Brian Walshe, a convicted art fraudster, was captured on surveillance footage purchasing cleaning supplies from various stores on the same day he allegedly murdered and dismembered his wife.

The 50-year-old has confessed to disposing of his wife Ana’s body and misleading the authorities. However, he insists he did not murder her, even though officials accuse him of killing the successful real estate agent and mother of three at their home in Cohasset, Massachusetts, on New Year’s Day 2023.

Prosecutors claim Walshe subsequently dismembered Ana, who was 39, and discarded her remains in several dumpsters.

At this time, Walshe was already facing prison time for selling counterfeit Andy Warhol artworks, and reports suggest Ana was involved in an extramarital affair.

Walshe’s defense argues that Ana’s death was not a murder, but rather a case of “sudden, unexplained death,” which left Walshe in a state of panic.

As the murder trial got underway for the sixth day on Monday, jurors saw surveillance footage from a number of stores where Walshe bought cleaning supplies the day his wife died.

He first visited a Walgreens near his home, then was seen at a liquor store, a Lowe’s and a CVS all over the course of three hours, Mass Live reports. 

The disturbing footage showed Walshe walking with a bag toward a dumpster outside of the liquor store and donning what appeared to be latex gloves as he piled his cart at Lowe’s with a hammer, a utility knife, multiple five-gallon buckets and a mop. 

Brian Walshe, 50, is facing trial for the murder of his wife, Ana, 39, on New Year’s Day 2023

Surveillance footage played in court on Monday showed the suspect filling his cart with cleaning supplies at a Lowe’s that day

He allegedly visited a number of different stores over the course of three hours that day

In total, his Lowe’s haul came to $463.26 – which prosecutors say Walshe paid in cash, according to WPRI.

His other purchases that day included several bottles of ammonia from a Stop and Shop grocery store and five bottles of hydrogen peroxide at a CVS, evidence submitted at the trial on Monday showed.

But that was not the only shopping trip Walshe made following his wife’s unexpected death.

On January 4, 2023 – the day he reported her missing – Walshe was seen at the Lowe’s once again, where he could be seen apparently smirking into the camera and fixing his hair.

There, he is said to have bought a hacksaw and snips, the Boston Globe reports.

Prosecutors have previously claimed that a hacksaw, hatchet, bloody towels and rags, gloves and a protective suit were found inside the Walshe family home as officers investigated her mysterious disappearance.

Blood and a bloody knife were even discovered in the basement of the family’s Massachusetts home. 

Investigators also said they found 10 trash bags containing bloody items near Walshe’s mom’s home in Swampscott, and that phone data showed he traveled to several other locations to dispose of evidence in dumpsters – but the trash from these other locations had been incinerated before police could obtain it.

Walshe has admitted to disposing Ana’s body and of lying to authorities – but has maintained he is innocent of her murder

Prosecutors note Walshe would have landed a $2.7 million life insurance windfall in the event of his wife’s death. The suspect is pictured at his arraignment in 2023

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

Massachusetts State Police forensic scientist Matthew Sheehan spoke about those discoveries from the stand on Monday.

He testified that the hacksaw that was found dumped in the trash at Walshe’s mother’s house tested positive for blood.

Sheehan also noted that he found a knife in the kitchen cabinet – next to bottles of hydrogen peroxide.

‘The screening test for blood was positive on this blade,’ the scientist claimed.

And inside the house, Sheehan said, the basement tested positive for blood – but the bedroom did not. 

Walshe’s defense team tried to fight back on these claims by pushing Dr. Richard Atkinson, who investigated Ana’s death for the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner, on whether it was possible she experienced a ‘sudden unexpected death.’

Attorney Larry Tipton ticked through a wide range of ways he said Ana could have died, including pulmonary embolism and autoerotic asphyxiation, all of which Atkinson said were possible as Ana’s body has never been found and could not be autopsied.

‘People die suddenly quite often,’ he admitted. ‘But… for a young person that has no medical history, it’s rare.’ 

Prosecutors have claimed Walshe killed his wife after learning she was having an affair with a man in Washington DC, where Ana had recently moved for work

Walshe had been facing jail for selling fake Andy Warhol paintings at the time. He is pictured in court speaking to his attorney last Thursday

Instead, prosecutors have claimed Walshe killed his wife after learning she was having an affair with a man in Washington DC, where Ana had recently moved for work.

They argue that the couple’s relationship was strained following the move, and amid Walshe’s legal troubles. 

At the time of Ana’s disappearance, Walshe was awaiting sentencing on federal charges over an art fraud scheme where he had sold two fake 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.

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

In the state’s opening statement last week, prosecutor Greg Connor described how Walshe made a series of disturbing internet searches the morning of January 1, 2023 – including the ‘best way to dispose of a body.’

Other searches included ‘How long for someone to missing to inherit’ and ‘best way to dispose of body parts after a murder.’  

Walshe faces life in prison if convicted of her murder

Prosecutors have also noted that Ana was only reported missing on January 4, when she failed to turn up for work in Washington DC.

Two of Ana’s coworkers took the stand on Monday, sharing how they started looking for the realtor that day, when Walshe said she had been missing since she left for a work emergency.

Neither said they were aware of any emergency at work, and at one point, Hugh Dunleavy – the head of security at Ana’s firm, said Walshe became unintelligible on a phone call.

He said Walshe regained composure just about 25 to 30 seconds later, at which point Dunleavy told Walshe he needed to report his wife missing.

But Walshe’s defense team has asserted that he ‘is not a killer’ and painted their client as a loving husband who simply panicked when he found his wife dead in their bed on New Year’s Day.

His defense team has painted him as a loving husband who panicked when he found his wife dead that morning

‘He nudged her in a frantic and panicked reaction to where she actually rolled off [the bed],’ Tipton told the jury in opening statements last week.

He said his client was then ‘panicking’ and ‘didn’t understand’ what was happening. ‘It didn’t make sense to him,’ he added.

At that point, Walshe panicked that he would be blamed for her death – and feared what would happen to their three children with both parents gone, Tipton told the court.

‘What would happen to their three boys now that Ana is no longer here? What will happen if they think he did something bad to Ana? Where will those three boys go?’ he said.

And so, Tipton claimed, Walshe began making a string of damning internet searches for ways of disposing of a body.

The damning searches, previously revealed in court documents, included: ‘how long before a body starts to smell,’ ‘dismemberment and best ways to dispose of a body’ and ‘how to dispose of a 115-pound woman’s body.’

Tipton described this as ‘a frantic and tragic search’ made by a husband as he ‘wrestled with the fact that Ana Walshe was dead.’

‘That evidence you will hear will be hard to understand, but it’s true,’ Tipton said. 

He then pushed back against claims that the Walshe marriage was over, arguing that the couple were considering a divorce – but only as a means to protect their financial assets as Walshe awaited sentencing on the art fraud.

If he is now convicted of murder, Walshe faces life in prison.