DailyExpertNews
—
An arrest warrant charging Brian Walshe with murder was issued Tuesday following the death of his wife Ana Walshe, a mother of three from Massachusetts who had been missing since the New Year, Norfolk District Attorney Michael Morrissey announced.
Walshe, 47, pleaded not guilty last week to misleading investigators about his actions around the time his wife went missing. He is being held at the Norfolk County House of Corrections and will be transported to Quincy District Court on Wednesday to face murder charges, Morrissey said.
“Additional details in the investigation and evidence in support of those charges are likely to be presented at the arraignment, but will not be released at this time,” the prosecutor said.
A lawyer for Brian Walshe declined to comment.
The arrest warrant comes more than two weeks after Ana Walshe was reported missing from her workplace, prompting investigators to conduct a massive search for her whereabouts.
Police may have found grim evidence: blood and a bloodied knife in the basement of the family’s home in Cohasset, according to prosecutors; Brian Walshe’s Internet records of searches for how to dismember and dispose of a body, according to law enforcement sources; and a hacksaw and apparent bloodstains at a garbage disposal site, law enforcement sources said.
According to police, he told investigators he last saw his wife on Jan. 1, when she left their home in Cohasset in a shared car or taxi to go to the airport and catch a flight to Washington, D.C. for her job. in real estate. He said he ran errands for his mother in nearby Swampscott later that day and went for ice cream with one of his children the next day.
However, prosecutors said there was no evidence that Ana Walshe had hitched a ride or made it to the airport, and in a criminal statement, police said there was no evidence that he ran errands for his mother on New Year’s Day. Prosecutors did uncover surveillance video showing Brian Walshe cashing $450 worth of cleaning supplies, including mops, a bucket and tarps, at a Home Depot on Jan. 2.
The affidavit describes Brian Walshe’s statements to police as a “clear attempt to mislead and delay investigators.” Prosecutor Lynn Beland said in court last week that his statements gave him time to either clean up evidence (or remove) evidence.
Her workplace, Tishman Speyer, reported her missing on January 4 after she failed to show up for work. According to Brian Walshe’s attorney, Tracy Miner, he called her workplace to ask if they knew where she was before the workplace called the police. Miner also said her client was “incredibly cooperative”.
The murder warrant follows a series of tumultuous legal issues for Brian Walshe.
In 2021, he pleaded guilty to three federal fraud charges related to a 2018 scheme to sell fake Andy Warhol artwork online. He has since been under house arrest and under surveillance as part of his terms of his sentence.
Also in 2018, his father Dr. Thomas Walshe, which led to a lengthy legal battle over his estate. In court documents, close relatives of the family accused Brian Walshe of financial misconduct, described him as an angry and violent individual, and said he had been diagnosed as a sociopath.
“He had a serious argument with his son,” Andrew Walshe, the executor of the estate, said of Dr. Walshe’s relationship with Brian. “Brian had gone off with a significant portion of his money; he had had almost no contact with Brian R. Walshe for the past ten years.
Further, in 2014, Ana Walshe told police that someone was threatening to “kill (her) and her boyfriend,” according to an incident report DailyExpertNews obtained from the Washington DC Metropolitan Police Department. A spokesman for the department confirmed that Brian Walshe was the person involved in the report.
The report was filed by Ana Walshe – then Ana Knipp – when she lived in DC. The case was later closed because the victim refused to cooperate with the prosecution, the spokesman said.
The couple’s three children, all between the ages of 2 and 6, are in the custody of the Massachusetts Department of Children and Families, a spokesman said.