The Other Sandra — Sandy Beal BONUS

This is an iHeart podcast.

Time for a sofa upgrade?

Visit washable sofas.com and discover Anibay, where designer style meets budget-friendly prices.

With sofas starting at $699, Anibay brings you the ultimate in furniture innovation with a modular design that allows you to rearrange your space effortlessly.

Perfect for both small and large spaces, Anibay is the only machine-washable sofa inside and out.

Say goodbye to stains and messes with liquid liquid and stain resistant fabrics that make cleaning easy.

Liquid simply slides right off.

Designed for custom comfort, our high-resilience foam lets you choose between a sink-in feel or a supportive memory foam blend.

Plus, our pet-friendly stain-resistant fabrics ensure your sofa stays beautiful for years.

Don't compromise quality for price.

Visit washable sofas.com to upgrade your living space today with no risk returns and a 30-day money-back guarantee.

Get up to 60% off plus free shipping and free returns.

Shop now at washable sofas.com.

Offers are subject to change and certain restrictions may apply.

This is Bethany Frankel from Just Be with Bethany Frankel.

Here's my summer tip.

Don't overthink your dog's meals.

My pups love just fresh from just food for dogs.

Complete, balanced, fresh, shelf-staple meals that go everywhere from New York City to weekends in the Hamptons.

I mean, you can have real food ready to go for your pup anywhere.

No cooler, no hassle, just grab and go.

I've seen the difference.

Healthier coats, more energy, tails wagging at mealtime.

Biggie and smalls love it, and I'm all about stuff that just makes sense when life is busy.

Go to justfoodfordogs.com and get 50% off your first order right now.

No code needed.

Liz went from being interested in true crime to living true crime.

My husband said, your dad's been killed.

This is Hands Tied, a true crime podcast exploring the murder of Jim Melgar.

I was just completely in shock.

Liz's father murdered, and her mother found locked in a closet, her hands and feet bound.

I didn't feel real at all.

More than a decade on, she's still searching for answers.

We're still fighting.

Listen to Hands Tied on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

It was an unimaginable crime.

It's four consecutive live terms for Brian Koberger, who killed the four University of Idaho students.

Nearly 30 months of silence until

bombshell development Brian Koberger has agreed to plead guilty.

No trial, no testimony.

The defense are on a sinking ship.

This isn't the justice you wanted, but this is justice.

Listen to season three of the Idaho Massacre on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

So, what do this animal

and this animal

and this animal

have in common?

They all live on an organic valley farm.

Organic Valley dairy comes from small organic family farms that protect the land and the plants and animals that live on it from toxic pesticides, which leads to a thriving ecosystem and delicious, nutritious milk and cheese.

Learn more at OV.co-op and taste the difference.

Before we begin, please note this episode includes talk of suicide.

Please take care while listening.

Last year, I made a podcast about a young woman named Sandy Beale.

In February 1977, when she was just 18 years old, She was found dead in her car from a gunshot wound, her life cut tragically short.

I've been reporting on the deaths of women for a while now, now, and something I've come to realize is when you investigate how or why someone died, you're really investigating how they lived.

And what I learned about Sandy, she had been living under enormous stress and had needed to navigate through some incredibly difficult situations.

Sandy's family never bought the police's story that she took her own life.

Instead, they suspected her much older boyfriend, who happened to be a Maryland state trooper and married.

As I looked into Sandy's death and life, I learned that she'd likely been involved with multiple police officers, many of whom were connected to the Explorer program, a youth police education and training program that Sandy attended as a teen.

To me, this was a clear sign of a deeply toxic and most likely predatory environment.

Sandy died 45 years ago, and my investigation took me deep into the police culture of the 1970s.

So it was pretty alarming when I learned of a much more recent case that appeared eerily similar.

So similar, in fact, that the victims even have the same first name, Sandra.

Sandra Birchmore grew up in Massachusetts and joined the Stoughton Police Explorer program when she was 13 years old.

A decade later, in February 2021, she died by suicide.

