Sandra Birchmore, 23, texted a friend the news in late January 2021. Farwell, then a police officer in Stoughton, Massachusetts, near Boston, had visited Birchmore’s apartment the night before, according to an affidavit accompanying Farwell’s indictment and arrest for killing her.

She thought Farwell bringing soda might be a sign that their relationship was improving. “He’s coming around,” her friend texted. “A lot more than I thought he was going to yes,” Birchmore wrote back. His behavior toward her that night had been markedly different, a “complete 180 from where we were at,” Birchmore texted another person, according to the affidavit filed in federal court this week.

The court records allege in disturbing detail that Farwell had, for about a decade, groomed, controlled and finally killed Birchmore. The indictment of Farwell, 38, this week is a major twist in a case that has garnered national speculation into the circumstances of her death. The two met when Birchmore was a 13-year-old participant in the Stoughton Police Department’s Explorer post, a mentorship program created by Scouting America (formerly known as the Boy Scouts) that teaches young people about law enforcement. Farwell was an instructor and was later hired as a police officer. The Marshall Project featured Birchmore’s case earlier this year as part of an investigation that found nearly 200 allegations of abuse and misconduct in police Explorer programs across the country.