Brian Walsh charged with murder over disappearance of wife Ana

Ana Walsh’s husband has been charged with murder in connection with her disappearance, Massachusetts officials said Tuesday.

Brian Walsh was already in jail on charges of obstructing a police investigation into his missing wife when he was served a new arrest warrant for murder, Norfolk District Attorney Michael W. Morrissey confirmed in a statement.

He will be taken to Quincy County Court for arraignment, due on January 18.

Greg Derr / The Patriot Ledger via AP, Pool

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The evidence has been mounting since Brian, 47, told police he last saw his wife alive in the early hours of January 1, when he claims she left their home in Cohasset for “urgent work”.

Ana, 39, who traveled from Massachusetts to Washington, D.C. for a job at real estate developer Tishman Speyer, has not been seen since.

Despite reports that she was on her way on a business trip, there is no record of her getting into a taxi or boarding a plane at Boston’s Logan International Airport.

The mother of three was reported missing by her employer around noon on January 4, while police bulletins show that Brian did not call to report her missing until that same day – three days after how he claimed to have seen her for the last time.

Brian, who was already under house arrest with an ankle monitor after pleading guilty to federal fraud charges in 2021, was taken into custody Jan. 8 on charges of misleading investigators.

In court, prosecutors said the Boston native deceived police by trying to cover up his whereabouts days after Ana was last seen. In addition to the apparent lie that he was running errands for his elderly mother on the afternoon of January 1st, Brian failed to disclose information about a January 2nd trip to Home Depot where he was caught on camera shopping for $450 worth of cleaning products.

The prosecutor’s office also announced that a search of the family’s home found blood and a damaged knife in the basement.

In a subsequent search of Brian’s mother’s home and a nearby garbage dump, officers took items such as a hacksaw, hatchet, and carpet as evidence.

Sources close to the investigation also claimed that a search on Brian’s phone revealed that he had searched Google for “how to dispose of the body of a 115-pound woman” in the days following Ana’s disappearance.

Brian has pleaded not guilty to the original charge against him and is being held in lieu of $500,000 bail.

Ahead of the indictment on the murder charge, it’s unclear if investigators found Ana’s body or are relying on other evidence.

The dramatic events of the past few weeks contrasted sharply with Ana and Brian’s seemingly idyllic life. The couple, who married in her native Serbia in 2015, often smiled with friends or around their three sons, aged 2 to 6.

The first dent in the family’s enchanted appearance came in 2018, when Brian was arrested for trying to sell a fake Andy Warhol painting online.

However, even despite the legal problems, the couple looked happy. Last June, Ana, her mother and sister wrote enthusiastic letters to the judge about Brian’s personal progress.

However, after Ana’s disappearance, the couple’s friends were reminded of signs that problems were brewing.

Mike and Mandy Silva, former tenants of the Walshes, told The Post last week about Ana’s mysterious urge to get rid of her Massachusetts assets and her shocking reaction when they ran into her last month.

“It was like a completely different Ana,” Mandi said of the typical career woman’s crisis.

A police report filed in Washington, D.C. in 2014 also alleged that Ana claimed that Brian had threatened to kill her and her friends during a heated phone call.

Ana was no longer cooperative after she made the statement, and Brian was never charged.

“It paints the story that we were looking to see what was going on in that relationship,” former Boston Police Chief Dan Linsky told Boston 25 of the alleged threat.

“There is tension in every relationship, right? People argue, fight and disagree. But when you go to the authorities because you feel your physical safety and the physical safety of your friends are in danger to file an official report, that’s a different standard.”