Brian Walshe Admitted to Crimes After His Wife's Death — But Did He Murder and Dismember Her? By KC Baker

Opening statements in the trial of the Massachusetts man accused of killing and dismembering his wife began on Monday, Dec. 1.

Brian Walshe is charged with murdering his wife, Ana Walshe, 39, the mother of his three young sons, who were 2, 4 and 6 when she vanished in 2023.

On Tuesday, Nov. 18, just before jury selection began, Walshe pleaded guilty to two lesser counts: willfully conveying a human body in violation of state law and misleading police, CBS News Boston, WCVB, and MassLive.com report.

Walshe admitted to dismembering his wife’s body and disposing of her remains in dumpsters. The contents of the dumpsters were later incinerated.

He pleaded not guilty to murdering his wife and still faces a murder trial.

Ana, a successful real estate executive, was last seen alive on New Year’s Eve in 2022, at her home in the affluent Boston suburb of Cohasset, which she shared with her husband and children.

She was reported missing on Monday, Jan. 4, by her boss when she failed to show up to her job in Washington, D.C., police said.

Authorities allege Walshe killed his wife because he believed she was having an affair. They have said they believe he disposed of her body in dumpsters across the state, MassLive.com reports.

After she went missing, he searched for the best ways to dispose of a body and whether it is possible to clean DNA off of a knife, prosecutors alleged.

Her body still has not been found.

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Walshe faces a mandatory sentence of life in prison without parole if convicted by the jury on the only remaining count of first-degree murder.

His murder trial was supposed to begin in October of this year, but just before jury selection, Freniere ordered him to Bridgewater State Hospital to have his mental health evaluated, FOX News reported.

Previously, in Feb. 2024, Brian was sentenced to 37 months in prison and three years of supervised release in connection with “a years-long, multi-faceted art fraud scheme involving two purported Andy Warhol paintings,” the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Massachusetts said. 

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He was also ordered to pay restitution of $475,000. 

In April 2021, he pleaded guilty to one count each of wire fraud, interstate transportation for a scheme to defraud and unlawful monetary transaction.

If you are experiencing domestic violence, call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-7233, or go to thehotline.org. All calls are toll-free and confidential. The hotline is available 24/7 in more than 170 languages.