On January 4, 2023, Ana Walshe, a Serbian-American real estate executive, was reported missing by both her employer and her husband, Brian Walshe.
Ana, who lived in both Cohasset, Massachusetts, and Washington, D.C., was last seen in Cohasset early on January 1.
This was after having dinner with Brian and one of his friends on New Year's Eve.
When authorities asked Brian about Ana, he told the police that Ana had flown to D.C. for a work emergency.
Brian was first arrested on January 8 for misleading investigators about his whereabouts on the day of Ana’s disappearance.
On January 18, he was charged with murder and illegally disposing of a body.
He pleaded not guilty.
Prosecutors claim he beat Ana to death, dismembered her body, and disposed of it.
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| The couple |
Who is Ana Walshe?
Ana Ljubičić was born in Belgrade, SR Serbia, SFR Yugoslavia, in 1983.
She was raised in Belgrade, where she attended the Fifth Belgrade Gymnasium.
She also earned a BA in French language and literature from the University of Belgrade.
She moved to the United States in 2005 and later became a dual citizen.
According to Boston 25 News, she is believed to have met Brian Walshe during her two-year work at the Wheatleigh Hotel in Lenox, Massachusetts.
She married Brian in 2016 and took his surname.
They later had three sons, who were two, four, and six years old at the time of her disappearance.
After working at several hotels, Ana Walshe became a regional general manager at Tishman Speyer in February 2022.
She divided her time between her home in Cohasset, Massachusetts, and her work residence in Washington, D.C.
In 2021, Brian pleaded guilty in federal court to three fraud charges for selling counterfeit Andy Warhol artworks.
At the time of Ana's disappearance, he was on house arrest awaiting sentencing.
Disappearance
The Walshes and one of Brian's friends had dinner together on New Year's Eve 2022.
In the early hours of 2023, Ana tried calling her mother, sister, and maid of honor, but none of them were available.
She was last seen around 4 a.m.
Brian claims he spent the following day in Swampscott with his mother.
On January 4, both Tishman Speyer and Brian Walshe reported Ana missing after there were no signs of her.
Investigation
Brian told the police that Ana left the house early for a flight to Washington, D.C., because a work emergency had caused her to move her trip originally scheduled for January 3.
Police could not verify if she had taken a flight or a ride to the airport on January 1.
However, they confirmed she had booked a flight for January 3 but did not board it.
Additionally, her credit and debit cards had not been used since January 1.
After an extensive investigation, Brian Walshe was arrested and charged with misleading the police in Ana’s disappearance case.
Police found no evidence to support his claim that he had been to Swampscott on January 1.
He pleaded not guilty.
The prosecutor alleged that Brian visited Home Depot in Rockland, Massachusetts, on January 2 and spent $450 on cleaning supplies.
Police obtained a search warrant for the Walshe residence and found blood in the basement.
They also found a bloody damaged knife in the same basement.
On January 18, Brian Walshe was arrested again and charged with murder and unlawfully disturbing a body.
Brian pleaded not guilty.
On March 30, Brian was indicted on charges of first-degree murder, obstructing a police investigation, and improper disposal of a human body.
Theory
Prosecutors believe that Brian Walshe beat his wife to death.
After killing her, he dismembered her, and then disposed of the body.
They used his Google search history from several devices, including his son's iPad, as evidence.
They said it contains search terms like "How long before a body starts to smell", "Dismemberment and the best ways to dispose of a body", and "Can you be charged with murder without a body".
Police charged Brian Walshe with murder based on several key pieces of evidence:
1. Suspicious Behavior: When police checked their home after Ana was reported missing, they noticed that his Volvo had a plastic liner in the back, which raised suspicion.
2. Inconsistent Statements: Brian said Ana took a rideshare to the airport on New Year's Day, but there was no record of the trip, and her phone remained stationary near their home.
3. Incriminating Searches: Shortly after Ana’s disappearance, Brian made Google searches about body disposal and decomposition.
4. Surveillance Footage: The video showed Brian buying cleaning supplies and disposing of heavy garbage bags in dumpsters.
5. Physical Evidence: Blood was found in their basement and on a knife.
Also, some of Ana's personal items, including a COVID-19 vaccination card and a piece of jewelry, were found in trash bags.
On July 31, 2024, Brian Walshe was sentenced to 37 months in prison for his other crimes.
It was a federal art fraud case involving counterfeit Andy Warhol paintings.
This sentence will run concurrently with any potential state sentence he faces in the murder case of his wife, Ana Walshe, for which he has pleaded not guilty.
The murder trial is ongoing, and he has not yet been sentenced in that area.
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