Ana Walshe vanished on New Years. Now her fraudster husband is facing a murder charge. What happened?

A week after Massachusetts mother Ana Walshe vanished, her husband Brian was arrested for hindering the police investigation. Investigators discovered weapons and blood, and a troubling internet search history, and he has been charged with murder. Graeme Massie reports

Traces of blood and a knife were found in the basement of missing Massachusetts woman Ana Walshe (Cohasset police)

From the outside, Ana Walshe seemingly had it all. A young family, a successful real estate career, and a $1m home in the exclusive coastal Massachusetts enclave of Cohasset.

After celebrating New Year’s with her husband Brian Walshe and a close friend at home, she was supposed to have commuted back to DC in the early hours of 1 January to deal with a “work emergency”.

But police now believe she was murdered and dismembered by her husband, who then disposed of her body.

When the head of security at her DC real estate firm Tishman Speyer reported her missing on 4 January, a police search was launched in and around the family’s property in Cohasset, as well as their home in Washington’s Chevy Chase neighbourhood.

Her husband, convicted art fraudster Brian Walshe, was arrested on 8 January on charges for hindering the police investigation after prosecutors say that traces of blood and a knife were found in the basement of her family home.

On 17 January, Mr Walshe was charged with her murder.

At an arraignment hearing on 18 January, prosecutors alleged that he searched for “10 ways to dump a body”, “how long before a body starts to smell?” and what “ammonia” and “baking soda” does to a body.

Prosecutors had previously revealed that he bought $450 of cleaning supplies, mops and tape from a nearby Home Depot store on 2 January.

Mr Walshe has pleaded not guilty to charges of murder, improper transport of remains and misleading a police investigation. He is being held without bail.

Here’s what we know about the case so far:

A threat to kill

In 2014, Washington DC police received a call from Ana Walshe stating that her husband had threatened to kill her and a friend.

Ms Walshe, who was then known by her maiden name Ana Knipp, reported the death threat in August, about a year before she and Brian Walshe married in Serbia.

The case was closed after she refused to cooperate with the police investigation, a spokesperson told The Independent.

Mystery over ‘big surprise’ for New Year 

Three days before Ana Walshe was reported missing, she and her husband Brian told their long-term tenants they were abruptly selling their rental property.

Mike Silva told CBS Boston it felt like a personal betrayal as he had been led to believe the Walshes would eventually sell the apartment they had lived in for four years in Revere, Massachusetts, to him and his fiancée Mandi.

Friends told NBC Washington that she had been rushing to get rid of assets including an apartment and her car in late December and had promised “a big surprise” in the New Year.

Mandi Silva said that Ms Walshe seemed off in the months leading up to her disappearance.

“Nothing is adding up,” she told NBC Washington.

Property records uncovered by Boston25 show that Ms Walshe completed the property sale in December 2022, making about $80,000 profit.

A possible explanation emerged during Mr Walshe’s court appearance on 18 January.

It was revealed in court that Mr Walshe had searched “What's the best state to divorce?” on 27 December.

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

Ana Walshe asked for mother’s help a week before disappearance

A week before her disappearance, Ms Walshe asked her mother to come visit her from Serbia. Milanka Ljubicic, 69, told Fox News Digital that “she just said, ‘Please, Mama. Come tomorrow’”.

“Which means that clearly, there must have been some problems,” she added. She told Fox that Ms Walshe asked on 25 December for her mother to come to the US the following day.

“And now I can’t forgive myself for not just letting things fall where they may, and just go, and whatever happens to me, happens,” the mother said.

Her daughter made two more phone calls at around midnight and 1am on New Year’s Eve, the night police believe Ms Walshe was murdered.

She’s also reported to have called her older sister and her maid of honour, both of whom also missed her calls.

A police report from the Metropolitan Police Department in Washington DC shows Ana Walshe (nee Knipp) claimed her husband had threatened to kill her (DC Metro police)

Harrowing final note to husband revealed

Ana Walshe reportedly left a note to her conman husband on a bottle of champagne wishing him “love, compassion and joy” in 2023.

