Ana Walshe: Bloody clothes and search history lead to murder charge for husband Brian

Massachusetts authorities say that Brian Walshe's internet search showed 'how to dispose of a 115-pound woman'

Brian Walshe had already been charged with misleading police investigating his wife's disappearance. EPA

The husband of Ana Walshe, the Massachusetts woman missing since January 1, searched the internet for ways to dismember and dispose of a body, according to the prosecutor at his arraignment on Wednesday.

Assistant District Attorney Lynn Beland said Brian Walshe Googled “how long before a body starts to smell”, “can you throw away body parts” and “10 ways to dispose of a dead body if you really need to” on the last day his wife was seen.

Mr Walshe, already in custody after being charged with misleading investigators searching for his wife, pleaded not guilty to murder and other charges.

He had already been under house arrest after he confessed to selling two counterfeit Andy Warhol paintings to an eBay buyer for $80,000, but had yet to be sentenced.

The accused did not speak except to tell the judge he understood the charges and stared blankly at Ms Beland as she made the state’s case.

Ms Beland said it was DNA evidence on a pair of slippers and bloody clothes that led investigators to believe “Brian Walsh dismembered and discarded” his wife's body.

They also discovered a Tyvek disposable suit — coveralls normally worn to protect workers from hazardous particulates and non-hazardous liquid splash.

The items, which were found in a rubbish bin near Mr Walshe’s mother’s house, tested positive for his missing wife’s DNA. And a man with Mr Walshe’s general description was caught on surveillance video tossing what the prosecutor said were heavy rubbish bags.

Mr Walshe explained to authorities that he went to see his mother after his wife’s disappearance.

Ms Walshe was reportedly last seen leaving their home in the posh seaside community of Cohasset south of Boston in the early morning hours of New Year’s Day, supposedly to grab a rideshare to Logan International Airport for a flight to Washington, authorities said.

However, investigators have found no evidence that she hired a car or that she took any flight out of Logan since she was reported missing on January 4 by her employer in Washington.

The couple owns a home there and Ms Walshe often commutes there for work, authorities said.

An Instagram post made by Ms Walshe in 2018 shows the mother of three with what appears to be a cut above her left eye.

“Mild concussion, bruised hip and a cut …#vulnerability,” the caption from May 21, 2018 — which was edited 35 weeks ago — states. According to The New York Post, she edited that post before her husband's house arrest for the eBay scheme.

The couple's three children are in state custody.