ABOUT THIS EPISODE
Sandra Birchmore’s phone registered eight steps at 9:40 p.m., according to federal prosecutors. Surveillance footage showed Matthew Farwell leaving her apartment building at 9:43. A phone can log movement, but it cannot testify about who was holding it. That is why the prosecution’s precise timeline deserves close scrutiny instead of an instant conclusion.
Retired FBI Special Agent Jennifer Coffindaffer joins Tony Brueski to work through listener questions about the final recorded activity and the other evidence needed to interpret it. The government alleges Farwell strangled Sandra and made the apartment look like the scene of a suicide. Farwell has pleaded not guilty, and his lawyers maintain she took her own life. The state medical examiner ultimately changed Sandra’s manner of death to undetermined, leaving a dispute that expert testimony will have to address.
The conversation widens to the Stoughton Police Explorers program, where prosecutors say Farwell first met Sandra when she was a child. A later department investigation examined the conduct of three officers, including his twin brother William and former deputy chief Robert Devine. Massachusetts regulators found that Devine communicated with Sandra through the Facebook name “Marty Riggs” and revoked his certification in December 2025. Devine disputes wrongdoing.
What does a federal jury need to know about that history to evaluate motive? What does the phone actually prove about the final minutes? And what responsibility belongs to the police institutions whose own investigation later uncovered multiple officers’ conduct? Coffindaffer separates the legal case against Matthew from the wider findings about the department.
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This publication contains commentary and opinion based on publicly available information. All individuals are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. Nothing published here should be taken as a statement of fact, health or legal advice.
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