During the second day of testimony in Brian Walshe’s murder trial on Tuesday, jurors heard extensive testimony from a Massachusetts State Police trooper who conducted digital examinations of devices seized from Walshe’s Cohasset home.
Police seized three MacBooks, two iPhones and three iPads from the home Walshe shared with his wife and three children on Jan. 9, 2023, five days after Walshe’s wife, Ana, was first reported missing.
The digital forensic evidence from those devices is at the center of the case against Brian Walshe — his wife’s body has never been found, meaning prosecutors will have to rely on circumstantial evidence to prove he killed her.
Brian Walshe is accused of killing his wife inside their Cohasset home sometime early in the morning of Jan. 1, 2023, then dismembering her body and disposing of her remains at dumpsters across the state. It’s not known when exactly Ana Walshe died — Walshe’s defense has claimed he found her dead in their bed and panicked.
In the days leading up to Ana Walshe’s death, Brian Walshe searched for divorce, which prosecutors say was a signal he knew his marriage was coming to an end. Then, around 5 a.m. on Jan. 1, 2023, he begins searching for terms like how to dispose of a body, looking up cleaning supplies and other methods to dispose of a person’s remains.
Those searches were the centerpiece of the trial’s second day.
Under questioning from Assistant Norfolk District Attorney Anne Yas, Guarino read out to jurors a series of searches discovered on Walshe’s MacBook, beginning on Dec. 27, 2022.
Dec. 27, 2022
12:06:28 a.m. – Brian Walshe visits PornHub, where he clicks on a video titled, “Cheating wife seduces another man to impregnate her – Scarlet Scandal Seth Gamble Erotica X”
At the same time, the device also records “Chat with Ms._B in a live adult video chatroom now.”
8:33:53 p.m. – Walshe searches “best divorce strategies for men”
8:51:33 p.m. – Walshe searches “Best state to divorce for a man”
8:52:39 p.m. – Walshe visits a website titled “5 best and 5 worst states to get divorced in the US”
8:54:13 p.m. – Walshe searches “Washington DC divorce laws.” He goes on to make several more divorce-related searches, visiting websites offering advice and one titled “10 stupid mistakes men facing divorce make.”
8:57:13 p.m. – Walshe searches for Chase credit card login and is redirected to the bank’s website
Dec. 31, 2022
6:53 p.m. – Walshe searches for Replay Poker
Jan. 1, 2023
4:52:16 a.m. – Walshe searches, “best ways to dispose of a body.” He clicks on a website titled, “10 ways to dispose of a dead body (if you really need to)” and clicks through several pages. By 5:48 a.m., he has read to the 11th page of the website.
4:55:25 a.m. – Walshe searches, “How long before a body starts to smell”
6:24:44 a.m. – Walshe searches, “How long for someone to be missing to inheritance”
6:25:17 a.m. – Walshe searches, “how long for someone to be missing to be dead”
7:44:46 a.m. – Walshe searches, “Tishman Speyer Washington, D.C. head.” On Jan. 1, 2023, Ana Walshe was working for Tishman Speyer, a global property management firm. He continues making several searches about the firm.
7:48:04 a.m. – Walshe searches for Lowes stores nearby
9:33:49 a.m. – Walshe searches, “how long does DNA last”
9:34:39 a.m. – Walshe searches, “Is it possible to clean DNA off a knife.” Guarino told jurors this search was a redirect from the original terms Walshe inputted.
9:35:52 a.m. – Walshe searches, “Can identification be made on partial human remains”
9:59:25 a.m. – Walshe searches, “How to dispose of a cell phone.” Three seconds later, he searches, “how to dispose of a computer.”
10:29:16 a.m. – Walshe searches, “I am a user on my wife’s credit card she is missing can I still use the card.”
10:29:59 a.m. – Walshe searches, “My wife is missing what should I do.”
10:30:49 a.m. – Walshe visits a webpage titled “Your spouse is missing and you want a divorce” on the website Hello Divorce
11:28:43 a.m. – Walshe searches, “Best ways to dispose of body parts after murder.” Four seconds later, he clicks on a link to “murdermurdermurder.com” where he visits a webpage titled “6 ways to dispose of a body”
11:30:57 a.m. – Walshe visits a Wikipedia page for Patrick Kearney, a serial killer known as the “trash bag killer.”
