Latest / Big Brother: North Korea’s Forgotten Prince / Introducing — What Happened to Sandra Birchmore: Part 1

Transcript

Introducing — What Happened to Sandra Birchmore: Part 1 · Big Brother: North Korea’s Forgotten Prince

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Before we begin, the stories told in this podcast may
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: be difficult for some to hear. Many discuss sexual assault,
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: domestic violence, and suicide. Please take care while listening. Snow
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: has been falling for hours when the woman appears in
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: the surveillance video. The footage comes from a motion-activated camera
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: in the lobby of her apartment building. She steps off
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: the elevator and walks to the front door where she
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: meets with the delivery guy. He's holding a food order.
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: It's long, wrapped in paper like a sub. The woman
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: is young, 23, but she looks even younger because she's
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: so petite, not even five feet tall. She's wearing teal leggings,
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: a pink sweatshirt, Adidas slides, her hair tossed up in
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: a bun. It's Monday, February 1st, 2021. around 5 p.m.
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: At that moment, a blizzard is descending on eastern Massachusetts.
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: Dinner in hand, the woman heads back into the elevator
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: and up to her apartment. Half an hour later, she
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: reappears in the lobby. She's swapped her slides for sneakers,
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: added a waterproof jacket. The woman goes out the front door,
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: and a few minutes later, she's back carrying a snow brush.
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: As she gets on the elevator again, Her hand goes
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: into her jacket pocket before the doors have even shut.
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: She pulls out her phone. Her face looks down intently.
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: She starts to text. It's 5.33 p.m. The elevator door closes.
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: This is the last time Sandra Birchmore will be seen alive.
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: From iHeart Podcast, I'm Melissa Jeltsin, and you're listening to
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: What Happened to Her? The Sandra Birchmore Story, Part One.
• 2:05
  Speaker 2: My name is Barbara Wright, and I live in Northeastern Massachusetts.
• 2:11
  Speaker 2: And Sandra and I are cousins. We talked every day,
• 2:14
  Speaker 2: probably several times a day. We had this just ongoing,
• 2:18
  Speaker 2: never-ending text.
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: I first heard the name Sandra Birchmore in 2022. Listeners
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: of my first season, What Happened to Sandy Beal, had
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: been emailing me nonstop, urging me to look into her case.
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: Despite the nearly 50 years between these women's deaths, these
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: keen listeners recognized patterns between the two cases. So I
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: started digging. I reached out to Sandra's family's attorney, messaged
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: her friends, interviewed a Boston Globe reporter who had covered
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: her story, and then I just kind of stopped. Life
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: got in the way. But Sandra didn't leave me. I
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: put her in my back pocket, kept a Google alert
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: for her name, and for four years, quietly followed every
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: document as it surfaced. But when I connected with Barb,
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: this was the first time I'd actually spoken with someone
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: who knew Sandra personally.
• 3:13
  Speaker 2: It helps me a lot to talk about Sandra and
• 3:15
  Speaker 2: what happened to her. It helps make it feel a
• 3:17
  Speaker 2: little bit more real because it... You know, it's one
• 3:21
  Speaker 2: of those things, it's very hard to believe that it
• 3:23
  Speaker 2: even happened because it's so horrendous.
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: Barb is 70 years old, a retired editor. She's Sandra's
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: second cousin. They come from a big, sprawling Irish Catholic
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: family living mostly in Massachusetts. And back when they were young,
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: Barb used to babysit Sandra's mother, Denise, which means she's
• 3:44
  Speaker 1: known Sandra since the day she was born. Even as
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: a little girl, Sandra made an impression. She had opinions,
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: strong ones.
• 3:53
  Speaker 3: I went to a family party one time and she
• 3:56
  Speaker 3: was there and she was just a little thing, maybe
• 3:58
  Speaker 3: six or seven years old. And I called her Sandy
• 4:01
  Speaker 3: and she stomped her little feet on the ground and
• 4:03
  Speaker 3: raised her fist.
• 4:04
  Speaker 2: And she's like, don't call me Sandy. I'm like, OK,
• 4:08
  Speaker 2: all right. Well, I never called her Sandy again. She
• 4:13
  Speaker 2: was a feisty little thing.
• 4:15
  Speaker 1: Sandra's mother, Denise, was chronically ill, which made it hard
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: for her to work. For much of Sandra's life, they
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: lived with family in a house on Holbrook Avenue in Stoughton.
