Ex-Detective Convicted of Killing Pregnant Woman After Staging Death to Look Like Suicide

A conviction after trial

Farwell was found guilty in federal court in Boston after a trial lasting nearly a month, with about 50 witnesses and 500 exhibits. Local prosecutors had not brought criminal charges.

Prosecutors said Farwell killed Birchmore to keep her from exposing sexual abuse. They argued he arranged the scene to suggest suicide, a conclusion Massachusetts State Police investigators initially reached.

The defense disputed the case

Farwell’s lawyers acknowledged he had an affair with Birchmore but said it began when she was 16, an age at which she could legally consent in Massachusetts. They denied that he killed her.

The defense argued Birchmore had previously threatened suicide and died by suicide after Farwell visited her apartment to end the relationship. A defense expert, Dr. Thomas Andrew, formerly New Hampshire’s chief medical examiner, rejected Smock’s homicide determination.

Investigators later changed course

The state medical examiner initially classified Birchmore’s death as suicide, relying in part on information from police. The office later changed the official manner of death to “undetermined.” The FBI opened its review two years after Birchmore died and concluded she had been killed. Federal investigators described the local inquiry as rushed and compromised, citing a 15-minute parking-lot interview with Farwell and a lack of notes, injury checks or DNA sampling.