Several dozen potential jurors will fill Norfolk Superior Court in Dedham on Tuesday morning for questioning to serve on what will eventually be a 16-person panel hearing evidence in the case of Brian Walshe.
Walshe, 50, is charged with murder, misleading a police investigation and disinterring a body in connection with the death and disappearance of his wife, Ana, in January 2023.
Judge Diane Freniere said Monday that she intends to have 70 potential jurors called for the Walshe case. Each juror will complete a questionnaire and be questioned individually at the side of the bench by Freniere and the lawyers.
Any jurors who are not questioned on Monday will be asked to return to court on Tuesday for questioning. The hope is Freniere and the lawyers can question jurors each day this week — typically, jurors are not summoned to Norfolk Superior Court on Fridays.
If jury selection is complete by Thanksgiving, evidence in the case will start on Dec. 1.
Walshe is accused of killing and dismembering Ana on New Year’s Day 2023 in the Cohasset home they shared with their three children. Prosecutors say he hid his wife’s remains in dumpsters in various locations across the state. Ana Walshe’s body has never been found.
In court papers, prosecutors have said Brian Walshe made a series of Google searches leading up to and after his wife’s death, including “best state to divorce for a man,” “dismemberment and best ways to dispose of a body,” and “can you be charge with murder without a body.”
Walshe’s lawyers fought to suppress evidence of the searches, claiming it was obtained illegally, but Freniere, and later a single justice of the Supreme Judicial Court, denied those efforts.
Prosecutors have said Walshe was motivated to kill his wife by the knowledge that she was having an affair with a man in Washington, D.C., where she worked, and by money troubles stemming from a federal art fraud case.
Walshe has pleaded not guilty to charges of murder, disinterring a body and misleading a police investigation. If convicted, he would face life in prison without the possibility of parole.
His trial was initially scheduled to begin on Oct. 20, but delayed for a 40-day competency evaluation at Bridgewater State Hospital. Walshe was ultimately deemed competent at a hearing on Friday.
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