(NewsNation) — At the arraignment of Brian Walshe, the husband of missing Boston woman Ana Walshe, the prosecution accused him of killing his wife.
Brian Walshe, 47, is charged with murder and the improper transport of a body in connection with his wife’s disappearance. She was last seen on New Year’s Day, and she was reported missing three days later by her husband. The Daily Beast , however, reports that Ana may have been reported missing by her employer before Brian.
“It is easy to charge a crime and even easier to say a person committed that crime,” Brian’s lawyer, Tracy Miner, told NewsNation in a statement. “It is a much more difficult thing to prove it, which we will see if the prosecution can do.”
Claiming Brian Walshe dismembered and disposed of his wife’s body, the prosecution Wednesday read a list of Google searches found on an iPad in the Walshe’s home — and listed numerous pieces of evidence they found.
This was the evidence presented in court:
Google Searches
- On Dec. 27, Walshe Googled “What’s the best state to divorce for a man?”
- On Jan. 1, his searches were: “How long before a body starts to smell?”; “How to stop a body from decomposing?”; “How to embalm a body”; “10 ways to dispose of a dead body if you really need to”; “How long for someone to be missing to inherit (sic)?”; “Can you throw away body parts?”; “What does formaldehyde do?”; “How long does DNA last?”; “Can identification be made on partial remains?”; “Dismemberment and the best ways to dispose of a body”; “How to clean blood from wooden floor”; “Luminal to detect blood”; “What happens when you put body parts in ammonia?”; and “Is it better to throw crime scene clothes away or wash them?”
- On Jan. 2, Walshe searched questions including “Can you be charged with murder without a body?”; and “Can you identify a body with broken teeth?”
- Walshe’s searches on Jan. 3 included “What happens to hair on a dead body?”; “What is the rate of decomposition of a body found in a plastic bag compared to on a surface in the woods?”; and “Can baking soda make a body smell good?”
Purchases
- Jan. 2: Brian Walshe buys three rugs from Home Goods.
- Jan. 2 Wearing a face mask and rubber gloves, Brian Walshe is seen on surveillance tape at Home Depot, pushing a cart with items including cleaning products, tarps, mops, brushes, tape, a Tyvek suit with boot covers, buckets, goggles, baking soda and a hatchet.
Walshe’s car
Data from Brian Walshe’s phone tracks his whereabouts on Jan. 3 to an apartment complex in Abington, Massachusetts. Surveillance video shows his Volvo, as well as a man who had “the defendant’s appearance,” according to the prosecution, exiting the car near a dumpster. The man then walks to the dumpster, carrying garbage bags.
“He’s leaning in,” prosecutor Lynn Beland said. “It appears to be heavy.”
More cellphone records show that on Jan. 4, Walshe allegedly went to Home Goods and TJ Maxx, where he bought towels, bath mats and men’s clothing. On that same day, he went to Lowe’s, where he purchased squeegees and a trash can. When Cohasset police went to the Walshes’ home for a well-being check, officers observed the Volvo, with seats down and a plastic liner on the back of the car. Cops later analyzed the car and found the presence of blood in it.
On Jan. 5, a review of data from the defendant’s phone showed that Brian Walshe traveled to his mother’s house, and went by a dumpster near the complex, which was later secured and searched.
What was in the trash bags?
After investigators secured and searched the dumpsters at the defendant’s mother’s complex, it was searched at a transfer station, where 10 trash bags were recovered.
Inside the bags were items containing stains consistent with blood, according to prosecutors.
Items found were as follows:
- Towels
- Rags
- Slippers
- Tape
- Tyvek suit
- Gloves
- Cleaning agents
- Carpets
- Boots
- Purse
- COVID-19 vaccine card with Ana Walshe’s name on it
- Hacksaw
- Hatchet
- Cutting shears
The purse and boots, Beland said, were described as the kind Ana Walshe was last seen in.
DNA
A state crime lab performed testing on selected items recovered from most of the trash bags. Human blood was found on them, then they were sent for DNA testing.
The findings from the trash bags are as follows:
- Brian and Ana Walshe’s DNA were contributors to that which was found on the slippers, which had blood on the exterior.
- Their DNA contributed to the DNA found on the interior cuffs, sleeves and pants of the Tyvek suit.