Crime

Here’s what happened on the first day of the Brian Walshe murder trial

After opening statements, prosecutors called their first witness, and played recordings of Walshe's first interviews with police.

Brian Walshe enters the courtroom clutching papers and a rosary. Greg Derr / Pool

updated on December 1, 2025

6 minutes to read

Harrison Schmidt returns to the stand

As the Jan. 5 interview recording continued, Brian Walshe gave police little to work with. One officer noted that the couple never got into physical fights and that Ana had no mental health or financial problems.

Walshe said her mother’s ailing health, their separation, and caring for three children “all add up.”

When police asked to download his phone, Walshe paused, saying he wanted to cooperate but needed to check with his attorney first.

After the recording ended, Cohasset Police Sgt. Harrison Schmidt walked through the house again and searched the Volvo, finding a Lowe’s receipt dated Jan. 4 and the cellphone of Walshe’s oldest son. Police also questioned Walshe’s mother, Diana. Investigators stayed at the home from 8 to 10:30 p.m.

On Jan. 6, Cohasset police launched a large-scale search of the woods near the residence and held a press conference. They also collected digital devices from the home.

Police returned on Saturday, Jan. 7. Prosecutors played a recording of that interview, which included State Police investigators Michael Proctor and David DiCicco, both of whom worked on the Karen Read case. Walshe’s attorney at the time, Tracy Miner, was also present.

The group discussed finances and Walshe’s pending federal fraud case. Walshe said that if he went to jail, he and Ana planned to ask their nanny to move to D.C. to help with the children.

Walshe also told police that after his federal arrest, he told Ana, “If you want to leave, I understand.” He said she chose to stay, wanting to keep the family together in D.C. He pushed back when police asked about infidelity.

He explained his delay in contacting Ana’s workplace about her being missing, saying his mother had cataract surgery, taking up his attention, and that he didn’t want to “embarrass” her at work.

“We’re working in the light with you,” Walshe told investigators. “That’s our focus.”

The recording did not finish playing by 4 p.m., and the judge dismissed jurors for the day.

Gregory Connor, the prosecutor, said he still has about 40 minutes of recordings left to play and plans to introduce evidence of Safari and iPad searches when the trial resumes on Tuesday.

Prosecutors call the first witness to the stand

Prosecutors called Cohasset Police Sgt. Harrison Schmidt to testify. He said he led the Ana Walshe investigation and interviewed Brian Walshe at their home on Jan. 4 around 6:30 p.m. The couple’s three boys were eating McDonald’s at the kitchen island, and the family’s dog was there, too.

Jurors heard a recording of that interview, which took place at the dining room table with the boys — then ages 2, 4, and 6 — audible in the background. For about an hour, Walshe described stress in the marriage tied to Ana’s job and repeated the lie that she left for a “work emergency.”

He told police he last saw her wearing a black coat with gray-blue Hunter boots, Louis Vuitton luggage, and a black Prada purse. He handed over his phone, showing photos, texts, and a screenshot of JetBlue flight details.

As the recording played, Walshe sat in court clutching a black rosary and sipping water.

Schmidt then described his walkthrough of the home, including the bare bedroom where Brian slept and a fallen sheet wall exposing wood paneling. He noted an attic space he did not access.

He also viewed the children’s rooms, the basement, the backyard, the pool, and a Volvo containing folded plastic sheeting and a maple seedling. He said he found nothing unusual that night.

Schmidt continued the investigation by checking flights, calling Ana’s sister, and returning to search the pool. On Jan. 5, he interviewed a family friend and former boss of Ana, Gem Mutlu, and coordinated a canine search of the neighborhood. He also contacted State Police, who joined him for a second interview at the Walshe home around 8 p.m., where Brian, his mother, and the children were present.

Prosecutors played that second recording, too, in which Walshe said he didn’t call police sooner because he “didn’t have his phone,” and he said he didn’t think much of his lack of contact with his wife because Ana had been late the week before Christmas.

Walshe told police that Ana said she was “in over head” and struggled being away from the family, adding that “they’ve been separate” but still “enjoy each other’s company.”

The court broke for lunch at 1 p.m.

Defense argues Ana Walshe suddenly died, Brian Walshe panicked

In his opening statement Monday morning, defense attorney Larry Tipton argued that Brian Walshe found his wife, Ana, suddenly dead after a night of New Year’s celebrations — and then spiraled into a panic.

Tipton said that panic drove Walshe to make a series of disturbing online searches and to lie to police in the hours and days that followed.

Beginning around 4:54 a.m. on New Year’s Day, he said, Walshe launched into a “frantic and tragic” string of searches, from “how best to dispose of a body” to even darker queries as he “wrestled with the fact that Ana Walshe was dead.”

Despite there being evidence that Ana had an affair, Tipton argued Brian had no clue. He trusted her, Tipton said.

“Brian Walshe loved Ana Walshe,” he said.

The defense’s account stands in sharp contrast to the prosecution’s.

Norfolk District Attorney Chief Trial Counsel Gregory Connor told jurors that the Walshes’ marriage was unraveling as Ana pursued a new job in Washington, D.C., while Brian stayed in Cohasset caring for their three sons and awaiting sentencing in his federal art-fraud case.

The search for Ana began on Jan. 4, when her employer, Tishman Speyer, started looking for her. An employee, knowing Ana kept a townhouse nearby, called Brian several times and eventually received permission to check on her. The employee entered the garage and saw unpacked boxes but no car, and no sign of Ana.

The employee then contacted building security. Brian again said he last saw his wife on Jan. 1, that she returned to Washington for a work emergency, and that he had not heard from her since.

Ana, 39 at the time of her death in January 2023, was Brian Walshe’s wife and the mother of their three children. She was a Serbian immigrant and began her career in the hospitality industry in Washington, D.C., and Massachusetts before moving into real estate.

In February 2022, she accepted what Brian called her “dream job” at Tishman Speyer, a role that doubled her salary, Connor said. Brian stayed behind in Cohasset as he awaited sentencing and faced a $400,000 restitution order in his federal art-fraud case.

Connor told jurors they will see evidence that Ana was having an affair with the man who sold her the Washington, D.C., townhouse. He said they will hear that she missed Thanksgiving that year to visit her sick mother in Belgrade, Serbia, and that she missed Christmas Eve and most of Christmas Day after failing to get a flight to Boston — and after spending a night with the man she was allegedly seeing.

Cellphone records show Ana’s phone was last used at 3 a.m. on Jan. 2 and stayed in the area of the Cohasset home. Connor also said evidence will show that Ana had a $1 million life insurance policy naming Brian as the beneficiary.

When family friend Gem Mutlu left the Walshes’ home in the early hours of New Year’s Day, Ana was alive, Connor said.

“No one has seen her since,” Connor told jurors. “Her husband said she left on January 1. She has not accessed her finances, her email, her phone has made no calls, and no one has found her body.”

Connor said that when the trial concludes, the jury will return a verdict that finds “the defendant guilty of murdering his wife with deliberate communication.”

Livestream via NBC10 Boston.

Opening statements will take place Monday in Brian Walshe‘s murder trial. The case 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 found her body.

In the days after her 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, just before jury selection began, Walshe pleaded guilty to two charges — misleading police and conveying away a human body or the remains thereof. He still faces a first-degree murder charge. Sentencing on the lesser charges will come later.

The court wrapped up jury selection on Nov. 20.