In court today
• The prosecution is presenting its case in the murder trial of Brian Walshe, the man accused of killing and dismembering his wife in 2023.
• Yesterday, both sides gave their opening statements to the jury and prosecutors called Cohasset Police Sgt. Harrison Schmidt as their first witness. The jury heard parts of several interviews between Brian Walshe and investigators.
• Brian Walshe, who denies killing Ana Walshe, pleaded guilty last month to misleading police and improper conveyance of a human body. Her body has not been found.
Investigators searched dumpsters for evidence on January 9, detective says
On January 9, investigators searched the contents of dumpsters where they believed Brian Walshe threw away evidence near his mother’s apartment complex days earlier, Cohasset Police Department Sgt. Harrison Schmidt said.
They conducted the search at a trash transfer station in Peabody, Massachusetts, Schmidt testified.
The jury saw a photo of a Covid-19 vaccination card with Ana Walshe’s name on it recovered from the dumpster. The jury also saw a photo of boots and a black coat found in the dumpster. The prosecutor didn’t ask Schmidt to make the connection that they were Ana Walshe’s, though previously released information indicates they were hers.
The day before, Schmidt said a search warrant was executed on the Walshe home. Brian Walshe, his mother and his three sons were in the home at the time.
Walshe said he had "no idea" how graphic searches were found on iPad
Brian Walshe was questioned by investigators about a series of internet searches they discovered on his six-year-old son’s iPad during a January 8 interview, according to a recording being played for the jury.
The investigator told Walshe they had found “dozens” of searches on the iPad, including, “how to stop a body from decomposing,” and, “does the dishwasher remove blood from a knife.”
When asked to explain the searches, Walshe said, “I have no idea.”
“I don’t use that iPad, so that’s really weird,” he said, according to the recording. The searches began January 1 at 4:54 a.m. local time investigators said.
Cohasset Police Department Sgt. Harrison Schmidt, who is on the stand, then testified that he arrested Walshe later that day.
Brian Walshe told investigators that he would "never hurt my wife"
Three days after his wife was reported missing, Brian Walshe surmised to investigators that maybe she was “at a spa.”
Though he said she was under a lot of pressure at work, Brian Walshe said, her disappearance “doesn’t really track with my wife,” because she loved her job and her family, he told investigators in a January 7 interview. The jury is listening to a recording.
Before that, an investigator asked Walshe, “Can I ask you, did you do anything to hurt your wife?”
Walshe said no, “I would never do that.” He added, “I would never hurt my wife.”
He reiterated to law enforcement that he and his wife had a good relationship. This was something he also mentioned in two previous interviews with investigators. Brian Walshe said the biggest issue in their marriage was the distance.
He said he didn’t give his wife a hard time about leaving early to return to Washington, DC, because they’d fought about it when she missed Thanksgiving and Christmas Eve with the family. “I wasn’t going to make the same mistake three times,” Walshe said in the recorded interview.
He also said that he got angry about his wife for missing Thanksgiving, but then realized that he was “just sad that we’re not spending a lot of time together.”
“And she was sad about it, too, and it was exhausting for both of us,” he said.
Jurors are listening to about 30 more minutes of the police interview with Walshe
Cohasset Police Department Sgt. Harrison Schmidt is back on the stand for the prosecution.
The jury is now continuing to listen to the January 7 law enforcement interview with Brian Walshe. They heard more than an hour of the recording yesterday afternoon. They’ll now listen to the remaining 30 minutes of the recording.
When asked, Brian Walshe said Gem Mutlu — Ana’s former boss who joined them New Year’s Eve and was among the last people to see Ana alive — didn’t know she was going to leave early New Year’s Day.
Walshe said he personally didn’t know she planned to leave while Mutlu was at the house, telling investigators he didn’t find out until later.
Walshe told also investigators that at some point in the night on New Year’s Eve, Ana sent a photo of her and her their son to Will Fastow, who prosecutors say she was having an affair with in Washington, DC.
The Brian Walshe trial is back in session
Brian Walshe is back in court and the judge is on the bench.
After being unshackled, Walshe opened a red envelope left with his lawyers by his mother, who is again seated in the front row. It appears to be a holiday card with several photos on it.
In audio recordings, we heard what Brian Walshe told investigators during initial interviews
The jury heard several audio recordings of Brian Walshe’s interviews with law enforcement in the few days after his wife was reported missing.
The prosecution’s first witness was Cohasset Police Sgt. Harrison Schmidt, who was a detective at the time and involved in the investigation. During his testimony, the prosecution played chunks of the recorded interviews. The jury also saw several photos of the inside of the Walshe home.
January 4: The day Ana Walshe is reported missing, Walshe walked the investigators through the days before he said he last saw Ana Walshe on January 1.
Multiple times, Brian Walshe talked about how his wife hadn’t been feeling well lately and often didn’t get enough rest between her demanding job and commuting to Massachusetts to see her family. When asked, Walshe said the only problem in his marriage was that they didn’t get to spend enough time together.
January 5: On this day, Brian Walshe’s tone appears different than the first interview recording. He could be heard stuttering and pausing frequently as he told investigators how he made breakfast for his kids and played with them before he left the house to run errands in the afternoon.
