Here’s what we know going into the start of Brian Walshe’s murder trial
Opening statements will take place Monday, Dec. 1, with lawyers expecting the trial to last two to three weeks.
Brian Walshe appears in Norfolk Superior Court after pleading guilty to two of the three charges filed against him, Nov. 18, 2025. Mark Stockwell / Boston Herald via AP, Pool
On Monday, opening statements will take place in the murder trial of Brian Walshe — a case that has drawn national attention since his wife, Ana, vanished nearly three years ago.
Prosecutors accuse Walshe of killing her on New Year’s Day 2023, dismembering her body, and discarding her remains in dumpsters across the region, including one near his mother’s home. Investigators never recovered her body.
In the days after Ana’s disappearance, prosecutors say Walshe repeatedly misled police as searches stretched from the couple’s Cohasset neighborhood to Washington, D.C., where Ana worked.
On Nov. 18 of this year, just before jury selection began, Walshe pleaded guilty to two charges — misleading police and improperly removing or concealing a body. He still faces a first-degree murder charge. Sentencing on the lesser charges will come later.
Key background information:
Ana and Brian Walshe. – Facebook
Ana Walshe worked for a Washington-based property management firm and commuted weekly between D.C. and Massachusetts, where her husband and their three young children lived.
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She disappeared after New Year’s Eve 2022, and police arrested Walshe on Jan. 8, 2023, initially charging him with misleading investigators and later with murder and improper conveyance of a human body.
Prosecutors say that in the days after Ana vanished, Walshe searched online for terms like “how to dispose of a body.”
Investigators recovered evidence from a dumpster near his mother’s home, including a rug from the family’s home, distinctive jewelry, and a watch Ana wore on New Year’s Eve.
They also found 10 trash bags in Peabody containing cleaning supplies, boots consistent with those people say they last saw Ana wearing, cutting tools, and her COVID-19 vaccine card. Analysts later detected both Brian’s and Ana’s DNA on slippers and a Tyvek suit found among the items.
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Prosecutors allege Walshe believed his wife was having an affair and that his mother hired a private investigator to look into Ana’s activities in Washington, D.C.
Court records show Ana was preparing to leave the marriage and move the children to Washington because she feared prosecutors would sentence Walshe to prison in a federal art-fraud case.
Ana Walshe. – Facebook
Walshe pleaded guilty in 2021 to selling fake Andy Warhol paintings, but a federal judge did not sentence him until February 2024—more than a year after Ana went missing. He received 37 months in prison and three years of supervised release.
Former state Trooper Michael Proctor worked on the murder case and was later fired for sending derogatory messages during the unrelated Karen Read investigation.
Prosecutors say they will not call him to testify in Walshe’s trial. However, defense attorney Larry Tipton secured a court order requiring federal prosecutors to preserve key cellphone data connected to Proctor.
The court delayed Walshe’s trial after an inmate stabbed him in jail on Sept. 11, 2025. Tipton wrote that the assault left Walshe unable to fully participate in preparing his defense.
Judge Diane Freniere ordered Walshe undergo a mental health evaluation at Bridgewater State Hospital, and then on Nov. 14, she ruled that he is competent to stand trial.
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In pleading guilty to the lesser charges, after the prosecution laid out the evidence of Walshe misleading the police and disposing of Ana’s remains in receptacles throughout Eastern Massachusetts, Freniere asked whether he did those things.
In response, Walshe said, “Yes, your honor.”
For more details, check out this timeline of events:
Timeline of the Brian Walshe case
April 1, 2021
Brian Walshe pleads guilty to charges stemming from an attempt to scam a Los Angeles buyer by selling fake Andy Warhol paintings.
According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Walshe initially acquired the real paintings from a friend in South Korea and told the friend that he could sell them for a good price. The friend agreed but was unable to contact Walshe afterward.
A person in Los Angeles found the paintings listed on eBay in 2016 and agreed to buy them for $80,000. The buyer examined the paintings and found multiple indications that they were not authentic.
An investigation revealed that Walshe sold the original Shadow paintings to a gallery in 2011. The same year, Walshe obtained a different set of replica Shadow paintings from an artist who did not know Walshe’s purpose. Walsh sold that set to another victim in France in 2015.
Sunday, December 25, 2022
Ana Walshe texts her mother, Milanka Ljubicic, and asks her to travel from Serbia to Washington, D.C., the next day.
“She just said, ‘Please, mama. Come tomorrow,” Ljubicic said in an interview with Fox News Digital. “Which means that clearly, there must have been some problems.”
Ljubicic tells Ana she cannot travel on such short notice and suggests visiting on Jan. 5 or Jan. 6 instead. Ana tells her that she and her family plan to visit Serbia in February.
