker 7 (02:27):
Before we begin, please note this episode includes talk of suicide.
Please take care while listening. Last year I made a
podcast about a young woman named Sandy Beal. In February
nineteen seventy seven, when she was just eighteen years old,
she was found dead in her car from a gunshot wound,
(02:48):
her life cut tragically short. I've been reporting on the
deaths of women for a while now, and something I've
come to realize is when you investigate how or why
someone died, you're really investigating how they lived. And what
I learned about Sandy, she had been living under enormous
stress and had needed to navigate through some incredibly difficult situations.
(03:11):
Sandy's family never bought the police's story that she took
her own life. Instead, they suspected her much older boyfriend,
who happened to be a Maryland State trooper and married.
As I looked into Sandy's death and life, I learned
that she had likely been involved with multiple police officers,
many of whom were connected to the Explorer Program, a
(03:32):
youth police education and training program that Sandy attended as
a teen. To me, this was a clear sign of
a deeply toxic and most likely predatory environment. Sandy died
forty five years ago, and my investigation took me deep
into the police culture of the nineteen seventies. So it
was pretty alarming when I learned of a much more
(03:53):
recent case that appeared eerily similar, so similar in fact,
that the victims even have the same first name, Sandra.
Sandra Birchmore grew up in Massachusetts and joined the Stoughton
Police Explorer program when she was thirteen years old. A
decade later, in February twenty twenty one, she died by suicide.
(04:13):
The last person to see her alive is believed to
be Matthew Farwell, a police officer who mentored her in
the Explorer program and whom she said she was in
a romantic relationship with. I talked about this case a
little in the final episode of What Happened to Sandy Beale,
But in the wake of Sandra Birchmore's death and since
the podcast was released, the Stoton Police Department has come
(04:36):
under intense scrutiny. Three police officers have resigned, the district
attorneys investigating whether criminal charges should be brought, and Sandra's
family has filed a civil suit accusing local police of
participating in a ten year period of sexual abuse and mistreatment.
As I've been working on the next season of What
Happened To, which we'll be telling the story of a
(04:58):
different woman, keep getting emails and messages about Sandra Birchmore.
So today we're bringing you this bonus episode to make
sense of how this type of police sexual misconduct continues
to persevere decades after Sandy Beal's experience. To help go
through the case and discuss how or if anything might
change in Stoughton, I spoke with Laura Crimaldy, a reporter
(05:21):
from the Boston Globe who has been covering Sandra Birchmore's
story since the beginning. I'm Melissa Jelson, and this is
what Happened to Sandy Beal, a bonus episode about the
Other Sandra.
Speaker 1 (05:38):
Sandra Birchmore was a young woman who grew up in
the town of Stoughton, Massachusetts, south of Boston. I think
that she had a difficult childhood, that there were factors
in her household that made her look to outside influences
for support and guidance and direction. She was drawn to
the discipline Order and hierarchical structure of law enforcement that
(06:04):
was a way for her to make sense of the
world around her, and at an early age she developed
an interest in law enforcement and got involved with the
Police Explorers program in her community through the police department.
Speaker 7 (06:17):
Sandra, like Sandy, admired law enforcement, and she really seemed
to enjoy the Explorer program, so much so that she
encouraged other people to join.
Speaker 1 (06:27):
She would publish pictures on her Facebook page of her
with the Explorers. She also posted a lot of photographs
of her at different community events in her hometown of Stoughton,
in which she was posing with different police officers, some
who were involved with the Explorer's program and some who
were not involved in Explorers directly but were members of
(06:49):
the department.
Speaker 7 (06:50):
At some point, Sandra began to confide in her friends
about a sexual relationship she was having with a police
officer she met as an Explorer. Matthew Farwell and his
twin brother William had actually once been Explorers themselves, and
now as officers in the Stoton Police Department, they both
helped out with the program.
Speaker 1 (07:09):
What was learned later was that Sandra birch Moore told
friends that when she was fifteen years old, she began
to have sex with Matthew Farwell and that relationship continued
until her death, and at the time of her death,
she was telling friends that she was pregnant and that
(07:32):
she believed the father was Matthew Farwell. Sandra Birchmore was
telling people that she was happy about this pregnancy and
she was eager to become a mother.
Speaker 7 (07:41):
The evening she was last heard from in February twenty
twenty one, she texted with a colleague in the school
system she worked at, wondering if school would be canceled
the next day because of an impending snowstorm.
Speaker 1 (07:53):
And at some point in the evening she learned that
Matt Farwell was going to stop by her apartment and
and visit her. Matt Farwell later told police that he
visited Sandra Birchmore and that they had an argument. There
was a confrontation, and Matt Farwell described the confrontation as
(08:14):
being a bad fight, but he said it wasn't physical.
His intent, he told investigators, was to break off his
relationship with Sandra Birchmore. Sandra insisted that she was pregnant
and that he was the father of the child. And
he disputed her version of events. He said he was
not the father. According to interviews he gave to police afterwards,
(08:38):
he was recorded on surveillance leaving her apartment sometime after
about a thirty minute visit, and it's after that visit
that Sander's friends say that they didn't hear from her again.
