Brian Walshe pleads not guilty to murdering missing wife Ana Walshe
The husband of missing Massachusetts mother, Ana Walshe, who has not been seen since New Year’s Day, suspected she was having an affair and convinced his mother to hire a private investigator to help him prove it, according to newly released court documents.
Brian Walshe pleaded not guilty to killing his wife — whose body has not yet been found — during a brief court appearance on Thursday in Norfolk County Superior Court. He was indicted last month of murder, misleading a police investigation/obstruction of justice and improper conveyance of a human body.
A judge ordered that he be held without bail.
Authorities have been searching for Ana since her employer reported her missing on January 4. Brian Walshe told investigators he last saw his wife days earlier on January 1, as she phoned a ride-sharing service to take her to a Boston airport for a job in Washington, D.C., where the family has a second home.
There is no record of her taking a car to the airport or boarding a flight, police said.
In the days before her disappearance, Brian Walshe “would repeatedly access the Instagram page” of one of his wife’s male friends in Washington, D.C., where she worked, prosecutors said. His mother also hired an investigator on Dec. 26 “with his input and direction” to confirm his suspicions of infidelity.
Around the same time, his oldest child’s iPad was used for an internet search on “divorce.”
Days later, on Dec. 28, Ana went out with a friend in DC and became “uncharacteristically emotional and extremely upset,” according to the court documents.
“Ana believed Mr. Walshe was going to be incarcerated on his pending criminal case. Ana told her friend that she intended to relocate her three children to Washington, D.C., and was prepared to leave Mr. Walshe.”
Brian Walshe at that time had been on home confinement with some exceptions while awaiting sentencing in a fraud case involving the sale of fake Andy Warhol paintings.
With News Wire Services
