Today in court
• Happening now: The first witness has been called in the murder trial of Brian Walshe, who is accused of killing and dismembering his wife in 2023. Cohasset Police Sgt. Harrison Schmidt, who was part of the investigation into Ana Walshe’s disappearance, has been testifying about his interviews with Walshe.
• Opening statements: Prosecutors this morning described Walshe as a man who publicly claimed a happy marriage but was secretly researching divorce, while the defense said Walshe found his wife unresponsive in their bedroom, and then lied to law enforcement about her disappearance to protect their children.
• Guilty of lesser charges: 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.
Brian Walshe told investigators his wife did not have another relationship in DC
When asked by investigators, Brian Walshe told them that his wife, Ana Walshe, was not seeing anyone else in Washington, DC, where she worked.
The jury is listening to an audio recording of an interview law enforcement conducted with Brain Walshe on January 5, 2023, the day after Ana was reported missing.
Brian Walshe said his wife would wear a wedding ring and talk about her husband while she was in DC.
He also mentioned William Fastow among a list of friends his wife had in Washington, DC. Ana Walshe had a romantic relationship with Fastow, who is expected to testify in the murder trial.
In opening statements, prosecutors said a cell phone that belonged to Brian Walshe was searching Fastow’s name days earlier, on December 25, 2022.
Brian Walshe said her friends told him it was their understanding that Ana Walshe regularly worked long hours and typically just ate dinner and went to bed.
He also told investigators that his mother hired private investigators who he said were looking into Ana’s disappearance and didn’t think his wife returned to Washington, DC.
Brian Walshe told investigators he never had a physical altercation with Ana
Brian Walshe said he never had a physical altercation with his wife when asked by investigators during an interview on January 5, 2023, according to an audio recording of the interview played in court.
He said, “I love my wife” and “This family doesn’t work without her.”
Court resumes in the murder trial of Brian Walshe
Jurors and Brian Walshe are now back in the court room after a lunch break.
Prosecutors are continuing to question witness Sgt. Harrison Schmidt.
In police interview, Brian Walshe said he waited too long to report his wife missing
In his interview with police on January 5, 2023, Brian Walshe offered his explanation for why he had waited so long to report his wife, Ana Walshe, missing, according to an audio recording played in court today.
Without being asked, Brian Walshe 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.
Brian Walshe said he held off too long and should’ve acted a day earlier than he did. Prosecutors said in their opening statement that Ana was reported missing by her employer’s global head of security.
Brian Walshe repeatedly said “no” when investigators asked if Ana ever talked about suicide, according to the recording played in court.
Brian Walshe also said that Gem Mutlu, who was at the Walshe home on New Year’s Eve, relayed to him that Ana said she was stressed but was going to seek help from a psychiatrist. Walshe said that was the first he’d heard of that.
The jury's taking a lunch break
The court is taking a break for lunch. Prosecutors will continue to question witness Sgt. Harrison Schmidt when court resumes.
The prosecution has, so far, presented audio and photo evidence to the jury.
The jury heard audio from an interview of Brian Walshe conducted by investigators on January 4, 2023, the day Ana Walshe was reported missing. Brian Walshe sounded calm and answered questions seemingly without pause throughout the interview, which in total lasted more than an hour. At times, he joked with them lightly.
Just before the lunch break, the jury heard about 15 minutes of an interview from January 5, 2023. On this day, Walshe’s tone appears different than the first interview recording as investigators question him about his activities on January 1. Walshe could be heard often 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.
Court is expected to be back in session at 2 p.m. ET.
Calling family and searching the pool: What the detective said he did in the first hours of the investigation
After interviewing Brian Walshe at his home on January 4, 2023, Sgt. Harrison Schmidt of the Cohasset Police Department talked to more of Ana Walshe’s friends and family, he testified today.
Back at the police station following his conversation with Brian Walshe and a walkthrough of the house, Schmidt said he put a flag on Ana Walshe’s passport to determine if she took any international flights.
Schmidt also contacted law enforcement in Washington, DC, asking them to walk through her townhome, he said, and he called her sister who lived in Canada.
Later that night, Schmidt returned to the Walshe home with the fire department to search the bottom of an uncovered pool in the backyard, but nothing was recovered, he said.
The next day, January 5, Schmidt said he talked to Gem Mutlu, who was at the house on New Year’s Eve, and called more of Ana Walshe’s friends and family. He also distributed a missing persons bulletin.
This was the day investigators began going through data from Ana’s phone, Schmidt said. He also went back to the Walshe home with Massachusetts State Police for another interview with Brian Walshe.
CNN’s Lauren del Valle contributed reporting to this post.
Here are some of the other things Brian Walshe told investigators
The jury just heard several minutes of an audio recording of Brian Walshe’s interview with investigators after his wife, Ana Walshe, was reported missing.
Brian Walshe sounded calm and answered questions seemingly without pause throughout the interview, which in total lasted more than an hour. At times, he joked with them lightly.
Cohasset Police Department Sgt. Harrison Schmidt, who was one of the interviewers and a detective on the case at the time, is on the stand for the prosecution.
