Authorities have been searching for a woman from Cohasset, Mass., who suddenly disappeared just after New Year’s.
This week, authorities announced that the woman’s husband was arraigned and that he has pleaded not guilty to the charge of misleading a police investigation. According to authorities, 47-year-old Brian Walshe made a trip to a local home improvement store to purchase a tarp and cleaning supplies in the days after his wife, 39-year-old Ana Walshe, went missing.
She was last seen shortly after midnight on New Year’s Day. Since she went missing, investigators have also found a “knife and blood in a basement area.”
According to CNN, Brian Walshe is already awaiting sentencing for a previous federal fraud conviction regarding fake Andy Warhol paintings sold on eBay. He is under home-confinement, wears an ankle bracelet and must get permission to leave his house for approved activities at specific locations.
“He made multiple unapproved trips the week of his wife’s disappearance, according to the affidavit, including to a Home Depot where he was seen on surveillance video wearing a surgical mask and surgical gloves and making a cash purchase, per CNN. “In court Monday, prosecutors alleged he spent about $450 on cleaning supplies, including mops, a bucket and tarps.”
Additionally, “law enforcement sources told CNN on Tuesday that materials found included a hacksaw, torn-up cloth material and what appears to be bloodstains,” the outlet added.
Gem Mutlu was one of the last people to see Ana before she disappeared, according to CBS News. He told a Boston CBS affiliate that he attended a “festive” event at the couple’s home on New Year’s Eve and that Brian “made an elaborate meal.”
“We hugged and celebrated and we toasted just what you do over new year’s,” he said. “There was a lot of looking forward to the new year.
There was no indication of anything other than celebrating the new year, problems on hold.”
However, Mutlu soon got a call from Brian informing him that Ana was missing.
According to CBS, Ana was reportedly last seen leaving her home around 4 a.m. on Jan. 1. CNN said that Brian Walsh told law enforcement that his wife went to Washington D.C. for a work emergency.
“A middle of the night work emergency, with no cell or bank activity since – never made sense for Gem,” said the CBS. Mutlu, who met Ana through Brian, started to suspect foul play.
He also told CBS that the couple – who have three young boys now in state custody – had been living in separate homes.
“Law enforcement sources told CNN that investigators hope to collect blood samples from Ana Walshe’s sons so they have a ‘direct bloodline’ sample to compare against traces of blood found in the couple’s basement,” she outlet said. “Those results could give investigators a result that makes an almost certain match to blood and a bloodied knife found in the basement and apparent bloodstains at the refuse processing plant.”
CNN said Ana’s coworkers at the real estate company Tishman Speyer reported her missing Jan. 4.
Ana “stands 5’2″ and weighs 115 pounds,” said police of his wife in a Jan. 5 news release. “She has brown hair, brown eyes and has an olive complexion. It is believed that she speaks with an Eastern European accent.”
Two unnamed law enforcement sources also told CNN that her husband’s internet record showed searches about “how to dispose of a 115-pound woman’s body.”
By Jan. 7, the Cohasset Police Department announced that a ground search conducted with Massachusetts State troopers for Ana had concluded. Authorities had searched wooded areas near her home. They also said that a fire at Ana Walshe’s former residence on Jerusalem Road was determined to be accidental.
“Simultaneously, State Police and Cohasset Police detectives continue to undertake various investigative actions to determine Ms. Walshe’s whereabouts,” said a joint statement from law enforcement.
The following day, the Norfolk County District Attorney’s Office announced that Brian Walsh had been taken into custody.
“Police developed probable cause to believe that her [Ana’s] husband Brian Walshe had committed the crime of misleading police investigators,” said the announcement. He appeared in Quincy District Court Monday and a $500,000 cash bail was imposed by Judge Mark S. Coven.
An investigation into Ana Walshe’s disappearance is open and ongoing, said the district attorney’s office.
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