The message was written in bright red letters on a Lanson Noble Cuvee champagne box that appears to have been left unopened after a New Year’s Eve party at the family’s home in Cohasset, Massachusetts, the New York Post reported.

“Wow! 2022 … What a year! And yet, we are still here and together! Let’s make 2023 the best one yet! We are the authors of our lives … courage, love, perseverance, compassion, and joy. Love, Ana,” the note reads, according to the Post.

A note on another side of the box reads: “Gem Ana Brian 2023!”

Gem Mutlu, a family friend, previously told CBS Boston he attended a party at the Walshe’s home. Mr Mutlu said Mr Walshe had cooked an elaborate meal for guests and described the mood as “festive”.

“There was a lot of looking forward to the new year,” he told CBS Boston. “There was no indication of anything other than celebrating the new year, problems on hold.”

He said they hugged goodbye and he left at around 1.30am.

Search gets underway in Massachusetts

Police in Cohasset first announced that Ana Walshe was missing in a statement on 5 January and asked for the public’s help in finding her.

Authorities said that she was last seen at her home shortly after midnight on New Year’s Day, and describe her as being 5 feet 2 inches tall, 115 pounds, with brown hair, brown eyes and an olive complexion. They state that she speaks with an eastern European accent.

She had been due to take a ride-share car from her home to Boston’s Logan Airport to take a flight to Washington DC, where she works in real estate, police said. Tishman Speyer report her missing on 4 January, and police in Cohasset perform a welfare check at the family home.

Ana Walshe, right, with her mother Milanka Ljubicic during a 2016 trip to Serbia (Facebook / Ana Walshe)

Police search woodland near the family home

The search for Ana Walshe initially focused in wooded areas near the family’s home.

Officials said that 20 troopers from a specialised search and rescue were joined by three police K9 teams and a police helicopter in the search. State police divers also searched a small stream and drained the home’s swimming pool.

Husband arrested for allegedly hindering the investigation

On 8 January, Cohasset police announced that Ana Walshe’s husband, Brian Walshe, had been arrested for allegedly hindering the investigation.

According to the Norfolk County District Attorney’s Office, Massachusetts State Police and Cohasset police investigating Ana Walshe’s disappearance developed probable cause to believe that her husband “had committed the crime of misleading police investigators”.

Brian Walshe did not report wife missing, call logs claim

Call logs from the Cohasset Police show that it was the head of security at Ms Walshe’s Washington DC real estate firm who first alerted authorities about her disappearance.

Police received a call from her employer Tishman Speyer at 11.44am on 4 January to request a well-being check.

The caller tells police that the “company has contacted the husband … he has not filed a missing person report”.

The logs appear to contradict comments made by the lawyer representing Ms Walshe’s husband Brian Walshe when he appeared in court last week to be arraigned on charges of misleading police.

Prosecutors tell judge that blood and knife found in basement of family home

Mr Walshe, 46, appeared in Quincy District Court on 9 January following his initial arrest for misleading the authorities.

Prosecutors told the judge that police had found blood and a damaged bloody knife in the basement of the family home.

Brian Walshe during a first court appearance on 9 January (NBC Boston)

They also claim that Mr Walshe allegedly bought $450 of items that included cleaning supplies, mops and tape from a nearby Home Depot store on 2 January.

A criminal affidavit in the case states that Mr Walshe told police that he last saw his wife at their home early on January 1 when she took an Uber or Lyft to the airport.

He also told authorities that he went to a Whole Foods and a CVS in Swampscott, Massachusetts, 40 miles away, on 1 January and took his child to get ice cream the following day.

The affidavit states that police did not find that any Uber or Lift ride had taken place on New Year’s Day, and Ms Walshe never took a flight to DC or arrived in the city by any other means of transport.

Brian Walshe, center, listens during his arraignment Wednesday, Jan. 18, 2023, at Quincy District Court, in Quincy, Mass., on a charge of murdering his wife Ana Walshe. Not guilty pleas were entered on behalf of Walshe, 47. (Craig F. Walker/The Boston Globe via AP)

Prosecutors also say they reviewed video footage of Whole Foods and CVS and did not see Mr Walshe at either location where he said he was there.

