Brian Walshe has been handed a life sentence without parole for the murder of his wife, the mother of their three children.

Walshe, 50, was convicted of first-degree murder on Monday, following the mysterious disappearance of real estate executive Ana Walshe on January 1, 2023, nearly three years ago.

The case garnered significant media attention after prosecutors revealed that Walshe had conducted online searches about ‘dismemberment and best ways to dispose of a body.’

Jurors dismissed Walshe’s defense that Ana had unexpectedly died at 39 in their home in Cohasset, Massachusetts, prior to his troubling internet activity.

On Thursday, Judge Diane Freniere concluded the high-profile trial by issuing the harshest possible sentence, thereby closing a long and unsettling chapter.

‘That sentence is immensely appropriate, and just given your murderous acts and the life trauma that you’ve inflicted upon your own children,’ Freniere told Walshe. 

‘The seriousness of your acts cannot be overstated. Your acts in dismembering your wife’s body and disposing of her remains in multiple area dumpsters can only be described as barbaric and incomprehensible. 

‘You had no regard for the lifelong mental harm that your criminal acts inflicted on your then two-, four- and six-year-old sons.’ 

Brian Walshe has been sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole for killing his wife Ana Walshe. Walshe was found guilty of first-degree murder on Monday this week 

Jurors in Dedham, Massachusetts, rejected Walshe’s claim that his wife Ana, a real estate executive, died suddenly in their home before he began the internet search

Walshe was charged with first-degree murder, willfully conveying a human body in violation of state law, and misleading police in the death of his wife.

Days before the trial began, he pleaded guilty to the two lesser charges but denied murdering Ana.

Freniere gave Walshe the mandatory sentence for first-degree murder of life without parole, along with consecutive sentences of 20 years for misleading police and three years for the improper conveyance of a body. 

At the time of his wife’s disappearance, Walshe was facing jail for selling fake Andy Warhol paintings and Ana was allegedly having an affair with another man.

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.

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.

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

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

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.

In a texted statement, one of Ana’s friends, Natasha Babuskina, voiced her elation at the verdict, saying she was ‘relieved’ Walshe was found guilty in the first-degree.

‘Justice prevailed. Finally!!!’ she added.

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.

Ana’s remains have not been found.

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

Prosecutors have said they found a bloody hacksaw at Walshe’s home. He had earlier been seen buying a hacksaw from Lowe’s 

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, and a Walmart, 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 of a local 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.

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

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

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. He and Ana also discussed telling Walshe, Fastow said.

‘Ana felt it was really important that when Brian found out about the relationship, 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.’

Fastow last spoke with Ana on New Year’s Eve over text. A message sent the following day went unanswered, and did several calls on January 2.

Then, on January 4, he got a call from Brian Walshe, but let it go to voicemail.

‘I had not heard from her in several days and, frankly, I was concerned maybe he had found out and was calling to confront me,’ Fastow testified.

Walshe later left a second message, saying he ‘hoped all was going well,’ before adding he was reaching out to everyone he could because Ana, ‘hadn’t been in touch for a few days.’

Ana was reported missing on Jan. 4 after she failed to turn up for work in DC. Walshe filed the missing persons report at the insistence of Ana’s coworkers.

She and Fastow had plans to reunite later that day.

Walshe’s defense team asserted that he ‘is not a killer’ but a loving husband who simply panicked when he found his wife dead in their bed.

Fearful of what would happen to their three children with both their parents gone, Walshe staged her death as a disappearance, they claimed.

After four hours of deliberation on Friday and two hours on Monday, the jury found Walshe guilty of murder in the first degree.

This is a breaking news story.