According to newly released warrants released in the case of Brian Walshe, the Cohasset man accused of killing his wife in the early hours of the New Year, Ana Walshe was having an affair and investigators received a mysterious ransom note demanding $127,000 for her release.
Cohasset Police Detective Harrison Schmidt received an email in his inbox at 5:18 in the morning of Jan. 7, just three days after police reported Ana Walshe into the National Crime Information Center database as a missing or endangered person.
'If She Doesn't Pay the Money...Then She'll Never be Back'
The email, obtained by the Boston Herald read, "We have the so named Ana Walshe with us here..we had a deal worth $127,000.. She messed up..we have her here with us and if she doesn't pay the money..then she'll never be back, and we know that the police and the FBI are involved.. Good luck finding us."
It was an unusual detail that has not been remarked upon so far in courts in the case that has thrust the tiny town into the national spotlight after the 39-year-old mother of three children vanished on Jan. 1.
The detail came in a trove of hundreds of pages of documents released from Quincy District Court — where Brian, 48, was initially charged on Jan. 18 with the murder of his wife.
Brian Learned About Ana's Affair with a Man from D.C.
Brian, as stated by prosecutors in Thursday's Superior Court arraignment, had in December suspected his wife was having an affair and had spent some time monitoring the Instagram page of one of Ana Walshe's male friends in Washington D.C., where she had taken a job early in 2022 and had purchased a home with the expectation that the family would move there.
Massachusetts police investigators went down to D.C. and interviewed this man — "the most frequent contact with Ana on the cell phone records in possession of investigators."
The man confirmed "that he was in a dating relationship with Ana Walshe and had been for several months," and that the relationship was becoming "more serious" as the months wore on.
In fact, he told police, the two had traveled to Dublin, Ireland, to spend Thanksgiving together, had also spent Christmas Eve together and planned a belated New Year's celebration on Jan. 4 when she came back down from D.C. from Massachusetts.
Brian and His Mother Allegedly Hired a Private Investigator to Spy on Ana Amid 'Strained' Marriage
Prosecutors allege Brian and his mother hired a private investigator in December to trail Ana around D.C., where she worked as a real estate executive.
There was growing tension in Brian and Ana's marriage stemming from Brian's unrelated legal troubles, which had him on house arrest as part of his pre-sentencing probation for selling fake Andy Warhol paintings, according to prosecutors.
Ana was planning on moving to Washington D.C. with her three children. A police inspection of her new house in D.C. showed that it was decorated, stocked and ready for her to move her children down there with her, according to the docs.
Evidence Against Brian
Brian stands accused of beating Ana to death and discarding her body, which investigators have not yet found. Among the evidence against him is a hacksaw found in a dumpster across the street from Brian's mother's home in Swampscott, Massachusetts, along with Volkswagen keys, Ana's COVID vaccination card, a Hermes watch and Gucci necklace that Ana was known to wear, Hunter boots, a black Prada purse and a short black coat, an April 27 court filing says.
A "small bone fragment" was found on the hacksaw, according to the court documents, and authorities are waiting for the results of DNA testing. Also included in the unsealed documents and warrants were three grainy, black-and-white surveillance images of Brian Walshe buying large amounts of cleaning supplies and carrying what looks like a trash bag to a dumpster across the street from his mother's home.
Brian's next court appearances are scheduled for Aug. 23 and Nov. 2.