The school department contacted police a couple days later and
asked for a well being check at Sandra's home because
(08:59):
she hadn't reported for work, and so when police went
her apartment a few days later, she was found dead there,
and the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner in Massachusetts
concluded that she died by suicide, and her date of
death is listed as the day her body was found,
which was February fourth, twenty twenty one.
Speaker 7 (09:19):
Sandra was just twenty three years old when she died.
As with Sandy Beal, Sandra Birchmore's friends were confused and
concerned that her death had been ruled a suicide. Many
of them knew she had been in a relationship with
a police officer and that she said he was the
father of her unborn child.
Speaker 1 (09:37):
So in the days after her death, there were concern
among some of her family members and her friends about
the circumstances of her death. She had recently gone out
with some of her cousins and told them about her
pregnancy and appeared really excited and eager to become a mother,
and had even received some gifts for the baby, like
(09:58):
a stroller carriage. She was talking to a hairdresser about
arranging a photo shoot to memorialize her pregnancy. So the
idea that she was dead and that the initial reports
were that she killed herself didn't comport with what those
who know Sandra believed at the time. And also, some
(10:19):
of the people in her circle knew that she had
been in a relationship with a Stoughton police officer. They
knew he was a detective, and there was concern among
those who knew Sandra best that any police investigation into
the circumstances of her death might be tainted by her
relationship with this local police officer, and so some of
(10:42):
her friends did post on social media asking people who
knew Sandra to contact the prosecutor's office and tell them
what they knew about Sandra, and they wanted to make
sure that any investigation into her death took into consideration
those other factors.
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Speaker 7 (15:23):
So here's where Sandra Birchmore's case is different than Sandy Beial's.
Despite the fact that there were serious concerns in some
officer's behavior with Sandy Beial, I found little to no
evidence of an ethics inquiry or that officers involved faced
any repercussions for their actions. But in Sandra Birchmore's case,
after hearing from her friends and family, Stoton Police began
(15:47):
an internal investigation into her death and any potential misconduct
committed by members of the department. Laura Chromaldi went through
the details with me.
Speaker 1 (15:56):
So after Sandra's death, there were two investigators that were initiated.
One was a death investigation, which was conducted by the
prosecutor's office that serves a community where Sandra was found,
and then secondly the Stoughton Police Department initiated an internal
investigation that began in Earnest once the medical examiner had
(16:19):
ruled that Sandra had died by suicide. The department hired
outside investigators. They were retired police officers who had experienced
with doing internal investigations, and also delegated the deputy police
chief in the town to conduct interviews and gather evidence
looking into police interactions with Sandra Birchmore while she was
(16:43):
a police explorer and in the years afterwards.
Speaker 7 (16:46):
The findings were made public in September twenty twenty two.
Speaker 1 (16:50):
That investigation found that two Stoton police officers, Matthew Farwell
and his twin brother William Farwell, as well as their mentor,
Robert Devine, had had inappropriate relations with Sandra over a
period of years, and the investigation further found that a
(17:12):
Stoughton animal control officer also had inappropriate relations with Sandra,
and that a military recruiter had inappropriate communications with Sandra.
Speaker 7 (17:28):
Multiple Stoughton police officers, all affiliated with the Explorer's program,
as well as two other authority figures, are alleged to
have had inappropriate contact with Sandra. This is heartbreakingly similar
to what I believe happened with Sandy Beal, and there's
a reason why these police youth programs can become breeding
grounds for abuse. On one side, you have older male
(17:51):
figures in positions of authority, and on the other teens
maybe from vulnerable backgrounds, who were eager for mentors.
Speaker 1 (18:00):
That report is heavily redacted and does not give the
specific details about the allegations, but it does establish that
Sandra Birchmore met Matthew Farwell as a police explorer, that
she looked up to him when she was a police explorer,
and that at some point in her teenage years he
(18:21):
embarked upon an inappropriate relationship with her that continued right
up until around the time of her death. Matthew Farewell,
through an attorney, has said that he has not committed
any crime. They found William Farwell was also engaged in
an inappropriate relationship with Sandra Birchmore, but it doesn't specify
(18:44):
how old she was when that relationship began. It also
found that he was involved in introducing her to other people.
It doesn't exactly specify who these people were that he
introduced her to or what the purpose of it was,
but the way it's written in the report, it gives
(19:04):
the impression that in doing so, he was not acting
in her best interest. We haven't heard from William Farewell publicly,
but he did leave the department in the summer and
got another position with a Transportation Security administration, which said
publicly that they found no negative information about him when
(19:26):
they were conducting a background check.
Speaker 7 (19:29):
The third Stone Police officer named in the report was
Robert Devine, who had run the department's Explorer program.
Speaker 1 (19:37):
Robert Divine has publicly denied any wrongdoing. There's a portion
of the report that alleges that he used a made
up screen name on Facebook to communicate with Sandra Barchmore,
and that he used that Facebook account to set up
meetings with her arranged to meet her at a restaurant
(20:00):
while he was on duty.
Speaker 7 (20:02):
The Stoton Police Department recommended that Robert Devine, Matthew Farwell,
and William Farwell all be decertified by the state board,
but it's a new system in Massachusetts and the desertification
hasn't happened yet. As it stands, before the investigation was
even finished, all three officers had voluntarily left the department.
