Kirk Minihane hosted two seasons of a true crime podcast series for Barstool Sports, and both seasons have now been followed by suspects being charged with murder.
Wednesday morning, the FBI announced a Boston SWAT Team arrested former Stoughton Police Officer Matthew Farwell for allegedly killing Sandra Birchmore, whose death in Canton, Massachusetts was initially ruled a suicide in 2021. Birchmore was three months pregnant at the time of her death and recently informed Farwell she believed he was the father.
#BREAKING: #FBI Boston’s SWAT Team has arrested former Stoughton Police Officer Matthew Farwell for allegedly killing Sandra Birchmore. We took him into custody without incident. Details to follow at a 1:45 p.m. news conference with @DMAnews1 at the federal courthouse in Boston.
— FBI Boston (@FBIBoston) August 28, 2024
In 2022, Minihane launched The Case Season 2: Sandra, which investigated Birchmore’s death. While Minihane has not been credited for furthering the case that now resulted in Farwell’s arrest, his podcast undoubtedly helped debunk the initial police narrative alleging Birchmore committed suicide. According to the indictment filed by federal authorities this week in U.S. District Court, Farwell killed Birchmore, who was pregnant, in 2021. The indictment also states Farwell was the child’s father.
“On or about February 1, 2021, FARWELL killed Birchmore by strangulation,” the indictment reads. “Shortly thereafter, FARWELL staged Birchmore’s Canton, Massachusetts apartment to make it appear as if Birchmore had committed suicide.”
During The Case Season 2 finale released in Jan. 2023, Minihane called the series a “noble failure,” citing the hurdles in pursuing justice for Birchmore and the challenge of getting people to speak about an incident that occurred so recently. The first season of The Case began with an investigation into the death of Jennifer Lynn Fay, who went missing in Feb. 1989. With decades having passed, people in connection to Fay were more willing to speak than those being interviewed about Birchmore.
“We just didn’t accomplish what we wanted to accomplish,” Minihane said. “Which Season 1 we did, eventually.”
Nearly 20 months later, Minihane should now be able to look back and say The Case Season 2 eventually accomplished what it wanted to accomplish. It told Birchmore’s story and highlighted the fact that her death was not a suicide. It was also the second true crime podcast from Minihane that was followed by a suspect being charged with murder.
In The Case Season 1, Minihane deemed Kevin Maler a central figure in Fay’s disappearance. Minihane later found Maler may have been a key figure in the death of several other people, including South Carolina man Kevin Craig. As a result of The Case Season 1, Maler was eventually charged with murdering Craig, and Minihane received credit from the local sheriff’s department.
During the Season 2 finale, Minihane stated he had a third season of The Case that was nearly finished and was set to begin working on the fourth shortly. Neither season has been released.