The last person to see her alive is believed to be Matthew Farwell.

a police officer who mentored her in the Explorer program and whom she said she was in a romantic relationship with.

I talked about this case a little in the final episode of What Happened to Sandy Beale.

But in the wake of Sandra Birchmore's death and since the podcast was released, the Stoughton Police Department has come under intense scrutiny.

Three police officers have resigned.

The district attorney is investigating whether criminal charges should be brought.

And Sandra's family has filed a civil suit.

accusing local police of participating in a 10-year period of sexual abuse and mistreatment.

As I've been working on the next season of What Happened To, which will be telling the story of a different woman, I keep getting emails and messages about Sandra Birchmore.

So today we're bringing you this bonus episode to make sense of how this type of police sexual misconduct continues to persevere decades after Sandy Beale's experience.

To help go through the case and discuss how or if anything might change in Stoughton, I spoke with Laura Crimaldi, a reporter from the Boston Globe who has been covering Sandra Birchmore's story since the beginning.

I'm Melissa Geltson and this is what happened to Sandy Beale, a bonus episode about the other Sandra.

Sandra Birchmore was a young woman who grew up in the town of Stoughton, Massachusetts, south of Boston.

I think that she had a difficult childhood, that there were factors in her household that made her look to outside influences for support and guidance and direction.

She was drawn to the discipline, order, and hierarchical structure of law enforcement.

That was a way for her to make sense of the world around her.

And at an early age, she developed an interest in law enforcement and got involved with the Police Explorers program in her community through the police department.

Sandra, like Sandy, admired law enforcement and she really seemed to enjoy the Explorer program.

program, so much so that she encouraged other people to join.

She would publish pictures on her Facebook page of her with the Explorers.

She also posted a lot of photographs of her at different community events in her hometown of Stoughton, in which she was posing with different police officers, some who were involved with the Explorers program and some who were not involved in Explorers directly, but were members of the department.

At some point, Sandra began to confide in her friends about a sexual relationship she was having with a police officer she met as an explorer, Matthew Farwell.

He and his twin brother, William, had actually once been explorers themselves.

And now, as officers in the Stoughton Police Department, they both helped out with the program.

What was learned later was that Sandra Birchmore told friends that when she was 15 years old, she began to have sex with Matthew Farwell.

And that relationship continued until her death.

And at the time of her death, she was telling friends that she was pregnant and that she believed the father was Matthew Farwell.

Sandra Birchmore was telling people that she was happy about this pregnancy and she was eager to become a mother.

The evening she was last heard from in February 2021, she texted with a colleague in the school system she worked at, wondering if school would be canceled the next day because of an impending snowstorm.

And at some point in the evening, she learned that Matt Farwell was going to stop by her apartment and visit her.

Matt Farwell later told police that he visited Sandra Birchmore and that they had an argument.

There was a confrontation.

And Matt Farwell described the confrontation as being a bad fight, but he said it wasn't physical.

His intent, he told investigators, was to break off his relationship with Sandra Birchmore.

Sandra insisted that she was pregnant and that he was the father of the child, and he disputed her version of events.

He said he was not the father, according to interviews he gave to police afterwards.

He was recorded on surveillance, leaving her apartment sometime after about a 30-minute visit.

And it's after that visit that Sandra's friends say that they didn't hear from her again.

The school department contacted police a couple days later and asked for a well-being check at Sandra's home because she hadn't reported for work.

And so when police went to her apartment a few days later, she was found dead there.

And the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner in Massachusetts concluded that she died by suicide, and her date of death is listed as the day her body was found, which was February 4th, 2021.

Sandra was just 23 years old when she died.

As with Sandy Beale, Sandra Birchmore's friends were confused and concerned that her death had been ruled a suicide.

Many of them knew she had been in a relationship with a police officer and that she said he was the father of her unborn child.

So in the days after her death, there were concern among some of her family members and her friends about the circumstances of her death.