The animal control officer found a job in a nearby community,
(20:25):
where he was placed on paid administrative leave. It's unknown
if the military recruiter faced any repercussions, as his identity
has never been revealed publicly, and despite the fact that
Sandra Birchmore told her friends that she and Matthew Farwell
began having sex when she was fifteen, there have not been,
as of yet, any criminal charges against him.
Speaker 1 (20:47):
A prosecutor could consider a statutory rape crime because the
age of consent in Massachusetts is sixteen years old. The
department said at the time that it released its internal
affairs report that it was forwarding the documentation and the
evidence to the Prosecutor's office to consider whether any criminal
charges are warranted, and the prosecutor has not made any
(21:10):
announcements yet as to whether he plans to pursue any
criminal charges.
Speaker 7 (21:15):
One key difference between Sander Birchmore's case and Sandy Bal's
case is how the police department responded once they were
alerted to possible inappropriate conduct. So in Sandy Bal's case,
the police officer investigating her death received a number of
phone calls from other cops who insinuated that they may
have been sexually involved with her. He told me that
(21:37):
he did report this to higher ups, but that it
didn't trigger an investigation or any media coverage or public
statements by the police department addressing their wrongs. In contrast,
the Stoughton police chief has addressed Sander Birchmore's case publicly.
Speaker 1 (21:54):
She gave a news conference to announce the findings of
the internal investigation, in which she very sober, faced, emotional.
She described Sandra's life I thought in poignant terms and
touched upon the reverence that Sandra showed during her life
for law enforcement and the military, and drew a bright
(22:15):
line between Sandra's reverence for those people and the officers
who were the subject to report in their conduct, which
she described as rendering them unfit to serve. It was
an emotional news conference. It was one of the few
times that we've seen a police chief come out and
say publicly that she wished to just certify some of
(22:37):
her former officers, in part because it's a new system
in Massachusetts. She showed a lot of empathy for Sandra
and her family and the people who loved her, and
a considerable amount of regret that she had been subject
to such misconduct where she should have felt safe and protected,
and that the misconduct was perpetrated against her by those
(23:00):
who are sworn to uphold the law.
Speaker 7 (23:02):
These public reckonings can be helpful as they send the
message that police abuses won't just be swept under the rug.
And when it comes to public trust, transparency is key.
Speaker 1 (23:15):
One thing that was revealed in this investigation which I
don't think was publicly known before, is that there were
big questions about the Farewell brothers a long before they
became police officers or even applied to be police officers.
They were getting into trouble when they were explorers, personing
officers and pulling people over as they were driving through
(23:35):
streets in Stoughton, and that piece of information was known,
It was considered during the hiring process for both of them,
and it was overlooked because both of them eventually were hired.
So there are a lot of open questions that are
left from the investigation that will likely be addressed in
the coming months. But there's also the more lasting impact.
(23:59):
What kind of trust can the public have in a
department like this where the department itself has admitted that
their officers were unfit to.
Speaker 7 (24:09):
Serve As they wait to see if the prosecutor decides
to bring any charges. Sandra Birchmore's family has moved forward
with a civil suit.
Speaker 1 (24:18):
They filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the Farwell brothers,
Robert Divine, and the animal control officer who now works
in the neighboring community of Abington as a police officer.
The other defendants in the lawsuit are the town of
Stone and its police department. The parts of that complaint
(24:39):
that concerned the department and the town have to do
with negligent hiring and supervision of the officers who were
interacting with Sandra.
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Medical records faid that I killed.
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While we had prosecuted some cold cases, this was the coldest.
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This was frigid.
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But how does a two year old get blamed for murder?
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Speaker 7 (29:37):
It is still so striking to me how similar Sandy
Bill and Sandra Birchmore's cases are, even though they were
decades apart. They both really seem to admire law enforcement,
and then both of them appear to have been taken
advantage off by more than one person in a position
of power. When I was reporting on the Explorer program
that Sandy Bill was a part of, I discovered that
(29:58):
I had very little over site. I was able to
track down one of the first officers who was involved
in the program, and he told me that they underwent
no training before engaging with teenagers and they were basically
left on their own to organize the program. Sandra Birchmore
started in the Explorer program when she was thirteen years old.
It was overseen by Robert Devine, the same officer later
(30:22):
accused of inappropriate conduct with her.
Speaker 1 (30:25):
At the time, he was rising through the ranks of
the department. As he got further and further along in
his career, there were fewer and fewer people who were
overseeing him and those who were overseeing him might have
seen that program as a success because it was popular.
I got news coverage in the local papers, and it
was seen as something that was positive about the Stoton
(30:48):
Police Department.
Speaker 7 (30:50):
I was curious if Laura thought that what happened to
Sandra Birchmore had made any sort of impact on policing
in the community.
