Brian Walshe, who declined to testify at his murder trial, tried to take control of his late father’s estate soon after he was indicted on art fraud charges in 2018, according to a report.
Brian and Thomas Walshe had been estranged for years, but the only child argued that his dad didn’t leave a will and convinced the Plymouth County Probate Court in Massachusetts to name him as personal representative for the estate that December, according to the Boston Globe.
Brian’s claim to Thomas’ estate was later challenged by his father’s family and friends, arguing the only child had actually destroyed the will, sold off his belongings and wiped out his father’s bank account. Brian allegedly took and sold off a total of over $500,000 after the late Walshe stripped his son from the will.
Fred Pescatore, a longtime friend of Thomas, reportedly said in a signed statement to the court that Brian stole from his father.
“Brian and Tom’s estrangement had everything to do with money,” Pescatore said. “Brian stole money from Tom and swindled him out of almost one million dollars…”
Pescatore added that Brian had a violent streak and said he was “very angry” and a “sociopath.”
“I saw Brian attempt to smuggle out antiquities from China,” Pescatore added. “When Brian was confronted, he picked up a stanchion and literally attempted to kill four or five guards that had come to talk to him about his crime.”
When Thomas died, Brian “almost had zero” contact with him for over a decade, friends and family wrote to the probate court.
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Walshe is accused of killing his wife, Ana, in January 2023 after learning she was having an affair. Ana disappeared on New Year’s Day and was never seen again. Jurors will begin deliberations on Friday. The defense unexpectedly rested its case on Thursday morning without calling any witnesses, and did not put Brian on the stand.
On Tuesday, a forensic scientist testified that DNA consistent with Ana’s profile was found on a hatchet and hacksaw recovered from the trash.
Saman Saleem, a DNA unit supervisor at the state police crime lab, also said that several items found at a Peabody, Massachusetts, trash collection site also had Ana’s DNA on it, which included pieces of a rug, a Tyvek suit, unknown tissue and slippers.
Brian’s wife had a $2.7 million life insurance policy which he was the beneficiary of, court records show. He owed nearly $500,000 in restitution for his federal case.
Another one of Thomas’ longtime friends, Jeffrey Ornstein, said in a signed statement to the probate court that he had proof Brian was taken out of the will. Ornstein said Brian reached out to him following Thomas’ death and asked if he had the keys to his father’s house in Hull, Massachusetts. Brian claimed he “needed some paperwork.”
When Ornstein entered the house, he saw Thomas’ will in the office.
“I reviewed the Will and left it where we found it, however, I took some pictures,” Ornstein wrote. “I noticed a list of beneficiaries, but as Tom had told me many times over the years, he had expressly disinherited Brian.”
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Thomas’ nephew, Andrew Walshe, was named as the executor of the will, Ornstein said.
“I still felt bad,” Ornstein continued, “so when I texted Brian later that day to tell him that I had left him a set of keys under the mat, I did not tell him about being disinherited.”
Brian and Thomas’ dispute stems from the acquisition of a home in Lenox, Massachusetts, according to the report. Brian bought the house with his father reportedly agreeing to fund renovations with the stipulation that he’d be paid back, which never happened.
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Andrew eventually asked the court in July 2019 to remove Brian as the estate’s personal representative.
“It is clear that Brian destroyed the Last Will and Testament which excluded him from any inheritance, when he gained access to the Hull property,” Andrew wrote in a statement to the court. “Brian R Walshe had estranged himself from all Walshe family members due to their knowledge of the theft he had committed to his father.”
“I hereby bequeath to Brian R. Walshe my best wishes but nothing else from my estate,” Thomas wrote in the will.
Andrew unsuccessfully pressured Brian to account for what happened to the estate and alleged that the only child drained at least $250,000 from Thomas’ bank account and sold his possessions, worth about $250,000.
Fox News Digital’s Michael Ruiz and Sarah Rumpf-Whitten contributed to this report.
