Why Sandra Birchmore's Death Still Isn't Called a Homicide

Five years after Sandra Birchmore was found dead in her Canton apartment, the official manner of her death is undetermined, which is neither of the two answers this trial is fighting over. That single word on a revised ruling is the opening Matthew Farwell's lawyers walk through as his federal trial begins in Boston.

The original finding came fast. Canton police sent the medical examiner one paragraph calling it a suicide by hanging, and the ruling followed. Federal agents later reexamined the case and charged Farwell, a former Stoughton police detective, with killing Sandra and causing the death of the child she was carrying. In April 2026 the medical examiner pulled back her suicide opinion and left the manner open.

Farwell's experts argue the physical findings are consistent with hanging. Dr. Thomas Andrew, two decades the chief medical examiner in New Hampshire, concluded a suicidal hanging cannot be excluded. Judge Denise Casper has also cleared the defense to introduce Sandra's mental health history and prior suicidal thoughts, over the government's objection, on the reasoning that the defense theory makes her state of mind directly relevant.

Eric Faddis, defense attorney and former prosecutor, joins Tony Brueski on how a defense argues that without turning Sandra into the one on trial.

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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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