Drop Dead Serious With Ashleigh Banfield

Matthew Farwell’s defense says he went to Sandra Birchmore’s apartment to end their affair. Federal prosecutors say he went there to kill her. On February 4, 2021, 23-year-old Sandra Birchmore was found dead in her Canton, Massachusetts, apartment with a duffel bag strap around her neck. She was pregnant. Prosecutors allege that Matthew Farwell, a former Stoughton police detective, strangled her three days earlier and staged the scene. Matthew Farwell pleaded not guilty to federal charges of killing a witness or victim and causing the death of an unborn child. In this episode of Drop Dead Serious, Ashleigh Banfield is joined by WBZ-TV reporter Kristina Rex, who covered the trial from inside the courtroom, to break down the November 6 closing arguments.
Sandra Birchmore Case Playlist:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLPAgz_QEcbRs

Five months after Brooke Hanlon was found stabbed to death in her own home, a source tells Daily Mail reporter Dana Kennedy there’s a DNA clue the public hasn’t heard about. On June 6, 2026, Conor Hanlon called 911 and said he’d come home to find his wife unresponsive inside their house on Pottersville Road in Chester Township, New Jersey. Brooke was a 35-year-old psychotherapist and mother to an 11-month-old daughter. The medical examiner ruled her death a homicide, but it took more than three weeks for authorities to publicly confirm her name. In this episode of Drop Dead Serious, Ashleigh Banfield sits down with Dana Kennedy to talk about what her source told her, why investigators were seen back at the Hanlon home five months after the murder, and what it would take to find out whose DNA it is.
Brooke Hanlon Case Playlist:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLIfNaSd_Ibys

Cherie and Dustin Walker said they had no idea their 11-year-old was pregnant. Then she gave birth at home in Muskogee, Oklahoma, and a DNA test identified her stepfather, Dustin Walker, as the baby’s father. On October 30, 2026, Cherie Walker was sentenced to seven consecutive life terms, while Dustin Walker was ordered to serve 42 years for child neglect before his life sentence begins. In this episode of Drop Dead Serious, Ashleigh Banfield returns to the Oklahoma House of Horrors to break down what jurors heard at Cherie Walker’s trial, what a younger sister’s drawing revealed in court, and why the girl’s grandmother, Michelle Justus, faces six felony child neglect charges of her own.

A married Massachusetts police detective is accused of killing 23-year-old Sandra Birchmore and her unborn baby to conceal a secret that stretched back to when she was fifteen. In this episode of Drop Dead Serious, Ashleigh Banfield is joined by WBZ-TV reporter Kristina Rex, who was inside the courtroom when Matthew Farwell's twin brother, Billy Farwell testified. They get into what Billy says his brother told him about wiping his phones, what the medical examiner was never shown before ruling Sandra’s death a suicide, and why a broken bone in her neck and a mark on her chest became points of contention at trial.
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At a November 2, 2026, hearing, Lindsay Clancy's attorneys challenged the mistrial that followed an 11–1 jury split and demanded answers about alleged misconduct by the lone holdout juror. Could double jeopardy stop a second murder trial over the deaths of Cora, Dawson, and Callan Clancy? In this episode of Drop Dead Serious, Ashleigh Banfield breaks down the courtroom clash, the allegations involving the holdout juror’s phone use and jury selection answers, and the prosecution’s push to restrict public statements by attorneys. Plus, Patrick Clancy’s lawsuit against Lindsay’s medical providers, conflicting statements about whether she will testify, and the fight over releasing her mental health treatment records as a possible retrial looms.
Lindsay Clancy Case Playlist: 
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLL1Mz5h10zAc