Peabody

Search yields no new info in Ana Walshe case; DNA evidence expected soon

Brian Walshe, Ana Walshe's husband, faces charges including murder and misleading police in the case

NBC10 Boston

A missing person poster for Ana Walshe at Cohasset police headquarters on Jan. 6, 2023.

Investigators renewed the search for the body of Ana Walshe, a missing mother from Cohasset, Massachusetts, on Tuesday as police descended on Peabody, prosecutors said.

The search, by the Massachusetts State Police Special Emergency Response Team, didn't yield any information, according to the Norfolk County District Attorney's Office.

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It was prompted by two people "in the Peabody community unconnected to the prosecution of Brian Walshe" who'd contacted investigators to say that the area could be of interest to them.

Brian Walshe, Ana Walshe's husband, faces charges including murder and misleading police in the case; he's pleaded not guilty. The search came a day before a pre-trial hearing for Walshe.

Also Tuesday, prosecutors in the Walshe case submitted a memo saying they are "awaiting DNA analysis from an independent laboratory and [are] expected to have those results in approximately two weeks," The Boston Globe reported, though they didn't elaborate on what DNA was being tested.

Ana Walshe was initially reported missing by her husband, who said she'd left early the morning of New Year's Day. But days later, after a search that included parts of Washington, D.C., where she worked for a major realty company, Brian Walshe was arrested on charges of misleading police.

The fact that Ana Walshe's body has not been found is part of the defense attorney's argument, who claims four months after she disappeared that there's no clear indication of how she died. But prosecutors say what they have found shows Brian Walshe lied to investigators and attempted to cover his tracks.

In the expansive search for Ana Walshe's body, law enforcement eventually found in a dumpster near his mother's house pieces of clothes and jewelry that Brian Walshe said she was wearing when she left their house early New Year's Day, along with a hacksaw that had a bone fragment in, prosecutors have said.

They also have alleged that Brian Walshe suspected Ana of having an affair. His mother had hired a private investigator into her, they said.

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