Overview
- Federal prosecutors, in a Monday filing, said Matthew Farwell’s DNA was on the strap that tied Sandra Birchmore’s neck to a closet door handle.
- The filing said sperm cells on the underwear Birchmore wore when she was found matched Farwell, which prosecutors argue undercuts his account of their last contact.
- Prosecutors urged a judge to reject Farwell’s request for $50,000 bail, saying he now has stronger reasons to flee because the case was first treated as a suicide.
- They argued he strangled Birchmore to hide a sexual relationship that began when she was 15 and then staged a suicide, citing witness statements, phone data, and an injury pattern they say does not fit how she was found.
- The memo faulted the original state probe for not collecting Farwell’s DNA until August 2024 and for the medical examiner’s absence from the scene, issues prosecutors say undercut the early suicide finding and will factor into trial.