Husband charged with missing wife’s murder due in Massachusetts court

(NORFOLK, Mass.) — A Massachusetts man accused of killing his wife, Ana Walshe, 39, who was reported missing Jan. 4, is expected to appear in court Wednesday morning.

Quincy District Court officials issued a warrant for Brian Walshe, 47, of Cohasset, on Tuesday. Walshe, who is already in custody in Norfolk, pleaded not guilty to a charge of misleading investigators. He is being held on a bail of $500,000 cash or $5 million surety bond.

“The continued investigation has now allowed police to obtain an arrest warrant, charging Brian Walshe with the murder of his wife,” Norfolk District Attorney Michael W. Morrissey said in a video statement posted on Tuesday. “Mr. Walshe will be transported to the Quincy District Court for arraignment on the charge of murder.”

Walshe will also be charged with improper transport of a body, officials said.

His “arraignment may be as soon as 9 a.m. tomorrow dependent on defense attorney availability,” the Cohasset Police said late Tuesday.

Morrissey said his office didn’t plan on Tuesday to release further details about the investigation or potential evidence against Walshe, but some of those details are “likely to be disclosed at arraignment.”

Ana Walshe was reported missing by co-workers in Washington on Jan. 4. At that time, Brian Walshe claimed he last saw his wife early on Jan. 1, as she prepared to take a ride share to Logan Airport for a “work emergency” but investigators said she never caught a ride and never boarded a plane.

Investigators said they pinged Ana’s phone on Jan. 2, and it pinged in or near her Cohasset home.

Brian Walshe was charged with misleading the investigation on Jan. 8. At that time, investigators revealed they found blood and a broken knife in the family’s basement and had surveillance video of Brian Walshe, wearing a medical mask and surgical gloves, purchasing $450 in cleaning supplies with cash at a Home Depot in nearby Rockland.

Walshe was wearing a monitoring bracelet as he awaited sentencing for selling fake Andy Warhol paintings to an art buyer in California. He was under house arrest but was allowed to leave home for things like doctors’ appointments and grocery shopping. The bracelet did not have GPS tracking.

Police conducted a sweeping search at a Peabody landfill. The landfill was the destination for a dumpster that was outside Brian Walshe’s mother’s apartment building in Swampscott. He had visited his mom in the days following his wife’s disappearance, claiming he went shopping for her. Police found no receipts from the stores he mentioned.

Investigators located trash bags containing blood evidence. Boston ABC affiliate WCVB-TV reported investigators also found a hacksaw and a hatchet at the landfill. Investigators also searched a Wareham incinerator but it’s unclear whether anything was located there.

Investigators have not recovered a body but they have recovered enough genetic material to tie Walshe to the murder of his wife.

Brian and Ana Walshe have three children. Morrissey said Ana Walshe’s disappearance was the second case of domestic violence his office had seen in recent weeks.

“Our thoughts are very much with the families these crimes have left behind,” Morrissey, the district attorney, said.

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