Tuesday, December 27, 2022
Ana Walshe plans to visit longtime friend Carrie Westbrook to see her new condo near Washington, D.C., The Boston Globe reported. Walshe texts Westbrook to say that she has to work late and will be delayed.
After two hours, Walshe tells Westbrook that her phone died and she could not use GPS to get directions, so she returned home. The Walshe family has a home in Washington in addition to their Cohasset residence.
The two friends agree to reschedule their visit to Jan. 5, 2023.
Meanwhile, Brian Walshe searches Google for the phrase “What’s the best state to divorce for a man,” according to prosecutors.
Saturday, December 31, 2022
Ana Walshe reportedly tries calling her mother, Milanka Ljubicic, around midnight on New Year’s Eve. Ljubicic reportedly misses another call from her daughter around 1 a.m. Walshe also reportedly tries to call her maid of honor and her older sister, but neither picks up.
Police are told that Ana Walshe was last seen by a family member around 4 a.m. on New Year’s Day. Police are told she had a flight booked for Jan. 3 but was told she had to fly down on Jan. 1 to handle an emergency at a property she manages.
Walshe had bags with her as she left the house, and her husband was sleeping at the time, police are told. Her plan was supposedly to take a ride share to Logan Airport before flying to Washington. Police confirmed she never boarded a flight.
Brian Walshe allegedly uses his son’s iPad to make a series of chilling Google searches throughout the early morning hours and into the afternoon:
4:55 a.m.: “How long before a body starts to smell” 4:58 a.m.: “How to stop a body from decomposing” 5:20 a.m.: “How to embalm a body” 5:47 a.m.: “10 ways to dispose of a dead body if you really need to” 6:25 a.m.: “How long for someone to be missing to inherit” 6:34 a.m.: “Can you throw away body parts” 9:29 a.m.: “What does formaldehyde do” 9:34 a.m.: “How long does DNA last” 9:59 a.m.: “Can identification be made on partial remains” 11:34 a.m.: “Dismemberment and the best ways to dispose of a body” 11:44 a.m.: “How to clean blood from wooden floor” 11:56 a.m.: “Luminol to detect blood” 1:08 p.m.: “What happens when you put body parts in ammonia” 1:21 p.m.: “Is it better to throw crime scene clothes away or wash them”
Monday, January 2, 2023
Ana Walshe’s cellphone has not been in use since then. No outgoing calls were made, and it was turned off at 3:14 a.m., according to prosecutors.
Brian Walshe allegedly searches Google for information about the disposal of dead bodies and getting away with murder:
12:45 p.m.: “Hacksaw best tool to dismember” 1:10 p.m.: “Can you be charged with murder without a body” 1:14 p.m.: “Can you identify a body with broken teeth”
Brian Walshe allegedly goes to Home Depot in Rockland to purchase about $450 worth of cleaning products, including mops, brushes, tape, a tarp, a Tyvek suit with boot covers, buckets, garments, and baking soda. He also allegedly purchased a hatchet.
Video from the store shows Walshe wearing a black surgical mask and blue gloves while he pays for the supplies in cash, according to prosecutors.
Tuesday, January 3, 2023
Brian Walshe allegedly continues to search the internet for information on how dead bodies decompose:
1:02 p.m.: “What happens to hair on a dead body” 1:14 p.m.: “What is the rate of decomposition of a body found in a plastic bag compared to on a surface in the woods” 1:20 p.m.: “Can baking soda make a body smell good”
A man matching Walshe’s appearance is recorded on surveillance video walking up to a dumpster at an apartment complex in Abington. The man is carrying a heavy garbage bag, as shown by how he tosses it into the dumpster, according to prosecutors.
He then travels to other locations in Abington and Brockton, disposing of items in various dumpsters.
Wednesday, January 4, 2023
Ana Walshe’s employer in Washington, D.C., reports her missing to the police.
Brian Walshe allegedly goes to HomeGoods and T.J. Maxx in Norwell, where he purchases towels, bath mats, and men’s clothing. He then travels to a Lowe’s and purchases squeegees and a trash can.
Cohasset police go to the Walshe family home for a well-being check. Officers see that the seats are down in the back of Brian Walshe’s Volvo and that a plastic liner has been laid down in the car. Police also see dirt on the vehicle’s floor mats. The car’s carpet appears to show fresh vacuum streaks, according to prosecutors. Later, an analysis finds blood in the car.
Thursday, January 5, 2023
Brian Walshe’s cellphone data shows that it traveled to a dumpster at his mother’s apartment complex in Swampscott around 9:30 a.m.
