A Massachusetts jury found Brian Walshe guilty of first-degree murder on Monday, as the convicted fraudster was charged with killing his wife and dismembering her body three years prior. After almost two weeks of testimony, the decision was rendered in Norfolk County Superior Court, which is located southwest of Boston. On Friday afternoon, the jury got to work deliberating.
Prosecutors claimed during closing arguments that Walshe, 50, systematically dismembered Ana Walshe, 39, and dumped her body in dumpsters.
“He needed her dead,” Norfolk County Assistant District Attorney Anne Yas told the jury. “This was a marriage in crisis.”
As the only beneficiary of his wife’s $2.7 million life insurance policy, prosecutors have claimed that Walshe was driven by money as well as an affair she was having with a realtor in Washington, D.C.
Walshe’s lawyers denied the accusations, describing him as a devoted father and husband who was unaware of the affair.
According to defense lawyer Larry Tipton, Ana Walshe passed away suddenly and without apparent cause. After celebrating the holiday at home with a friend, Brian Walshe discovered her unconscious in their bed. In a panic, he started looking up the best way to dispose of a body online, according to Tipton.
According to Tipton, his client believed that no one would accept Ana Walshe’s “alive one minute and dead the next” status.
Judge Diane Freniere of Norfolk County Superior Court stated Thursday that Brian Walshe had intended to testify, but Tipton quickly stated he would not do so. No witnesses were called by Walshe’s attorneys to testify on his behalf.
Last month, Walshe entered a guilty plea to two lesser charges related to his wife’s passing: improperly disposing of her body and deceiving a police investigation. For those offenses, he has not received a sentence.
In a different federal case, Walshe was previously found guilty of fraud.
Following the New Year’s celebration at the couple’s house, Ana Walshe vanished. Her body has never been located.
Although his lawyer acknowledged that he had lied to police during those interviews, Brian Walshe told authorities that she had traveled to Washington, D.C., that morning due to a work emergency.
Additionally, prosecutors’ evidence during the trial revealed that Walshe spent hundreds of dollars on cleaning supplies, cutting tools, and a Tyvek suit after searching the internet for information about dead bodies starting early on January 1, 2023.
Topics such as “how to saw a body” and “can you identify a body with broken teeth” were among the things he found.
Prosecutors claimed that Walshe disposed of some of his wife’s possessions and many of the items he had purchased were miles away from the couple’s residence.
In February 2024, Walshe was given a sentence of slightly over three years in prison for selling counterfeit Andy Warhol paintings in a separate case.
In what the Boston U.S. Attorney’s Office described as “a years-long, multi-faceted art fraud scheme,” Walshe was sentenced on Tuesday to 37 months, or three years and one month.
According to the U.S. attorney’s office, he entered a guilty plea in 2021 to one count each of wire fraud, interstate transportation for a scheme to defraud, and unlawful monetary transaction.
Two abstract paintings, Walshe claimed to be genuine Warhol “Shadows” that he sold on eBay in 2016, were at the center of the art fraud case. According to federal prosecutors, he ultimately sold them for $80,000 outside the website.
According to court records, the actual Warhol “Shadow” paintings belonged to the family of a classmate Walshe met while attending Carnegie Mellon University in the 1990s.
According to prosecutors, Walshe was given the two Warhol paintings along with a few others after telling the former classmate that he could sell some of the paintings. A criminal complaint alleges that Walshe never gave the Warhols back. In 2011, however, prosecutors claim he sold them to a gallery.
The U.S. attorney’s office claims that the items sold to the buyer Walshe met on eBay were not genuine. According to the office, the original Warhol “Shadows” paintings have never been found again after changing hands.