• 4:26
  Speaker 1: It belonged to Denise's aunt and uncle, who had raised
• 4:29
  Speaker 1: Denise as their own. To Sandra, they were her grandparents.
• 4:35
  Speaker 1: I've never been to Stoughton, but I asked a friend
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: who grew up nearby what it was like, and she
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: said it was just a town about 20 miles south
• 4:44
  Speaker 1: of Boston, a working-class suburb on the commuter rail. My
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: friend called Stoughton the Massachusetts version of the good old boys.
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: She didn't mean pickup trucks. She meant the kind of
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: town where the same families have been there forever, where
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: who you know is everything, where things don't seem to change.
• 5:05
  Speaker 1: When Sandra was small, Barb lived about an hour away
• 5:08
  Speaker 1: near Cape Cod. She was close with the family, but
• 5:12
  Speaker 1: her own life had gotten complicated.
• 5:16
  Speaker 2: I was in a very difficult marriage and we only
• 5:21
  Speaker 2: had one vehicle, so I didn't get to visit family
• 5:24
  Speaker 2: a lot. I would see her at family parties once
• 5:27
  Speaker 2: in a while, but we weren't super close until she
• 5:30
  Speaker 2: was older.
• 5:32
  Speaker 1: After Sandra became a teen and got a cell phone,
• 5:35
  Speaker 1: the two started texting. They played words with friends until
• 5:39
  Speaker 1: Sandra quit because Barb kept winning. Hard to compete with
• 5:42
  Speaker 1: a professional editor. Then, a family tragedy pulled them closer.
• 5:48
  Speaker 1: In May 2016, when Sandra was just 18, her mother
• 5:52
  Speaker 1: Denise had a stroke.
• 5:54
  Speaker 2: It happened on Mother's Day, and it came out of
• 5:57
  Speaker 2: the blue completely. It was terrible. It was a terrible thing.
• 6:02
  Speaker 2: Her mother was in a hospital bed, what they called
• 6:07
  Speaker 2: basically body-locked. She couldn't move anything but her eyes, and
• 6:11
  Speaker 2: so we were trying to decide whether or not to
• 6:14
  Speaker 2: keep her on life support or not. Fortunately, the doctors
• 6:18
  Speaker 2: were able to communicate with her mom, and so they
• 6:21
  Speaker 2: asked Denise, do you want to stay plugged in to
• 6:26
  Speaker 2: life support? And they said, you know, blink once for
• 6:32
  Speaker 2: yes and twice for no, and she blinked twice for no.
• 6:35
  Speaker 2: She didn't want to be. left on life support. She
• 6:38
  Speaker 2: wanted them to unplug her. So Sandra didn't have to
• 6:42
  Speaker 2: make that decision, but she was extremely overwhelmed.
• 6:46
  Speaker 1: And just a month later, Sandra's grandmother died, another woman
• 6:51
  Speaker 1: she'd lived with and been close to her whole life.
• 6:54
  Speaker 2: I believe it was June 2016, she lost her grandmother.
• 6:57
  Speaker 2: So it was a very tough, tough year for Sandra.
• 7:01
  Speaker 2: You know, it was just her and her mom. Her
• 7:03
  Speaker 2: father wasn't in the picture at all, ever. And they
• 7:07
  Speaker 2: spent most of Sandra's life living in the family home
• 7:10
  Speaker 2: in Stoughton where her grandmother lived and her grandfather. And
• 7:14
  Speaker 2: they were a very, very close family. It was devastating
• 7:20
  Speaker 2: to her, but I think she was smart enough to
• 7:23
  Speaker 2: know that she needed help. And she, you know, she
• 7:26
  Speaker 2: did enter therapy and she did look for help. And
• 7:28
  Speaker 2: she also leaned on the rest of her family as
• 7:30
  Speaker 2: well as her faith. And she started communicating with me
• 7:35
  Speaker 2: more regularly at that time. And we continued to stay
• 7:40
  Speaker 2: close throughout the years. In 2018, I went through a
• 7:43
  Speaker 2: tough divorce and she held me up through that. And then,
• 7:49
  Speaker 2: of course, after that was the pandemic.
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: The COVID-19 pandemic rapidly spread across the world and the U.S.
• 7:57
  Speaker 1: in the winter and spring of 2020. Sandra and Barb,
• 8:01
  Speaker 1: like everyone else, were forced indoors, their lives suddenly rearranged.
