Husband Of Missing Massachusetts Woman Charged With Her Murder

UPDATE 12/29/23

On Jan. 17, more than two weeks after Ana Walshe was reported missing, her husband, Brian Walshe, was charged with her murder.

"The continued investigation has now allowed police to obtain an arrest warrant charging Brian Walshe with the murder of his wife," Norfolk County District Attorney Michael Morrissey said in a video statement released on Jan. 17, PEOPLE reported.

In March 2023, Walshe was indicted by a grand jury on charges including murder, misleading a police investigation/obstruction of justice and improper conveyance of a human body. He is being held without bail.

ORIGINAL 01/09/23

Husband Of Missing Massachusetts Woman In Custody For Misleading Police

Brian Walshe, the 46-year-old husband of missing woman Ana Walshe, was arrested on Jan. 8, 2023, in Massachusetts. He was charged with misleading a police investigation, according to the Norfolk District Attorney’s office. CBS Boston reported that he’s being held on $500,000 bail.

Ana Walshe, 39, disappeared mysteriously on New Year’s Day. Her husband claims that he last saw her in the early morning hours. According to NBC News, he claims that the mother of three allegedly used a rideshare app to take a ride from her Cohasset, Massachusetts home to a Washington, D.C. airport. She was allegedly leaving to tend to a work emergency. She never boarded her flight.

Three days after Ana first went missing, she was officially reported missing by her employer after she didn’t show up for work. On Jan. 5, the Cohasset Police Department announced that they were asking for the public’s assistance in finding her. They released information on her, stating that she is 5’2” and weighs 115 pounds, with brown hair and brown eyes. She has an Eastern European accent and an olive complexion.

The Cohasset Police also conducted a two-day ground search in conjunction with Massachusetts State Police, according to NBC News. They searched the wooded area near the Walshe home until Saturday. At that time, police said that the investigation itself is ongoing but that the ground search won’t start again until new information warrants it.

Brian was arraigned in Quincy District Court on the morning of Monday, Jan. 9, and his lawyer confirmed that he was currently wearing a location monitoring device and that he had been on house arrest.

In court, the Norfolk District Attorney’s office revealed that investigators found a bloody knife and blood in the basement of the Walshe home. They also discovered that Brian had searched for “how to dispose of a 115-pound woman’s body” and how to dismember a body, CNN revealed. After receiving new information in the last three days, authorities focused on suspicion that Ana may have been killed.

Brian’s arrest for misleading the police was not his first brush with the law. He was wearing the location monitoring device in relation to a 2021 case in which he “pled guilty in federal court in Boston to three counts, including wire fraud, after stealing Andy Warhol paintings from a former college classmate and then commissioning forgeries of them,” stated NBC News.

5 Investigates learned that he agreed to plead guilty to charges of wire fraud, an unlawful monetary transaction, and interstate transportation for a scheme to defraud. He was ordered to forfeit $225,000, but he’s still awaiting sentencing in that case.

In court on Jan. 9, prosecutor Lynn Beland expressed skepticism about Brian’s statements to police about his actions and movements. He claimed that he last saw his wife in the early hours of Jan. 1 at their home when she took the Uber or Lyft to the airport. He also stated that, later that day, he went to a Whole Foods and CVS that were located 40 miles from his home, but police surveillance of Whole Foods and CVS did not show Brian at either store.

The police investigation found there was not an Uber or Lyft ride, and Ana never arrived for her flight. Her cell phone pinged at her home later in the day well after her husband claimed she had left for the airport.

On Jan. 2, Beland shared that Walshe claimed he only left his home to take his child for ice cream, but police discovered that he also went to the Home Depot in Rockland where he bought $450 worth of cleaning supplies. Among his purchases were tarps, mops, tape, and drop cloths, according to 5 Investigates. He was seen on the store’s surveillance video in a blue surgical mask and blue surgical gloves, and he paid for the supplies with cash.

He took the trip in violation of his probation during the time period when he is allowed to pick up his children from school.

"He's on surveillance at that time on Jan. 2nd, even though he said he never left the house," Beland said. She also revealed, “These various statements caused a delay in the investigation to the point that during the time frame when he didn’t report his wife and gave various statements, that allowed him time to either clean up evidence, dispose of evidence, and causing a delay.”

"He is not charged with murder. He's charged with misleading investigators by not saying, as I understand it, if he went to a Home Depot," Walshe's attorney stated.

A criminal affidavit stated, “The intentional, willful and direct responses to questions about his whereabouts on the days of Sunday, January 1, 2023, and Monday, January 2, 2023, were a clear attempt to mislead and delay investigators. The fact that he was asked a specific question and he gave an untruthful answer that led investigators out of the area caused a clear delay in the search for the missing person, Ana Walshe.”

Brian Walshe entered a not guilty plea, and he spoke only briefly in court to state that he understood the charge against him, according to CNN.

The Cohasset Police Department urges anyone with information about Ana Walshe’s disappearance to contact Detective Harrison Schmidt at 781-383-1055, extension 6108, or they can email him: hschmidt@cohassetpolice.com.