“These various statements caused a delay in the investigation to the point that during the time frame when he didn’t report his wife and gave various statements, that allowed him time to either clean up evidence, dispose of evidence, and causing a delay,” prosecutor Lynn Beland said.

A not-guilty plea was entered for Mr Walshe and he was released on $500,000 bail. The next hearing in the case was due to take place on 9 February.

Trash transfer site searched

The same day of Mr Walshe’s initial arraignment, investigators were seen launching a search of a trash transfer site north of Boston.

The search allegedly yielded the discovery of blood, a hatchet, a hacksaw, a rug, and cleaning supplies in trash bags, according to WBZ-TV.

Norfolk District Attorney Michael Morrissey’s office released a statement about the search at the time but would not confirm what had been found.

“Search activity conducted north of Boston yesterday resulted in a number of items being collected which will now be subject to processing and testing to determine if they are of evidentiary value to this investigation. No detail on those items will be disclosed at this time,” spokesperson David Traub said.

Brian Walshe charged with murder

Mr Walshe was charged with murder on 17 January.

Michael Morrissey, the Norfolk District Attorney, said in a video statement on Tuesday that his office has “been involved in an intensive investigation into the fate of Anna Walshe” since she was reported missing on 4 January.

The DA added that earlier in the probe, police found sufficient evidence “to believe that her husband Brian Walshe, age 47, had misled police investigators on material matters important to the search for Anna Walshe”.

“He has pled not guilty to those charges and is currently being held at the Norfolk County House of Corrections,” Mr Morrissey said. “The continued investigation has now allowed police to obtain an arrest warrant charging Brian Walshe with the murder of his wife.”

“Our thoughts are very much with the family these crimes have left behind,” the DA said.

Grisly details emerge in court

Brian Walshe used his son’s iPad to make a series of disturbing internet searches in the days after his wife’s disappearance, prosecutors said during an arraignment hearing on 18 January.

On 1 January, he searched “how long before a body starts to smell?”, “how to stop a body from decomposing?” and “how long for someone to be missing before you inherit?”, prosecutors said.

He also looked up “what does Formaldehyde do?”, “can an ID be made on partial remains?” and “dismemberment and the best ways to dispose of a body?” that day.

Then on 2 January, Mr Walshe allegedly searched “Can you be charged with murder without a body?”, “hacksaw best tool to dismember” and “can you identify a body with broken teeth?”.

In addition to murder, Mr Walshe was also charged with improper transport of a body.

He pled not guilty to all charges, and was ordered held without bond until his next appearance on 9 February.

His attorney Tracy Miner issued a defiant statement after the court appearance, accusing prosecutors of leaking evidence to the media.

“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,” she said n a statement to The Independent.

“When they have a strong case, they give me everything as soon as possible.  We shall see what they have and what evidence is admissible in court, where the case will ultimately be decided.”

Who is Ana Walshe?

Ana Walshe, 39, is a mother of three who is married to Brian Walshe. She has a home in Cohasset, Massachusetts, but works in real estate in Washington DC during the week.

Ana and Brian Walshe were married in Serbia in 2015 and have three children together (Facebook)

Ms Walshe was born in Belgrade, Serbia, and was working at the Wheatleigh Hotel in Lenox when she met Mr Walshe in 2008. After their 2015 marriage, they had three sons between two and six years old.

The couple’s three young boys were placed in the care of the Department of Children and Families following Mr Walshe’s first arrest.

Brian Walshe’s history of art fraud

Brian Walshe pleaded guilty to federal fraud charges in 2021 over allegations he took authentic Andy Warhol paintings from a friend in South Korea and used photographs and their documentation to sell fakes on eBay.

An FBI investigation was launched after a buyer agreed to purchase two paintings from Warhol’s “Shadows” series for $80,000 in 2016. After sending an assistant to collect the artwork, the paintings were found to have no authentication stamps and the canvas appeared to be new.

The owner of the paintings told agents that Brian Walshe had offered to sell the pictures for him, but after taking them with him he was then unable to contact the suspect.