• 8:06
  Speaker 1: Sandra tried to make the most of it, taking online
• 8:09
  Speaker 1: courses at a local community college. She also spent a
• 8:13
  Speaker 1: lot more time on the phone, texting and talking with Barb,
• 8:17
  Speaker 1: who was living across the country in Seattle and was struggling.
• 8:22
  Speaker 2: I was in a crisis during the pandemic. I ended
• 8:27
  Speaker 2: up losing four clients in one day in March when
• 8:31
  Speaker 2: it hit. And like everybody else filed for pandemic unemployment.
• 8:37
  Speaker 2: And then Washington state got hit with unemployment fraud situation.
• 8:42
  Speaker 2: And my bank shut down all my accounts. So I
• 8:45
  Speaker 2: had no access to funds for two months. And I
• 8:48
  Speaker 2: remember telling Sandra about it. And all of a sudden
• 8:51
  Speaker 2: my phone pings and it's like, it's from Facebook. And
• 8:54
  Speaker 2: it says, Sandra Birchman wants to send you $ 50. Do
• 8:57
  Speaker 2: you want to accept? And I'm like, she didn't even
• 9:00
  Speaker 2: ask me. She just sent the money along.
• 9:04
  Speaker 1: This kindness, this awareness of other people's needs, it extended
• 9:09
  Speaker 1: beyond Sandra's family. She seemed to have an innate desire
• 9:12
  Speaker 1: to care for others.
• 9:14
  Speaker 2: For a 23-year-old, if you go to her Facebook page
• 9:18
  Speaker 2: and look at it, you expect to see selfies, but
• 9:22
  Speaker 2: her page was full of public service announcements. This street's
• 9:25
  Speaker 2: going to be closed due to construction. School's going to
• 9:29
  Speaker 2: be delayed tomorrow. There's this fundraiser for the community. A
• 9:33
  Speaker 2: lot of quotes and stories from local police departments and
• 9:38
  Speaker 2: the Massachusetts State Police.
• 9:41
  Speaker 1: Sandra was at an age where she was just figuring
• 9:43
  Speaker 1: out what she wanted to do, and she kept circling
• 9:46
  Speaker 1: public service careers. She got her associate's degree in criminal
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: justice and had considered entering law enforcement, but worried her height,
• 9:55
  Speaker 1: at less than five feet tall, might hold her back.
• 9:59
  Speaker 1: She went to basic justice, for the Army Reserve, but
• 10:02
  Speaker 1: came home early. She said she'd been kicked out because
• 10:05
  Speaker 1: of asthma she hadn't disclosed. So for the time being,
• 10:09
  Speaker 1: she was working as an aide at an elementary school
• 10:12
  Speaker 1: and taking classes in preparation to apply to nursing school.
• 10:17
  Speaker 1: Healthcare felt like a good fit, a way to help
• 10:19
  Speaker 1: people and also earn a stable living. It seemed important
• 10:23
  Speaker 1: to Sandra to have Barb, who was in a different
• 10:26
  Speaker 1: stage of life, to bounce these ideas off of.
• 10:31
  Speaker 2: She mostly talked about her future. She was very focused
• 10:35
  Speaker 2: on her future and what she wanted to do with
• 10:37
  Speaker 2: her life.
• 10:40
  Speaker 1: On the night of February 1st, 2021, as a blizzard
• 10:44
  Speaker 1: was bearing down on New England, Barb got a message
• 10:47
  Speaker 1: from Sandra.
• 10:49
  Speaker 2: I was sitting at my desk, and it was a
• 10:51
  Speaker 2: live trivia game that was on Facebook Live that I
• 10:55
  Speaker 2: would do every week. And being in Seattle, it was
• 11:00
  Speaker 2: about 5.30 for me, which would have been 8.30 for her.
• 11:04
  Speaker 2: And it was a text, just checking in to see
• 11:07
  Speaker 2: how I was doing. And because it was a live trivia,
• 11:10
  Speaker 2: I'm like, I can't talk right now because I'm in
• 11:12
  Speaker 2: a live trivia. All these questions are coming up, and
• 11:14
  Speaker 2: I have to think about them. And she said that...
• 11:19
  Speaker 2: She hoped everything was well, and that was the last
• 11:21
  Speaker 2: thing I heard from her.
• 11:38
  Speaker 1: The blizzard that arrives with Sandra's dinner buries eastern Massachusetts overnight.
• 11:44
  Speaker 1: On Tuesday, schools in Sharon, where Sandra works, are canceled.
