By Nate Raymond
BOSTON, Dec 15 (Reuters) - A Massachusetts man whose wife disappeared nearly three years ago on New Year's Day was convicted on Monday of murdering her, with jurors rejecting his claim that she died suddenly in their home before he began searching online for "dismemberment and best ways to dispose of a body."
Jurors in Dedham, Massachusetts found Brian Walshe, 50, guilty of first-degree murder in the death of his wife Ana Walshe, a real estate executive whose disappearance and death garnered national headlines as grisly details emerged.
He faces life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Her body has never been found. The day jury selection was to begin, Brian Walshe pleaded guilty to misleading police and illegally disposing of a body, but his lawyers argued he was not responsible for her death.
Ana Walshe, a 39-year-old Serbian immigrant, worked in real estate company Tishman Speyer's office in Washington, D.C., which she commuted to from Cohasset, Massachusetts, where she lived with her husband and three children.
At the time, Brian Walshe was awaiting sentencing for engaging in a scheme to sell Andy Warhol art forgeries.
He was charged in January 2023 with his wife's murder days after her employer reported her disappearance. Walshe initially told police she took an Uber or Lyft on New Year's Day to fly to Washington for a work emergency.
At the beginning of the trial on December 1, Assistant District Attorney Gregory Connor told jurors that Walshe killed his wife and, on the day she disappeared, Walshe searched online for "best way to dispose of body parts after a murder" and "can you throw away body parts?"
Surveillance video showed Walshe visiting pharmacies and a hardware store to buy cleaning supplies, a Tyvek suit, a hacksaw, and cutting shears.
Authorities later recovered trash bags that contained items stained with blood, including a rug from his living room, as well as a hacksaw and Ana Walshe's COVID-19 vaccine card.
Prosecutors said that before Ana Walshe died, the federal art fraud case was straining the family. They said she had begun an affair, and his online searches revealed he was researching divorce.
Defense attorney Larry Tipton argued there was no evidence of violence, claiming Ana Walshe died a "sudden unexplained death" in their home, which Brian Walshe, awaiting sentencing, believed no one would believe.
He was ultimately sentenced in February 2024 to more than three years in prison in the art fraud case.
(Reporting by Nate Raymond in Boston; editing by Diane Craft)
