Brian Walshe news — latest: Ana Walshe’s remains thrown in trash bags and incinerated, prosecutors say

Ana Walshe’s husband Googled “how long before a body starts to smell” after his wife’s disappearance, prosecutors revealed in court on Wednesday.

The chilling detail was one of several pieces of evidence detailed in a criminal complaint against Brian Walshe in the Quincy District Court, where he pleaded not guilty to murder.

Mr Walshe’s internet search history also showed he had looked up what ammonia can do to a body, according to Norfolk District assistant district attorney Lynn Beland.

The Independent’s Bevan Hurley has the full details:

Prosecutors also confirmed that it was Ana Walshe’s coworker who reported her missing – and not Brian Walshe as previously believed.

On 4 January – three days after she was last seen alive – prosecutors said police in Cohasset received a call from her employer Tishman Speyer after she failed to show up for work.

The individual requested a wellbeing check on the Walshe’s home.

Police call logs previously reported on by the Cohasset Anchor news site revealed that the call came from Tishman Speyer at 11.44am on 4 January.

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

This appears to contradict comments made by the lawyer representing Mr Walshe when he appeared in court last week to be arraigned on charges of misleading police. Boston criminal defence attorney Tracy Miner told the court that her client had contacted Tishman Speyer to notify them Ms Walshe was missing.

Brian Walshe chose to murder and dismember his wife instead of divorcing her, according to prosecutors as they laid out the case against him in court on Wednesday.

In the lead up to the 1 January murder, prosecutors said that Mr Walshe carried out an internet search about his divorce options.

“Best state for divorce for a man,” he allegedly googled on 27 December.

Five days later, he allegedly beat her death in their home and dismembered her body.

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

After Brian Walshe’s court appearance, his attorney Tracy Miner released a blistering statement 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,” Ms Miner said in a statement to The Independent.

“I am not going to comment on the evidence, first because I am going to try this case in the court and not in the media.”

Ms Miner said it was “easy to charge a crime and even easier to say a person committed that crime”. 

“It is a much more difficult thing to prove it, which we will see if the prosecution can do.”

“We shall see what they have and what evidence is admissible in court, where the case will ultimately be decided.”

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.

Prosecutors said Brian Walshe used his son’s iPad to search how to dismember and dispose of his wife’s body, it emeged in court on Wednesday.

Among the internet searches he performed on 1 January were “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.

Prosecutors revealed they had recovered Ana Walshe’s Prada purse, rain boots and her Covid-19 vaccination card from trash cans at an apartment where Brian Walshe’s mother lives.

It’s alleged Brian Walshe disposed of several trash bags in a dumpster at his mother’s address in Swampscott, including blood-stained towels and rags, and cleaning products.

Some of the items are consistent with the cleaning products purchased by Mr Walshe at a Home Depot store on 2 January.

Lynn Beland, the Norfolk County district attorney, said DNA testing by the Massachusetts Crime Lab was consistent with Ana Walshe’s.

Ana’s DNA was also found on a Tyvek suit that investigators recovered, that Brian had allegedly purchased on 2 January.

Brian Walshe appeared mostly unmoved in court as a prosecutor read out the evidence that had led them to charge him with the murder of his wife Ana.

When Lynn Beland mentioned the internet search history discovered on his son’s iPad, he began shaking his head.

Among the internet searches he performed on 1 January were “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 has pleaded not guilty to the charge.

After his previous appearance on charges of misleading a police investigation, Mr Walshe smiled broadly as he was led from the Quincy District Court.

In the days leading up to her disappearance on 1 January, Ana Walshe had told friends of a “big surprise” in the New Year.

She sold a rental property for cash in Revere, Boston, in late December, and had liquidated cars and other expensive possessions.

In court on Wednesday, prosecutors offered a possible explanation.

A Google search history from 27 December showed that Brian Walshe looked up: “What’s the best state to divorce for a man,” according to district attorney Lynn Beland.

Then on 1 January, Mr Walshe allegedly used his son’s iPad to lookup: “How long for someone to be missing before you inherit?”

The husband of missing Massachusetts mother Ana Walshe allegedly made multiple horrifying internet searches on the day of her disappearance - including “10 ways to dispose of a body”, “how long before a body starts to smell” and “can you identify a body with broken teeth?”.

New details about Brian Walshe’s Google search history were revealed in a criminal complaint on Wednesday as he faced arraignment on charges of murder and improper transport of a body in Quincy District Court. The 47-year-old convicted art fraudster entered a not guilty plea.