Overview
- Prosecutors say Matthew Farwell strangled Sandra Birchmore in her Canton apartment on Feb. 1, 2021 and then staged her death to hide alleged sexual crimes he committed over years.
- The defense has called Kentucky Chief Medical Examiner William Ralston and forensic anthropologist Heather Garvin to argue that the fractured hyoid bone and other injuries do not reliably prove strangulation.
- Prosecution expert Dr. William Smock testified that the hyoid fracture was rare in young people who die by hanging and supported a homicide finding, and the defense experts directly contested his methods and conclusions.
- Trial evidence already presented includes thousands of texts, phone and Apple Watch location data, surveillance footage, immunity-witness testimony, and DNA that excluded Farwell as the fetus’s father and identified Jason Pickard.
- Farwell faces rare federal counts that allege he killed to prevent disclosure of federal crimes tied to alleged grooming and sexual exploitation starting when Birchmore was a teenager, and a conviction could carry life in prison.