Art dealer Brian Walshe appeared in court Thursday with messy hair and a full-grown beard but remained silent throughout the brief hearing related to his wife’s murder.
Walshe wore an orange prison jumpsuit and merely nodded several times as he appeared via video link from Dedham House of Correction at Quincy District Court in Massachusetts.
Walshe, 47, has pleaded not guilty to killing and dismembering his wife, Ana, who vanished from their Cohasset home on Jan. 1.
Although police have not found her body, they allege Walshe killed her in their basement, dismembered her and bagged up the remains then tossed her body parts into a dumpster where they were incinerated by trash services.
Tracy Miner, Walshe’s defense attorney, told the court Thursday her team has not received any discovery from state prosecutors to help prepare for the case.
“We haven’t even received a search warrant, the inventory for the search warrant, the basic stuff we should have had immediately.”
Judge Marilyn Horan ordered the state to cooperate and to turn over evidence to the defense.
The attorneys also agreed to hold another status conference on March 1, via Zoom. Walshe will continue to be held without bail on the murder charges.
After that hearing the court is set to hear the state’s probable cause argument, where it will determine if there is enough evidence against Walshe for a murder trial.
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Prosecutors previously revealed a slew of circumstantial evidence against Walshe including how, on the days following Ana’s disappearance, Walshe had made internet searches including “How to keep a body from decomposing,” “Can you throw away body parts,” “How long for someone to be missing to inherit.”
The state says Walshe also purchased $450 of cleaning supplies from a Home Depot store, including mops, buckets, tarps, and various kinds of tape.
Latest on missing mother of three Ana Walshe
He then searched: “Hacksaw best tool to dismember,” “Can you be charged with murder without a body,” and “Can you identify a body with broken teeth?”
Walshe was arrested on January 8 for misleading police in their investigation into Walshe’s disappearance. A subsequent search of their house leading investigators to blood stains in the basement and a bloody knife.
Real estate agent Ana’s DNA was also located in another dumpster, alongside the clothes she was wearing when she was last seen in 10 trash bags. The bags also contained, rags, tape, a medical suit with Brian and Ana’s DNA on it which had been purchase after she disappeared, a hacksaw, hatchet, cutting shears, and Ana’s handbag and COVID-19 vaccine card.
Walshe is officially charged with murder, assault with intent to murder, disinterring a body without lawful authority and digging up human remains.
Former New York prosecutor and current criminal defense attorney Duncan Levin previously told the post the lack of Ana’s body could be a present issues in the case.
“Without the body, [the case] is not a slam-dunk case for the prosecution,” he said, although he added: “Obviously from what we know, there is an extremely strong circumstantial case against Brian Walshe.
“You could not have planned a worse murder if you tried,” adding Walshe appeared to have “bungled every aspect of this from beginning to end.”
