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Brian Walshe murder trial’s first week ends with State Police, medical examiner testimony
State medical examiner Richard Atkinson will return to the stand Monday.
The defense continues to try to poke holes in cellphone evidence
After the morning break, attorney Larry Tipton, on behalf of Brian Walshe, continued to grill Massachusetts State Trooper Connor Keefe, a digital cellphone forensic analyst.
Tipton showcased a series of text messages on the cellphones tied to Brian and Ana Walshe between Dec. 25, 2022, and Dec. 30, 2022.
The data shown, Tipton said, shows communication between the married couple about buying property, selling property, shopping for a Porsche, and trading family pictures.
Also, Tipton asked Keefe if he had ever found any messages on Brian’s phone between Ana and William Fastow, the man who testified he had an affair with her.
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Keefe said he did not. But he said it is complicated to know whether the user deleted them, adding that investigators never recorded Ana’s phone.
“That would be pretty important evidence if you found any communication in any form between Ana Walshe and William Fastow?” Tipton asked.
In response, Keefe said, “Yes.”
Prosecutors highlight the tools investigators recovered from the garbage
Prosecutors called Heather Sullivan, a retired state trooper who worked in the homicide department. Sullivan told prosecutors she collected evidence found in the trash bin and trash compactor behind Brian Walshe’s mother’s residence and followed it to the Peabody location, where investigators sorted through the trash.
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Sullivan presented the evidence by removing each item from a paper bag and showing it to the jury. Those items included: snips, a hacksaw, a hammer, packing tape, a hatchet, craftsman shears, and a measuring cup.
Prosecutors call on state medical examiner to testify
Prosecutors called state medical examiner Richard Atkinson to the stand.
Atkinson explained that after a person dies, their muscles stiffen in the position they were in at the time of death, and once the heart stops, blood begins to pool in the lowest parts of the body.
He said the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner is legally allowed to obtain a person’s medical records during an investigation.
Atkinson told prosecutors that on Jan. 10, 2023, he received an unusual request to come to the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner in Boston. Instead of examining a body, investigators asked him to determine whether items recovered from a Peabody trash facility contained any human tissue.
Prosecutors showed him several images of blue-and-white carpeting stained with what appeared to be blood, which he confirmed he recognized.
At 1 p.m., the judge dismissed court for the day. Atkinson will return to the stand Monday morning.
Norfolk Superior Court Judge Diane Freniere told jurors that the trial is moving ahead on time and that lawyers expect it will take another two weeks to go through all the evidence.
Connor Keefe returns to the stand
Prosecutors recalled Massachusetts State Trooper Connor Keefe, a digital cellphone forensic analyst, to present redacted text messages between the phone linked to Brian Walshe and a contact listed as Ana.
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The messages began on Dec. 25, 2022, when Brian texted Ana, “Hello.” In a later message, he asked whether she was coming that day, noting that one of her sons was asking for her.
The phone tied to Ana replied that her flight was canceled and that she was driving up.
The texts resumed on Jan. 2, 2023, when Brian said he had found his phone. He asked where she was and said he would contact her and file a missing-person report in the days that followed. Keefe testified that Brian’s text messages were never delivered to Ana’s phone.
During cross-examination, defense attorney Larry Tipton tried to undermine the cellphone evidence, arguing that the searches lack context, occurred within a narrow timeframe, and do not reveal what the user was thinking.
Tipton said the search for “I’m good” referred to a movie and pointed out that prosecutors did not mention a New Year’s Day dinner reservation Brian had made at Nightshade Noodle Bar in Lynn. He also returned to the Auto Bond reference, arguing that it related to Brian’s search for Porsches for sale.
Tipton said the searches for the Mazza and Crossing buildings in Washington, D.C., were tied to a reported health outbreak at the properties Ana managed.
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The court broke for a morning recess with Keefe still on the stand.
Livestream via NBC10 Boston.
On Thursday afternoon, a Massachusetts State Police digital forensic expert, Connor Keefe, revealed in Norfolk Superior Court what investigators say they uncovered from two cellphones linked to Brian Walshe.
Walshe is standing trial for allegedly killing his wife, Ana, on New Year’s Day 2023. Prosecutors say he then dismembered her body and tossed her remains in dumpsters around the region, including one near his mother’s home. Investigators never found her body.
In the days after her disappearance, they say Walshe repeatedly misled police as searches stretched from the couple’s Cohasset neighborhood to Washington, D.C., where Ana worked.
During opening statements, Walshe’s attorney, Larry Tipton, argued that Walshe found Ana suddenly dead after a night of New Year’s celebrations — and then spiraled into a panic.
On Nov. 18, 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 after the trial.
On Thursday, Keefe explained that, starting on Jan. 1, 2023, data from the two phones showed trips to Brian Walshe’s mother’s home in Swampscott, as well as to multiple home-improvement stores, pharmacies, grocery stores, and several apartment complexes. A phone also went to the area of the trash compactor at his mother’s residence on the morning of Jan. 5.
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Keefe also detailed a series of internet searches on one of the phones, including a search for William Fastow, the man who testified he had an affair with Ana, on Dec. 25 and a search for an employee at her company.
Keefe returns to the stand on Friday morning for cross-examination.
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