• 11:49
  Speaker 1: Wednesday's a remote day, which means it isn't until Thursday,
• 11:53
  Speaker 1: February 4th, the first morning anyone is expected in the building,
• 11:58
  Speaker 1: that Sandra's absence is something you can visibly see. She
• 12:03
  Speaker 1: doesn't show. And by then, she hasn't answered anyone in days.
• 12:07
  Speaker 1: The school has tried to reach her. They've tried her
• 12:10
  Speaker 1: emergency contact as well. Nothing. Nothing. At quarter to 10
• 12:15
  Speaker 1: that morning, Sharon's school resource officer, Michael Hawking, calls his
• 12:20
  Speaker 1: counterpart in Canton, where Sandra lives, and asks for a
• 12:23
  Speaker 1: well-being check. Officer Ensley Cotard agrees to help out. He
• 12:28
  Speaker 1: drives to Sandra's apartment complex. It's a new build, about
• 12:32
  Speaker 1: five stories high, boasting amenities like a pool and a gym.
• 12:37
  Speaker 1: After talking to the property manager, Cotard goes up to
• 12:40
  Speaker 1: Sandra's unit on the third floor. He knocks on the door,
• 12:44
  Speaker 1: but there's no answer. So he goes to look for
• 12:47
  Speaker 1: her car in the parking lot. Here's some of Officer
• 12:51
  Speaker 1: Katard's report, read by a voice actor.
• 12:55
  Speaker 4: I located the vehicle outside of Building 3 and radioed
• 12:58
  Speaker 4: in to dispatch that I located her vehicle. Officer Brady
• 13:02
  Speaker 4: and I visually inspected the vehicle and noticed that there
• 13:04
  Speaker 4: was snow still on and around the vehicle that appeared undisturbed.
• 13:09
  Speaker 4: The last time it snowed was on Monday, February 1st,
• 13:12
  Speaker 4: into Tuesday, February 2nd, 2021.
• 13:16
  Speaker 1: Sandra's blue Chevy Cruze is still buried under snow three
• 13:20
  Speaker 1: days after the storm. It's clear it hasn't moved. This,
• 13:26
  Speaker 1: paired with the fact she's not answering at her door,
• 13:29
  Speaker 1: is concerning. And so, Officer Katard calls for backup and
• 13:34
  Speaker 1: requests a copy of Sandra's apartment key from the property manager.
• 13:38
  Speaker 4: A short time later, Officer Yeaton arrived on the scene,
• 13:42
  Speaker 4: and we all made our way back to Ms. Birchmore's
• 13:44
  Speaker 4: apartment 3307. Again, I knocked and announced our presence at
• 13:49
  Speaker 4: the door several times with no response. With the key,
• 13:52
  Speaker 4: all officers on scene made entry into the apartment.
• 13:57
  Speaker 1: As soon as Officer Cotard is inside, he observes Sandra's
• 14:01
  Speaker 1: two cats running around. He begins checking rooms, starting with
• 14:06
  Speaker 1: the bathroom. No one's in there. Then he sees the bedroom.
• 14:12
  Speaker 1: The door is shut and the light is off. He
• 14:15
  Speaker 1: opens the door, and that's when he sees Sandra. She's
• 14:20
  Speaker 1: seated on the floor next to the bedroom closet, with
• 14:23
  Speaker 1: something wrapped around her neck, attached to the closet door handle.
• 14:28
  Speaker 1: In various police reports to come, this ligature is described
• 14:33
  Speaker 1: as a scarf and a belt. Much later, it's determined
• 14:37
  Speaker 1: to be a strap from a duffel bag. Sandra's cell
• 14:41
  Speaker 1: phone is on the floor, approximately 12 inches from her
• 14:45
  Speaker 1: right hand and 6 inches from her right knee. Here's
• 14:49
  Speaker 1: an excerpt from Officer Cotard's notes, again.
• 14:52
  Speaker 4: It was immediately apparent to this officer that Ms. Birchmore
• 14:56
  Speaker 4: was deceased. As I noticed lividity about the skin, face,
• 15:00
  Speaker 4: and rigor about the body's extremities, I also noticed a
• 15:03
  Speaker 4: large pooling of dried blood around the mouth.
• 15:06
  Speaker 1: Officer Cotard exits the apartment, secures the scene, and calls
• 15:10
  Speaker 1: for more help. A flurry of activity kicks off. A
• 15:14
  Speaker 1: paramedic with Canton Fire EMT arrives and officially pronounces Sandra deceased.