Speaker 1 (30:58):
I think that sand Archmore's story has just touched upon
the questions of power and authority that we give to
police officers, and how society should provide checks on that
power and authority. I think that it's been one of
(31:18):
the sadder cases that we have heard about in terms
of police misconduct, because it took place over years and
that she suffered for a long time, and it was
mostly hidden from view until she died. This particular case
highlights the crucial stuff that happens when police officers are
(31:41):
being hired and scrutinized. I think there's been a lot
of focus in recent years about who's entering law enforcement
and what their backgrounds are, what their histories are. If
there's stuff that is known about their backgrounds that might
be considered for disqualification, how are the hiring panels going
to treat it. I think that anyone who was a
(32:05):
young person has met someone like Sandra, someone who is
a little vulnerable but found a way to strengthen herself,
found something that fit, that felt like she could help
herself by getting involved in something, and in Sandra's case,
it was Police Explorers. What's so sad about Sandra's case
(32:26):
is that she sought out the Explorers to improve her life,
to give her some stability and direction, and ultimately it
was the choice that led her to her death.
Speaker 7 (32:42):
For more information, make sure to check out Laura Cromaldi's
original reporting at The Boston Globe. If you have information
you wish to share about Sandra Birchmore or Police Explorer programs,
please send me an email at what Happened to Sandy
Beal at gmail dot com. Thank you so much for listening.
Speaker 9 (33:11):
A brand new historical true crime podcast.
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Erased the Murder of Elma Sans.
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She was a sweet, happy, virtuous girl until she met
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Written and created by me Alison Flock, Is it possible?
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Erased the murder of Elma Sans on the iHeartRadio app,
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When Race who were killed, Burns was two years old,
her baby brother died.
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I was told that Matthew died in an accident.
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Her parents told police she had killed him. I'm Nancy Glass.
Join me for Burden of Guilt, the new podcast that
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Speaker 7 (02:27):
Before we begin, please note this episode includes talk of suicide.
Please take care while listening. Last year I made a
podcast about a young woman named Sandy Beal. In February
nineteen seventy seven, when she was just eighteen years old,
she was found dead in her car from a gunshot wound,
(02:48):
her life cut tragically short. I've been reporting on the
deaths of women for a while now, and something I've
come to realize is when you investigate how or why
someone died, you're really investigating how they lived. And what
I learned about Sandy, she had been living under enormous
stress and had needed to navigate through some incredibly difficult situations.
(03:11):
Sandy's family never bought the police's story that she took
her own life. Instead, they suspected her much older boyfriend,
who happened to be a Maryland State trooper and married.
As I looked into Sandy's death and life, I learned
that she had likely been involved with multiple police officers,
many of whom were connected to the Explorer Program, a
(03:32):
youth police education and training program that Sandy attended as
a teen. To me, this was a clear sign of
a deeply toxic and most likely predatory environment. Sandy died
forty five years ago, and my investigation took me deep
into the police culture of the nineteen seventies. So it
was pretty alarming when I learned of a much more
(03:53):
recent case that appeared eerily similar, so similar in fact,
that the victims even have the same first name, Sandra.
Sandra Birchmore grew up in Massachusetts and joined the Stoughton
Police Explorer program when she was thirteen years old. A
decade later, in February twenty twenty one, she died by suicide.
(04:13):
The last person to see her alive is believed to
be Matthew Farwell, a police officer who mentored her in
the Explorer program and whom she said she was in
a romantic relationship with. I talked about this case a
little in the final episode of What Happened to Sandy Beale,
But in the wake of Sandra Birchmore's death and since
the podcast was released, the Stoton Police Department has come
(04:36):
under intense scrutiny. Three police officers have resigned, the district
attorneys investigating whether criminal charges should be brought, and Sandra's
family has filed a civil suit accusing local police of
participating in a ten year period of sexual abuse and mistreatment.
As I've been working on the next season of What
Happened To, which we'll be telling the story of a
(04:58):
different woman, keep getting emails and messages about Sandra Birchmore.
So today we're bringing you this bonus episode to make
sense of how this type of police sexual misconduct continues
to persevere decades after Sandy Beal's experience. To help go
through the case and discuss how or if anything might
change in Stoughton, I spoke with Laura Crimaldy, a reporter
(05:21):
from the Boston Globe who has been covering Sandra Birchmore's
story since the beginning. I'm Melissa Jelson, and this is
what Happened to Sandy Beal, a bonus episode about the
Other Sandra.
Speaker 1 (05:38):
Sandra Birchmore was a young woman who grew up in
the town of Stoughton, Massachusetts, south of Boston. I think
that she had a difficult childhood, that there were factors
in her household that made her look to outside influences
for support and guidance and direction. She was drawn to
the discipline Order and hierarchical structure of law enforcement that
(06:04):
was a way for her to make sense of the
world around her, and at an early age she developed
an interest in law enforcement and got involved with the
Police Explorers program in her community through the police department.
Speaker 7 (06:17):
Sandra, like Sandy, admired law enforcement, and she really seemed
to enjoy the Explorer program, so much so that she
encouraged other people to join.
Speaker 1 (06:27):
She would publish pictures on her Facebook page of her
with the Explorers. She also posted a lot of photographs
of her at different community events in her hometown of Stoughton,
in which she was posing with different police officers, some
who were involved with the Explorer's program and some who
were not involved in Explorers directly but were members of
(06:49):
the department.
