After finding out his wife was having an affair, Brian Walshe took matters into his own hands, killing his wife before dismembering her and dumping her body parts in rubbish bins in the area.
Brian Walshe, 50, met his wife Ana at a hotel where she worked. They started dating in 2008 and Ana moved to Cohasset, Massachusetts, where they married and had three sons.
Originally from Serbia, Ana started a new career in the real estate industry and in February 2022, she landed her dream job as an executive at a Washington DC company. She would commute every week.
Ana was the main breadwinner and her plan was for the family, including her sons aged two, four and six, to move so they could always be together.
But there was a problem. While Ana’s career took off, Walshe was unable to move. In fact, he was under house arrest.
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Although many people were unsure what exactly Walshe did for a living, he said he “dealed in art.” In 2021, he pleaded guilty to art fraud charges for selling two fake Andy Warhol paintings online and for taking art from a friend to sell but never doing so. As part of pre-sentencing probation, he was required to submit requests to leave his home and explain in detail why.
Walshe faced a prison sentence and Ana became frustrated when sentencing was postponed. She began an affair with a man in Washington and told friends her marriage was over. Ana didn’t think her husband knew about the affair – and Walshe would later deny it. But on December 27, 2022, he searched for “the best divorce state for a man.” Massachusetts comes in as the third worst state. Walshe was about to lose everything.
Ana and Walshe spent Christmas together and on New Year’s Eve they had Ana’s friend, her former boss Gem Mutlu, for dinner. He left around 1:30 am on January 1, 2023. On January 4, Ana, 39, was supposed to be back at work, but she didn’t show up. Her colleagues notified Walshe and reported her missing.
When police went to see Walshe, he said he last saw Ana when she left their home for the airport on January 1. He claimed she told him there was an emergency at work and she took a taxi to the airport around 6am and he fell back asleep. But there was no record of a taxi being picked up and Ana was not booked on a flight to Washington that day. She had booked a flight for January 3, but did not show up.
Officers noticed Walshe’s car had the back seat down and a plastic liner. When they returned a few days later, the liner was gone and there were new vacuum marks. Investigators appealed to the public for information about Ana, and a search began in the woods near their home. But their attention was firmly on Walshe. They discovered that he had made a number of disturbing Google searches, including “how long does it take for a body to start smelling” and “10 ways to dispose of a dead body if you really need to.”
He also searched for ‘how long does it take for someone to inherit missing’ and ‘can you throw away body parts’. Further investigation revealed that Walshe had visited several stores on January 1. He had bought five five-litre buckets, a hacksaw, terry cloth towels, a full-coverage suit, two hundred disposable cloths, rubbish bags and cleaning products. He also bought thirteen different types of hydrogen peroxide.
On Jan. 2, a babysitter arrived and Walshe said he was going grocery shopping and visiting his mother. Instead, he returned much later than planned having purchased three new rugs, scented candles, and $450 worth of cleaning products, including baking soda. Walshe continued to make more internet searches over the next few days, such as “can you be charged with murder without a body” and “can baking soda mask a mask or make a body smell good.”
Police discovered that he had driven to several dumpsters in the area and thrown away trash bags. By the time they got there, the trash had been taken and burned, but in several areas of his mother’s home they removed the contents for search. Inside they found some of Ana’s clothes, her Covid vaccination card, rugs, a hammer, scissors, a hacksaw and an axe. On January 8, investigators searched Walshe’s home and found a bloodstained knife in the basement.
Initially, Walshe was charged with misleading a police investigation, but then, on January 17, he was charged with murder. Police determined that he murdered his wife and then dismembered her before dumping her body parts in trash bins in the area. When it came to a motive, Ana had a $2.7 million life insurance policy with Walshe as the sole beneficiary. The police believed that he knew about Ana’s affair and that she would leave him. He had to be the children’s primary caregiver so he could avoid a longer prison sentence for the fraud charges. Walshe denied it all and pleaded not guilty.
In February 2024, Walshe was sentenced to 37 months in prison on art fraud charges and ordered to make restitution. While awaiting trial for his wife’s murder, he was attacked in prison, delaying the proceedings. He subsequently pleaded guilty before jury selection to misleading police and improperly transporting a human body. It was not part of a plea deal and he continued to deny the murder, but he admitted to disposing of his wife’s body.
The process began in December 2025. The defense said Walshe woke up on January 1, 2023, to discover his wife had died suddenly and inexplicably. He was afraid that suspicion might fall on him, so he threw away her body instead of calling emergency services. The prosecution revealed the breathtaking number of sinister searches Walshe had carried out, the equipment he had purchased and the visits to the bins. It was not the action of a panicked man – it was calculated and methodical.
Jurors saw video footage of him in shops paying cash for cutting tools including scissors and a hacksaw. Although the defense denied that Walshe knew Ana was having an affair, he had conducted divorce-related searches and even called the man after Ana went missing, claiming he was looking for her. The man did not answer.
Walshe, 50, was found guilty of first-degree murder on December 15. He was sentenced to life in prison without parole. “The seriousness of your actions cannot be overstated,” the judge told him. “Your actions in dismembering your wife’s body and dumping her remains in waste containers at various locations can only be described as barbaric and incomprehensible.”
Ana’s remains have never been found, adding further grief to her grieving family. The inhumane way Walshe dismembered his wife’s body and threw her away like trash will never be forgotten.
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