Cohasset police announce that Ana Walshe is missing. Authorities conduct a search of the Walshes’ home on Chief Justice Cushing Highway in Cohasset and the surrounding areas. Detectives also investigate their home in Washington. They do not find any signs of her. Police tell the public that Brian Walshe is cooperating with the investigation.
Friday, January 6, 2023
Police launch a search from the parking lot of a Stop & Shop near the Walshes’ Cohasset residence. Units from the Massachusetts State Police, trained in search and rescue, comb the area, assisted by three K-9 teams and the State Police Air Wing.
Saturday, January 7, 2023
The search of the Walshes’ Cohasset home and the surrounding areas, launched Friday, resumes again. Authorities search until around 4:30 p.m. Again, K-9 teams, the MSP Air Wing, and other specialized units assist in the search. Police divers search a small stream and a pool with “negative results.”
Police say that “the ground search will not resume unless police develop new information that so warrants it.”
Sunday, January 8, 2023
Investigators return to the Walshes’ Cohasset home.
Police find blood and two knives, one of which was bloody and damaged, in the home, prosecutors later say. They also recover a heavy-duty, large tarp and plastic liners that were purchased at Home Depot.
Police arrest Brian Walshe for providing misleading information to investigators. Authorities said that, during their investigation, they had probable cause to believe he misled them. WCVB cameras capture police leading Walshe into the Cohasset Police Department in handcuffs.
Monday, January 9, 2023
Brian Walshe is arraigned in Quincy District Court. Prosecutors say that police found both blood and a bloody, damaged knife in the basement of the Walshe family home in Cohasset.
Prosecutors say Walshe misled investigators by telling them that on Jan. 1 he went to visit his mother in Swampscott but got lost.
Walshe also allegedly told police he shopped at Whole Foods and CVS, but police could not find receipts or surveillance footage to corroborate this.
When investigators asked Walshe about his actions on Jan. 2, he allegedly told them he had only left the house to take one of his young sons for ice cream. Instead, prosecutors said that he went to a Home Depot in Rockland to purchase hundreds of dollars’ worth of cleaning supplies.
Ana Walshe was not reported missing until Jan. 4, giving her husband time to “clean up, to dispose of evidence,” Norfolk First Assistant District Attorney Lynn M. Beland said in court. A judge sets bail at $500,000.
On the same day, investigators find a number of suspicious items while searching through trash north of Boston. They investigate dumpsters in Swampscott near Brian Walshe’s mother’s home and a transfer station in Peabody.
Investigators recover 10 trash bags in Peabody. They find towels, rags, slippers, tape, a Tyvek suit, gloves, cleaning agents, carpets, rugs, Hunter boots, a COVID-19 vaccine card in the name of Ana Walshe, a hacksaw, a hatchet, and some cutting shears, according to prosecutors.
The boots are consistent with those that Ana Walshe was last seen wearing, and a portion of a necklace police found is consistent with one that she had been seen wearing in photos.
Testing at the state’s forensics lab later determines that these items had human blood on them. Later, analysts also found DNA from both Brian and Ana Walshe on slippers and on the Tyvek suit, prosecutors said. Investigators also found Ana Walshe’s DNA on tissues taken from the bags.
Tuesday, January 17, 2023
Prosecutors charge Brian Walshe with murdering his wife and disinterring a body.
Wednesday, January 18, 2023
Brian Walshe is arraigned in Quincy District Court. He pleads not guilty and is ordered to be held without bail.
Tuesday, February 20, 2024
A U.S. senior district judge sentences Brian Walshe to 37 months in prison and three years of supervised release in the art-fraud case. The judge also orders Walshe to pay $475,000 in restitution.
Thursday, September 11, 2025
The court delays Brian Walshe’s murder trial by a few weeks after an inmate reportedly stabs him when he’s in jail. A judge later orders him to undergo a mental health evaluation at Bridgewater State Hospital.
Friday, November 14, 2025
Judge Diane Freniere deems Brian Walshe competent to stand trial.
Monday, November 17, 2025
The final pre-trial conference is held at Norfolk Superior Court, where questions over Brian Walshe’s mom’s involvement in hiring a private investigator to look into Ana Walshe’s alleged infidelity are brought up.
Tuesday, November 18, 2025
Just before jury selection begins, Brian Walshe pleads guilty to two charges — misleading police and improperly removing or concealing a body. He still faces a first-degree murder charge. Sentencing on the lesser charges will come later.
November 18-20, 2025
A jury of 16 people, including four alternates, is selected for trial.
Monday, December 1, 2025
Opening statements are set to take place in Brian Walshe’s murder trial.
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