Brian Walshe has been convicted of the first-degree murder of his wife, Ana Walshe, who disappeared from their Massachusetts residence on New Year’s Day in 2023.

The 50-year-old Walshe was accused of killing Ana, a 39-year-old realtor and mother of three, at their home in Cohasset. He allegedly dismembered her body and disposed of the remains in several dumpsters.

At the time of Ana’s disappearance, Walshe was already facing legal trouble for selling counterfeit Andy Warhol artworks, while Ana was reportedly involved in an extramarital affair with someone out of state.

Walshe faced charges of first-degree murder, unlawful disposal of a human body, and misleading law enforcement in connection to his wife’s death.

Just days before the trial commenced, Walshe admitted guilt to the lesser charges but maintained his innocence in the murder of Ana.

During closing arguments last week, prosecutors told the jury Walshe killed and dismembered his wife because their marriage was falling apart and he needed the money from her $2.7 million life insurance policy.

His defense, meanwhile, claimed Walshe found Ana dead in bed. They alleged she suffered a sudden and unexplained death, and Walshe disposed of her body in fear of being blamed.

Stone-faced Brian Walshe stood emotionless as he was found guilty of murder in the first degree

Walshe, 50, was accused of killing Ana, a successful realtor and mother of his three children, at their home in Cohasset

The defense rested its case without calling a single witness to the stand. Walshe had planned to testify but backed out at the last minute.

Judge Diane Freniere informed the jury on Friday that they could choose to convict on lesser second-degree murder charges, or the first-degree murder charge prosecutors had argued for, which includes the element of premeditation. 

The state argued that Walshe premeditatedly murdered and dismembered his wife because she was having an affair, and then disposed of her remains in various dumpsters across the Boston area.

Walshe’s internet activity on January 1, 2023, included searches such as: ‘best way to dispose of a body’ and ‘how long for someone to be missing to inherit.’

The jury of six men and six women deliberated for around six hours before returning Monday’s verdict.

Walshe stood stone-faced, offering little emotion when his fate was revealed. He remained silent as he was handcuffed and led out of the courtroom.

He is now facing a mandatory penalty of life in prison without the possibility of parole, with sentencing set for Wednesday.

Walshe also faces an additional 20 years for lying to police and three additional years for disposing of a body.

Ana was allegedly having an affair with another man out of state – which prosecutors claim was the breaking point for Walshe in their already strained marriage

Ana’s remains have not been found. 

She was killed hours after she and Walshe hosted a New Year’s Eve party for friends at their Cohasset home. 

Walshe carried out a series of disturbing web searches in the hours that followed, which included queries for how long DNA lasts and instructions for how to dismember a body.

He then visited a series of local stores, including Home Depot, Lowe’s, Walmart and a liquor store, where he purchased hundreds of dollars’ worth of tools and cleaning supplies that prosecutors said were used to dismantle his wife’s body.

The jury was shown footage of Walshe walking with a bag toward a dumpster outside the liquor store. 

A second clip showed Walshe wearing latex gloves as he piled his cart at Lowe’s with a hammer, a utility knife, multiple five-gallon buckets and a mop.

Then, on January 4, 2023 – the day Walshe reported Ana missing – he returned to Lowes and was captured on a self-checkout machine smiling into the camera and fixing his hair. 

That day, he purchased a hacksaw and handheld shears, court testimony revealed. 

Police recovered a hacksaw, a hatchet, bloody towels and rags, gloves, and a protective suit from inside the Walshe family home during the early stages of their investigation into Ana’s disappearance.

Traces of blood and a blood-stained knife were also found in the basement of the property. 

In the hours of Ana’s death, Walshe visited a series of local stores, including Lowe’s, where he purchased hundreds of dollars’ worth of tools and cleaning supplies

Then, on January 4, 2023 – the day Walshe reported Ana missing – he returned to Lowes and was captured on a self-checkout machine smiling into the camera

Ten trash bags filled with bloodied items were later recovered from a dumpster near Walshe’s mother’s home in Swampscott, Massachusetts. 

Data from Walshe’s phone showed he made several stops at other locations to dispose of evidence in dumpsters – but the trash was incinerated before investigators could obtain it.

At the time, Walshe was awaiting sentencing on federal charges over an art fraud scheme after he sold two counterfeit Andy Warhol paintings online for $80,000.

He was ultimately sentenced to 37 months in prison in February 2024 on three federal fraud charges over the scam. He was also ordered to pay $400,000 in restitution. 

Prosecutors claimed that Walshe’s discovery that Ana was having an affair was the final breaking point in their already-strained marriage. 

Walshe would have landed a $2.7 million life insurance windfall in the event of his wife’s death, prosecutors noted. 

His attorneys rejected those allegations, calling him a loving husband and father who didn’t know about the affair and wasn’t the ‘jealous type.’

During the two-week trial, the jury heard from William Fastow, the man with whom Ana was having an affair.

Fastow told the court he met in 2022 when he sold her a townhouse in Washington DC. Ana had to travel to Washington DC regularly for work and ended up splitting her time between the capital and Cohasset.  

He said the relationship quickly intensified as they became close friends and eventually had an ‘intimate relationship.’ 

They would go out to dinner and to bars together, he said, and she would spend time on his sailboat and stay overnight at his home. They also took a Thanksgiving trip to Ireland.

Fastow testified that he never tried to keep their relationship secret and told others about their relationship. He and Ana also discussed telling Walshe, Fastow said. 

‘Ana felt it was really important that when Brian was to find about relationship that he would hear it from her,’ Fastow said. 

‘She had expressed great concern and I think she felt it would be a strike against her integrity if he found out a different way.’

This is a breaking news story.