She had recently gone out with some of her cousins and told them about her pregnancy and appeared really excited and eager to become a mother and had even received some gifts for the baby, like a stroller or carriage, was talking to a hairdresser about arranging a photo shoot to memorialize her pregnancy.

So the idea that she was dead and that the initial reports were that she killed herself didn't comport with what those who know Sandra believed at the time.

And also, some of the people in her circle knew that she had been in a relationship with a Stoughton police officer.

They knew he was a detective.

And there was concern among those who knew Sandra best that any police investigation into the circumstances of her death might be tainted by her relationship with this local police officer.

And so some of her friends did post on social media asking people who knew Sandra to contact the prosecutor's office and tell them what they knew about Sandra.

And they wanted to make sure that any investigation into her death took into consideration those other factors.

There's nothing like sinking into luxury.

At washablesofas.com, you'll find the Anibay sofa, which combines ultimate comfort and design at an affordable price.

And get this, it's the only sofa that's fully machine washable from top to bottom, starting at only only $699.

The stain-resistant performance fabric slip covers and cloud-like frame duvet can go straight into your wash.

Perfect for anyone with kids, pets, or anyone who loves an easy-to-clean, spotless sofa.

With a modular design and changeable slip covers, you can customize your sofa to fit any space and style.

Whether you need a single chair, love seat, or a luxuriously large sectional, Anibay has you covered.

Visit washable sofas.com to upgrade your home.

Right now, you can shop up to 60% off store-wide with a 30-day money-back guarantee.

Shop now at washable sofas.com.

Add a little

to your life.

Offers are subject to change and certain restrictions may apply.

It was an unimaginable crime.

It's four consecutive life terms for Brian Koberger, who killed the four University of Idaho students.

The defense are on a sinking ship.

It was clear at that point he was out of options.

Nearly 30 months of silence until

bombshell development Brian Koberger appearing set to accept a plea deal just five weeks before his quadruple murder trial was set to start.

No trial, no testimony.

He has pleaded guilty to five criminal counts, one of burglary, and then four counts of murder.

In this final season, we returned to Moscow with interviews from those still searching for answers.

Why did the prosecution take this?

They were holding all the cars.

How on earth could you make a deal?

What message does that send?

Listen to season three of the Idaho Massacre on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

It's time to head back to school and forward to your future with Carrington College.

For over 55 years, we've helped train the next generation of healthcare professionals.

Apply now to get hands-on training from teachers with real-world experience.

In as few as nine months, you could start making a difference in healthcare.

Classes start soon in Pleasant Hills, San Leandro, and San Jose.

Visit Carrington.edu to see what's next for you.

Visit Carrington.edu slash SCI for information on program outcomes.

This fall, let your home smell as good as it looks.

Pura's app-controlled diffusers bring you premium scents from brands like Nest New York, Capri Blue, and Anthropology.

From Spice Pumpkin to Whitewoods, your fall favorites are just a tap away.

It's home fragrance that feels as elevated as it smells and right now it's the perfect time to stock up.

Visit Pura.com and bring home the best scents of the season.

Hello, it is Ryan and we could all use an extra bright spot in our day, couldn't we?

Just to make up for things like sitting in traffic, doing the dishes, counting your steps, you know, all the mundane stuff.

That is why I'm such a big fan of Chumba Casino.

Chumba Casino has all your favorite social social casino-style games that you can play for free anytime, anywhere with daily bonuses.

So sign up now at chumbacasino.com.

That's chumbacasino.com.

No purchase necessary.

VGW Group Void where prohibited by law 21 plus.

Terms and conditions apply.

So here's where Sandra Birchmore's case is different than Sandy Beale's.

Despite the fact that there were serious concerns in some officers' behavior with Sandy Beale, I found little to no evidence of an ethics inquiry or that officers involved faced any repercussions for their actions.

But in Sandra Birchmore's case, after hearing from her friends and family, Stoughton police began an internal investigation into her death and any potential misconduct committed by members of the department.

Laura Crimaldi went through the details with me.

