A Massachusetts man on trial over his wife’s death conducted several grim online search queries following her disappearance, including “how to dismember a body,” “hacksaw the best tool for dismembering a body” and “how long before a body starts to smell,” prosecutors said.
Brian Walshe is on trial this week, facing a first-degree murder charge over the death of his wife Ana Walshe, who was reported missing on Jan. 4, 2023, and whose body has never been found. Brian Walshe has already pleaded guilty to misleading police and willfully disposing of a human body in violation of state law.
Prosecutors said that they intended to prove “beyond a reasonable doubt” that Walshe was guilty of the premeditated murder charge. They cited as evidence his internet search history, which they said included searches for “how to saw a body” and “can you be charged with murder without a body,” and items that investigators found: a hatchet and a hacksaw. Walsh was the beneficiary of Ana’s life insurance policy, prosecutors said.
Walshe has denied the first-degree murder charge, and his defense attorney Larry Tipton argued in court that his client found his wife dead in their bed shortly after celebrating New Year’s Eve together, in what he described as a “sudden unexplained death.”
Tipton said Walshe had conducted a “frantic and tragic search” online “as he wrestled with the fact that Ana Walshe was dead.” Walshe “never killed Ana” but he started “panicking” upon finding his wife’s body and subsequently lied to investigators to protect their three sons, Tipton said, adding that the couple had a loving relationship and had been planning their future together.
The case against Walshe has drawn national attention because of Walshe’s previous legal troubles and the grisly detail in the prosecution’s case. At the time of his arrest, Walshe had been on home confinement while awaiting sentencing in a federal fraud case involving phony Andy Warhol art.
Born in Serbia, real estate investment manager Ana was reported missingby her colleagues after the Christmas and New Year’s holidays, when she failed to show up for work.
Walshe then told investigators that his wife left their family home in Massachusetts on New Year’s Day and was traveling to her office in D.C. to handle a work emergency. The company later told investigators there had been no work emergency, and investigators found Ana never boarded a flight.
Prosecutors have said that no one had seen Ana after Jan. 1, 2023. On the morning of Jan. 1, Walshe’s devices were used to input a string of queries including “how long does DNA last,” “is it possible to clean DNA off a knife” and “can I use bleach to clean my wood floors from blood stains,” Massachusetts State Trooper Nicholas Guarino told the court on Tuesday.
More searches came on Jan. 2, including “can you be charged with murder without a body,” “can you identify a body with broken teeth,” and “disposing of a body in the trash,” Guarino added.
Prosecutors say that Walshe used cash to buy cleaning products and cutting instruments on Jan. 1 and 2. Walshe’s cellphone was in the area of a dumpster on Jan. 5, and on Jan. 9, police retrieved items from a dumpster and trash compactor, including rugs, a hatchet and hacksaw, that contained Ana’s DNA, Assistant District Attorney Greg Connor said. A search of the family home revealed blood in the basement and a bloody knife that had been partly damaged, The Washington Post previously reported.
In 2014, Ana reported to D.C. police that Walshe had threatened to kill her and a friend but no charges were filed. A D.C. police spokesman said the case was closed, citing Ana’s refusal to cooperate.
Experts have previously told The Post the Walshe case was an unusual example of a murder case with no body.
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