The last time a family friend saw Ana Walshe was in the early hours of Jan. 1, 2023, as the friend left the Cohasset home Ana shared with Brian Walshe and their three children.
The family friend had arrived at their home between 8 p.m. and 8:30 p.m., and she recalled Brian Walshe talking about how “free” he felt after losing his phone. The children were soundly sleeping as the three adults ate a New Year’s Eve dinner. The eldest child appeared downstairs at about 10 p.m. and socialized for about 20 minutes, but then went back upstairs, the family friend recalled to Massachusetts State Police.
The friend left the couple and said goodbye to Ana Walshe for the last time. She was 39 at the time.
Her husband goes on trial on Tuesday, starting with jury selection, on several charges related to her killing.
Authorities came to charge Walshe with murder in the killing of his wife after a series of bone-chilling discoveries about internet searches.
After the family friend left the Walshe household, the iPad of the oldest child made searches related to disposing of a human body between the hours of 4:50 a.m. and 6:30 a.m., according to prosecutors.
Although Ana Walshe’s body has never been found, officials in Norfolk County say that Brian Walshe is responsible for her death and the dismemberment of her body.
Even as jury selection gets underway on Tuesday, opening statements and the first witnesses are not expected to begin until Dec. 1.
Here is what to know about the trial:
Brian Walshe reports his wife missing
On Jan. 4, 2023, Brian Walshe first reported to his wife’s employer in Washington, D.C., that she had gone missing, according to court filings.
The police got involved, and they say that Brian Walshe told them a lie: that Ana Walshe was last seen leaving their Cohasset home on Jan. 1, 2023, at about 6 a.m., and was traveling to Washington, D.C. for a “work emergency.”
In early 2022, Ana Walshe was hired by Tishman Speyer, an international property management company that became the family’s primary source of income, according to court filings.
Her job meant she needed to relocate to the nation’s capital and she bought a home there with the intention of moving the family down there. At the time, Brian Walshe was defending himself in a federal fraud case, which he ultimately pleaded guilty to (more about that below).
Friends and her employer told investigators that the family planned to move to Washington, D.C., in the summer of 2022, but sentencing for Brian Walshe’s fraud case delayed the move.
During that year, Ana Walshe would spend the week in D.C. and most weekends travel back to Cohasset, where she lived in a rental home with Walshe and their kids on Chief Justice Cushing Highway.
On Jan. 8, 2023, police charged Brian Walshe with misleading a police investigation after they determined she did not fly domestically or internationally. They also established that Ana Walshe did not use any ride-sharing services on New Year’s Day 2023, court filings state.
By mid-January, Norfolk County District Attorney Michael Morrissey’s Office charged Walshe with murder and related charges.
“Early in the investigation, the police developed probable cause to believe that her husband, Brian Walshe, 47, had misled police investigators of material matters important to the search for Ana Walshe. He has pled not guilty to those charges, and is currently being held at the Norfolk County House of Correction,” Morrissey stated in a video release.
What were the Google searches?
At the arraignment for Brian Walshe, prosecutors read some of the 20 Google searches they say he made on his child’s iPad the morning of Ana Walshe’s disappearance.
The first search read, “How long before a body starts to smell,” according to prosecutors.
“On Dec. 27, the defendant Googled ‘what’s the best state to divorce from.’” Norfolk County District Attorney Lynn Beland said on Jan. 18, 2023, in Quincy District Court.
“Rather than divorce, we believe Brian Walshe dismembered Ana Walshe and discarded her body,” Beland said.
Other gruesome searches Walshe completed included, “Can you identify a body with broken teeth.”
Some other Google searches include:
- Jan. 1, 2023:
- 4:55 a.m.: “How long before a body starts to smell”
- 4:58 a.m.: “How to stop a body from decomposing”
- 5:20 a.m.: “How to embalm a body”
- 5:47 a.m.: “10 ways to dispose of a dead body if you really need to”
- 6:25 a.m.: “How long for someone to be missing to inherit”
- 6:34 a.m.: “Can you throw away body parts”
- 9:29 a.m.: “What does formaldehyde do”
- 9:34 a.m.: “How long does DNA last”
- 9:59 a.m.: “Can identification be made on partial remains”
- 11:34 a.m.: “Dismemberment and the best ways to dispose of a body”
- 11:44 a.m.: “How to clean blood from wooden floor”
Brian Walshe was previously convicted of fraud
Brian Walshe pleaded guilty to selling fake copies of Andy Warhol paintings on eBay in April 2021. The charges were one count each of wire fraud, interstate transportation for a scheme to defraud, possession of converted goods and unlawful monetary transaction.
To orchestrate the scheme, Brian Walshe received the paintings from a person in South Korea, whom he told he would sell the art pieces.
With the artwork in hand, Walshe then cut off contact with the individual in South Korea and attempted to consign the Warhol paintings to a gallery in New York City.
However, the gallery declined to accept the paintings because Walshe did not have a bill of sale, the United States Attorney’s Office said.
Through a mutual friend, the original owner of the artwork was able to retrieve some of the art. Walshe then turned to eBay to sell the two Warhol paintings.
The paintings were two of Warhol’s “Shadows,” a series of untitled, abstract canvas paintings from 1978, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said. The original listing price for the paintings was $100,000.
In the advertisement, the eBay seller included a picture of an invoice for the two Warhol Shadow paintings with Warhol Foundation numbers and a purchase price of $240,000.
The buyer believed the paintings were authentic and, between Nov. 3 and 5, 2016, arranged to purchase the artwork outside of eBay for $80,000 from Walshe.
A day later, the buyer removed the paintings from the frames but saw that the Warhol Foundation authentication stamps were missing. It was also noticed that the canvases and staples looked new.
“When he compared the paintings to the photographs from the eBay listing, they did not look identical,” the U.S. Attorney’s Office said.
The buyer then repeatedly attempted to contact Walshe, who initially did not respond, and then made excuses for the delay in refunding the buyer’s money, officials said.
At the time of Ana Walshe’s disappearance, he was ordered to home confinement and wore an electronic monitoring bracelet. It did not track him, but would alert probation if he went too far from his Cohasset home, court filings state.
He was eventually sentenced to 37 months’ imprisonment and three years of supervised release in February 2024. A judge also ordered him to pay $475,000 in restitution, with $95,000 of which he had already paid.
Brian Walshe says he’s not competent to stand trial
Brian Walshe raised concerns about being competent to stand trial after being stabbed at the Norfolk County jail on Sept. 11.
His lawyers previously called the attack “completely unprovoked” and said that he had a “diminished ability to concentrate and focus.”
“The trauma resulting from the unexplained and sudden attack continues to significantly impact … his ability to work with his attorneys,” they wrote.
After a 40-day evaluation at Bridgewater State Hospital, a doctor found him competent, clearing the way for jury selection to begin on Tuesday.
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