It has been almost nine months since police sayBrian Walshe allegedly murdered his wife Ana, but investigators are still unable to locate her body.
Police searched an area in Peabody earlier this week, which is approximately 40 miles from the home Ana Walshe shared with her husband and three children in Cohasset, Massachusetts.
That search was ultimately unsuccessful, according to the Norfolk County District Attorney’s Office.
“Two persons in the Peabody community unconnected to the prosecution of Brian Walshe contacted police investigators with their belief that an area of that community may be of investigative interest in that matter,” said Norfolk District Attorney communications director David Traub. “A search of that area by the Massachusetts State Police SERT team yielded nothing.”
Investigators say they previously discovered a bone fragment on a hacksaw that they believe Walshe tossed in the trash after his wife went missing. Prosecutors are still awaiting the results of the DNA testing on that fragment.
Walshe has already been arraigned in district court on charges ofmurder and disinterring a body without authorityby the Norfolk County district attorney’s office back in January, despite the fact that police had yet to find Ana’s body.
He entered a not guilty plea to both charges.
At his initial arraignment on Jan. 18, prosecutors told the judge that their investigation leads them to believe Ana had been murdered by her husband inside their home.
Walshe then allegedlytook those remains to transfer stations, where they were incinerated by the time law enforcement located the dumpsters where he had allegedly disposed of her body parts, prosecutors told the judge.
This had all been done before Walshe alerted authorities to the fact that his wife was missing, according to prosecutors.
Walshe also allegedly did all this whileunder house arrest for an unrelated crimeand wearing an ankle monitor.
A judge’s order from 2021 relating to the earlier crime states that Walshe is “restricted to residence at all times except for activities pre-approved by the probation officer” as part of his pre-sentencing release for his involvement in an art heist.
A sentencing memo shows that Walshe pleaded guilty to one count each of wire fraud, interstate transportation for a scheme to defraud, possession of converted goods and unlawful monetary transaction back in April 2021.
BRIAN WALSHE GRAND JURY INDICTMENT – MISLEADING INVESTIGATORS
Those charges were related to an art heist in which Walshe allegedly promised to sell a pair of Warhol paintings for a friend. The sentencing memo states that Walshe allegedly sold forgeries instead while using the authentication materials provided with the original works.
He then failed to ever return the original works to the owner, according to the sentencing memo filed by federal prosecutors.
Walshe was on house arrest awaiting sentencing in that case when federal prosecutors filed a supplemental sentencing memo claiming that Walshe lied to probation officers, misled authorities about the amount of money he received from both his wife and mother while claiming he could not pay the court-ordered restitution to his victims, and allegedly destroyed his father’s final will and testament after being disinherited so that he could be appointed as the personal representative of his father’s estate.
This development delayed Walshe’s sentencing and the recommendations of prosecutors as it pertained to his sentencing, but did not change anything about his house arrest.
In the two days after Ana’s disappearance, Walshe told authorities he took three trips outside the home, which were all at times approved by his probation officer, according to the criminal complaint.
- On Jan. 1, Walshe told investigators he ran errands while a babysitter watched the children
- On Jan. 1, Walshe said that after completing those errands he briefly returned home and then went to visit his mother, who was recovering from surgery
- On Jan. 2, Walshe took his son to get a chocolate shake at a juice bar while a babysitter watched his two other children
He had been approved to visit his mother for six hours on Jan. 1 and had been “granted leave for dropping his children off at school each day from 8:00am to 10:30am and picking up the kids from 3:15pm to 6:45pm.”
Walshe failed to tell police however that he also left the home later in that day on Jan. 2, during the 210-minute window that he had been approved to pick up his children at school.
His children did not have school, and the criminal complaint says that Walshe instead went to Home Depot.
After reviewing footage, “investigators discovered video evidence of Walshe at the Home Depot in Rockland, wearing a black surgical mask, blue surgical gloves, and making a cash purchase,” the complaint says.
BRIAN WALSHE GRAND JURY INDICTMENT – WILLFULLY CONVEYING AWAY A HUMAN BODY
The footage was necessary because Walshe wore an RF (radio frequency) ankle monitor and not a GPS, as prosecutors noted at his arraignment. Those two, along with the SCRAM (Secure Continuous Remote Alcohol Monitoring), are the most common monitors used in the American justice system.
An RF ankle monitor is able to determine if a person is inside or outside his home, but not their location once outside the home.
Furthermore, the complaint says that Walshe did not have his phone with him on Jan. 1, meaning that police could not use that device to trace his movements.
Instead, police had to review security footage.
Surveillance cameras did capture Washe disposing of multiple trash bags on these days, which appeared to be heavy based on the footage viewed by prosecutors and shared with the court at Walshe’s arraignment.
Investigators then found blood in the basement of the Walshes’ home and on a hacksaw, said prosecutors. The DNA matched that of Ana, according to the complaint.
They also found trash bags containing bloody towels and many of Ana’s personal belongings in a dumpster near the residence of Walshe’s mother, according to prosecutors.
Prosecutors said Walshe visited his mother after his wife’s disappearance and could be seen on surveillance footage disposing of multiple trash bags in that same dumpster. Officers were later able to locate those trash bags at a transfer station, according to prosecutors.
Ana’s DNA was found on the towels and other items obtained from those trash bags, said prosecutors.
Those discoveries provided enough evidence for prosecutors to secure an arrest warrant, despite never finding Ana’s remains.
These far more serious charges also mean that Walshe is awaiting trial behind bars and not at home after a judge ordered him held without bail.