Brian Walshe held without bail, charged with murder of wife Ana Walshe

QUINCY, Mass. — A judge on Wednesday ordered that Brian Walshe, the Massachusetts man charged with murdering his wife, Ana Walshe, be held without bail as he awaits trial, according to WFXT.

>> Read more trending news

Brian Walshe previously pleaded not guilty to one count of misleading a police investigation. He was arrested after his wife vanished on New Year’s Day.

Warning: This story contains graphic details of a violent crime. Reader discretion is advised.

Update 10:55 a.m. EST Jan. 18: In a statement obtained by CNN, Brian Walshe’s defense attorney said Wednesday that she does not believe that prosecutors have a strong case against her client.

“In my experience, where, as here, the prosecution leaks so-called evidence to the press before they provide it to me, their case isn’t that strong,” Tracy Miner said in the statement, according to CNN.

“We shall see what they have and what evidence is admissible in court, where the case will ultimately be decided. … It is easy to charge a crime and even easier to say a person committed that crime. It is a much more difficult thing to prove it, which we will see if the prosecution can do.”

Update 10:40 a.m. EST Jan. 18: A prosecutor said that in addition to a slew of suspicious online searches made by Brian Walshe following the disappearance of his wife, the 47-year-old also searched for “What’s the best state to divorce?” on Dec. 27.

“Rather than divorce, it is believed that Brian Walshe dismembered Ana Walshe and then discarded her body,” Assistant District Attorney Lynn Beland said.

She laid out some of the evidence against Brian Walshe at his arraignment on Wednesday morning. Walshe has been charged with murder, according to WFXT.

Authorities found traces of blood in Brian Walshe’s Volvo, WFXT reported. Beland also said that during a search of the couple’s home in Cohasset, investigators found blood in the basement and a damaged, bloody knife.

The prosecutor said surveillance video from an apartment complex appeared to show Brian Walshe dumping a heavy trash bag in an apartment complex’s dumpster on Jan. 3. Cell phone data indicated he went to two other apartment complexes that day, and video surveillance showed him throwing items into the dumpster at one of the other locations, Beland said.

The trashed bags were destroyed before authorities could investigate what they contained.

Authorities recovered 10 bags from a dumpster at his mother’s apartment in Swampscott that had items including a COVID-19 vaccine card in Ana Walshe’s name, a hatchet, cutting shears, and a purse and pair of boots “described as what Ana was last seen in,” Beland said.

Several items taken from the trash had red-brown stains on them that appeared to be blood. Testing determined that both Ana and Brian Walshe’s DNA was on slippers and a Tyvek suit recovered from the dumpster, Beland said.

Authorities began investigating Ana Walshe’s disappearance on Jan. 4, after her employer reported her missing.

Update 9:55 a.m. EST Jan. 18: A prosecutor on Wednesday shared several online search queries made by Brian Walshe following his wife’s disappearance on Jan. 1. She said the searches were made on Google using his son’s iPad.

Between 4:55 a.m. and about 1:20 p.m. on Jan. 2, authorities said Walshe searched for:

• How long before a body starts to smell?
• How to stop a body from decomposing.
• How to embalm a body.
• 10 ways to dispose of a dead body if you really need to.
• How long for someone to be missing to inherit.
• Can you throw away body parts?
• What does formaldehyde do?
• How long does DNA last?
• Can identification be made on partial remains?
• Dismemberment and the best ways to dispose of a body.
• How to clean blood from wooden floor.
• Luminol to detect blood.
• What happens when you put body parts in ammonia?
• Is it better to throw crime scene clothes away or wash them?

Between 12:45 p.m. and about 1:15 p.m. on Jan. 3, authorities said Walshe searched for:

• Hacksaw best tool to dismember.
• Can you be charged with murder without a body?
• Can you identify a body with broken teeth?

Between about 1 p.m. and 1:20 p.m. on Jan. 4, authorities said Walshe searched for:

• What happens to hair on a dead body?
• What is the rate of decomposition of a body found in a plastic bag compared to on a surface in the woods?
• Can baking soda mask or make a body smell good?

Update 9:35 a.m. EST Jan. 18: A judge ordered Brian Walshe be held without bail as he awaits trial on charges of murder and disinterring a body in the death of his wife, Ana Walshe, who disappeared on New Year’s Day.

At an arraignment, a prosecutor laid out the evidence against Brian Walshe and said he dismembered his wife and disposed of her body, WFXT reported.

Original report: Shortly after 8 a.m., Brian Walshe was seen being escorted into court for his hearing, WFXT reported.

Norfolk District Attorney Michael Morrissey announced in a recorded statement Tuesday that police had obtained an arrest warrant charging Brian Walshe with his wife’s murder. Morrissey declined to go into detail about the evidence supporting the charge, although he said more details would likely be shared at Brian Walshe’s arraignment.

Ana Walshe spent New Year’s Eve with her husband and their three kids before she vanished, WFXT reported. Brian Walshe told police that his wife was supposed to take a rideshare to Boston Logan International Airport on New Year’s Day ahead of a flight to Washington, where she worked for a real estate company, though no evidence has surfaced to show that she arrived at the airport, according to WFXT. Her cellphone and bank cards have been inactive since Jan. 1, the news station reported.

She was reported missing by her employer on Jan. 4, according to WFXT.

Following her disappearance, authorities searched the area around the Walshe family’s home but found no sign of her, WFXT reported. In a subsequent search of the house, investigators said they found a bloody knife inside the basement. One day after Ana Walshe was last seen, Brian Walshe was also caught on surveillance cameras buying hundreds of dollar’s worth of cleaning supplies from a Home Depot.

At the time of Ana Walshe’s disappearance, Brian Walshe was under house arrest while awaiting sentencing in an unrelated case. In 2021, he pleaded guilty to fraud charges after authorities said he took two Andy Warhol paintings from a friend in South Korea and attempted to sell counterfeits of them online. The most serious charge he pleaded to — wire fraud — carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison.

©2023 Cox Media Group