Here are some of the other key points from the recording:
- Brian Walshe told the investigators he’d been having “legal problems” and called it “extremely embarrassing” to discuss the art fraud he committed. He said he’d misrepresented some artwork and they could read about it in the news.
- 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.
- Walshe told the investigators they were free to go through his cell phone any time. He made a joke that his whole life was on the device.
- Walshe also showed them his eldest son’s tablet. On it, law enforcement would eventually find a series of internet searches that are likely to be a big part of the trial.
- When asked, Walshe said he didn’t think they had any security cameras at the home but said he’d check with the landlord. Walshe said there was a security camera at the townhome in Washington, DC, that would be connected to Ana’s phone.
- Before the end of the interview recording, the investigators asked to walk through the house. Walshe said, “Let’s do it.” The jury has also been shown a series of photos from inside the house.
Brian Walshe named William Fastow as a friend of Ana in recorded interview
In a recorded interview with investigators shortly after Ana Walshe was reported missing, Brian Walshe named William Fastow as a friend of his wife’s in Washington, DC.
When investigators asked about her close friends, Walshe said he had called Fastow looking for Ana. Fastow went to Ana’s townhouse in Washington to look for her.
Earlier, prosecutor Greg Connor said Ana was having a romantic relationship with Fastow in Washington, where she commuted to for work.
Brian Walshe details days and hours before wife's disappearance to investigators
The jury is listening to an audio recording of investigators interviewing Brian Walshe on January 4.
His three sons can be heard yelling and playing in the background of the recording. Brian Walshe walked the investigators through the days before he claimed he last saw Ana Walshe on January 1.
Ana Walshe told her husband that she wasn’t feeling well on December 30 when she returned back to Cohasset from Washington, DC, Brian Walshe told the investigators in the interview.
Walshe said his wife told him on New Year’s Eve that a work emergency came up and she would have to return to Washington, DC, early the next morning. He told the investigators that Ana woke him up to say goodbye early in the morning on January 1 and said his young son said goodbye to Ana just before she left to get in a car headed for the airport.
Gem Multu, who was at the Walshe house to celebrate New Year’s Eve, called Brian Walshe’s phone during the recorded interview. Walshe told the investigators he was calling at the time and said they’d want to speak with him.
When asked, Walshe said the only problem in his marriage was that they didn’t get to spend enough time together.
Brian Walshe has since admitted he misled police in interviews like this one in the days after her death.
Jury hears audio and sees photo evidence in court
Sgt. Harrison Schmidt, who was a part of the investigation into Ana Walshe’s disappearance, said he went to the Walshe family home in Cohasset on the evening of January 4, 2023.
Audio of the interview Schmidt conducted with Brian Walshe around 6 p.m. that night was played in court.
The judge noted earlier that 52 photos have been admitted into evidence. Both the prosecution and defense agreed that the photos admitted are an accurate representation of the scene, the judge said.
Not all 52 photos have been shown in court yet. The jury is seeing some of them now. They saw a photo of the exterior of the home and the kitchen and living room. One photo showed the family’s dog locked in a cage in the living room.
Prosecution calls its first witness
Prosecutors have called their first witness. Cohasset Police Department Sgt. Harrison Schmidt is now on the stand.
Schmidt was a detective during the time the department was investigating the disappearance of Ana Walshe.
Court is taking a break
The court is taking a break after defense attorney Larry Tipton concluded his opening statement.
Tipton told jurors that Brian Walshe did not kill his wife, Ana, and instead found her dead in their bed. Tipton said that Brian Walshe lied about the circumstances of Ana Walshe’s death to protect their three children.
Earlier, prosecutor Greg Connor laid out a digital trail of texts and Google searches, which mapped out Brian Walshe’s activities the days before Ana was reported missing. Connor did not offer an explanation for Ana’s death.
Brian Walshe was seen holding a rosary throughout opening statements.
Brian Walshe was planning for possible prison time when searching divorce, defense attorney says
Brian Walshe’s previous federal conviction was a stressor on his marriage, his defense attorney said, and when he was researching divorce, he and his wife, Ana Walshe, were talking about making arrangements in the event that he would have to go to prison.
In its opening statement, the prosecution pointed out that Brain Walshe searched “best strategies to divorce for a man” and “Washington, DC, divorce laws” days before his wife went missing.
But defense attorney Larry Tipton said evidence will show that that was the only time Brian Walshe was researching the topic. He argued Brian and Ana were discussing the sale of one of their properties around the time the searches occurred.
Walshe pleaded guilty in 2021 to charges connected to selling forged Andy Warhol artwork. He’s serving a 37-month prison sentence that’s set to run concurrently with his prison time for the state case connected to his wife’s death. He is also ordered to pay $400,000 in restitution in that case.
Brian Walshe was considering, “how is it that I make sure that my wife and my three sons are financially secure if I have to go to prison?” Tipton said. “That’s what they were talking about.”
Ana Walshe confided to William Fastow, the man she was having an affair with in Washington, DC, that they might consider it to “preserve the family essence,” according to Tipton.
Tipton argued that Brian Walshe lied to law enforcement about his wife’s disappearance to protect his family.