• 15:20
  Speaker 1: His estimate? She's been dead for several days. More Canton
• 15:25
  Speaker 1: police officers show up, document the scene. They get the
• 15:28
  Speaker 1: property manager, Aaron Porter, to show them surveillance footage from
• 15:32
  Speaker 1: the lobby. The last videos of Sandra are the ones
• 15:37
  Speaker 1: from February 1st, the night of the blizzard. There she
• 15:41
  Speaker 1: is accepting her food delivery, getting the snow brush. It's
• 15:46
  Speaker 1: clear from reading through the reports from the first responders
• 15:48
  Speaker 1: that even this early, there's a prevailing theory of what
• 15:52
  Speaker 1: happened to Sandra, just based on what the officers observe.
• 15:56
  Speaker 1: Here's how Detective Jonathan McCourt, who arrived minutes into the investigation,
• 16:01
  Speaker 1: describes the scene, as read by a voice actor.
• 16:05
  Speaker 5: I was informed the party was deceased and had hanged herself.
• 16:09
  Speaker 5: There were no visible traumas to the head or defensive
• 16:11
  Speaker 5: abrasions on the hands. No signs of a struggle that
• 16:14
  Speaker 5: were observed in the bedroom or the apartment.
• 16:18
  Speaker 1: In initial reports, Canton PD files the case as a
• 16:21
  Speaker 1: sudden death. No crime involved. But because all death investigations
• 16:26
  Speaker 1: in the county are overseen by the district attorney's office
• 16:30
  Speaker 1: and investigated by state troopers, they report the case to them.
• 16:34
  Speaker 1: Just before noon, troopers Matthew Dunn and Kevin Tufts get
• 16:38
  Speaker 1: the call and head to the scene to take it over.
• 16:42
  Speaker 1: They walk through the apartment and share the same instinct
• 16:45
  Speaker 1: as the Canton police as to what it all looks like.
• 16:49
  Speaker 1: A young woman who took her own life. Here's some
• 16:52
  Speaker 1: of Trooper Dunn's report as read by a voice actor.
• 16:57
  Speaker 6: After concluding the examination of the apartment, I noticed nothing
• 17:00
  Speaker 6: suspicious and no sign of a struggle having taken place.
• 17:04
  Speaker 6: Despite the clutter, all items appeared to be in their
• 17:07
  Speaker 6: intended locations, and no items appeared to have been knocked
• 17:11
  Speaker 6: over or strewn about in an unintended manner. The walls
• 17:14
  Speaker 6: showed no signs of scuff marks or indentations. No drag
• 17:18
  Speaker 6: marks were visible on the floor or carpeting.
• 17:22
  Speaker 1: A few hours later, state investigators submit their first report
• 17:26
  Speaker 1: on the case. They title it, Birchmore Suicide Canton.
• 17:34
  Speaker 2: A day or two went by and I didn't think
• 17:35
  Speaker 2: a lot of it because I knew that Boston, they
• 17:37
  Speaker 2: had a big snowstorm. So I figured, well, maybe her
• 17:39
  Speaker 2: phone isn't working or, you know, something's going on. And
• 17:45
  Speaker 2: so I waited a day or two. And so that
• 17:48
  Speaker 2: was Wednesday. I started to worry. And then I got
• 17:52
  Speaker 2: a text from my sister telling me what happened. I
• 17:56
  Speaker 2: had to sit down. I was in shock. It just
• 17:59
  Speaker 2: said they found Sandra deceased in her apartment. That's pretty
• 18:04
  Speaker 2: much all it said. And I went numb. I'm like,
• 18:08
  Speaker 2: I sat down. I'm like, what? I had to keep
• 18:10
  Speaker 2: reading it over and over because I couldn't believe what
• 18:13
  Speaker 2: I was reading.
• 18:13
  Speaker 1: And what were you told in the beginning? Like, what
• 18:18
  Speaker 1: was the story of what had happened?
• 18:22
  Speaker 2: Well, in the very, very beginning, nobody knew. But then
• 18:26
  Speaker 2: as the days went by, I heard that she had
• 18:34
  Speaker 2: committed suicide. And I'm like, no, no, I couldn't believe it.
• 18:37
  Speaker 2: Not even for a minute. Not even for a minute.
• 18:40
  Speaker 2: She had too much going on. She was so excited
• 18:43
  Speaker 2: about life.
