What we know

What we know: Closing arguments expected in trial of ex-cop accused of killing Sandra Birchmore

Compiled Nov 6

What we know

Matthew Farwell, a former Stoughton Police Department detective, is on trial for killing Sandra Birchmore, 23, in 2021.
Farwell's defense acknowledges he had an extramarital relationship with Birchmore but denies killing her.
The trial is being held in federal court in Boston because local prosecutors never filed criminal charges.
Local police and state investigators initially ruled Birchmore's death a suicide.
The state medical examiner has since changed the official cause of death to 'undetermined.'
A paternity test showed a different man, not Farwell, was the father of Birchmore's unborn child.

Whether Birchmore's death was a homicide or suicide remains disputed by competing medical experts.
Whether Farwell had sex with Birchmore when she was a minor is disputed by his defense.
The official cause of death is listed as 'undetermined' by the medical examiner's office.
What role, if any, Farwell would play in the child's life was still being argued over in texts before her death.

Will the jury find Farwell guilty of murder or acquit him based on the suicide theory?
What specific evidence will the prosecution rely on most heavily in closing arguments?
Why did local and state investigators initially conclude the death was a suicide so quickly?
Will the medical examiner's 'undetermined' ruling be revisited after the trial's outcome?

Drawn from the Associated Press report. “What we don’t know” lists only what the reporting itself flags as unresolved.