Crime

Brian Walshe changes plea to guilty on 2 charges

Walshe is still charged with first-degree murder for allegedly killing his wife, Ana, on New Year's Day 2023.

Brian Walshe appears in Norfolk Superior Court on Tuesday, next to his attorney Kelli Porges, after pleading guilty to two of the three charges filed against him. Mark Stockwell / Pool

By Beth Treffeisen

updated on November 26, 2025

2 minutes to read

With jury selection set to begin Tuesday, Brian Walshe changed his plea to guilty on two of the three charges he was facing: willfully misleading a police investigation and willfully conveying away a human body or the remains thereof.

Walshe is still charged with first-degree murder for allegedly killing his wife, Ana, on New Year’s Day 2023.

In court Tuesday morning, Norfolk District Attorney Chief Trial Counsel Gregory Connor said the maximum sentence for willfully misleading a police investigation is 10 years, unless the investigation involves a capital offense, in which case the maximum is 20 years.

The maximum sentence for conveying away a human body is three years.

In a memorandum to the court, Walshe’s lawyers asked that sentencing for Walshe not exceed four to six years for misleading police and not exceed two to three years for disinterring a body.

The court will conduct sentencing on these charges at a later date. Judge Diane Freniere said there will be time for victims to address the court beforehand.

Judge Diane Frenier, in court Tuesday. *Mark Stockwell / Pool*

Connor laid out the evidence against Walshe in court, stating that on or around Jan. 1 to Jan. 8, 2023, Walshe willfully misled police officers with the intent to “impede, strike, delay, prevent, and otherwise interfere with the criminal investigation into the disappearance and murder of Ana Walshe.”

Walshe allegedly first misled Cohasset police on the morning of Jan. 4, 2023, after he reported Ana missing. He reportedly told an officer that Ana left the family residence on the morning of Jan. 1, 2023, by taking an Uber or Lyft to Logan Airport and returning to Washington, D.C., for a work emergency.

According to prosecutors, Walshe continued to mislead officers when he made additional false statements about Ana being alive. In addition, he continued to make false statements when police agencies met with him, including on the evenings of Jan. 4, 5, 7, and 8.

Connor said that in January 2023, the Cohasset Police Department had about 20 full-time police officers, including two detectives. The department “devoted all available resources in an attempt to find Ana Walshe,” he said.

The department also requested assistance from other police departments and agencies.

“As a result of the defendant’s false, misleading statements, law enforcement agencies and police officers took many actions, which had a heavy financial and emotional cost,” Connor said.

Actions included the Cohasset Fire Department searching a swimming pool at the Walshe residence, a K-9 team participating in a large-scale canvas around the Walshe residence, and sending Massachusetts police officers to D.C. to coordinate with the Metropolitan Police Department — all in an effort to find her.

“The delays resulted in the contents of dumpsters in which the defendant had disposed of Ana Walshe’s remains being incinerated,” Connor said.

Connor said that Walshe conducted internet searches into the disposal of Ana’s body, researched locations of dumpsters, and then traveled to those receptacles throughout Eastern Massachusetts to dispose of her remains.

Simply put, Connor said, “the defendant did not comply with the law.”

“Ana Walshe was not a stranger to the defendant,” he said. “She was the defendant’s wife and mother of his three young children.”

In response to a question from Judge Frienere on whether he did those things, Walshe said, “Yes, your honor.”

Jury selection began later in the morning for Walshe’s murder trial.