Posted at 9:36 AM, November 18, 2025
DEDHAM, Mass. (Court TV) — A Massachusetts man pleaded guilty in connection with the death of his missing wife on the day jury selection was scheduled to begin in his murder trial.
Brian Walshe stands in court after a motions hearing on Nov. 17, 2025. (Court TV)
Brian Walshe, 50, had been charged with first-degree murder, misleading a police officer and conveyance of a human body in the presumed death of his wife, Ana Walshe, 39. He pleaded guilty to two lesser charges on Nov. 18.
Prosecutors said that Brian murdered his wife on January 1, 2023, and then spent several days trying to conceal the crime before she was ultimately reported missing by her employer on January 4. Surveillance video allegedly showed Brian purchasing $450 in cleaning supplies and tarps on January 2.
In court documents, investigators said that Ana was having an affair before her death and had told a friend she planned to leave her husband. Investigators say Brian’s internet search history included things like “how long before a body starts to smell” and “dismemberment and best ways to dispose of a body.”
At the time of Ana’s presumed murder, Brian was on house arrest while awaiting sentencing for a separate fraud case involving the sale of fake Andy Warhol paintings.
Former Massachusetts Police Trooper Michael Proctor was a key investigator in Ana’s disappearance; Walshe’s attorneys fought to have access to records from Proctor’s other cases, including those of Karen Read and Sandra Birchmore, ahead of his murder trial. Proctor was fired from his job for sending inappropriate messages about Read on his phone, as well as drinking on the job.
Editorial note: An earlier version of this story incorrectly stated that Walshe pleaded guilty to murder.