11:41:50 a.m. – Walshe clicks on a YouTube video about cleaning up a dead body
11:44:42 a.m. – Walshe searches, “how to clean blood from a wood floor”
11:50:05 a.m. – Walshe searches, “can I use bleach to clean my wood floors from blood stains”
12:10:07 p.m. – Walshe searches, “What does bleach do to dead bodies”
12:18:03 p.m. – Walshe visits a Discover Magazine webpage titled, “Want to get away with murder? Use special detergent”
12:21:39 p.m. – Walshe searches, “Is it better to throw away crime scene clothes or wash them”
12:48:14 p.m. – Walshe searches, “How to use hydrogen peroxide on blood stains”
12:48:43 p.m. – Walshe clicks on a YouTube video called “How to clean blood stains with hydrogen peroxide”
12:53:44 p.m. – Walshe searches “Should I use hydrogen peroxide 8 on blood stains in concrete”
1:43:02 p.m. – Walshe searches, “Can the FBI tell when you accessed your phone”
1:52:26 p.m. – Walshe searches, “Does the dishwasher clean blood.” About 30 seconds later, he visits a Quora webpage for the search “Is it possible that a knife which had blood on it remains contaminated with HIV after it has been washed with hot water and dishwasher soap”
Jan. 2, 2023
2:00 a.m. – Walshe searches, “How to remove a SIM card from an iPhone?” He then clicks on an Apple Support webpage explaining how to remove or switch a device’s SIM card.
2:01:19 a.m. – Walshe searches, “How to remove a hard drive from an Apple laptop”
5:24:08 a.m. – Walshe looks for TJ Maxx locations near Norwell, Massachusetts
10:32:43 a.m. – Walshe searches, “How long do stores keep security footage”
12:27:31 p.m. – Walshe searches, “How to saw a body.” Seconds later, he searches, “how to dismember a body.”
12:33:48 p.m. – Walshe searches, “hacksaw the best tool for dismembering a body”
12:47:01 p.m. – Walshe searches, “Can you be charged with murder without a body.” Seconds later, he visits a Wikipedia page titled “murder convictions without a body.”
12:51:47 p.m. – Walshe visits a webpage titled “No corpse? No problem. Notable murder convictions without a body.”
12:52:19 p.m. – Walshe visits a webpage titled “Details of dismemberment discussed in murder trial”
1:12:46 p.m. – Walshe searches, “Can you identify a body with broken teeth”
1:14:51 p.m. – Walshe searches, “Disposing of a body in the trash”
1:34:35 p.m. – Walshe looks up the Chatham West Apartments in Brockton on Zillow
1:36:14 p.m. – Walshe looks up the Claremont Rentals Apartments in Abington on Zillow
2:58:21 p.m. – Walshe searches, “What powder mass smells the best”
7:09:03 p.m. – Walshe searches “can I mix white vinegar to stop smells”
Jan. 3, 2023
1:15:55 a.m. – Walshe searches, “Can baking soda make a dead body smell good”
5:06 a.m. – Walshe visits a webpage titled “Cleaning up blood without leaving a trace – 5 tips”
6:55:58 a.m. – Walshe searches, “Are footprints easy to wash away”
1:02:23 p.m. – Walshe searches, “how long for a dismembered body to decompose”
1:05:50 p.m. – Walshe searches, “Body found at trash station”
1:12:50 p.m. – Walshe searches, “Can a body decompose in a plastic bag”
7:33:38 p.m. – Walshe searches, “Can police get your search history without your computer”
Jan. 4, 2023
8:55:27 a.m. – Walshe searches, “Does a cell phone track your historical location”
Larry Tipton, a defense lawyer for Walshe, cross-examined Guarino after he talked through the search history. The lawyer did not contest that it was Walshe who made the searches in question.
Under cross-examination, Guarino acknowledged he could have sought a warrant to examine the data on the devices from before Dec. 25, 2022.
But he told Tipton he would not have had probable cause to do so. Tipton noted that there were no searches related to disposing of a body or other subjects that could suggest a person was planning a murder prior to Jan. 1, 2023.
Testimony in the murder trial continues Wednesday morning.
