Brian Walshe denied bail in alleged murder of wife

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Brian Walshe appears at his arraignment on Thursday in Dedham, Massachusetts.

A pretrial conference for the Brian Walshe case was scheduled for August 23, while a pretrial hearing date was set for November 2.

Walshe will be held without bail.

Brian and Ana Walshe are seen in this undated photo.

Shortly after Brian Walshe pleaded not guilty in court, Norfolk Assistant District Attorney Greg Connor outlined a spate of new details from the investigation.

“In December 2022, it had become evident that Mr. Walshe was suspecting his wife of having an affair,” Connor said in court.

Prosecutors have not said whether Ana Walshe’s body or remains have been found.

Defense attorney Tracy Miner said there is “really no evidence” for the prosecution’s affair allegation. Miner said Walshe called his mother’s hiring of the private investigator “crazy” and said nothing would be found because Ana is “a good girl.”

“Mr. Walshe had no idea that his wife was having an affair until he learned it in discovery in this case,” Miner said.

Prosecutors also said their investigation found that Walshe was the sole beneficiary of Ana Walshe’s life insurance policy – valued at over $2.7 million in total. 

Connor said that Ana Walshe had dinner with a friend in Washington, DC, on December 28, 2022, and she became uncharacteristically upset. She allegedly told her friend that Brian Walshe was going to be incarcerated because of his federal case, and she was prepared to leave him and take their children to DC, Connor said.

During Brian Walshe’s hearing today, the prosecution reiterated that he turned over digital devices from his home — including his son’s iPad — which they say included online searches on how to cover up a murder.

Here are the searches that prosecutor Lynn Beland had previously listed in court on January 18:

January 1:

January 2:

January 3:

Beland said there was one earlier Google search to note — on December 27, 2022, the prosecutor added that Walshe searched: “What’s the best state to divorce?”

“Rather than divorce, it is believed that Brian Walshe dismembered Ana Walshe and discarded her body,” Beland said.

During the January arraignment, Walshe shook his head when she alleged he conducted searches on his son’s iPad.

Tracy Miner, Brian Walshe's defense attorney, speaks during his arraignment on Thursday.

Brian Walshe’s defense attorney Tracy Miner argued that the Walshe family had “no discord.”

In reference to some of Walshe’s Google searches on how to dispose of a body and prevent one from decomposing, Miner admitted they were were “problematic,” but argued that he also made other Google searches during the same time frame about how to set up a charitable corporation to give away lottery winnings and the best places to go on family vacation.

Walshe has been “cooperative with police from day one,” she said.

Miner also said that Ana Walshe worked a lot and he has been the primary caregiver of their three young children.

Brian Walshe appears at his arraignment at Norfolk County Superior Court on Thursday.

Brian Walshe, who is accused of killing and dismembering his wife Ana Walshe, entered a not guilty plea after being read the formal charges against him at Norfolk County Superior Court in Dedham, Massachusetts.

A grand jury indicted Walshe last month on charges of murder, misleading a police investigation/obstruction of justice, and improper conveyance of a human body, according to Norfolk District Attorney Michael W. Morrissey.

Walshe shook his head while the judge read the charges.

Walshe previously entered a plea of not guilty to the charge of murder at his Quincy District Court arraignment in January.

Brian Walshe arrives at Norfolk County Superior Court on Thursday morning.

Brian Walshe is appearing in Norfolk Superior Court for the disappearance and death of his wife, Ana Walshe.

Walshe was indicted on a murder charge last month.

He had already been charged with murder and other counts in January in connection with his spouse’s disappearance – charges for which he pleaded not guilty – after authorities said they found evidence he killed and dismembered her and gruesomely disposed of her remains.

Walshe was arrested on January 8 on suspicion of misleading investigators, and arraigned on charges of murder and disinterring a body without authority on January 18 – the first day prosecutors publicly said they believed Ana Walshe was dead, though they did not say whether her body had been found.

During the January arraignment in Quincy district court, prosecutors alleged Walshe killed his wife because he wanted to end their marriage and that he lied to investigators about some of his actions and whereabouts in the days following her disappearance.

Brian Walshe listens to prosecutor Lynn Beland during his arraignment at Quincy District Court in Massachusetts on January 18.

Details of Brian Walshe’s tumultuous legal history revealed harsh criticisms of him made by a relative and family friends during a 2019 dispute over his father’s will.

In affidavits submitted by his father’s nephew and close friends, Brian is described as a dishonest, “very angry and physically violent person.” The two close friends also described him as a “sociopath,” the affidavits show.

Dr. Thomas Walshe, who headed the neurology division at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston for over a decade, died in 2018 in India, according to court documents. He bequeathed to Brian only his “best wishes” and “nothing else” from his estate, noting that he was no longer in contact with his son, according to photographs of the will included in court documents.

