Stoughton Police Chief Donna McNamara says the town manager is trying to force her out of her job after she pushed for accountability in the death of Sandra Birchmore, a 23-year-old woman found dead in her Canton apartment in February 2021.

What's happening to McNamara right now.

McNamara's attorney told the Boston Globe that the chief's internal investigation into the Birchmore case exposed serious misconduct by officers under her command, and that the fallout from those findings is driving the current conflict. Stoughton has cited confidentiality around personnel matters and declined to comment publicly. The town has already named an acting police chief; McNamara filed a formal harassment complaint against the town manager and was placed off the job two days later. She has described the effort to remove her as a smear campaign.

The case at the center of it all.

Birchmore was found dead in her Canton apartment on Feb. 4, 2021, with the strap of a duffel bag around her neck. The medical examiner initially ruled the death a suicide, a finding later changed to "undetermined."

Former Stoughton Police Detective Matthew Farwell was federally indicted in August 2024 on one count of killing a witness or victim. Prosecutors allege he strangled Birchmore around Feb. 1, 2021, and staged her apartment to look like a suicide after she told him she was pregnant with his child. A superseding indictment in October 2025 added charges related to the death of Birchmore's unborn child. Farwell has pleaded not guilty and remains in federal custody, with no trial date set.

Federal prosecutors also allege Farwell groomed and sexually abused Birchmore starting when she was 15 and he was a Stoughton police officer volunteering with the department's police explorer program — a program Birchmore had participated in since she was 12 or 13.

How McNamara responded when the case first broke.

McNamara, chief since 2016, ordered an internal affairs investigation the day after Birchmore's body was found. In September 2022, she released redacted findings accusing three former officers — Matthew Farwell, former deputy chief Robert Devine, and Farwell's twin brother William — of manipulating Birchmore "right up until her final days," and sought permanent revocation of their law enforcement credentials. All three resigned that year. Neither Devine nor William Farwell has faced criminal charges.

"The alleged murder of Sandra is a horrific injustice," McNamara said when Farwell was first indicted in 2024. "The allegations against the suspect, a former Stoughton Police Officer, represent the single worst act of not just professional misconduct but indeed human indecency that I have observed in a nearly three-decade career in law enforcement."

Where things stand.

Birchmore's estate has filed a civil lawsuit against the Stoughton Police Department alleging wrongful death and negligent hiring, which remains ongoing. Anyone with information related to the case can contact the FBI's Boston field office at 857-386-2000.