A convicted Massachusetts art fraudster and husband to a missing woman Googled how to dispose of a female body days before her disappearance.
Brian Walshe, 46, was charged with misleading a police investigation after he was seen on surveillance video buying heavy duty cleaning supplies despite telling cops he had been home around the time his wife, Ana, 39, was last seen alive.
The investigation into Ana’s disappearance took a grim turn on Monday when it was revealed Walshe had searched ‘how to dispose of a 115-pound woman’s body.’ Ana was described as being 5’2 and and about 115 pounds in please to the public after she went missing.
Walshe told police the mother of three vanished after she took a car to Boston Logan Airport on January 1. However, ride-share services show no pickups at the family home, according to WCVB, and Ana’s cellphone continued pinging from there for two days after she allegedly left the home.
Brian Walshe, 46, Googled how to dismember a body before his wife vanished
Ana, 39, was reported missing on January 4 after she failed to show up for work
Ana was not reported missing until January 4, when her office called the police when she failed to show up for work.
Since then, cops have been combing the seaside town of Cohasset for any sign of her.
Initially treated as a missing-persons case, the investigation transitioned to homicide after Walshe’s internet search queries – which included how to dismember a human body – were discovered.
Prosecutors said Walshe gave cops misleading statements about his and his wife’s actions around the time of her disappearance, buying himself ample time to clean up a possible crime scene.
‘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,’ said prosecutor Lynn Beland on Monday.
Initially treated as a missing-persons case, the investigation transitioned to homicide after Walshe’s internet search queries – which included how to dismember a human body – were discovered
The investigation into Ana’s disappearance took a grim turn on Monday when it was revealed Walshe had searched ‘how to dispose of a 115-pound woman’s body’
Prosecutors said Walshe gave cops misleading statements about his and his wife’s actions around the time of her disappearance, buying himself ample time to clean up a possible crime scene
Those statements included a confused and rambling alibi Walshe told police about what he was doing on the day he said his wife left for the airport.
He told cops he left his phone at home and drove to a Whole Foods and a CVS 40 miles from his home on January 1, and then brought one of his sons out for ice cream the next day.
But he did not appear on surveillance footage at either of those stores, and instead of going out for ice cream on January 2, he was seen on video going to a Home Depot where he picked up about $450 in mops, buckets, tarps, tape, and other cleaning supplies. He wore a mask and gloves during the trip.
After obtaining a search warrant for the Walshes’ home, blood was discovered in the basement, along with a bloodied and damaged knife.
Walshe has not yet been charged with his wife’s disappearance, and plead not guilty to his misleading police charge. He is currently being held on $500,000 bail.
Police search a highway in Cohasset, Massachusetts, on January 7 for any sign of Ana
Walshe appears in court on January 9 over charges related to his wife’s disappearance
Walshe in court on January 9. He was charged with misleading a police investigation
Walshe was already under house-arrest for charges of wire-fraud from a 2018 scam where he sold a pair of fake Any Warhol paintings for $80,000 on eBay.
He plead guilty to the scheme in 2021.
Under house-arrest, Walshe had allocated times he was allowed to leave home.
During his January 2 outing to Home Depot, he was supposedly taking his kids to school, even though the school was closed that day.