• 18:45
  Speaker 1: The choice to die by suicide rarely makes sense to
• 18:47
  Speaker 1: the people left behind. But as Barb saw it, her
• 18:51
  Speaker 1: doubt wasn't just grief. In the months before her death,
• 18:55
  Speaker 1: Sandra wasn't retreating from life. She was building a new one.
• 19:01
  Speaker 2: She had just moved into her very first apartment, and
• 19:03
  Speaker 2: everybody knows how that feels. You're so excited. Life is good.
• 19:07
  Speaker 2: And she was looking forward to nursing school. I had
• 19:10
  Speaker 2: co-signed for her to buy a new car. She had
• 19:13
  Speaker 2: a brand new car. Everything was looking up for Sandra.
• 19:16
  Speaker 2: She had a new apartment. She had a new car.
• 19:20
  Speaker 2: And then she found out she was going to be
• 19:22
  Speaker 2: a mother.
• 19:35
  Speaker 1: Did you know that she desired to become a mother?
• 19:38
  Speaker 2: Yes, she talked about it a lot. She had had
• 19:41
  Speaker 2: a couple of miscarriages. She told me that that was
• 19:44
  Speaker 2: very devastating. She talked about becoming a mom all the time.
• 19:48
  Speaker 2: It was something she really wanted to do. She desperately
• 19:52
  Speaker 2: wanted a family. She had lost her mother, her grandmother.
• 19:57
  Speaker 2: She had lost her favorite aunt, Alice. Alice died in 2019.
• 20:02
  Speaker 2: And she just wanted a family. She wanted someone to
• 20:04
  Speaker 2: love and someone to love her back.
• 20:06
  Speaker 1: How did you find out she was pregnant?
• 20:09
  Speaker 2: She woke me up at 4 o'clock in the morning,
• 20:11
  Speaker 2: Seattle time, 7 o'clock Boston time. She didn't realize it
• 20:16
  Speaker 2: was 4 a.m. She says, I got to tell you something.
• 20:18
  Speaker 2: I'm going to be a mom. She was very, very excited.
• 20:23
  Speaker 2: That's how I found out. She was planning a baby shower.
• 20:25
  Speaker 2: She was looking into, you know, how she was going
• 20:31
  Speaker 2: to take care of the baby, who was going to
• 20:32
  Speaker 2: help her with the baby. She had, you know, her
• 20:35
  Speaker 2: aunts and different people in the family who were going.
• 20:37
  Speaker 7: To help out.
• 20:38
  Speaker 2: She was so careful about this baby and the health
• 20:42
  Speaker 2: of this baby that she would call me or text
• 20:45
  Speaker 2: me before she ate anything. One day she texted me
• 20:47
  Speaker 2: and she said, is it okay to eat bagged salad?
• 20:49
  Speaker 2: I'm like, it should be fine. I said, just make
• 20:53
  Speaker 2: sure you wash it because even though they say pre-wash,
• 20:56
  Speaker 2: God knows what kind of water they're in.
• 20:59
  Speaker 1: Sandra was only 8 to 10 weeks pregnant when she died.
• 21:02
  Speaker 1: But Barb tells me she had been taking motherhood seriously
• 21:06
  Speaker 1: from the day she got a positive pregnancy test.
• 21:09
  Speaker 2: She would call me and ask me for advice, you know,
• 21:11
  Speaker 2: and said, OK, this is going on. I feel this way.
• 21:14
  Speaker 2: I got this pain. I mean, she was really, really careful.
• 21:18
  Speaker 2: One of my other cousins gave her a ride in
• 21:21
  Speaker 2: their car to go somewhere when she was pregnant. And
• 21:24
  Speaker 2: Sandra insisted on sitting in the back seat because she
• 21:27
  Speaker 2: was afraid if they had an accident, the airbag would
• 21:29
  Speaker 2: hit her and hurt the baby. That's how concerned she
• 21:33
  Speaker 2: was about her pregnancy and careful about it. She wanted
• 21:36
  Speaker 2: everything to be perfect for this child, as we all do, right?
• 21:41
  Speaker 1: Barb had known that Sandra was dating someone, but Sandra
• 21:44
  Speaker 1: had been reticent to share any real details other than
• 21:48
  Speaker 1: the fact he was already married.
• 21:50
  Speaker 2: She was very secretive about her personal life. She didn't
• 21:54
  Speaker 2: tell me a whole lot. She called him the married man.