So after Sandra's death, there were two investigations that were initiated.

One was a death investigation, which was conducted by the prosecutor's office that serves the community where Sandra was found.

And then secondly, the Stoughton Police Department initiated an internal investigation that began in earnest once the medical examiner had ruled that Sandra had died by suicide.

The department hired outside investigators.

They were retired police officers who had experience with doing internal investigations and also delegated the deputy police chief in the town to conduct interviews and gather evidence looking into police interactions with Sandra Birchmore while she was a police explorer and in the years afterwards.

The findings were made public in September 2022.

That investigation found that two Stoughton police officers, Matthew Farwell and his twin brother, William Farwell, as well as their mentor, Robert Devine, had had inappropriate relations with Sandra over a period of years.

And the investigation further found that a Stoughton animal control officer also had inappropriate relations with Sandra and that a military recruiter had inappropriate communications with Sandra.

Multiple Stoughton police officers, all affiliated with the Explorers program, as well as two other authority figures, are alleged to have had inappropriate contact with Sandra.

This is heartbreakingly similar to what I believe happened with Sandy Beale, and there's a reason why these police youth programs can become breeding grounds for abuse.

On one side, you have older male figures in positions of authority, and on the other, teens, maybe from vulnerable backgrounds, who are eager for mentors.

That report is heavily redacted and does not give the specific details about the allegations, but it does establish that Sandra Birchmore met Matthew Farwell as a police explorer, that she looked up to him when she was a police explorer, and that at some point in her teenage years, he embarked upon an inappropriate relationship with her that continued right up until around the time of her death.

Matthew Farwell, through an attorney, has said that he has not committed any crime.

They found William Farwell was also engaged in an inappropriate relationship with Sandra Birchmore, but it doesn't specify how old she was when that relationship began.

It also found that he was involved in introducing her to other people.

It doesn't exactly specify who these people were that he introduced her to or what the purpose of it was, but the way it's written in the report, it gives the impression that in doing so he was not acting in her best interest.

We haven't heard from William Farwell publicly, but he did leave the department in the summer and got another position with the Transportation Security Administration, which said publicly that they found no negative information about him when they were conducting a background check.

The third Stoughton police officer named in the report was Robert Devine, who had run the department's Explorer program.

Robert Devine has publicly denied any wrongdoing.

There's a portion of the report that alleges that he used a made-up screen name on Facebook to communicate with Sandra Barchmore

and that he used that Facebook account to set up meetings with her, arranged to meet her at a restaurant while he was on duty.

The Stoughton Police Department recommended that Robert Devine, Matthew Farwell, and William Farwell all be decertified by the state board.

But it's a new system in Massachusetts, and the decertification hasn't happened yet.

As it stands, before the investigation was even finished, all three officers had voluntarily left the department.

The animal control officer found a job in a nearby community where he was placed on paid administrative leave.

It's unknown if the military recruiter faced any repercussions, as his identity has never been revealed publicly.

And despite the fact that Sandra Birchmore told her friends that she and Matthew Farwell began having sex when she was 15, there have not been, as of yet, any criminal charges against him.

A prosecutor could consider a statutory rape crime because the age of consent in Massachusetts is 16 years old.

The department said at the time that it released its internal affairs report that it was forwarding the documentation and the evidence to the prosecutor's office to consider whether any criminal charges are warranted and the prosecutor has not made any announcements yet as to whether he plans to pursue any criminal charges.

One key difference between Sandra Birchmore's case and Sandy Beale's case is how the police department responded once they were alerted to possible inappropriate conduct.

So in Sandy Beale's case, the police officer investigating her death received a number of phone calls from other cops who insinuated that they may have been sexually involved with her.

He told me that he did report this to higher-ups, but that it didn't trigger an investigation or any media coverage or public statements by the police department addressing their wrongs.

In contrast, the Stoughton police chief has addressed Sandra Birchmore's case publicly.

She gave a news conference to announce the findings of the internal investigation in which she was very sober-faced, emotional.