Speaker 7 (06:50):
At some point, Sandra began to confide in her friends
about a sexual relationship she was having with a police
officer she met as an Explorer. Matthew Farwell and his
twin brother William had actually once been Explorers themselves, and
now as officers in the Stoton Police Department, they both
helped out with the program.
Speaker 1 (07:09):
What was learned later was that Sandra birch Moore told
friends that when she was fifteen years old, she began
to have sex with Matthew Farwell and that relationship continued
until her death, and at the time of her death,
she was telling friends that she was pregnant and that
(07:32):
she believed the father was Matthew Farwell. Sandra Birchmore was
telling people that she was happy about this pregnancy and
she was eager to become a mother.
Speaker 7 (07:41):
The evening she was last heard from in February twenty
twenty one, she texted with a colleague in the school
system she worked at, wondering if school would be canceled
the next day because of an impending snowstorm.
Speaker 1 (07:53):
And at some point in the evening she learned that
Matt Farwell was going to stop by her apartment and
and visit her. Matt Farwell later told police that he
visited Sandra Birchmore and that they had an argument. There
was a confrontation, and Matt Farwell described the confrontation as
(08:14):
being a bad fight, but he said it wasn't physical.
His intent, he told investigators, was to break off his
relationship with Sandra Birchmore. Sandra insisted that she was pregnant
and that he was the father of the child. And
he disputed her version of events. He said he was
not the father. According to interviews he gave to police afterwards,
(08:38):
he was recorded on surveillance leaving her apartment sometime after
about a thirty minute visit, and it's after that visit
that Sander's friends say that they didn't hear from her again.
The school department contacted police a couple days later and
asked for a well being check at Sandra's home because
(08:59):
she hadn't reported for work, and so when police went
her apartment a few days later, she was found dead there,
and the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner in Massachusetts
concluded that she died by suicide, and her date of
death is listed as the day her body was found,
which was February fourth, twenty twenty one.
Speaker 7 (09:19):
Sandra was just twenty three years old when she died.
As with Sandy Beal, Sandra Birchmore's friends were confused and
concerned that her death had been ruled a suicide. Many
of them knew she had been in a relationship with
a police officer and that she said he was the
father of her unborn child.
Speaker 1 (09:37):
So in the days after her death, there were concern
among some of her family members and her friends about
the circumstances of her death. She had recently gone out
with some of her cousins and told them about her
pregnancy and appeared really excited and eager to become a mother,
and had even received some gifts for the baby, like
(09:58):
a stroller carriage. She was talking to a hairdresser about
arranging a photo shoot to memorialize her pregnancy. So the
idea that she was dead and that the initial reports
were that she killed herself didn't comport with what those
who know Sandra believed at the time. And also, some
(10:19):
of the people in her circle knew that she had
been in a relationship with a Stoughton police officer. They
knew he was a detective, and there was concern among
those who knew Sandra best that any police investigation into
the circumstances of her death might be tainted by her
relationship with this local police officer, and so some of
(10:42):
her friends did post on social media asking people who
knew Sandra to contact the prosecutor's office and tell them
what they knew about Sandra, and they wanted to make
sure that any investigation into her death took into consideration
those other factors.
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Speaker 9 (12:09):
A brand new historical true crime podcast, The.
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Year is eighteen hundred City Hall, New York.
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The first murder trial in the American judicial system.
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A mansands trial for the charge of murder.
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Even with defense lawyers Alexander Hamilton and Erin Burr on
the case, this is probably the most famous trial you've
never heard of.
Speaker 11 (12:30):
When you lay suffering a sudden, violent, brutal death, I
hope you'll think of me.
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Starring Alison Williams.
Speaker 11 (12:37):
I don't need anything simplified, mister Hamilton.
Speaker 9 (12:40):
Thank you, with Tony Goldwyn as Alexander Hamilton.
Speaker 12 (12:43):
Don't be so sad, It doesn't suit you.
Speaker 9 (12:46):
Written and created by me Alison Flock. Listen to Erased
the Murder of Elma Sans.
Speaker 12 (12:55):
She was a sweet, happy, virtuous girl until she.
Speaker 9 (12:59):
Met that man right there on the iHeartRadio app, Apple
podcasts or wherever you listen to your podcasts.
Speaker 13 (13:08):
When Tracy were keel Burns was two years old, her
baby brother died.
Speaker 14 (13:13):
I was told that Matthew died in an accident, and
no one really talked about it.
Speaker 13 (13:18):
Her parents told police she had killed him.
Speaker 14 (13:22):
Medical records said that I killed my baby brother.
Speaker 13 (13:30):
I'm Nancy Glass. Join me for Burden of Guilt, the
new podcast that tells the Truth. An incredible story of
a toddler who was framed for murder and how she
grew into an adult determined to get justice and protect
her family.
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While we had prosecuted some cold cases, this was the coldest,
This was frigid.
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But how does a two year old get blamed for murder?
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She said, We wanted a new life. You just don't
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Listen to Burden of Guilt on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
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Speaker 7 (15:23):
So here's where Sandra Birchmore's case is different than Sandy Beial's.
