Today's Top Headlines

Saturday, May 2

Good morning Wypierdalaj,

The Office of the Chief Medical Examiner has changed Sandra Birchmore‘s official manner of death from suicide to undetermined.

Birchmore, 23, was found dead in her Canton, Massachusetts, apartment in February 2021. Her manner of death was originally ruled a suicide, but friends and family rejected this conclusion and pushed for further investigation. Private investigators hired by Birchmore’s estate ruled the manner of death a homicide, and a federal probe led to charges against former Stoughton police officer Matthew Farwell.

A spokesperson confirmed that the OCME has filed an amended death certificate that changes Birchmore’s cause of death from “asphyxia by hanging” to just “asphyxia,” and lists the manner as undetermined. A spokesperson did not elaborate on why the changes were made, but the changes could strengthen allegations by federal investigators, who have stated that Farwell strangled Birchmore and staged the scene to look like a suicide.

A small plane crashed into the Quabbin Reservoir Friday evening, according to fire officials in New Salem, Massachusetts.

Police and fire crews responded around 7:40 p.m. after a witness reported that a plane went into the water, with a person in the water calling for help.

The pilot was spotted in the water when first responders arrived. A trooper with the Massachusetts State Police used a personal flotation device and tether line to reach the man, who was pulled to shore by the rescue team, fire officials said.

It’s not a washed-out weekend, but it certainly isn’t ideal.

Saturday’s morning rain will become more intermittent and then eventually fade out entirely this afternoon, with some splashes of sun from time to time. But even with a south (typically mild) wind, we’re only managing the mid and upper 50s.

A large ocean storm will brush Cape Cod and the Islands later tonight. This will push in a batch of steady rain for the Cape and Islands and scatter a few sprinkles up to the South Shore too.

BOSTON — The Bruins’ inability to win on home ice in the Stanley Cup Playoffs has again proven costly.

The Sabres eliminated the Bruins from the postseason with a 4-1 victory in Game 6 of their first-round series Friday night at TD Garden. The B’s lost all three home games in the series.

Buffalo wins the series 4-2. It’s the Sabres’ first playoff series triumph since the 2007 Eastern Conference semifinals.

The beer industry can be confusing when it comes to the different types of businesses involved. There are breweries, craft breweries, microbreweries, taprooms and brewpubs, and often these terms can overlap.

For those who want a decent number of food choices to go with their beers, it is best to find places that consider themselves brewpubs, as taprooms generally tend to focus more on sampling brews than dining. And then there are restaurants that also happen to make beer, basically dual businesses where customers don’t even need to like beer in order to visit.

A few such places in Massachusetts come to mind, including the People’s Pint in Greenfield, Northampton Brewery in Northampton and True West in Acton, all of which could be classified as brewpubs but which really don’t feel much different from neighboring restaurants other than that you can order their own housemade beers.

An elderly woman was killed in her New Hampshire driveway by a car that rolled over as it crashed off a road on Friday, police said.

Matilde Mejia, 75, was standing at the end of the driveway on Route 149 in Deering at the time of the crash, according to the Hillsboro, New Hampshire, police department. She was pronounced dead at the scene.

The driver of the car, Henry Proctor of Francestown, was rushed to Concord Hospital, according to police. They didn’t know the extent of the 35-year-old’s injuries.