Sandra Birchmore’s Death Was Ruled a Suicide, Now a Former Detective Is on Trial for Her Murder, Plus the Murdaugh Retrial and a No-Body Cas

0:03 Calaroga Shark Media. Good morning. This is Daily Crime and Justice from Calaroga Media, powered by AI. I'm Garrett Fisher. It's Tuesday, October 20th, 2026. In February of 2021, a 23-year-old woman named Sandra Birchmore was found dead in her apartment outside Boston. She was pregnant. The state medical examiner ruled it a suicide. Today, in a federal courtroom in Boston, a former police detective is on trial, accused of killing her and staging it to look that way. Prosecutors say he'd been sexually exploiting her since she was 15. Here's today's question. When the suspect is a police officer, who investigates?

0:50 And what happens when the first answer is wrong? Let's get into it. Before we get to the trial, a note. This story involves suicide and the sexual exploitation of a teenager. I'll handle both with care, and if you need support, there's a number at the end of the episode. It's a town south of Boston. As a young teenager, Sandra Birchmore joined the Stoughton Police Department's Explorers Program, a youth program that introduces kids to police work and pairs them with officers as mentors. One of the officers who ran it was Matthew Farwell. According to federal prosecutors, Farwell first had sex with Sandra when she was 15, a high school sophomore. He was 27 and a police officer. Prosecutors say the exploitation continued for years, sometimes while he was on duty and claiming to be doing police work. A later internal investigation by the Stoughton police found that Farwell, his twin brother William, also an officer, and a former deputy chief all had inappropriate relationships with Sandra. Only Matthew Farwell is on trial. In December of 2020, Sandra learned she was pregnant and she told people she believed the baby was Farwell's. Her friend testified that Sandra had always wanted to be a mother and that she bought her a stroller when she heard the news. Prosecutors say Sandra kept Farwell updated on ultrasounds and doctor's appointments. According to her friend Leslie Davis, when Sandra asked Farwell whether he would sign the baby's birth certificate, he shoved her to the ground. On the night of February 1st, 2021, according

2:23 to prosecutors, building video shows Farwell entering her apartment in Canton, wearing a dark hoodie and a medical mask. Three days later, a police officer doing a well-being check found Sandra dead. The state medical examiner ruled her death a suicide by hanging. An investigation by state officials found no evidence of foul play. but the people who loved her didn't accept that. Her friends went to the police station right after her death to urge them to look at Farwell. A coworker testified last week that reports of suicide didn't make sense to her, and the federal government eventually stepped in. If you followed the Karen Reed case, you know this is the same county, Norfolk, and federal investigators stepped into bowl. In August of 2024, Farwell was arrested and charged by federal prosecutors. The main charge isn't ordinary murder. It's killing a witness, specifically that he killed Sandra to stop her from reporting federal crimes, including using his police powers to sexually abuse her and defrauding the town by claiming hours he was actually spending with her. He's also charged with causing the death of her unborn son. Prosecutors decided not to seek the death penalty.

3:32 Farwell has pleaded not guilty. The trial opened in Boston on October 9th before Chief U.S. District Judge Denise Casper. It's expected to last about five weeks, and there are no cameras in federal court. Here's the prosecution's case. Farwell was supposed to be her mentor, and instead, prosecutors say, he exploited her for years. When she became pregnant, he feared exposure of the relationship, of the fact that it began when she was a child, and of his career. Prosecutors told jurors he killed her and staged it as a suicide, counting on people to believe that a vulnerable young woman had taken her own life. The government's medical experts will testify that she was strangled. In a pretrial filing, prosecutors said Farwell's DNA was found on the strap around her neck. A Stoughton detective who worked with Farwell testified that he never wore a mask during the pandemic. Prosecutors say he wore one that night to hide his face.

4:27 And an FBI forensic examiner told the jury Sandra's phone recorded her taking steps on the night she died, while prosecutors allege Farwell was still in the apartment. A state police investigator told the jury that Farwell admitted he went to her apartment that night and that text messages suggested he had put his hands around her neck before, though the investigator wasn't sure in what context. And on Friday, an FBI agent began reading the jury messages between the two of them, which prosecutors say reflect the criminal origins of the relationship. That agent's testimony continues this week. Here's the defense. Farwell's attorney, Kimberly Stevens, told the jury her client made, in her words, regrettable mistakes. But she said he did not kill Sandra Birchmore. The defense says Sandra took her own life after Farwell ended the relationship and denied he was the father. They point out that investigators found no DNA connected to Farwell under her fingernails. They point to the original medical examiner's ruling. The judge has allowed them to present evidence about Sandra's mental health history and her journals. And last week, the defense showed the jury pages in which she appeared to contemplate suicide. Under cross-examination, the defense also drew testimony that her phone showed a search on the day she died related to suicide awareness.

5:44 And there's one more fact the jury will weigh. DNA testing later showed that Farwell was not the father of her baby. She believed he was, and prosecutors say the two of them had been trying to conceive. But he wasn't. So that's the central question for this jury. Was Sandra Birchmore strangled or did she take her own life? The answer depends on medical evidence, on what happened in that apartment the night Farwell was there, and on a relationship that, according to prosecutors, began as a crime. And this case raises a bigger question I want to put in front of you. When the person who might be responsible for a death is a police officer, the first people to look at it are often his colleagues or agencies that work with his department every day. That doesn't mean anyone acted in bad faith in this case. But it's why the federal government sometimes steps in, and it's why independent investigations of police matter so much. Sandra's friends refused to accept the first answer. Without them, there would be no trial.