Brian Walshe found his wife dead in their bed, defense attorney says
Defense attorney Larry Tipton said Brian Walshe found his wife unresponsive in their bed — the first time anyone is offering an explanation for Ana Walshe’s death.
Tipton began his opening statement to jurors noting that his client lied to investigators in the days after his wife’s disappearance.
Tipton referenced the Google searches Walshe made beginning January 1, explaining that Walshe made those searches as “he wrestled with the fact that Ana Walshe was dead.”
Tipton says that shortly before Walshe found his wife dead, he went downstairs from their bedroom to clean the kitchen and checked his emails.
He then returned to the bedroom, “intending nothing more than to crawl into bed with Ana Walshe, the woman he loved.”
When he did, Ana Walshe was unresponsive — so much so that her body rolled off the bed. She was unexplainably dead in their bed, Tipton said.
Brian Walshe claimed a happy marriage, but researched divorce before wife's disappearance, prosecutor says
In some of his interviews with law enforcement after the disappearance of his wife, Brian Walshe described a happy marriage with his wife, Ana Walshe, though later Google searches revealed he was researching divorce, prosecutors said.
In his opening statement to the jury in Brian Walshe’s murder trial, prosecutor Greg Connor described how Ana Walshe was having a romantic relationship with William Fastow in Washington, DC, where she commuted to work.
Days before she was reported missing, Ana Walshe missed Christmas Eve and most of Christmas Day with her family in Massachusetts, Connor said. After her flight was canceled December 25, she drove to Massachusetts arriving late that night.
The Walshe family then hosted Ana’s former boss, who joined them New Year’s Eve and was among the last people to see Ana alive.
During the investigation, detectives with the Cohasset Police Department and Massachusetts State Police recorded several interviews on January 5, 7 and 8 where Brian Walshe said “he and Ana were happily married, he had no knowledge of any extramarital affair,” Connor said.
But on December 25 a cell phone Brian Walshe’s was searching Fastow’s name, the prosecutor said. On December 27, a MacBook connected to Brain Walshe’s Apple ID showed that he searched “best strategies to divorce for a man” and “Washington, DC, divorce laws,” Connor said.
CNN’s Lauren del Valle contributed reporting to this post.
Prosecution concludes opening statement without providing a theory on how Ana Walshe died
Prosecutor Greg Connor concluded his opening statement without offering a theory of how Ana Walshe died.
Connor said Gem Mutlu left the Walshe’s home after 1 a.m. on New Year’s Day in 2023. Ana was home, alive and with her husband when Mutlu left, Connor added.
Remember: Brian Walshe admitted he disposed of her body in dumpsters and misled police, but his lawyers insist he is not admitting to her murder.
Prosecutor details some of the internet searches he says Walshe made
Prosecutor Greg Connor walked the jury through many of the internet searches prosecutors say Brian Walshe made on January 1 and 2.
Beginning on January 1 at 4:54 a.m. ET, Connor says Walshe searched “best way to dispose of a body.” At 6:24 a.m. the same day, there were more seraches
- “How long for someone to missing to inherit”
- “How long missing to be dead”
- “Can you throw away body parts”
At 9:33 a.m., ET there were even more searches, including “how long does DNA last” and “is it possible to clean DNA off a knife.”
Connor said that later that morning Walshe, searched “best way to dispose of body parts after a murder ” and “better to throw away crime scene clothes or wash them.”
Prosecution begins giving its opening statement
Assistant District Attorney Greg Connor is now delivering the prosecution’s opening statement in the murder trial of Brian Walshe.
The prosecutor began his opening statement by describing the day Ana Walshe was reported missing by her employer’s security team.
Connor told the jury that on January 4. 2023, the director of Human Resources at Tishman Speyer in Washington, DC, returned to work to learn that Walshe called the office looking for his wife, Ana.
After speaking with Walshe on the phone, the employee drove to Ana Walshe’s townhouse in Washington, DC. Walshe gave them the garage code. Nothing appeared out of order, though they could only gain entrance to the garage.
Later that morning, just before noon, the global head of security called local police in Cohasset, Massachusetts, to report Ana Walshe missing.
This post has been updated with more details from the prosecution’s opening statement.
The jury has been sworn in
A panel of 12 jurors and four alternates who will decide the murder case of Brian Walshe have now been sworn in.
The judge asked each juror individually if they were able to comply with her orders: to not talk about the case, to not do any research and to not go on social media or watch the news. All of the jurors answered yes.
Here’s what we know about the panel:
- Including the alternates, there are nine women and seven men. It is unclear who has been designated an alternate juror or main panelist.
- They span a variety of professions including a teacher and a scientist, CNN affiliate WCVB previously reported.
CNN’s Lauren del Valle contributed reporting to this post.
Brian Walshe is in court, and the judge is on the bench
Brian Walshe entered the courtroom shackled at his ankles and wrists. His mother, sitting in the front row of the gallery, stood as he walked in.
Judge Diane Freniere is on the bench. Walshe greeted her, saying, “good morning.”
Freniere is dealing with outstanding motions before bringing in the jury to begin opening statements.
