EDITOR’S NOTE: This story contains a graphic image of an item presented as evidence during the murder trial of Brian Walshe.
The second week of testimony in Brian Walshe’s murder trial is underway as prosecutors continue to work to prove he killed his wife Ana Walshe around New Year’s Day 2023.
Much of Monday focused on the first hours and days after Ana’s alleged disappearance: Prosecutors traced what they say were Brian Walshe’s movements on the afternoon of Jan. 1, 2023, through surveillance footage from several stores where he was making cash purchases. And two of Ana’s colleagues testified about their own search in Washington, D.C., on January 4, after Brian Walshe called the office claiming she was missing.
The jury also saw photos of evidence recovered from Brian Walshe’s home and dumpsters near his mother’s apartment that a witness said tested positive for blood.
Unbeknownst to the jury, Walshe pleaded guilty to unlawfully disposing of his wife’s body and misleading police after her death. But he insists he didn’t kill her.
His lawyers say he found his wife dead in their bed in the early hours of the new year and panicked, fearing no one would believe he was not involved in Ana’s death. He faces life in prison without parole if convicted of her murder.
Here is a recap of the sixth day of testimony.
A forensic pathologist with the Massachusetts State Police crime lab said he found traces of blood on numerous items, including those recovered from the Walshes’ home and others that Walshe allegedly threw in dumpsters.
A kitchen knife found in a cabinet above Walshe’s refrigerator tested positive for traces of blood although there were no visible stains, according to Matthew Sheehan, the scientist.
Bloodstains were also identified in several locations in the Walshe home, including on the stairs leading to the basement and basement, Sheehan said.
Sheehan testified that several items recovered during a dumpster search near Walshe’s mother’s apartment complex — among them a hacksaw, a hammer, a hatchet, a pair of tin snips and a Tyvek suit — tested positive for blood. The jury saw photos of those items, as well as blood-covered towels and pieces of carpet also found in that trash can.
Sheehan submitted numerous blood samples for DNA testing, he said, but he did not discuss the results of those tests during his testimony Monday.
Prosecutors previously said Ana’s blood was found in the basement of the family’s Massachusetts home and the couple’s DNA was found on items recovered from dumpsters.
Ana’s body was never found: On Monday morning, a medical examiner said he could not determine the cause or manner of Ana Walshe’s death because there was no body for autopsy.
Prosecutors presented the jury with surveillance footage that they say shows Brian Walshe making cash purchases on Jan. 1, 2023 — hours after his defense attorney now says Walshe found Ana dead in their bed in a sudden, unexplained death.
Footage from a CVS and Stop & Shop grocery store shown in court Monday showed a man who resembled Walshe purchasing five bottles of hydrogen peroxide and three bottles of ammonia in cash.
A liquor store manager who knew Brian Walshe as a regular customer also identified Walshe in surveillance footage captured as he threw a trash bag into a dumpster near the store.
Joseph Cesarz, the manager, identified Walshe in footage taken at 5:12 p.m. on January 1, 2023, as he carried a black trash bag from his Volvo parked near the front of the store to a dumpster on the side of the building. The liquor store, located next to Walshe’s mother’s apartment, would have been closed for the holiday, Cesarz said.
Security cameras at a Lowe’s Home Improvement store also showed a man who looked like Walshe wearing latex gloves and a medical mask as he purchased more than $400 worth of cleaning supplies and other items, such as a hacksaw.
Again, he paid in cash, according to a receipt admitted into evidence Monday.
Two of Ana Walshe’s colleagues in Washington, D.C., testified about their interactions with Brian Walshe on January 4, 2023, after he called the office looking for her.
Theresa Marchese, a human resources manager at the Tishman Speyer company, said she spoke to Walshe on the phone several times that day. She also went to Ana’s house in Washington to pick her up, she said. Marchese remembers seeing a wet package outside the house and thinking Ana couldn’t be home recently because it hadn’t rained in days.
The company’s head of security, Hugh Dunleavy, also visited the home with two company engineers and two local police officers, he said. Walshe gave them permission to cut through a door to gain access to the interior of the house.
Officers conducted a wellness check and found no sign of Ana, Dunleavy said.
In one call, Marchese told Walshe that someone in his office had called hospitals in Washington, D.C., and found no trace of Ana, she said. Marchese recommended Walshe call hospitals in Boston, she said.
Walshe was calm and cordial during calls, only once became emotional, Dunleavy and Marchese said.
Walshe told them that his wife had left their home to return to Washington, D.C., for a work emergency on January 1, 2023, and that he had not heard from her since — the same account Walshe initially gave to police.
Dunleavy said he could not identify a work emergency that would have forced Ana to return to Washington at that time.
Dunleavy also said he told Walshe he was going to call local police in Cohasset, Massachusetts, where the Walshes lived, to report Ana missing and advised Walshe to do the same.
Ana Walshe’s car was eventually found at a Tishman Speyer property she managed. She left it there on Dec. 30, which was also the last day she used her work email and company card, Dunleavy said.
