The 47-year-old Massachusetts man whose wife went missing in early January allegedly did internet searches on “how to dispose of a 115-pound woman’s body” and how to dismember a body, according to a law enforcement source.
Brian Walshe was arranged in Quincy District Court last Monday on a charge of misleading investigators who are searching for his wife, 39-year-old Ana Walshe after a bloody knife was found in the basement of their home. Ana Walshe was reported missing by her employer on January 4 after she failed to show up for work. Police have searched the area around her home in Cohasset, about 20 miles southeast of Boston.
After finding the knife as well as Brian Walshe’s internet queries, the focus of the investigation shifted from a missing persons case to suspicion that Ana Walshemight have been murdered. Last Monday, investigators were digging through the trash at a transfer station in Peabody, an hour’s drive from Cohasset, looking for possible remains of Ana Walshe. The trash had been brought by sanitation crews the previous week, according to CNN.
Crime scene tape was also spotted around dumpsters at an apartment complex not far from the home of Brian Walshe’s mother in Swampscott. Walshe claimed he visited his mother after Ana went missing.
According to prosecutor Lynn Beland, Walshe’s various statements delayed the investigation into his wife’s disappearance and gave him the time to either clean up or dispose of evidence. The criminal affidavit states that Walshe’s “intentional, willful, and direct responses to questions” regarding his whereabouts from January 1 to January 2 “were a clear attempt to mislead and delay investigators.”
According to the affidavit, Walshe gave “an untruthful answer” to a specific question that “led investigators out of the area” and “caused a clear delay in the search” for his wife. Walshe pleaded not guilty to misleading investigators. The judge set a $500,000 cash bail and scheduled the next hearing for February 9.
