Farwell defense asks to pull memo it filed implying his twin fathered Sandra Birchmore’s baby
This story was updated at 4:27 p.m. on Friday, March 27, 2026, to include a federal judge's order granting the defense request.
Attorneys representing former Stoughton police officer Matthew Farwell asked a judge to allow them to withdraw a Thursday night court filing that suggested Farwell's twin brother was the father of Sandra Birchmore's unborn baby .
Farwell is accused of killing Birchmore and causing the death of her unborn son after sexually abusing her beginning when she was a teenager. His attorneys filed a motion Thursday asking he be released on bail with a series of conditions.
In support of the motion, they noted that while other men who had relationships with Birchmore, including Farwell's twin brother, moved out of state after her death in 2021, Farwell remained in Massachusetts.
In a footnote, the attorneys wrote, "These include, according to the government's own evidence, Mr. Farwell's brother who is a named defendant in the civil lawsuit as well as the confirmed biological father of Ms. Birchmore's fetus who has thus far not been publicly named."
That prompted both The Boston Globe and MassLive to publish news stories reporting that William Farwell fathered Birchmore's son, citing the court filing.
Later Thursday night, after the media coverage had been published, the attorneys filed an updated motion, clarifying that the person who fathered Birchmore's child was not William Farwell.
The updated footnote read "These include, according to the government's own evidence, Mr. Farwell's brother who is a named defendant in the civil lawsuit, as well as another individual who is the confirmed biological father of Ms. Birchmore's fetus who has thus far not been publicly named."
The attorneys said their updated memo was filed "out of an abundance of caution and to prevent further misinformation in the media about this case." They blamed a "reporter's misreading" of the footnote for the error.
On Friday morning, they asked to withdraw the original memo, noting that "the government also concurs that the footnote at issue was misconstrued."
Magistrate Judge M. Page Kelley granted the request.
Birchmore, 23, was pregnant when she was found dead in her Canton apartment in 2021. Federal prosecutors say Matthew Farwell, 40, began sexually exploiting her when she was 15 and killed her to keep her from reporting him for federal crimes.
The former Stoughton police officer then staged the apartment to appear as if Birchmore had killed herself, prosecutors say. The state Chief Medical Examiner's Office ruled her death a suicide, a conclusion federal prosecutors rejected.
Farwell is charged with killing a witness or victim and violating the protection of unborn children statute. The first charge is death-penalty eligible, but prosecutors will not pursue death in Farwell's case at the direction of U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi.
Farwell has been held at a detention center in Rhode Island since the FBI arrested and charged him in August 2024. In the new motion filed by his attorneys, they say that if released, he would live with his mother to prevent his wife and children from enduring further scrutiny.
Farwell has demonstrated that he is not a danger to the community and will not flee in an attempt to escape prosecution, his lawyers argue. Prosecutors filed a motion when Farwell was arrested, asking that he be detained, which he did not contest until this week.
No hearing has been set on the detention issue.
The defense attorneys sought to have Farwell's case transferred to Rhode Island , then asked to dismiss the case entirely . U.S. District Court Chief Judge Denise Casper denied both motions after hearings.
Birchmore met the former detective through a Stoughton Police Department youth program when she was a teen. Prosecutors say he began planning her killing in January 2021 after a department employee informed him that a friend of hers had reported his sexual relationship with Birchmore.
Farwell was the last person known to have seen Birchmore alive on the night she died, according to an internal Stoughton police report. Security footage from that night shows him entering and exiting her apartment building.
Farwell's trial is scheduled to begin in October in federal court in Boston.
More news about the Sandra Birchmore case
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