However, Brian Walshe objected in an affidavit in November 2019, arguing that he was “one of only two legal heirs” to his father’s estate. He said his father’s health had been “very poor” when he signed what Brian described as a “suspect” will, and he suggested his father’s signature on the document was a “possible forgery.”

He also claimed that he and his father had been estranged over the years but had “reconnected” in 2015 and began “speaking regularly” in 2016. He also claimed the two properties tied up in the estate had an estimated value of over $1 million.

In their affidavits rejecting those claims, his father’s nephew and friends detailed years of alleged swindling and manipulation by Brian Walshe.

Federal fraud charges: Separately, Brian Walshe was indicted on federal fraud charges in 2018 for allegedly selling fake Andy Warhol artwork on eBay, according to court documents.

He allegedly took real paintings from a friend to sell, but never did, according to the documents. He did not compensate the friend for the art either, prosecutors alleged.

In 2021, he pleaded guilty to three federal fraud charges and was placed on house arrest as he awaited sentencing.

In a letter to the federal judge hearing the case, Walshe said he was “extremely sorry” for his past conduct and promised he had changed since the crime was committed. Ana Walshe also wrote a letter to the court that she was grateful he was able to remain under house arrest during case proceedings.

Members of a State Police K-9 unit search on Chief Justice Cushing Highway in Cohasset, Massachusetts, on January 7, 2022.

Using information from a criminal affidavit, police, prosecutors and defense attorneys, CNN put together a timeline of the disappearance of corporate real estate manager and mother Ana Walshe:

December 27, 2022: Brian Walshe made a Google search, “What’s the best state to divorce for a man,” according to prosecutors.

December 31, 2022: Brian and Ana Walshe went to bed at around 1 or 1:30 a.m. shortly after a houseguest went home, the affidavit states. Ana Walshe said she had a work emergency and needed to fly to Washington for her job the next morning, he told police.

January 1, 2023: Ana Walshe left for the airport between 6 and 7 a.m., the affidavit states. According to prosecutors, Brian Walshe made a series of Google searches on his son’s iPad, including “How long before a body starts to smell,” “10 ways to dispose of a dead body if you really need to,” “How long for someone to be missing to inherit,” and “How to clean blood from wooden floor.”

January 2: Brian Walshe made several more Google searches: “Hacksaw best tool to dismember,” “Can you be charged with murder without a body,” and “Can you identify a body with broken teeth,” according to prosecutors.

According to surveillance video, 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, goggles, a hatchet and baking soda, according to Beland.

January 3: Brian Walshe allegedly made more Google searches, including “What happens to hair on a dead body,” “What is the rate of decomposition of a body found in a plastic bag compared to on a surface in the woods,” and “Can baking soda mask or make a body smell good,” according to prosecutors.

Cell phone data tracked Brian Walshe’s whereabouts to an apartment complex in Abington at 4:27 p.m., according to prosecutors. Surveillance video shows he exited his car with a heavy garbage bag and put it into a dumpster, prosecutors said.

At 4:48 p.m., he traveled to another apartment complex in the same town, and at 5:10 p.m. he went to an apartment complex in a different town where he again discarded items in a dumpster, according to prosecutors.

These garbage bags were taken to a location to be shredded and incinerated and were destroyed by the time police located them, according to prosecutors.

Read the full timeline.

Brian Walshe listens during his arraignment on January 18 at Quincy District Court in Quincy, Massachusetts.

A Massachusetts father accused of killing and dismembering his wife is expected to appear in court Thursday, almost five months after the disappearance of Ana Walshe.

Brian Walshe, 48, of Cohasset was indicted by a grand jury last month on charges of murder, misleading a police investigation/obstruction of justice, and improper conveyance of a human body, Norfolk District Attorney Michael W. Morrissey said.

“Brian Walshe entered a plea of not guilty to the charge of murder at his Quincy District Court arraignment in January,” Morrissey said in March. “This indictment moves the case to the Norfolk Superior Court, where it will be arraigned.”

Prosecutors have not said whether Ana Walshe’s body or remains have been found.

The suspect’s defense attorney, Tracy Miner, has suggested the prosecutors’ case was not strong and accused them of leaking evidence to the media before making it available to her.

“In my experience, where, as here, the prosecution leaks so called evidence to the press before they provide it to me, their case isn’t that strong,” Miner said in a January statement. “When they have a strong case, they give me everything as soon as possible.”

The defense attorney added: “I will not be giving any media interviews or comments. I intend to win this case in court, not in the media, which has already tried and convicted Mr. Walshe.”

Read more about the case here.