Cohasset man Brian Walshe suspected wife was having affair

Brian Walshe suspected his wife Ana was having an affair and had hired a private investigator to follow her in the months before her murder, prosecutors alleged today in new court filings.

A clean-shaven Brian Walshe in Norfolk Superior Court on Thursday. He pleaded not guilty to murdering his wife, missing Massachusetts mom Ana Walshe

Walshe is in court this morning in Boston, Massachusetts, on first degree murder charges.

He was seen arriving clean-shaven, with a new haircut and in a smart shirt and sweater – a stark contrast from his scruffy appearance during past hearings.

Police say he killed Ana in their Cohasset home in the early hours of New Year’s Day.

Today, prosecutors alleged his motive – he suspected his wife, who’d launched a successful real estate career in a different state, was cheating on him.

They say he had hired an investigator to follow Ana in the months before her death, though it’s unclear what that investigator discovered.

Police say he killed Ana in their Cohasset home in the early hours of New Year’s Day then disposed of her body in a garbage dumpster

‘In December of 2022, it had become evident that Mr. Walshe was suspecting his wife of having an affair. He was routinely visiting the Instagram page of one of her male friends.

‘On December 26, his mother – with his instruction – obtained and hired a private investigator to watch Ana Walshe in Washington DC,’ Norfolk County Assistant District Attorney Greg Connor said today.

Walshe had previously been indicted on fraud charges for allegedly selling counterfeit paintings.

He was on bail at the time of Ana’s death, and was unable to leave the state of Massachusetts.

Ana, to keep the family afloat, moved to Washington DC full-time to focus on her real estate career.

She spent the working week there, returning home to Massachusetts on the weekends to spend time with her husband and their three young kids.

According to prosecutors today, days before she was last seen alive, Ana broke down during a dinner with a friend in DC.

Walshe at the defendant’s table today. He shook his head as the charges were read aloud

‘She became uncharacteristically upset and told her friend he was going to be incarcerated… she was prepared to leave him and take the kids to Washington DC,’ Connor said.

Ana’s remains have never been found – police believe they were collected by trash services and incinerated before they got to them – but traces of her blood were found in a dumpster along with the clothes she was last seen wearing.

Walshe had also conducted incriminating Google searches on their son’s iPad including ‘how to dispose of a body’, according to prosecutors.

Walshe has pleaded not guilty to murder and dismembering his wife’s body.