On Fridays, I will talk about current criminal cases being discussed in the media that are fascinating or interesting for one reason or another. This weekly segment on “Candace” will be called The Friday Files and the topics will relate to the crime itself or the cover-up of a crime. You can watch more of this on my show today.
So, for this column, let’s discuss the mysterious — or perhaps not so mysterious — disappearance of a Massachusetts woman named Ana Walshe.
Ana has not been seen since New Year’s Day in Cohasset, Massachusetts, where she lives with her husband, Brian. Ana often travels to work in Washington, D.C., and regularly flies down there and back for her job. Her husband thought she had taken an Uber to the airport on the morning of January 1, but she never showed up to work in D.C. Her employer reported her missing because it was so unusual for her to miss work and be unable to reach Ana via phone or email. There is no record she ever took an Uber or Lyft, let alone board the plane that day.
When I first read about this case, I thought “Ok, maybe the husband has an excuse because he was asleep when she left for the airport and just assumed she had flown to D.C. as she always does.”
But police looked into it and the husband’s alleged story raises more questions than it provides answers, according to sources close to the matter.
While talking to police, Brian alleged that she had booked a ride-share on New Year’s Day to take her to Logan International Airport. He also claimed that afterward, he went to Whole Foods and to CVS. But, authorities looked into that and claimed there is no surveillance or receipts showing he went there.
Brian told authorities he left the family home in Cohasset to take his son out for ice cream on January 2.
While looking into his claim, police found something else occurred on January 8. According to authorities, Brian purchased $450 worth of cleaning supplies from Home Depot that same day.
So, what reason could a man possibly have for spending nearly $500 on cleaning supplies at Home Depot while failing to mention it to the police as they search for his missing wife?
What started out as the case of a missing woman now seems to be a murder case.
On January 8, officers executed a search warrant at the Walshe’s home and reportedly found blood in the basement along with a knife.
Since then, police have arrested Walshe on suspicion of misleading authorities but have not charged him with anything else so far.
It turns out, by the way, that Brian has a bit of a shady background.
He’s been on house arrest since pleading guilty to committing $80,000 worth of art fraud in 2016.
He was ordered by a court to remain under house arrest until his sentencing — which hasn’t happened yet.
But that isn’t all.
When police went through Brian’s Google search history, it is alleged he searched “dispose 115-pound woman’s body” in the search engine.
Per the police, his wife Ana was about that weight.
Again, all of this is alleged, but — if true — how stupid do you have to be to Google that, and then pretend you have no idea what happened to your wife while speaking to authorities?
Only an idiot would do that.
Tragically, her mother who lives in Serbia now feels the pains of guilt for not hopping on a flight to visit her daughter in the Boston area — despite Ana begging her to do it for the holidays. Now that mother believes there was a specific reason she wanted her to come.
Her mother, by the way, said she thought her daughter was happy in her marriage. Friends have said they were out with the Walshes on New Year’s Eve the night before she went missing and everything seemed good.
So what possibly could have happened between the festivities of the holiday and her disappearance? Did the husband really leave so many potentially incriminating clues and think he could get away with it, as is being reported?
We’re going to continue following this case, but it’s not looking good.
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