MURDERED: Sandra Birchmore

Crime Junkie

Audiochuck

True Crime

4.7 • 358.2K Ratings

🗓️ 15 December 2025

⏱️ 49 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In 2021, 23-year-old Sandra Birchmore was found dead in her apartment. And what Massachusetts investigators quickly called a suicide slowly revealed itself to be something much more sinister. Because out of the woodwork came friends, family, and co-workers with stories that Sandra had told them about her life. Stories of grooming, sexual abuse, and years of misconduct at the hands of several Stoughton Police officers… which began when she was barely a teenager. Three officers later resigned from the department. With a 2026 federal trial pending, the whole state has been left to wonder whether Sandra’s death was truly a suicide – as state police continue to maintain – or the end result of something much darker.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hi, crime junkies. Before we jump in today, I just wanted to give you a quick reminder that the crime junkie holiday merch store is closing soon. So this is your last chance to grab any holiday merch for your crime junkie besties or for yourself. So if you've had your eye on something, again, this is your final shot before these limited items are gone for good. Just head to crime junkie.com to grab your merch now.
0:23.0	All right, I'm not going to take up any more time.
0:25.4	Let's just jump right in to today's episode.
0:29.1	What I'm about to brief you on is something deeply troubling to me as a human being
0:35.6	and as a police chief.
0:41.7	On February 4th, 2021, 23-year-old,
0:48.7	Sandra Birchmore was found deceased in her apartment in Canton. What I am here to talk about today is her life and how she was failed by, manipulated by, and used by people of authority that she
0:58.6	admired and trusted right up until our final days. Ms. Birchmore was a vulnerable person who had
1:07.0	one constant in her life since childhood.
1:14.7	Her unwavering admiration of police officers,
1:18.7	of those serving the military, people in uniform,
1:23.4	people with oaths and duties to protect and serve.
1:31.4	The admiration led her to form relationships with men who were willing to take advantage of her.
1:41.1	I stand before you today as a civil servant who is heartbroken and incensed by what has transpired and who pledges that this chapter in the Stoughton Police Department
1:46.6	and the town of Stoughton is over. It must never repeat. The revolving door is closed.
1:57.9	There are so many stories we tell that involve corruption, cover-ups, or just downright
2:04.3	incompetence or negligence that it makes me sometimes lose complete faith in the system,
2:10.2	a system that is put in place to protect us. And doing this show for as long as I have,
2:16.1	I have seen a lot more bad than good. I mean, the problems are systemic. And at times, I've caught myself thinking, what is the point? Like, we might as well just give up because the problems are so big and have been there for so long that maybe I'm the delusional one. And this is just how the world is evil and the evil is so deeply
2:36.6	rooted that we are never going to win or make a difference but then when I often need it the most
2:43.7	I get a glimpse of the good ones the people who are fighting from the inside to make things better and fair and just.
2:53.3	People who believe in right and wrong and know that no one is above the law.
	...

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