Despite the fact that there were serious concerns in some
officer's behavior with Sandy Beial, I found little to no
evidence of an ethics inquiry or that officers involved faced
any repercussions for their actions. But in Sandra Birchmore's case,
after hearing from her friends and family, Stoton Police began
(15:47):
an internal investigation into her death and any potential misconduct
committed by members of the department. Laura Chromaldi went through
the details with me.
Speaker 1 (15:56):
So after Sandra's death, there were two investigators that were initiated.
One was a death investigation, which was conducted by the
prosecutor's office that serves a community where Sandra was found,
and then secondly the Stoughton Police Department initiated an internal
investigation that began in Earnest once the medical examiner had
(16:19):
ruled that Sandra had died by suicide. The department hired
outside investigators. They were retired police officers who had experienced
with doing internal investigations, and also delegated the deputy police
chief in the town to conduct interviews and gather evidence
looking into police interactions with Sandra Birchmore while she was
(16:43):
a police explorer and in the years afterwards.
Speaker 7 (16:46):
The findings were made public in September twenty twenty two.
Speaker 1 (16:50):
That investigation found that two Stoton police officers, Matthew Farwell
and his twin brother William Farwell, as well as their mentor,
Robert Devine, had had inappropriate relations with Sandra over a
period of years, and the investigation further found that a
(17:12):
Stoughton animal control officer also had inappropriate relations with Sandra,
and that a military recruiter had inappropriate communications with Sandra.
Speaker 7 (17:28):
Multiple Stoughton police officers, all affiliated with the Explorer's program,
as well as two other authority figures, are alleged to
have had inappropriate contact with Sandra. This is heartbreakingly similar
to what I believe happened with Sandy Beal, and there's
a reason why these police youth programs can become breeding
grounds for abuse. On one side, you have older male
(17:51):
figures in positions of authority, and on the other teens
maybe from vulnerable backgrounds, who were eager for mentors.
Speaker 1 (18:00):
That report is heavily redacted and does not give the
specific details about the allegations, but it does establish that
Sandra Birchmore met Matthew Farwell as a police explorer, that
she looked up to him when she was a police explorer,
and that at some point in her teenage years he
(18:21):
embarked upon an inappropriate relationship with her that continued right
up until around the time of her death. Matthew Farewell,
through an attorney, has said that he has not committed
any crime. They found William Farwell was also engaged in
an inappropriate relationship with Sandra Birchmore, but it doesn't specify
(18:44):
how old she was when that relationship began. It also
found that he was involved in introducing her to other people.
It doesn't exactly specify who these people were that he
introduced her to or what the purpose of it was,
but the way it's written in the report, it gives
(19:04):
the impression that in doing so, he was not acting
in her best interest. We haven't heard from William Farewell publicly,
but he did leave the department in the summer and
got another position with a Transportation Security administration, which said
publicly that they found no negative information about him when
(19:26):
they were conducting a background check.
Speaker 7 (19:29):
The third Stone Police officer named in the report was
Robert Devine, who had run the department's Explorer program.
Speaker 1 (19:37):
Robert Divine has publicly denied any wrongdoing. There's a portion
of the report that alleges that he used a made
up screen name on Facebook to communicate with Sandra Barchmore,
and that he used that Facebook account to set up
meetings with her arranged to meet her at a restaurant
(20:00):
while he was on duty.
Speaker 7 (20:02):
The Stoton Police Department recommended that Robert Devine, Matthew Farwell,
and William Farwell all be decertified by the state board,
but it's a new system in Massachusetts and the desertification
hasn't happened yet. As it stands, before the investigation was
even finished, all three officers had voluntarily left the department.
The animal control officer found a job in a nearby community,
(20:25):
where he was placed on paid administrative leave. It's unknown
if the military recruiter faced any repercussions, as his identity
has never been revealed publicly, and despite the fact that
Sandra Birchmore told her friends that she and Matthew Farwell
began having sex when she was fifteen, there have not been,
as of yet, any criminal charges against him.
Speaker 1 (20:47):
A prosecutor could consider a statutory rape crime because the
age of consent in Massachusetts is sixteen years old. The
department said at the time that it released its internal
affairs report that it was forwarding the documentation and the
evidence to the Prosecutor's office to consider whether any criminal
charges are warranted, and the prosecutor has not made any
(21:10):
announcements yet as to whether he plans to pursue any
criminal charges.
Speaker 7 (21:15):
One key difference between Sander Birchmore's case and Sandy Bal's
case is how the police department responded once they were
alerted to possible inappropriate conduct. So in Sandy Bal's case,
the police officer investigating her death received a number of
phone calls from other cops who insinuated that they may
have been sexually involved with her. He told me that
(21:37):
he did report this to higher ups, but that it
didn't trigger an investigation or any media coverage or public
statements by the police department addressing their wrongs. In contrast,
the Stoughton police chief has addressed Sander Birchmore's case publicly.
Speaker 1 (21:54):
She gave a news conference to announce the findings of
the internal investigation, in which she very sober, faced, emotional.
