Dateline to feature Sandra Birchmore case with ties to Karen Read trial
Once determined to be a suicide, the death of Sandra Birchmore , a pregnant 23-year-old from Stoughton , is the center of a Dateline episode on Friday.
" The Betrayal of Sandra Birchmore " is the episode title and is expected to air Friday at 9 p.m.
Matthew Farwell, was arrested and charged last year by federal officials who say he staged Birchmore's death as a suicide to cover up sexual abuse and a relationship that began when she was a minor. She was pregnant with a child that she claimed was Matthew Farwell's, but recent reporting from The Boston Globe states that DNA testing ruled him out as the father.
A wrongful death lawsuit filed by Birchmore's estate claims that Robert Devine, former deputy chief of police for Stoughton , and the Farwell brothers groomed Birchmore when she joined the police department's youth Explorers program in 2010 at age 13, a program that Devine supervised.
Matthew Farwell is the only one of the three accused by officials of sexually abusing Bichmore as a child; his brother and Devine, however, had sexual relationships with her after she became an adult, according to a Stoughton Police Department investigation.
A trailer for the episode teases connections to the Karen Read case, who was acquitted on all charges save for misdemeanor operating under the influence.
The Birchmore case has drawn comparisons to Read's because they both involve the Canton Police Department and Massachusetts State Police. Both cases also feature accusations of corrupt police officers.
During a pre-trial hearing, Elizabeth Little, a lawyer for Read's defense, argued the "parallels in these cases couldn't be clearer."
Both cases involve a "failure to investigate a law enforcement officer who should have been a suspect," she said. "The reports by investigating officers that led to the improper clearing of [Farwell] go directly toward the credibility of those officers."
A judge denied a Read defense request to obtain unredacted copies of the police reports in the Birchmore investigation.
But the publicity of the Read case shined a new light on Birchmore's case, the trailer states.
More news about the Sandra Birchmore case
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