Brian Walshe pleaded guilty to disposing of his wife’s body. Here’s what that could mean for his murder trial

By Lauren del Valle, CNN

(CNN) — A Massachusetts man on trial for murdering his wife in 2023 admitted this week that he disposed of her body in dumpsters and misled police, but his lawyers insist he is not admitting to her murder.

Now, with attorneys still working to empanel the jury that will consider the murder charge still haunting him, the question becomes: How will Brian Walshe’s legal team defend him?

On Tuesday, minutes before jury selection was set to begin for his murder trial, Walshe pleaded guilty to misleading police and the improper conveyance – or illegal disposal – of a human body stemming from the death of his wife, Ana Walshe. The corporate real estate manager and mother of three vanished around New Year’s 2023.

Walshe pleaded guilty to the lesser charges without a deal with prosecutors, who “refuse to negotiate,” according to a defense filing, “unless negotiations included the indictment charging murder.”

Walshe still faces one count of first-degree murder, which, if convicted, carries a mandatory life sentence without the possibility of parole.

The eleventh-hour guilty pleas Tuesday came as a shock – and piqued interest in Walshe’s defense strategy.

The decision to have Walshe plead guilty to those charges is an “incredibly bold move by the defense,” said Ronald Sullivan, a Harvard law professor, and will allow the defense to focus the trial solely on the question of whether the defendant killed his wife, potentially limiting what evidence the jury will see about Walshe’s disposal of Ana’s remains.

“It may well be a good strategic move for the defense,” said Sullivan.

It’s also possible Walshe’s attorneys are maneuvering for their client to face lesser homicide charges in the hopes of avoiding life without parole.

Under Massachusetts law, Walshe cannot plead guilty to first-degree murder, so the commonwealth would have to change course and agree to Walshe pleading guilty to a lesser homicide charge like second-degree murder or voluntary manslaughter, which could allow for the possibility of parole.

As of now, Walshe’s attorneys have made clear he isn’t admitting to Ana’s murder, despite his change of pleas.

“Mr. Walshe is prepared to admit to the recitation of facts with respect to the indictment that the government just read in so far as it alleges he did impede and obstruct the criminal investigation into the disappearance of Ana Walshe. We obviously object, and he’s not admitting to … murder,” defense attorney Kelli Porges said in court Tuesday.

Jury selection continues Thursday. Judge Diane Freniere has ordered the chosen panelists to stay off social media and avoid the news to reduce their risk of exposure to coverage of Walshe’s case.

How we got here

Ana Walshe’s employer reported her missing on January 4, 2023, sparking a search that drew national media attention. When local police went to the Walshe home, Brian Walshe told officers his wife had left early New Year’s Day to return to Washington, DC for a work emergency, and he hadn’t seen or heard from her since.

Ana Walshe, who lived and worked in DC, commuted to the Boston suburbs to see her family on December 30, 2022. Her former boss joined the family to celebrate on New Year’s Eve around 8 p.m. and told authorities he left around 1 a.m. the following day.

The guest didn’t notice anything out of the ordinary, and told authorities the couple seemed happy, according to court records. He is expected to testify at trial.

Walshe reportedly called Ana’s employer, Tishman Speyer, on January 4, 2023, asking about his wife, court records say, but he never reported her missing to the police.

Walshe was arrested on January 8, 2023, for misleading police in connection to Ana’s disappearance. He was charged with her murder later that month, and he has been in commonwealth custody since his arrest.

The trial was originally slated to begin last month, on October 20. But Judge Freniere granted a delay for Walshe to undergo a mental health evaluation.

Walshe’s attorneys lobbied for the delay after he was stabbed in jail in September, expressing concern their client could not adequately assist in his defense following the attack. He was deemed competent to stand trial last week after a 40-day stint in a state hospital.

Possible defense strategies

Walshe’s defense team has kept its strategy close to the vest, rarely commenting in the media about the case since his arrest almost three years ago.

Following his guilty pleas Tuesday, Walshe faces up to 10 years in prison for the charge of misleading police – which could be enhanced up to 20 years if he is convicted of Ana’s murder. He also faces up to three years in prison for pleading guilty to the conveyance charge.