She described Sandra's life I thought in poignant terms and
touched upon the reverence that Sandra showed during her life
for law enforcement and the military, and drew a bright
(22:15):
line between Sandra's reverence for those people and the officers
who were the subject to report in their conduct, which
she described as rendering them unfit to serve. It was
an emotional news conference. It was one of the few
times that we've seen a police chief come out and
say publicly that she wished to just certify some of
(22:37):
her former officers, in part because it's a new system
in Massachusetts. She showed a lot of empathy for Sandra
and her family and the people who loved her, and
a considerable amount of regret that she had been subject
to such misconduct where she should have felt safe and protected,
and that the misconduct was perpetrated against her by those
(23:00):
who are sworn to uphold the law.
Speaker 7 (23:02):
These public reckonings can be helpful as they send the
message that police abuses won't just be swept under the rug.
And when it comes to public trust, transparency is key.
Speaker 1 (23:15):
One thing that was revealed in this investigation which I
don't think was publicly known before, is that there were
big questions about the Farewell brothers a long before they
became police officers or even applied to be police officers.
They were getting into trouble when they were explorers, personing
officers and pulling people over as they were driving through
(23:35):
streets in Stoughton, and that piece of information was known,
It was considered during the hiring process for both of them,
and it was overlooked because both of them eventually were hired.
So there are a lot of open questions that are
left from the investigation that will likely be addressed in
the coming months. But there's also the more lasting impact.
(23:59):
What kind of trust can the public have in a
department like this where the department itself has admitted that
their officers were unfit to.
Speaker 7 (24:09):
Serve As they wait to see if the prosecutor decides
to bring any charges. Sandra Birchmore's family has moved forward
with a civil suit.
Speaker 1 (24:18):
They filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the Farwell brothers,
Robert Divine, and the animal control officer who now works
in the neighboring community of Abington as a police officer.
The other defendants in the lawsuit are the town of
Stone and its police department. The parts of that complaint
(24:39):
that concerned the department and the town have to do
with negligent hiring and supervision of the officers who were
interacting with Sandra.
Speaker 9 (24:55):
A brand new historical true crime podcast.
Speaker 10 (24:59):
Here is eighteen hundred the City Hall, New York, the.
Speaker 9 (25:02):
First murder trial in the American judicial system.
Speaker 10 (25:05):
A trial for the charge of murder.
Speaker 9 (25:08):
Even with defense lawyers Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr on
the case, this is probably the most famous trial you've
never heard of.
Speaker 11 (25:16):
When you lay suffering a sudden, violent, brutal death, I
hope you'll think of me.
Speaker 9 (25:23):
Starring Alison Williams.
Speaker 11 (25:24):
I don't need anything simplified, mister Hamilton.
Speaker 9 (25:27):
Thank you. With Tony Goldwyn as Alexander Hamilton.
Speaker 12 (25:30):
Don't be so sad friend, It doesn't suit You.
Speaker 9 (25:33):
Written and created by me Alison Block. Listen to Erased
the Murder of Elma Sans.
Speaker 12 (25:42):
She was a sweet, happy, virtuous girl until she met
that man right.
Speaker 9 (25:47):
There on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts or wherever you
listen to your podcasts.
Speaker 13 (25:55):
When Tracy were keel Burns was two years old, her
baby brother died.
Speaker 14 (26:00):
I was told that Matthew died in an accident, and
no one really talked about it.
Speaker 13 (26:05):
Her parents told police she had killed him.
Speaker 14 (26:09):
Medical records faid that I killed.
Speaker 11 (26:11):
My baby brother.
Speaker 13 (26:17):
I'm Nancy Glass. Join me for Burden of Guilt, the
new podcast that tells the truth. An incredible story of
a toddler who was framed for murder and how she
grew into an adult determined to get justice and protect
her family.
Speaker 6 (26:35):
While we had prosecuted some cold cases, this was the coldest.
Speaker 16 (26:38):
This was frigid.
Speaker 13 (26:40):
But how does a two year old get blamed for murder?
Speaker 14 (26:43):
She said? We wanted a new life. You just don't
know what it's like when you'll do anything for somebody.
Speaker 13 (26:49):
Listen to Burden of Guilt on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts,
or wherever you get your podcasts.
Speaker 16 (27:04):
I notice Jacob is not in his crib, so I
look in and Sarah's she's not there, So I'm like, Okay,
they're not there.
Speaker 18 (27:12):
Unrestorable is a new true crime podcast that investigates the
case of Catherine Hoggele, a mother accused of murder.
Speaker 16 (27:20):
I'm thinking, you know, like what's going on? Like this
is insane? Like where are my kids?
Speaker 18 (27:25):
Despite signs that Catherine Hoggle took her tiny children one
by one into the night, never to come home again,
she has yet to stand trial because soon after her
children went missing, she was declared incompetent to stand trial.
Speaker 16 (27:40):
We have a blueprint to get away with murder in
the state of Maryland. At this point.
Speaker 18 (27:45):
In Maryland, if a defendant is found incompetent and can't
be restored to competency, their felony charges are dismissed after
five years. So, as the clock counts down, Catherine's charges
on the verge of being dismissed. What does justice look.
Speaker 16 (27:59):
Like in this something wrong here? You know, whenever a
one is allowed to kill my two kids.
