On Thursday, the murder trial of Brian Walshe in Dedham, Massachusetts, took a dramatic turn as new evidence emerged regarding his wife Ana Walshe’s extramarital affair, which allegedly occurred before her tragic death and dismemberment on New Year’s Day 2023.

Ana Walshe, a real estate professional originally from Serbia, disappeared under mysterious circumstances after being last seen at her Massachusetts home following a New Year’s Eve dinner. Her remains have yet to be discovered. Her husband, Brian Walshe, is currently facing charges of first-degree murder. This follows his recent plea agreement to lesser charges, including misleading police and unlawfully disposing of a body under state law.

During the fourth day of the trial, William Fastow, who testified in court, revealed the nature of his relationship with Ana Walshe. He recounted meeting her in March 2022 while selling her a townhouse in Washington, D.C. Their relationship swiftly deepened into an intimate bond. They shared dinners and outings to bars, and Ana often visited his sailboat and stayed overnight at his residence. They also traveled together to Ireland for Thanksgiving.

Relationship was never hidden

Fastow did not shy away from discussing their relationship, acknowledging that he had informed others about it, although they never mingled with Ana’s circle of friends. He mentioned that they had conversations about disclosing the relationship to Brian Walshe.

“Ana believed it was crucial for Brian to learn about the relationship directly from her,” Fastow testified. “She was deeply concerned and felt it would compromise her integrity if he discovered it through other means.”

Fastow said the pair spent Christmas Eve together with friends and had planned to celebrate New Year’s together on Jan. 4, when they would discuss their plans for the future.

“We’d had a number of conversations about what a life together might look like, what merging two families would look like,” he testified. “But I’d always said to Ana that she needed to figure out how she wanted things with Brian and what she wanted that to look for her life before we could make any commitments or decisions.”

New Year’s Eve text

Fastow said his last contact with Ana Walshe was a text message from her on New Year’s Eve. The following day he sent her a photo of Fastow showing his son how to ski, a waving hand emoji, question mark query and a few more text messages the following days that got no response. He tried calling her several times on Jan. 2 but the calls went straight to voicemail. Then, on Jan. 4, he got a call from Brian Walshe, but let it go to voicemail because he was in an “intimate relationship with his wife.”

“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,” he testified.

Walshe called Fastow a second time, and his voicemail was played in court. In a somewhat upbeat tone, Walshe said he “hoped all was going well” with Fastow before saying he was “reaching out to anybody he could” because “Ana hadn’t been in touch for a few days” and that he was wondering if Fastow “had spoken to her recently.” Walshe then apologized for the call and said he was sure “everything was fine.”

At the time, Brian Walshe was at home awaiting sentencing in an unrelated art fraud case involving the sale of two fake Andy Warhol paintings.

On cross examination, Walshe’s defense attorney Kelli Porges was able to get Fastow to acknowledge he was not aware of any plans for Ana Walshe to tell her husband about their relationship.

“There was no plan, as Ana went home for Christmas to be with her family, that she was going to come clean and tell Brian about you,” Porges said, prompting Fastow to say that he wasn’t aware of “any plan.”

Internet searches, dumpster discoveries

Prosecutors so far have relied on incriminating searches allegedly made by Walshe on several devices that related to dismembering bodies and cleaning up blood.

Investigators also said surveillance video showed a man resembling Walshe throwing what appeared to be heavy trash bags into a dumpster near their home, and that a search of a trash processing facility near his mother’s home uncovered bags containing a hatchet, hammer, sheers, hacksaw, towels and a protective Tyvek suit, cleaning agents, a Prada purse, boots like the ones Ana Walshe was last seen wearing and a COVID-19 vaccination card with her name. Many of those items have been entered into evidence.

In his opening statement Monday, Assistant District Attorney Gregory Connor told the jury that the Massachusetts State Crime Laboratory examined some of the items for DNA against samples they had from the couple. They found Ana and Brian Walshe’s DNA on the Tyvek suit and Ana Walshe’s DNA on the hatchet, hacksaw and other items.

Walshe’s attorney, Larry Tipton, argued in his opening statement that was not a case of murder but what he called a “sudden unexplained death” of Ana Walshe. He portrayed a couple who loved each other and were planning for the future before Ana Walshe died after celebrating New Year’s Eve with her husband and a friend.

“When he entered the bedroom and began to get into bed, he sensed something was wrong. You will hear evidence that it made no sense to him,” Tipton told jurors. “He nudged Ana his wife. She didn’t respond.”