She described Sandra's life, I thought, in poignant terms and touched upon the reverence that Sandra showed during her life for law enforcement and the military and drew a bright line between Sandra's reverence for those people and the officers who were the subject of the report and their conduct, which she described as rendering them unfit to serve.

It was an emotional news conference.

It was one of the few times that we've seen a police chief come out and say publicly that she wished to just certify some of her former officers in part because it's a new system in Massachusetts.

She showed a lot of empathy for Sandra and her family and the people who loved her and a considerable amount of regret that she had been subject to such misconduct where she should have felt safety and protected and that the misconduct was perpetrated against her by those who are sworn to uphold the law.

These public reckonings can be helpful as they send the message that police abuses won't just be swept under the rug.

And when it comes to public trust, transparency is key.

One thing that was revealed in this investigation, which I don't think was publicly known before, is that there were big questions about the Farwell brothers long before they became police officers or even applied to be police officers.

They were getting into trouble when they were explorers, impersonating officers and pulling people over as they were driving through streets in Stoughton.

And that piece of information was known.

It was considered during the hiring process for both of them and it was overlooked because both of them eventually were hired.

So there are a lot of open questions that are left from the investigation that will likely be addressed in the coming months.

But there's also the more lasting impact.

What kind of trust can the public have in a department like this where the department itself has admitted that their officers were unfit to serve?

As they wait to see if the prosecutor decides to bring any charges, Sandra Birchmore's family has moved forward with a civil suit.

They filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the Farwell brothers, Robert Devine, and the animal control officer who now works in the neighboring community of Abington as a police officer.

The other defendants in the lawsuit are the town of Stoughton and its police department.

The parts of that complaint that concern the department and the town have to do with negligent hiring and supervision of the officers who were interacting with Sandra.

It is still so striking to me how similar Sandy Beale and Sandra Birchmore's cases are, even though they were decades apart.

They both really seem to admire law enforcement, and then both of them appear to have been taken advantage of by more than one person in a position of power.

When I was reporting on the Explorer program that Sandy Beale was a part of, I discovered that it had very little oversight.

I was able to track down one of the first officers who was involved in the program, and he told me that they underwent no training before engaging with teenagers, and they were basically left on their own to organize the program.

Sandra Birchmore started in the Explorer program when she was 13 years old.

It was overseen by Robert Devine, the same officer later accused of inappropriate conduct with her.

At the time, he was rising through the ranks of the department.

As he got further and further along in his career, there were fewer and fewer people who were overseeing him.

And those who were overseeing him might have seen that program as a success because it was popular, it got news coverage in the local papers, and it was seen as something that was positive about the Stoughton Police Department.

I was curious if Laura thought that what happened to Sandra Birchmore had made any sort of impact on policing in the community.

I think that Sandra Birchmore's story has just touched upon the questions of power and authority that we give to police officers and how society should provide checks on that power and authority.

I think that it's been one of the sadder cases that we have heard about in terms of police misconduct because it took place over

years and that she suffered for a long time and it was mostly hidden from view until she died.

This particular case highlights the crucial stuff that happens when police officers are being hired and scrutinized.

I think there's been a lot of focus in recent years about who's entering law enforcement and what their backgrounds are, what their histories are.

If there's stuff that is known about their backgrounds that might be considered for disqualification, how are the hiring panels going to treat it?

I think that anyone who is a young person has met someone like Sandra, someone who is a little vulnerable but found a way to strengthen herself, found something that fit, that felt like she could help herself by getting involved in something.

And in Sandra's case, it was police explorers.

What's so sad about Sandra's case is that she sought out the explorers to improve her life, to give her some stability and direction.

And ultimately, it was the choice that led her to her death.

For more information, make sure to check out Laura Crimaldi's original reporting at the Boston Globe.

If you have information you wish to share about Sandra Birchmore or Police Explorer programs, please send me an email at what happened to SandyBeal at gmail.com.

Thank you so much for listening.

This is an iHeart podcast.