Brian Walshe remains on trial for murder after pleading guilty to disposing of wife's body

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BOSTON (AP) — A Massachusetts man remains on trial for murder in the death and dismemberment of his wife after pleading guilty just as jury selection began Tuesday to disposing of her body and misleading police.

Brian Walshe did not plead guilty to killing his wife, Ana Walshe, an immigrant from Serbia who was last seen early on Jan. 1, 2023, following a New Year’s Eve dinner at her Massachusetts home. Her body has never been found. Walshe's first-degree murder trial is still scheduled to move forward, with jury selection continuing on Wednesday.

In 2023, Walshe pleaded not guilty to all three charges against him: first-degree murder, misleading police and willfully conveying a human body in violation of state law. When he appeared in Norfolk Superior Court on Tuesday, he pleaded guilty to the two lesser charges, but not the murder charge.

Prosecutors have said that starting Jan. 1 and for several days after, Brian Walshe made multiple online searches for “dismemberment and best ways to dispose of a body,” “how long before a body starts to smell” and “hacksaw best tool to dismember.”

When questioned by investigators, Walshe said his wife had been called back to Washington, D.C., from Massachusetts on New Year’s Day for a work emergency. He didn’t contact her employer until Jan. 4. The company — the first to notify police that Ana Walshe was missing — said there was no emergency, prosecutors said.

Investigators said surveillance video showed a man resembling Walshe throwing what appeared to be heavy trash bags into a dumpster not far from their home, and a search of a trash processing facility not far from his mother’s home uncovered bags that contained a hatchet, hacksaw, towels and a protective Tyvek suit, cleaning agents, a Prada purse, boots like the ones Ana Walshe was last seen wearing and a COVID-19 vaccination card with her name.

Prosecutors have also said that Ana Walshe had taken out $2.7 million in life insurance naming her husband as the sole beneficiary.

At the time, Walshe was at home awaiting sentencing for an unrelated art fraud case involving the sale of two fake Andy Warhol paintings. He was ultimately sentenced this year to more than three years behind bars and ordered to pay $475,000 in restitution.