Brian Walshe, the 50-year-old Massachusetts man accused of killing his wife after uncovering an affair between her and a friend in Washington, D.C., returns to court Tuesday for the second day of his murder trial, as a state trooper testified about damning internet searches found on his devices after Ana Walshe vanished without a trace.
Walshe’s defense attorney, Larry Tipton, said during his opening statement Monday that Walshe found his wife dead in her bed but did not kill her. Tipton said evidence would show a “sudden, unexplained death” and that such a thing “happens.” He denied the prosecution’s allegation that his client was aware of Ana’s suspected affair.
Walshe is accused of killing Ana, dismembering her and hiding her body — after searching the internet for information about the man she was seeing behind his back.
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“The defense can argue that the search shows the awareness of a name, not that he knew about a romantic relationship,” said Randolph Rice, a Maryland attorney and legal analyst who is following the case. “That distinction matters because without clear knowledge of an affair, the state’s motive theory gets a lot weaker.”
Walshe already pleaded guilty to lesser charges of misleading police and unlawful conveyance of human remains.
Cohasset Police Sgt. Harrison Schmidt came back to the stand as prosecutors played additional excerpts from his interviews with Walshe prior to the defendant’s arrest.
Prosecutors played more than an hour of similar recordings Monday, in which Walshe spoke calmly with detectives with sporadic interruptions from his three children as their mother was unaccounted for in early January 2023.
BRIAN WALSHE DEFENSE SAYS HE FOUND WIFE DEAD IN BED, DENIES UNCOVERING AFFAIR AS MURDER TRIAL BEGINS
“I would never do anything to my wife,” he told Schmidt at one point, after Ana’s death. “I wanted to spend the rest of my life with my wife. I’m still going to.”
Massachusetts State Trooper Nicholas Guarino, an expert on digital forensics, took the stand next to discuss Walshe’s alleged Google searches, which included the name of the man involved in an affair with Ana, 39, and for information on how to dispose of human remains, including searching the internet for the phrase, “Best ways to dispose of body parts after murder.”
Walshe’s searches went on for days, Guarino testified. He said he found searches about cleaning up blood, dismembering a body, tools and chemicals that could help cover up a crime scene and getting rid of digital evidence. Prior to Ana’s disappearance, her husband allegedly looked up divorce lawyers.
“How long does DNA last?” Walshe allegedly searched, on Google. Two minutes later, Guarino said he found a search for, “Is it possible to clean DNA off a knife?”
He didn’t just use Google. On Yahoo, he searched for, “How long someone missing until inheritance,” Guarino testified.
Guarino testified earlier this year in another high-profile Massachusetts murder trial, reading text messages sent between Karen Read and John O’Keefe. Read was acquitted of all homicide-related charges in the death of her former boyfriend, O’Keefe, and convicted of drunken driving.
Prosecutors have alleged two possible motives in the case.
The first is that Walshe allegedly uncovered an affair between his wife and a Washington, D.C., realtor, who is expected to take the witness stand Thursday.
The other is that Walshe allegedly believed that if his wife was out of the picture, and he was the only caretaker for their three children, he could have a chance of avoiding prison in connection with a federal art fraud conviction.
He faces up to life in prison without parole if convicted in Ana’s death. Her remains have not been found.
