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Jury finds Brian Walshe guilty of wife Ana’s murder
Walshe was charged with first-degree murder for allegedly killing his wife, Ana, on New Year's Day 2023.
A Norfolk Superior Court jury, after about six hours of deliberation over two days, returned a guilty verdict Monday, convicting Brian Walshe of first-degree murder in the death of his wife, Ana Walshe, on New Year’s Day 2023.
Walshe was stoic as he listened to the unanimous guilty verdict being read, standing between his lawyers, Kelli Porges and Larry Tipton. Sentencing, including victim impact statements, will take place Wednesday, Judge Diane Freniere said.
Norfolk District Attorney Michael Morrissey, speaking to the press outside of court after the verdict, said that Ana’s sister told him, “Justice has been served.”
“We agree wholeheartedly with her comments,” he added.
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Over eight days, prosecutors argued their case for Walshe’s guilt, pointing to internet searches, large purchases of cleaning supplies and tools, and discarded bloody items with DNA from the couple, as well as Ana’s affair. Prosecutors said he dismembered Ana’s body after killing the mother of three in their Cohasset home and tossed her remains in dumpsters around the region, including one near his mother’s home in Swampscott. Investigators never found her body.
In the days after her disappearance, prosecutors said Walshe painted a web of lies as he misled police while searches stretched from the couple’s Cohasset neighborhood to Washington, D.C., where Ana worked.
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On Nov. 18, moments before jury selection was set to begin, Walshe pleaded guilty to two lesser charges: willfully misleading a police investigation and willfully conveying away a human body or the remains thereof. Sentencing on all three charges will happen together.
Massachusetts’ mandatory sentence for a conviction of first-degree murder is life imprisonment without the possibility of parole. The state does not have the death penalty.
The defense called no witnesses in the trial. In his opening statement and closing argument, Tipton told jurors his client found Ana suddenly dead after a night of New Year’s celebrations and then spiraled into a panic.
Following the verdict, Morrissey said he had not yet heard from other members of Ana’s family. He thanked Cohasset police, State Police, including the Crime Lab, and the state medical examiner’s office for their work.
“They left no stone unturned,” he said.
Prosecutors interviewed nearly 60 witnesses, and the evidence presented in court represented only a “small fraction” of the effort invested in the case, according to Morrissey. Investigators searched dumpsters, transfer stations, landfills, department stores, lumber stores, CVS, and many other locations to gather the critical evidence need in a case that had no body, he said.
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“Now, we’ve seen other cases where we’ve not had a body, but this is the first one I can remember we’ve had a first-degree conviction,” Morrissey said.
It remains unclear what will happen to the couple’s three young children; Morrissey declined to comment on their situation.
“Let’s not lose sight of the fact that Ana’s three young children will be without a mother, and especially at this difficult time of year, … we all wish them a bright future going ahead,” he said.
Live coverage from NBC10 Boston showed Walshe attorneys Tipton and Porges declining to comment as they left court. His mother, Diane Walshe, also declined to speak to the press.
Livestream via NBC10 Boston.
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