Speaker 18 (28:06):
Listen to Unrestorable on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or
wherever you get your podcasts and to hear the show completely.
Add free subscribe to the iHeart True Crime Plus channel,
available exclusively on Apple Podcasts. Plus. You'll get ad free
access to dozens of hit true crime shows like Paper Ghosts, Betrayal,
(28:26):
and The Idaho Massacre.
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Speaker 20 (29:00):
This Christmas, what if gift giving looked different? What if
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(29:23):
Discover how you can help change lives this Christmas at
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Speaker 7 (29:37):
It is still so striking to me how similar Sandy
Bill and Sandra Birchmore's cases are, even though they were
decades apart. They both really seem to admire law enforcement,
and then both of them appear to have been taken
advantage off by more than one person in a position
of power. When I was reporting on the Explorer program
that Sandy Bill was a part of, I discovered that
(29:58):
I had very little over site. I was able to
track down one of the first officers who was involved
in the program, and he told me that they underwent
no training before engaging with teenagers and they were basically
left on their own to organize the program. Sandra Birchmore
started in the Explorer program when she was thirteen years old.
It was overseen by Robert Devine, the same officer later
(30:22):
accused of inappropriate conduct with her.
Speaker 1 (30:25):
At the time, he was rising through the ranks of
the department. As he got further and further along in
his career, there were fewer and fewer people who were
overseeing him and those who were overseeing him might have
seen that program as a success because it was popular.
I got news coverage in the local papers, and it
was seen as something that was positive about the Stoton
(30:48):
Police Department.
Speaker 7 (30:50):
I was curious if Laura thought that what happened to
Sandra Birchmore had made any sort of impact on policing
in the community.
Speaker 1 (30:58):
I think that sand Archmore's story has just touched upon
the questions of power and authority that we give to
police officers, and how society should provide checks on that
power and authority. I think that it's been one of
(31:18):
the sadder cases that we have heard about in terms
of police misconduct, because it took place over years and
that she suffered for a long time, and it was
mostly hidden from view until she died. This particular case
highlights the crucial stuff that happens when police officers are
(31:41):
being hired and scrutinized. I think there's been a lot
of focus in recent years about who's entering law enforcement
and what their backgrounds are, what their histories are. If
there's stuff that is known about their backgrounds that might
be considered for disqualification, how are the hiring panels going
to treat it. I think that anyone who was a
(32:05):
young person has met someone like Sandra, someone who is
a little vulnerable but found a way to strengthen herself,
found something that fit, that felt like she could help
herself by getting involved in something, and in Sandra's case,
it was Police Explorers. What's so sad about Sandra's case
(32:26):
is that she sought out the Explorers to improve her life,
to give her some stability and direction, and ultimately it
was the choice that led her to her death.
Speaker 7 (32:42):
For more information, make sure to check out Laura Cromaldi's
original reporting at The Boston Globe. If you have information
you wish to share about Sandra Birchmore or Police Explorer programs,
please send me an email at what Happened to Sandy
Beal at gmail dot com. Thank you so much for listening.
Speaker 9 (33:11):
A brand new historical true crime podcast.
Speaker 11 (33:14):
When you lay suffering a sudden brutal.
Speaker 9 (33:17):
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Erased the Murder of Elma Sans.
Speaker 12 (33:23):
She was a sweet, happy, virtuous girl until she met
that man right there.
Speaker 9 (33:28):
Written and created by me Alison Flock, Is it possible?
Speaker 10 (33:32):
So We're standing by for your answer.
Speaker 9 (33:34):
Erased the murder of Elma Sans on the iHeartRadio app,
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Speaker 13 (33:42):
When Race who were killed, Burns was two years old,
her baby brother died.
Speaker 14 (33:47):
I was told that Matthew died in an accident.
Speaker 13 (33:50):
Her parents told police she had killed him. I'm Nancy Glass.
Join me for Burden of Guilt, the new podcast that
tells the truth an incredible story of a toddler who
was framed for murder. Listen to Burden of Guilt on
the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Speaker 16 (34:16):
The system's broken. I said something's wrong her. You know,
whenever a one is allowed to kill my two kids.
Speaker 18 (34:22):
Unrestorable is a new true crime podcast that investigates the
case of Catherine Hoggle, a mother accused of murder. Despite
signs that Catherine Hoggle took her tiny children one by
one into the night, never to come home again, she
has yet to stand trial. Listen to Unrestorable on the
(34:43):
iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts,
and to hear the show completely, add free subscribe to
the iHeart True Crime Plus channel, available exclusively on Apple
Podcasts Plus. You'll get ad free access to dozens of
hit true crime shows like Paper Ghosts, Betrayal, and The
Idaho Massacre.
Speaker 15 (35:05):
Curiosity Stream is the streaming service for people who want
to know more and now. Check out Curiosity's new series,
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mythology of the West left out a lot of the people.
Speaker 17 (35:20):
People said, they've never seen a black cowboy. This is
the history book, but did you know about these other facts?
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Fall is coming and the nights are getting longer, and
a strange Hollywood couple have moved into the Winchester Mystery House.
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If you are brave enough, you're invited to the Unhinged
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Get your general admission in rip tickets at Winchester mystery
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