The art-swindler husband of missing Massachusetts mom-of-three Ana Walshe was a "long-term patient" at a psychiatric center and was diagnosed as a "sociopath," a friend of his late neurosurgeon father has claimed. According to Jeffrey Ornstein, Brian Walshe, 46, was released only a few years ago after receiving long-term treatment.
In a shocking 2019 declaration, Ornstein—who for 35 years had been friends with Brian Walshe's father, Dr. Thomas Walshe, a neurologist—made the shocking revelations. This comes as police continue to search for Ana Walshe who mysteriously vanished after allegedly leaving home to catch a flight to Washington D.C. for work on New Year's Day.
Diagnosed Psychopath
According to Ornstein, Brian Walshe was treated at the Austen Riggs Psychiatric Center in Stockbridge, Massachusetts, before being released a few years ago. He added that after being accused of stealing millions of dollars from Dr. Walshe's fortune after his death, Walshe had been estranged from the rest of his family.
Following the death of Dr. Walshe in 2018, Walshe's cousin and two of his father's closest friends made the allegations against Brian Walshe in scathing 2019 court docs.
Brian Walshe and his father have not spoken since 2009, according to Ornstein, who claimed to have known Brian since he was 13 years old.
Walshe contacted his father after being released from Austen Riggs for almost 12 years. "You're my son and I will always hope for the best for you, but I do not want to re-engage," Ornstein quoted Dr. Walshe as saying.
"If I did, I know that I would be letting mayhem back into my life, and I can't have that."
They assert that when the old man suffered a stroke, he tried to deceive him to extract more money from him.
In 2018, Thomas Walshe, 71, passed away in India. The news was relayed to the son by his lawyer. According to court records, Walshe requested a key to the family's $710,000 seaside home in Hull, Massachusetts.
Ornstein and the cousin claim that Brian Walshe broke into his father's house and stole a car, along with luxury goods and artwork valued at thousands of dollars, including works by Salvador Dali and Joan Miro.
The mysterious disappearance of Ana from the family home on December 31 has now developed into a bloody mystery that has been covered extensively in Belgrade and American press.
This week, her 47-year-old husband was accused of misleading police in the search of his wife. He was arraigned on Monday and pleaded not guilty while being held under a $500,000 bond. Brian Walshe was already under house arrest and was waiting for his sentencing for selling two bogus $80,000 eBay Andy Warhol paintings.
Mystery Deepens
According to the affidavit, Brian allegedly tried to sell his father's house for $140,000 more than it was worth, after being mistakenly identified as the will's executor. Additionally, he was charged with trying to sell the other goods online and advertising a sale for January, months after the passing of his father.
It is now understood that when Ana married Brain she may not have known about his medical history and past as a fraudster but later was aware of his dealing and criminal past.
However, Ana's past is completely opposite to Brian's. When she first met Brian Walshe, Ana, who was then known as Ljubicic Kripp, was a 25-year-old ambitious, educated young woman from Belgrade, Serbia.
Kripp was working at the charming Wheatleigh Hotel in the Berkshires. According to Ana's mother, who was cited in a Serbian publication, she first met Brian while cleaning his apartment.
But after getting married in Serbia in 2015, the life they created together in a rich seaside town south of Boston turned out to be poisonous, with a faint "A Star Is Born" aura. Ana got a big new job offer from the real estate company Tishman Speyer in March of last year.
She supposedly received a pay raise as a result, but her husband and children had to go back and forth with her. And Ana is now missing, and her husband is accused of deceiving the detectives in the case.
The search has now entered its 11th day and police are yet to trace her. However, the case took a grim turn on Monday after A hack saw, a hatchet, a rug, and blood were discovered by police at a garbage disposal site close to the home of her husband's mother in Peabody. Police also found used cleaning products in a Peabody dumpster.
Police told a judge Brian Walshe was spotted spending $450 on cleaning products in a nearby Home Depot on January 2.
Brian Walshe claims he left the house only on n January 2, the day after Ana vanished, to take his son for ice cream. According to the authorities, this would have given him enough time to remove and dispose of the evidence.