6:41 Whatever this jury decides, here's what's already been established. A teenager joined a police program to learn about public service, and the adults in it failed her. That's not in dispute. Sandra Birchmore was 23 years old, and she was going to be a mother. Someone has to say her name. When we come back, Alex Murdoch's judge lays down the law, and a murder trial in Virginia without a body. Alec Murdoch is going to be tried again. Quick refresher. In 2023, a South Carolina jury convicted the disgraced lawyer of murdering his wife Maggie and their son Paul at the family's hunting property in 2021. He was sentenced to life. In May of this year, the South Carolina Supreme Court threw out those convictions, finding that the court clerk had improperly influenced the jury. The court said she had placed her fingers on the scales of justice. Murdoch remains in prison regardless, on sentences for stealing millions from clients, which he admitted.

7:49 The retrial is set for April 5th, 2027, and it's been moved to Sumter County out of concern about finding an impartial jury where the first trial was held. On Friday, Murdoch was back in court for a pretrial hearing, and the judge, Deborah McCaslin, made clear who's in charge. First, a win for the defense. She'll allow Murdoch's team to test unidentified male DNA found under Maggie Murdoch's fingernails and on her phone. The defense says that could point to someone else at the scene. The weapons used in the killings have never been found. And a loss for the defense. Murdoch's lawyers wanted ballistics records from every shooting over the past five years in eight surrounding counties involving the same type of rifle used to kill Maggie. The judge called that a fishing expedition, noting no connection had been shown and said no. and then she got tired of the bickering.

8:39 After repeated back and forth between defense attorney Dick Harpootlian and prosecutors, she told both sides, according to Court TV, this is court, this isn't a soundbite. She said she would not accept any more motions to compel and told them to work things out themselves. She also called out Harpootlian for claiming at an earlier hearing that Murdoch had passed a polygraph about the killings, which she said was false. And she'll let Murdoch appear in civilian clothes so that potential jurors watching on TV aren't influenced by prison garb. Here's what's important to remember. The first conviction wasn't overturned because of the evidence. It was overturned because of how the jury was handled. So in April, Alec Murdoch is presumed innocent of these murders all over again, and the state has to prove it all over again. Maggie Murdoch was 52. Paul Murdoch was 22. Someone has to say their names. Sandra Birchmore's case asks whether a death was murder or suicide. This case asks something different. How do you prove a murder when there's no body? Mamta Kafle Bat was 28. She came to the United States from Nepal, and she was a nurse at a hospital in Northern Virginia, the mother of a baby girl. In late July of 2024, she vanished, and the people she worked with were among the first to search for her. Her husband, Naresh Bhatt, told police she had disappeared before and come back, and he believed she would come back again. Three weeks later, he was arrested and charged with concealing a dead body.

10:12 Months after that, he was charged with first-degree murder. Mamta's body has never been found. He's now on trial in Prince William County, Virginia. He is pleaded not guilty and the trial is expected to last about seven weeks. Prosecutors told jurors they have powerful circumstantial evidence. They say investigators found her blood in the couple's home and that blood matching her DNA was found on a saw that Naresh Bhatt gave to a landscaper in the days after she disappeared. Police say they found packed bags and passports for Naresh and the couple's baby. I won't describe what prosecutors allege happened to her remains, except to say they believe her husband disposed of them. And last week, a friend testified that Bhatt told him that he and Mamta had decided to separate respectfully. The defense says the state can't prove Mamta is dead, let alone that he killed her without her body. They've challenged the evidence piece by piece, and they've fought to keep some of Mamta's own words out of the trial. Murder convictions without a body are rare, but not unheard of. Courts have upheld them when the circumstantial evidence is strong enough. That's exactly what this jury will have to decide. And whatever it decides, a little girl who was one year old when her mother disappeared is growing up without her. Mamta Kaflibat was 28. Someone has to say her name. That's the show for this Tuesday.

11:42 Here's my question for the Spotify crowd. When a police officer is suspected in someone's death, who should investigate? Local police, the state, or someone completely independent? If you're listening on Spotify, drop a comment. If you have a friend who followed the Karen Reid case, send them this episode. I think they'll want to follow this one. And on Apple Podcasts, tap listen uninterrupted at the top of your screen. $ 5 a month, no ads. This show plus thousands of Calaroga Media shows, and the first 30 days are free. To everyone already subscribed, thank you. Coming up, we'll stay with the Birchmore trial as the FBI's testimony continues. In London, the Russell Brand trial continues. He denies all charges. And Alec Murdoch is back in court on November 13th. I'm Garrett Fisher. Do better. This episode of Daily Crime and Justice is produced with the assistance of artificial intelligence and is intended for news and commentary purposes only. It is not legal advice. Everyone charged with a crime is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty in a court of law.

12:44 Matthew Farwell, Alec Murdoch, and Naresh Bhat have each pleaded not guilty. Murdoch's murder convictions were overturned and he is presumed innocent of those charges. Russell Brand has pleaded not guilty and denies all charges. On Sandra Birchmore. Descriptions of the evidence and testimony are as reported by the Boston Globe, CNN, and others, and reflect proceedings through last week. Allegations by prosecutors have not been proven. Findings of the Stoughton Police Department's internal investigation concern conduct that has not been tested in this trial. William Farwell and the former deputy chief have not been charged in this case. On Alec Murdoch, hearing details are as reported by Court TV, the state, and the Associated Press. On Naresh Bhat, trial details are as reported by WTOP, WJLA, WUSA, NBC Washington, and Court TV.

13:35 If you or someone you know is struggling or in crisis, you can call or text 988-THE-SUICIDE-IN-CRISIS-LIFELINE anytime. If you or someone you know is experiencing domestic violence, the National Domestic Violence Hotline is available at 1-800-799-7233. If you are a survivor of sexual abuse, you can call RAINN at 800-656- Thank you.