A man who Googled how to dispose of a woman’s body around the time his wife went missing has been charged with murder.
Brian Walshe, 47, was charged on Tuesday morning in connection with his missing wife, Ana, who was last seen alive around New Year’s Day. The specific charge has not yet been released. Their three children are in state custody.
BREAKING: Norfolk DA announces Brian Walshe is charged with the murder of his wife 39yo Ana Walshe. He is expected to be arraigned as early as tomorrow morning. pic.twitter.com/h9CI8J8h3I
— Evan Lambert (@EvanLambertTV) January 17, 2023
Ana was reported missing — by both her workplace and her husband, Brian Walshe, when she did not show up for work on January 4. In the following days, police executed an exhaustive search in the area near her home in Cohasset, a suburb of Boston — sending divers into a local stream and pool and bringing in three K-9 teams to assist as well.
Throughout the course of the investigation, however, Walshe raised suspicions with a number of actions he allegedly took around the time of his wife’s disappearance.
Several law enforcement sources told CNN that police shifted their focus from a potential missing persons investigation to a possible murder investigation after a search of Walshe’s computer history showed that he had been looking up information about how to “dispose of a 115-pound woman’s body” and how to dismember a body. A bloody knife was also discovered in the basement of their shared home.
Walshe was previously charged with misleading police and is currently in jail.
Fox News reports that the husband told investigators that he traveled to stores he may not have visited, and neglected to mention he bought hundreds of dollars in cleaning supplies in cash around the time she disappeared. His movements were supposed to be monitored, since he’s currently awaiting sentencing in connection with faking Andy Warhol paintings, according to WCVB.
“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.
Ashe Schow contributed to this report.