Separately, Walshe is serving a 37-month prison sentence tied to a federal case from 2018, in which Walshe pleaded guilty to charges connected to selling forged Andy Warhol artwork. That sentence is set to run concurrently with his prison time for the state case connected to his wife’s death.

Walshe faces a charge of first-degree murder for Ana’s death. But before the jury begins deliberating, his attorneys could ask the judge to allow the panel to consider less severe homicide charges.

It’s possible the judge would not grant the request, Sullivan said. But she would consider “if there are enough facts to support something, or the absence of contradictory facts – like nobody was there.”

Brian and Ana Walshe and their three young children are the only people said to have been in their home after ringing in the New Year. At this point, there is no publicly released evidence to suggest how Ana Walshe died. Her body has not been found.

The success of the defense case could hinge on testimony by Walshe himself, who could take the stand to offer the jury a narrative of what happened after their dinner guest left around 1 a.m. on New Year’s Day. For example, his lawyers could claim Walshe is innocent of murder because a terrible accident caused Ana’s death, or provide some justification to support a theory that Walshe caused her death in self-defense.

“The problem with these sorts of defenses is that there’s no corroboration, and the alleged victim is unable to say anything, because the person is deceased,” said Sullivan, who was on the defense team that secured an acquittal in the 2017 double homicide case against one-time NFL player Aaron Hernandez.

“If he testifies and says, ‘We got into an argument, you know, she pulled a knife on me, and I defended myself,’ he gets to testify to that because there are no contrary facts there,” he said. “And, you know, no one else was around, and that’s the evidence.”

“The jury can credit it or not credit it,” Sullivan added, “but that’s on the record at this point.”

What we might see at trial

Sullivan indicated Walshe’s guilty pleas this week for misleading the police and improper conveyance of a body suggested the defense felt the evidence against their client was substantial.

“They’re saying, ‘We will eat everything for which there’s such overwhelming evidence … We’re not going to win that fight so let’s just say we did it,’” Sullivan said, channeling the defense’s possible perspective.

“Now all (they’re) fighting over is whether the defendant caused the death of the decedent,” Sullivan said. “So, one thing instead of several things.”

Before Walshe changed his plea on two of the three counts in the indictment, prosecutors had said they could call up to 60 witnesses in the commonwealth’s case against him. But the commonwealth’s witness list will likely be trimmed down now that prosecutors don’t need to establish that Walshe disposed of his wife’s body and belongings or that he lied about his activities in the days after her disappearance.

Prosecutors will likely show the jury some evidence of Walshe’s activities in the days after he claims he last saw his wife – but less than what would have been necessary to prove the charges to which he’s now pleaded guilty.

“What the judge will likely do is say, ‘Well, some of that will come in because it goes to your state of mind,’ and the jury can reasonably infer consciousness of guilt from some of these actions,” Sullivan said.

For instance, records and video surveillance put Walshe at Lowe’s and Home Depot on January 1 and 2, 2023, buying a bevy of cleaning supplies with cash. Walshe was also seen on video surveillance throwing several black bags into dumpsters.

Investigators searched a dumpster at the complex where Walshe’s mother lived and recovered a number of items, including a Tyvek suit, a hatchet, a hacksaw and several items with Brian and Ana Walshe’s blood and DNA on them. They also found some of Ana’s belongings, including her Hunter boots, a Prada purse and her Covid-19 vaccination card.

Ana’s blood was also found in the basement of the Walshe family home.

Additionally, prosecutors have alleged Walshe used his 6-year-old son’s iPad for dozens of Google searches on the morning of January 1, 2023, like, “How to get blood out of hardwood floors,” “how to dispose of a body in the trash” and “how to stop a body from decomposing.”

Prosecutors have suggested Walshe had a financial motive to kill his wife, to cash in on life insurance policies that would help him pay restitution tied to his federal art fraud conviction.

They have also said it’s fair to assume Walshe knew his wife was having an affair with a man in Washington, DC and suggested he could have been motivated to kill her because of the romantic entanglement. The jury is expected to see text messages between Ana and the man, who is also expected to testify.

Walshe’s attorneys argue there is no proof he knew about the affair before Ana’s disappearance. But prosecutors say Walshe Googled the man days before Ana vanished.

The-CNN-Wire
™ & © 2025 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.

CNN’s Jean Casarez contributed to this report.