Sandra Birchmore Had Several Parental Figures Before She Was Killed in 2021

Content warning: This article contains descriptions of a homicide related to grooming.

In February 2021, a 23-year-old woman named Sandra Birchmore was found dead in her Canton, Mass., apartment. After Canton police officers found Birchmore’s body “seated on the floor in a reclined position with a duffle bag strap tied around her neck” (via Boston.com), events quickly unfolded.

The Office of the Chief Medical Examiner first ruled Birchmore’s death a suicide, but after her family hired a pathologist, they ruled her death a homicide.

In August 2024, former police officer Matthew Farwell was convicted and arrested for Birchmore’s murder. According to messages between them, Birchmore — who was pregnant when she died — had threatened to reveal the nature of their relationship, which was reportedly sexual starting from when Birchmore was a minor at 15 years old.

As a youth, Birchmore had been in a police Explorer program, and was allegedly victimized by three different officers (including Farwell) who were part of that program. But who and where were Birchmore’s parents?

An article in The Boston Globe shared that Birchmore’s father was never in the picture, according to her friends. Birchmore was raised by her mother, Denise F. McKain, and her grandmother, Clarie G. Gaudet. McKain and Gaudet were incredibly proud of Birchmore’s interest in the police academy.

In fact, McKain wrote a letter to the police department thanking them in 2015, to which supervisor Robert Devine responded. An investigation later found that Devine also reportedly had a sexual relationship with Birchmore after she had turned 18.

McKain worked as a payroll clerk at Howard Johnson’s in Milton but sadly passed away at just 52 years old in May 2016 at the Tufts Medical Center in Boston. She had lived with a long illness before her death and according to her obituary, “she enjoyed spending time with her daughter and her family.”

The same year, Gaudet also passed away, so Birchmore’s care passed to her aunt until she died in 2019. Up until her own death, Birchmore had many difficult and sad losses in her family, including a 2019 miscarriage.

When Farwell killed Birchmore in 2021, although many of her parental figures had passed away, her family and friends still fought for justice. Birchmore’s cousin Colin Nee told NBC10, “She was hilarious. And she was smart as a whip, too.” Nee’s wife, Kellie, added, “We just all knew [Harwell] was the father. She's talked about him for years.”

It was Birchmore’s family who brought justice to her case over three years after her death. "The family members that I have spoken to all have believed that it wasn't suicide," Melissa "Mizzy" Berry, an organizer for Justice for Sandra Birchmore, told NBC10 Boston. "They've always thought that she was murdered."