• 21:58
  Speaker 2: She wouldn't give me a name. When she became pregnant,
• 22:01
  Speaker 2: she called him the father. And I'm like, so who
• 22:04
  Speaker 2: is that? She goes, the father of the baby. And
• 22:07
  Speaker 2: that's all she would tell me. The only thing I
• 22:09
  Speaker 2: knew was that he was married. And of course, as
• 22:13
  Speaker 2: her older cousin, I tried to advise her and say, hey,
• 22:17
  Speaker 2: this is not going to end well. You should be
• 22:20
  Speaker 2: with somebody who wants to be in a relationship with
• 22:23
  Speaker 2: just you. You deserve better. I went through the whole
• 22:27
  Speaker 2: spiel with her, but she kind of, Kind of just
• 22:30
  Speaker 2: laughed that off. I was under the impression she was
• 22:34
  Speaker 2: very much in love with this man. And she thought
• 22:37
  Speaker 2: he was too.
• 22:39
  Speaker 1: When the state troopers assigned to Sandra's case call her
• 22:42
  Speaker 1: emergency contact, her Aunt Darlene, they learn the name of
• 22:46
  Speaker 1: Sandra's boyfriend, this married man she said was the father
• 22:50
  Speaker 1: of her unborn baby. It's Matthew Farwell. He's a police
• 22:55
  Speaker 1: detective in Stoughton, the town where Sandra grew up. from
• 23:00
  Speaker 1: Trooper Dunn's report, as read by a voice actor.
• 23:04
  Speaker 6: She was aware Bershmore was pregnant and that the father
• 23:07
  Speaker 6: of the baby is Matthew Farwell. Bershmore had previously mentioned
• 23:12
  Speaker 6: that she and Farwell had been talking through issues regarding
• 23:14
  Speaker 6: Farwell signing the birth certificate.
• 23:17
  Speaker 1: Darlene told police, when asked, that she wasn't aware of
• 23:21
  Speaker 1: any allegations or signs of abuse between Sandra and Farwell.
• 23:25
  Speaker 1: She had spoken to her niece that Monday afternoon. The
• 23:29
  Speaker 1: trooper asked her to check her phone for the exact time,
• 23:32
  Speaker 1: and she did. 4.25 p.m., February 1st. Sandra was talking
• 23:37
  Speaker 1: about what she was going to order for dinner. Nothing
• 23:40
  Speaker 1: was wrong. Everything was ordinary. Which lined up with what
• 23:45
  Speaker 1: investigators saw when they pulled the security footage from the
• 23:48
  Speaker 1: lobby of Sandra's apartment building. Sandra picking up a delivery,
• 23:53
  Speaker 1: going out for a snow brush. All signs pointed to
• 23:56
  Speaker 1: a quiet night in by herself. But the investigators missed something.
• 24:03
  Speaker 1: After the state troopers leave Sandra's apartment building, the property manager,
• 24:07
  Speaker 1: Aaron Porter, decides to go through the security camera footage again.
• 24:12
  Speaker 1: It's unclear why. I reached out to her, but she
• 24:16
  Speaker 1: declined to participate in the podcast. Barb has her own explanation.
• 24:23
  Speaker 2: She got a gut feeling to look at that video again.
• 24:26
  Speaker 2: She's my angel, I gotta say. Because she looked at
• 24:29
  Speaker 2: that footage and went, whoa.
• 24:31
  Speaker 1: This time, when viewing the footage alone, Porter sees him.
• 24:36
  Speaker 1: At 9.14 that night, the last night Sandra is seen alive,
• 24:41
  Speaker 1: a man enters the lobby. He's tall, heavyset, hood pulled up,
• 24:47
  Speaker 1: a COVID mask covering his face. Porter doesn't recognize him
• 24:51
  Speaker 1: as a tenant, but something about him is familiar. She
• 24:54
  Speaker 1: emails Canton police that night. Here's a report written by
• 24:58
  Speaker 1: Canton Sergeant Michael J. Lank, read by a voice actor.
• 25:03
  Speaker 7: Thursday evening, I was contacted by email by Erin Porter,
• 25:07
  Speaker 7: who's the property manager. She stated that she'd seen somebody
• 25:10
  Speaker 7: entering the building.
• 25:11
  Speaker 6: On the video footage.
• 25:12
  Speaker 7: I advised her that we would look into the matter
• 25:14
  Speaker 7: when we were able to access the video footage again.
• 25:18
  Speaker 1: On Saturday afternoon, Canton Police and State Police meet back
• 25:21
  Speaker 1: at the apartment building to review the video once more.
