Brian Walshe, the man long accused of killing and dismembering his wife, Ana Walshe, stunned a Massachusetts courtroom Tuesday by admitting that he misled investigators and disposed of his wife’s remains – but continues to insist that he is not a murderer.
Walshe, 50, pleaded guilty to the two lesser charges of misleading police and improper conveyance of a human body without a plea deal. Prosecutors did not want to negotiate a deal unless it included the murder charge.
Walshe’s defense attorneys stressed, however, that their client is “not admitting to … murder.” The partial plea, which came moments before potential jurors were brought in to start his trial, sets the stage for a high-stakes trial in which Walshe, despite acknowledging some of the prosecution’s most damning evidence, still wants a jury to decide whether he killed his wife.
Judge Diane Freniere asked Walshe directly whether he removed Ana’s remains, to which he replied: “Yes, Your Honor.” When asked if he had willfully misled investigators, he again responded, “Yes, your honor.”
Walshe was arrested on January 8, 2023, for misleading police, and charged with murder later that same month.
He’s been in state custody since, serving a concurrent federal sentence after pleading guilty to selling forged Andy Warhol artwork in a separate case.
With the new guilty pleas, Walshe now faces up to 10 years on the misleading charge, with a potential 20-year enhancement if convicted of murder, and up to three years in prison on the body disposal count.
The disappearance of Ana Walshe
Ana Walshe, a 39-year-old real estate executive, vanished in the early morning hours of New Year’s Day 2023 after a celebration at the family’s Cohasset home.
Her husband claimed she left for an emergency work trip to Washington, D.C., ordering a car to take her to Logan International Airport in Boston. But her company, the first to report her missing, said there was no work emergency.
Prosecutors later say that Ana never got into the rideshare and there was no evidence of her being on a flight. Her cellphone, as well as her credit and debit cards, remained inactive after her disappearance.
Meanwhile, Walshe claimed that after she left the house, he visited his mother in Swampscott, went shopping at CVS and Whole Foods and spent time with his children.
But investigators would later discover surveillance footage that appeared to show Walshe at a Home Depot on January 2 where he reportedly purchased $450 worth of cleaning products.
Chilling Google searches
In the hours and days after her disappearance, Walshe conducted a series of chilling Google searches from his son’s iPad, including “dismemberment and best ways to dispose of a body” and “can you throw away body parts.”
On January 1, Walshe searched those disturbing terms, beginning with: “how long before a body starts to smell,” according to prosecutors. That was at 4:55 a.m.
Throughout the morning, he searched: “how to stop a body from decomposing?” and “how long for someone to be missing before you inherit?”, prosecutors said.
He also looked up “what does Formaldehyde do?”, “can an ID be made on partial remains?” and “dismemberment and the best ways to dispose of a body?”
Then on January 2, Walshe searched “Can you be charged with murder without a body?”, “hacksaw best tool to dismember” and “can you identify a body with broken teeth?”
Prosecutors say they have “binders” full of electronic evidence that they plan to present to jurors. One report, which is 1,000 pages, was found on a MacBook Pro from Walshe’s home and contains new material.
A hacksaw, hatchet and a trip to Home Depot for cleaning supplies
After Ana was reported missing by her employer, police conducted a search of her Cohasset home where they found blood and a knife in the basement.
Investigators later found a hacksaw with a bone fragment, a hatchet and items stained with both Brian and Ana’s DNA, in trash bags they say Walshe discarded in dumpsters his mother’s home.
Prosecutors later revealed that they had also recovered Ana’s Prada purse, rain boots and her Covid-19 vaccination card from trash cans at the same home. Her DNA was also found on a hazmat suit that investigators recovered, that Walshe had allegedly purchased on January 2.
Surveillance footage captured Walshe at Home Depot buying cleaning supplies and a knife, prosecutors claim.
Prosecutors allege Walshe dismembered Ana, placed her remains in dumpsters, and that the trash was later incinerated. They say he killed Ana because he discovered that she was having an affair and that she was planning to leave him.
Prosecutors allege that Walshe believed her disappearance could help him avoid prison in his federal art-fraud case, where he owed nearly $500,000 in restitution. He was also the beneficiary of her $2.7 million life-insurance policy.
Prosecutor Gregory Connor argues that Walshe’s false statements about Ana’s so-called work trip sent law enforcement on “a full-blown search” hundreds of miles away, costing them any chance to locate her body.
He added that Walshe’s disposal method ensured “the remains [were] incinerated as part of waste disposal.”
A cry for help
A week before her disappearance, Ana called her mother and asked her to come visit her from Serbia, Milanka Ljubicic told Fox News Digital at the time, and that “she just said, ‘Please, Mama. Come tomorrow’,”
“Which means that clearly, there must have been some problems,” the mom said. Ljubicic said Walshe asked her on December 25, 2022, for her to travel to the U.S. the following day.
“And now I can’t forgive myself for not just letting things fall where they may, and just go, and whatever happens to me, happens,” the mother said.
Her daughter made two more phone calls at around midnight and 1 a.m. on New Year’s, the night police believe Walshe was murdered. She’s also reported to have called her older sister and her maid of honor, both of whom also missed her calls.
Ana’s harrowing final note to husband revealed
Ana Walshe reportedly left a note to her husband on a bottle of champagne wishing him “love, compassion and joy” in 2023.
The message was written in bright red letters on a Lanson Noble Cuvee champagne box that appears to have been left unopened after a New Year’s Eve party at the family’s home in Cohasset, the New York Post reported.
“Wow! 2022 … What a year! And yet, we are still here and together! Let’s make 2023 the best one yet! We are the authors of our lives … courage, love, perseverance, compassion, and joy. Love, Ana,” the note reads.
A note on another side of the box reads: “Gem Ana Brian 2023!”
Walshe insists he’s not a murderer
Walshe’s trial was meant to start in October, but was delayed after he suffered a jailhouse stabbing in September, leading to his attorneys to question his competency.
After undergoing a 40-day psychiatric evaluation, the judge ruled last week that he was competent to stand trial.
The trial is expected to last three to four weeks, the judge said.
Despite the change of pleas this week, Walshe maintains he did not kill his wife.
His attorney, Kelli Porges, emphasized that point in court, saying: “Mr. Walshe is prepared to admit to the recitation of facts with respect to the indictment that the government just read in so far as it alleges he did impede and obstruct the criminal investigation into the disappearance of Ana Walshe. We obviously object, and he’s not admitting to … murder.”
