Former Stoughton police detective Matthew G. Farwell was indicted Wednesday on a federal charge that he killed a 23-year-old pregnant woman in 2021 after she claimed he fathered her unborn baby and initiated sexual contact when she was a teenage participant in a law enforcement youth program.

The arrest of Farwell, 38, marked a dramatic turn in the case of Sandra Birchmore, whose body was found on Feb. 4, 2021, in her apartment in Canton. State authorities initially ruled her death a suicide, though Birchmore’s family and friends have raised questions about the investigation over the last several years.

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