Dylan Blanchard, Gypsy Rose’s half-brother, climbed through an unlocked bedroom window into Ken Urker’s home before deputies arrived. He was the first person inside the house. Ken was found dead on his thirty-fourth birthday with drug paraphernalia at the scene. The coroner says there is no definitive cause of death. Read more…
On May 9, 2020, Suzanne Morphew texted at 2:11 p.m. — her last confirmed contact with anyone. Barry Morphew pulled in at 2:43. What happened between that afternoon and the next morning, when Suzanne’s phone went dark, comes entirely from Barry’s account. Suzanne had planted a hidden recording device in Read more…
Before trial, Farwell’s defense filed a motion accusing federal investigators of pressuring the medical examiner who performed Sandra Birchmore’s autopsy into changing her original finding. The government says there is no evidence or good-faith basis for the claim. The defense also told the jury that Sandra was on psychiatric medication Read more…
Matthew Farwell first contacted Sandra Birchmore on Facebook when she was thirteen. By fifteen, prosecutors allege, they were in a relationship he called one he was “addicted” to. He met her through a law enforcement youth program. He was a twenty-seven-year-old Stoughton police officer. On Day 6 of Farwell’s federal Read more…
One officer is federally charged. His twin brother lost his certification. A former deputy chief is named in a civil suit. The Norfolk DA worked with the department and declined to charge anyone. The medical examiner called it self-inflicted, then changed the manner of death to undetermined five years later. Read more…
Matthew Farwell’s DNA was on evidence collected from Sandra Birchmore’s apartment. Prosecutors in his federal trial say it sat there untested while his case was closed as a self-inflicted death. The parking-lot interview had no camera and no notes. Witnesses who reported his statements about wanting Sandra to end her Read more…
Bryan Kohberger is serving four life sentences after pleading guilty to the Idaho student murders. He now says his former lawyers withheld information and persuaded him to confess to crimes he says he did not commit. The court has not accepted those allegations. His challenge names Anne Taylor, Elisa Massoth Read more…
Gypsy Rose Blanchard said she found something unexpected at Chillicothe Correctional Center: the chance to make decisions of her own. The woman who helped arrange Dee Dee Blanchard’s killing later told interviewers that prison allowed her to get an education and spend time with people her own age. Her account Read more…
Bryan Kohberger had a court date to argue Judge Steven Hippler should be removed from his post-conviction case. An October 14 order took that October 15 hearing off the calendar and also canceled the June 2027 dates previously reserved for his effort to undo his guilty plea. The judge’s scheduling Read more…
Eight steps on Sandra Birchmore’s phone at 9:40 p.m. Three minutes later, prosecutors say the building’s security footage shows Matthew Farwell leaving. That short stretch of time is one of the details federal prosecutors are asking jurors to weigh in the death of a pregnant 23-year-old woman. The government alleges Read more…