He said he didn’t raise the alarms about his wife’s disappearance sooner because it bothered Ana that he called friends and family looking for her a week earlier, when she missed a flight to Massachusetts for Christmas.
January 7: Walshe again told investigators he made breakfast for his kids and played with them before he ran errands. He went to see his mother and went to the grocery store and CVS while a nanny watched his kids, Walshe told them.
He reiterated why he didn’t call police sooner to report his wife missing.
CNN’s Lauren del Valle and Maureen Chowdhury contributed reporting to this post.
Prosecutors are talking a lot about the first few days after Ana Walshe's disappearance. Here's a timeline
Ana Walshe, a Massachusetts mother of three, has not been seen since January 1, 2023. Prosecutors say her husband Brian Walshe killed her, dismembered her and disposed of her remains.
Brian Walshe told police he last saw her on New Year’s Day when she left their home in Cohasset for a flight to Washington, DC, for her job.
Using information from a criminal affidavit, police, prosecutors and defense attorneys, CNN assembled a timeline:
January 1: As Brian Walshe told police, Ana Walshe usually took an Uber, Lyft or taxi to the airport and left between 6 and 7 a.m. ET, the affidavit states.
He further told police a babysitter arrived in the afternoon and he left home to get groceries at about 3 p.m. ET, the affidavit states.
He told police he then went to see his mother at about 4 p.m ET. in Swampscott, about an hour drive from Cohasset, but did not have his cell phone and got lost, making the trip longer than usual, the affidavit states. He ran errands and eventually returned home at about 8 p.m. ET, according to the affidavit.
January 2: Ana Walshe’s cell phone pinged in the area of their Cohasset home on January 1 and 2, according to prosecutor Lynn Beland.
According to surveillance footage, Brian Walshe traveled to a Home Depot in Rockland wearing a surgical mask and gloves and made a cash purchase, the affidavit states. There, Walshe bought $450 of cleaning supplies, including mops, a bucket, tarps and various types of tape, according to Beland.
January 4: Ana Walshe’s workplace, real estate company Tishman Speyer, called police to report she did not show up for her job, Beland said. According to Brian Walshe’s defense attorney, he called her workplace to ask if they knew of her whereabouts prior to the workplace’s call to police.
Jan. 5: Cohasset Police announced Ana Walshe was missing and asked the public to come forward with any information.
How Brian Walshe's guilty plea to lesser charges last month could impact his murder trial
A Massachusetts man on trial for the murder and dismemberment of his wife pleaded guilty last month to misleading police and improper conveyance of a human body last month.
On the day jury selection began in his murder trial, Brian Walshe pleaded guilty to the lesser charges without a plea deal from prosecutors. Prosecutors refused to negotiate, according to a defense filing, “unless negotiations included the indictment charging murder.”
In court, Walshe’s lawyers made it clear that while he was admitting to obstructing the investigation, he was not admitting to murdering his wife. Walshe also confirmed to the judge that he disposed of her body.
What this could mean: Ronald Sullivan, a Harvard law professor, said the guilty plea will allow the defense to focus the trial solely on the question of whether the defendant killed his wife, potentially limiting what evidence the jury will see about Walshe’s disposal of his wife’s remains.
It’s also possible Walshe’s attorneys are maneuvering for their client to face lesser homicide charges in the hopes of avoiding life without parole.
Under Massachusetts law, Walshe cannot plead guilty to first-degree murder. Before the jury begins deliberations Walshe’s attorneys can ask the judge to allow the jury to consider a lesser homicide charge like second-degree murder or voluntary manslaughter, which could allow for his eventual release.
Brian Walshe, a 50-year-old Massachusetts man, pleaded guilty for disposing of a human body and misleading a police investigation related to the death of his wife, Ana Walshe. His lawyers, however, insist he is not admitting to her murder. CNN's Jean Casarez reports how Walshe's murder trial will continue.
What the jury heard yesterday during opening statements
The murder trial of Brian Walshe kicked off yesterday in Massachusetts with both sides laying out their story for the jury. Now, jurors will hear evidence over the next several weeks, which prosecutors and defense attorneys say back up their opening statements.
If you missed it, here’s what happened in court.
Prosecution:
- Assistant District Attorney Greg Connor described the day Ana Walshe was reported missing by her employer’s security team. Connor also laid out a digital trail of texts and other elements, which mapped out Brian Walshe’s activities the days before Ana disappeared.
- Included in that digital trail was a series of internet searches prosecutors say Brian Walshe made on January 1 and 2, including, “Can you throw away body parts” and “best way to dispose of a body.”
- The prosecutor ended his opening statement without offering a theory of how Ana Walshe died.
Defense:
- Defense attorney Larry Tipton said Brian Walshe found his wife unresponsive in their bed. Tipton referenced the Google searches, explaining that Walshe made them as “he wrestled with the fact that Ana Walshe was dead.”
- Addressing searches Brian Walshe made about divorce, Tipton said he was making arrangements in the event that he would have to go to prison related to another federal case.
- Tipton argued that Brian Walshe lied to law enforcement about his wife’s disappearance to protect his family.
CNN’s Lauren del Valle and Maureen Chowdhury contributed reporting to this post.
