Brian Walshe goes on trial in death of wife who disappeared more than 2 years ago

DEDHAM Mass AP A Massachusetts man goes on trial Monday in connection with the grisly murder of his wife who disappeared more than two years ago and whose body has never been ascertained Ana Walshe an immigrant from Serbia was last seen early on Jan following a New Year s Eve dinner at her Massachusetts home Her husband Brian Walshe faces a first-degree murder charge after agreeing to plead guilty last month to lesser charges of misleading police and willfully conveying a human body in violation of state law Prosecutors have commented that starting on the day of Ana Walshe s disappearance and for several days after Brian Walshe made multiple online searches for dismemberment and best options to dispose of a body how long before a body starts to smell and hacksaw best tool to dismember When questioned by investigators Walshe reported his wife had been called to Washington D C from Massachusetts on New Year s Day for a work urgency He didn t contact her employer until Jan The company the first to notify police that Ana Walshe was missing reported there was no urgency prosecutors announced Investigators explained surveillance video exhibited a man resembling Walshe throwing what appeared to be heavy trash bags into a dumpster not far from their home and that a search of a trash processing facility near his mother s home uncovered bags that contained a hatchet hacksaw towels and a protective Tyvek suit cleaning agents a Prada purse boots like the ones Ana Walshe was last seen wearing and a COVID- vaccination card with her name Prosecutors have also noted that Ana Walshe had taken out million in life insurance naming her husband as the sole beneficiary The couple who have three young children now in state custody lived in the affluent coastal district of Cohasset about miles kilometers southeast of Boston At the time Walshe was at home awaiting sentencing in an unrelated art fraud occurrence involving the sale of two fake Andy Warhol paintings He was ultimately sentenced this year to more than three years behind bars and ordered to pay in restitution The trial s outcome could be impacted by probable observers from the Massachusetts State Police including Michael Proctor who was the lead investigator on the Karen Read occurrence Read who was determined not guilty of charges in the death of her boyfriend filed a lawsuit this month accusing members of the Massachusetts State Police and several others including Proctor of targeting her and shielding the real killers The former state trooper was fired after sharing offensive and sexist texts about Read with friends family and co-workers During the second trial Read s defense attorney Alan Jackson argued Proctor s blatant bias tainted every aspect of the corrupt and flawed inquiry