Court docs confirm Ana Walshe affair, which prosecutors referenced as possible motive

Newly released court documents paint a fuller picture of the “strained” marriage between Ana and Brian Walshe, the Cohasset woman who disappeared on New Year’s Day and her husband, who has been charged with her murder. 

Ana Walshe was in an extramarital relationship with a man in Washington, D.C. — where she worked for real estate firm Tishman Speyer — for several months before she went missing, the Quincy District Court documents confirm.

The man, who is named in court documents, told investigators he was dating Ana Walshe and said they traveled to Dublin for Thanksgiving, also spending Christmas Eve together. 

Cellphone records showed the man was Ana Walshe’s most frequent contact, according to an affidavit from Massachusetts State Police Trooper Connor Keefe.

“They were open about their relationship in Washington D.C. and they had plans to celebrate the New Year on January 4, 2022 after she returned from Massachusetts,” Keefe wrote.

Investigators say there’s no indication Ana Walshe ever made it back to D.C. The 39-year-old mother of three was last seen in the early hours of New Year’s Day after celebrating the holiday with her husband and a friend at the Walshes’ Cohasset home. 

Prosecutors allege that Brian Walshe killed his wife and dismembered her body in the home’s basement, then disposed of the evidence in various dumpsters around Greater Boston. He now faces charges of first-degree murder, misleading police, and improper conveyance of a human body. 

Prosecutors referenced Walshe’s suspicions about an affair during his arraignment in Norfolk Superior Court last week, seemingly laying the groundwork for a potential motive. Ana Walshe also had $2.7 million in life insurance policies with Brian Walshe named as the sole beneficiary, Norfolk Assistant District Attorney Greg Connor said in court. 

Connor said Walshe had his mother hire a private investigator to follow Ana in D.C., though Walshe’s attorney, Tracy Miner, disputed that characterization. 

Miner said her client’s mother hired the investigator on her own, adding, “Mr. Walshe had no idea that his wife was having an affair until he learned it in discovery in this case.”

The Walshes’ marriage was fraught in other ways, court records show.

Brian Walshe had pleaded guilty to selling two fake Andy Warhol paintings in 2016 and was awaiting sentencing, and also facing a legal battle over his late father’s will. 

Ana Walshe’s friend told investigators that the Walshes’ marriage was “strained” and that Ana had given Brian “some sort of ultimatum about the resolution of his criminal case … and wanted the kids to be with her” in D.C., according to the affidavit from Keefe, the state trooper.

“When investigators viewed Ana’s residence in Washington D.C. they observed it to be ready for the kids to move there with clothes and other items available,” Keefe wrote. 

In a separate affidavit, MSP Trooper Nicholas Guarino asserted there is “absolutely no indication that Ana Walshe would have voluntarily disappeared, ceasing all communications with those close to her.”

Ana Walshe, he wrote, “had made future plans for both herself, in a professional and personal context as well as for herself with her children.”

Abby Patkin

Staff Writer

Abby Patkin is a general assignment news reporter whose work touches on public transit, crime, health, and everything in between.

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