Sandra Birchmore's Phone Held Two Messages That Day and Farwell's Jury Heard Both

Matthew Farwell's murder trial opened in Boston on October 9 with a fight over one phone. Prosecutor Torey Cummings read the jury Sandra Birchmore's final text, sent to Farwell seven minutes before he reached her building on February 1, 2021. Defense attorney Kimberly Stevens answered with a search from Sandra's phone that afternoon, about the color of the suicide ribbon. The first describes a 23-year-old opening her door to a man she trusted. The second describes a woman the defense says took her own life after he broke up with her.

The government's story starts in a Stoughton police youth program, where Cummings said Farwell found the littlest girl in the group photo, started tutoring her at the library, and was with her by the time she was 15. It runs through a pregnancy both of them believed was his, a $248 phone call that exposed the relationship, and a change in him that Sandra described to friends as a complete 180. Cummings told the jury he lulled her into feeling safe so he could kill her.

The defense's story starts with the word affair and builds a different Sandra: psychiatric medication from age six, an attempt as a teenager, Thanksgiving and Christmas alone, $2.90 in the bank, spotting and scared. Stevens told the jury more than one person's DNA was on the strap and that mixture evidence is never evidence. The state's own medical examiner called it suicide, she said, before changing the certificate to undetermined this spring.

No cameras were allowed. This is the full opening day, rebuilt from the reporters in the room, and it closes on the question the judge is still weighing after the jury went home.

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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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