(CNN) A Massachusetts father accused of killing and dismembering his wife was denied bail Thursday, nearly five months after she disappeared.
But the whereabouts of Ana Walshe’s body remains a mystery.
Brian Walshe, 48, shook his head as his manslaughter case was read aloud in Norfolk Superior Court. He pleaded not guilty to charges of murder, misleading the police and improper transportation of a human body.
In Massachusetts, a conviction for first-degree murder carries a mandatory sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Brian Walshe, along with his defense attorney Tracy Miner, appeared in Norfolk County Superior Court on April 27.
Shortly after Walshe pleaded not guilty, Norfolk Assistant District Attorney Greg Connor outlined a series of new details from the investigation.
Among them: “Ana Walshe took out approximately $2.2 million in life insurance on herself, of which Brian Walshe was the sole beneficiary,” Connor said. He also has a life insurance policy through his employer, said the prosecutor.
“In total, her life insurance was over $2.7 million, of which the defendant was the sole beneficiary.”
Also, in December 2022, “it became apparent that Mr. Walshe suspected his wife of having an affair,” Connor said.
“She regularly visits the Instagram page of one of her male friends. And on December 26, her mother – with her input and direction – got and hired a private investigator to survey Ana Walshe in Washington , DC.”
LIVE UPDATES: Brian Walshe’s murder hearing
Walshe’s defense attorney disputed the allegation that Brian Walshe suspected his wife — who worked for a real estate company in DC — of having an affair, saying there was “absolutely no evidence” for the claim.
“Mr. Walshe had no idea his wife was having an affair until he found out about it in the discovery of this case,” said attorney Tracy Miner.
The prosecutor revealed several online searches
A trove of cell phone data and surveillance footage supports the charges against Walshe, prosecutors said Thursday.
Ana Walshe, a 39-year-old mother of three young children, was last seen alive in the early morning hours of Jan. 1, Connor said.
Later that morning, “The oldest child’s iPad started visiting websites concerned with how long it takes to smell a dead body? How long does it take for someone to be declared dead?” the prosecutor said.
Many online searches followed on January 1, such as “When does a person have to disappear to collect?” the prosecutor said. “And there’s a visit to a website for luxury watches.”
That same day, Brian Walshe told a babysitter and a family friend that his phone was missing, Connor said.
“Subsequent analysis of his phone determined that it was indeed plugged in on the morning of January 1,” the prosecutor said. “However, while her phone remains at home, the oldest child’s cell phone does not.”
Cell phone data revealed the device traveled to two stores on Jan. 1, and Brian Walshe was seen on surveillance video walking through the stores alone, Connor said.
At about 5:30 p.m., surveillance video showed Walshe and his car going to a dumpster in the parking lot of a liquor store and dumping the items before returning to his car, the prosecutor said.
Afterward, cell phone data showed the device traveled to a trash can at an apartment complex where Walshe’s mother lived, Connor said.
The phone then traveled to a Lowe’s store, where Walshe can also be seen on surveillance footage. He bought five 5-gallon buckets, a hacksaw, 48 terry cloth towels, a full-coverage suit, 200 disposable rags, trash bags and cleaning products, Connor said.
The cell phone then traveled to a CVS store, where Walshe was also seen on surveillance video. There, he bought “13 different types of hydrogen peroxide,” the prosecutor said.
Later, questionable searches were made using the oldest child’s iPad, Connor said. Search questions included “how long Lowe’s kept the security videos, how the apartments maintained surveillance, and several articles about mutilation,” Connor said.
Another iPad search involves “removing the smell of decomposing bodies,” Connor said.
But prosecutors have not said whether Ana Walshe’s body or remains have been found.
Referring to some of Walshe’s Google searches on how to dispose of a body and prevent one from decomposing, Miner admitted that they were “problematic,” but he argued that he was also doing other Google searches at the same time. about how to set up a charitable corporation to give away lottery winnings and the best place to go on a family vacation.
Walshe “has been cooperating with the police from day one,” Miner said.
‘Ten ways to dispose of a dead body if you have to’
Three days after she was last seen alive in Massachusetts, Ana Walshe was reported missing by her employer on January 4.
other The Norfolk County prosecutor previously detailed some of Brian Walshe’s alleged online searches in the days before and after his wife’s disappearance.
“Instead of getting a divorce, it is believed that Brian Walshe cut Ana Walshe up and dumped her body,” prosecutor Lynn Beland said at the suspect’s January arraignment.
On December 27 — a few days before the mother disappeared — the husband allegedly searched Google: “What is the best divorce state for a man?”
After Ana Walshe went missing, Brian Walshe allegedly searched Google for phrases such as “Ten ways to dispose of a dead body if you really have to,” “cutting and best disposal methods of a body,” “can you be charged with murder without a body,” and “can you identify a body with broken teeth,” said the prosecutor.
A hacksaw, a hatchet and Ana Walshe’s purse
Surveillance video captured Brian Walshe throwing heavy bags into dumpsters in Abington and Swampscott, Beland said. Cell phone data showed the husband visited a dumpster near his mother’s home in Swampscott, the prosecutor said.
Abington’s bags were destroyed by the time police found them, Beland said.
But he said Swampscott trash bags were found in a Peabody collection area and contained blood stains, cleaning equipment, a hacksaw, a hatchet, a Prada purse that Ana was carrying Walshe and his Covid-19 vaccination card.
The state crime lab tested some of the bloody items in the bags and found DNA from Ana and Brian Walshe, Beland said.
‘A great entrepreneur’ and ‘supermom’
Ana Walshe was a “totally radiant spirit, the kind of person that when you walk into a room, you just feel her energy,” her friend Pamela Bardhi told CNN.
“She’s a great business woman and I like to be called a supermom.”
Ana Walshe commutes from Cohasset to DC during the week for her real estate job at Tishman Speyer and then returns home on the weekends, Bardhi said.
“She is a power woman and just a businesswoman, as long as I know her,” said Bardhi. “She never talks about her husband. It’s all about her kids and business and heights and how she helps other people.”
The couple’s three children were placed in the custody of the Massachusetts Department of Children and Families, a spokeswoman said. Two of Ana Walshe’s friends, including Bardhi, said several local families offered to take the children so they could stay together.
At the time of her disappearance, Ana Walshe had a real estate portfolio worth nearly $2 million, according to a CNN analysis of publicly available documents.
He owns at least four residential properties, according to property assessment records and tax records in Massachusetts, Maryland and DC. Her husband is not listed as the owner or co-owner of any properties.
Property records reviewed by CNN include those under her married name and the name she used before marrying Brian Walshe, Ana Knipp, but may not be a complete picture of her real estate holdings.
CNN’s Jean Cesarez, Adrienne Vogt, Samantha Beech, Laura Dolan, Kristina Sgueglia, Eric Levenson, Amanda Watts, Jason Carroll, Kiely Westhoff, Anna Bahney, Lindsey Knight and Celina Tebor contributed to this report.