• 25:25
  Speaker 1: Here's an excerpt from Detective Jonathan McCourt's report, as read
• 25:29
  Speaker 1: by a voice actor.
• 25:31
  Speaker 5: At approximately 1 o'clock p.m., Sergeant Lang, Detective Albert, and
• 25:35
  Speaker 5: I went to assist the state police in obtaining video
• 25:37
  Speaker 5: from Birchmore's apartment building. We were met at the leasing
• 25:40
  Speaker 5: office by Trooper Dunn and Trooper Tufts. Maintenance Supervisor Carlos
• 25:43
  Speaker 5: Ruisimo assisted us in reviewing the video footage. Carlos informed
• 25:47
  Speaker 5: me that he recognized everyone on the video that enters
• 25:49
  Speaker 5: the lobby on Monday, except one individual. The individual is
• 25:52
  Speaker 5: a tall, burly male... The individual is wearing work boots, jeans,
• 25:56
  Speaker 5: a black jacket, and has a black hood on his head.
• 25:59
  Speaker 1: According to the video footage, the man enters the elevator
• 26:03
  Speaker 1: at 9.14 p.m. He comes back out at 9.43, 28
• 26:09
  Speaker 1: minutes later.
• 26:11
  Speaker 5: When the individual exits the elevator, his jacket coat is open,
• 26:14
  Speaker 5: and a white symbol is seen on his upper left
• 26:16
  Speaker 5: portion of his black sweatshirt. The symbol resembled what I
• 26:19
  Speaker 5: believe to be the Nine Line logo. Nine Line is
• 26:21
  Speaker 5: a military apparel line.
• 26:24
  Speaker 1: While the building's maintenance supervisor didn't recognize the man, another employee,
• 26:30
  Speaker 1: Michael Sturgeon, did. He told police that the guy on
• 26:33
  Speaker 1: camera looked an awful lot like the man who helped
• 26:37
  Speaker 1: Birchmore move into her apartment. He didn't know his name,
• 26:41
  Speaker 1: but it didn't matter. The masked man would soon be
• 26:44
  Speaker 1: identified as Stoughton Police Officer Matthew Farwell. He appeared to
• 26:50
  Speaker 1: be the last person to see Sandra alive. Coming up
• 27:04
  Speaker 1: on What Happened to Her, the Sandra Birchmore story. This case,
• 27:09
  Speaker 1: there was something more to it. You got these officers
• 27:13
  Speaker 1: riding around with these young explorers and unsupervised for.
• 27:17
  Speaker 2: The most part. Victims are groomed to keep secrets and
• 27:20
  Speaker 2: Sandra was very good at that, unfortunately.
• 27:23
  Speaker 3: That had gone on for so long and at such
• 27:26
  Speaker 3: a young age.
• 27:28
  Speaker 4: Because she was getting older, that's how she realized that
• 27:33
  Speaker 4: what happened to her wasn't right.
• 27:35
  Speaker 2: She was putting all this pressure on him.
• 27:38
  Speaker 1: She'd given him an ultimatum.
• 27:40
  Speaker 6: It wasn't about the baby.
• 27:41
  Speaker 2: It was about his secrets getting out. Around the time
• 27:44
  Speaker 2: that she died, he was tracking her every move. She
• 27:48
  Speaker 2: was starting to get worried and get scared for her safety.
• 27:54
  Speaker 2: I would describe it as like a powder keg, ready
• 27:56
  Speaker 2: to blow.
• 28:00
  Speaker 1: What Happened to Her is hosted, reported, and written by me,
• 28:04
  Speaker 1: Melissa Jeltsin. Additional writing and story editing by Marissa Brown. Editing,
• 28:09
  Speaker 1: sound design, and mixing by Evan Tyer. Original music by
• 28:14
  Speaker 1: Aaron Kaufman. Executive producers are Jason English, Lauren Hanson, Ryan Murdoch,
• 28:19
  Speaker 1: and Melissa Jeltsin. If you have a story you think
• 28:22
  Speaker 1: we should look into or just something to say, you
• 28:25
  Speaker 1: can reach us at whathappentoherpodcast at gmail.com. If you or
• 28:31
  Speaker 1: someone you know is experiencing domestic violence, please visit the
• 28:35
  Speaker 1: National Domestic Violence Hotline at thehotline.org or call them at
• 28:40
  Speaker 1: 800-799-SAFE for free confidential support 24 hours a day. Thank
• 28:46
  Speaker 1: you so much for listening.