Missing Cohasset mother: Investigators plan next steps in Ana Walshe case

COHASSET, Mass. — When Police search teams first entered the Cohasset woods, looking for Ana Walshe, they didn’t know what they were going to find, if anything.

At the time, all that was certain was that this mother of three was missing, and her husband, Brian Walshe waited three days to report her disappearance.

“We are looking for the public’s help and the media’s help in locating Ana Walshe,” Cohasset Police Chief William Quigley said on Friday January 6th.

In the week since the Police Chief’s first news conference, this investigation has taken one unexpected turn after another.

From the unrelated fire that broke out across town at a house the Walshe’s used to own, to searches of North Shore dumpsters where investigators found evidence related to Ana Walsh, to news that police found blood and a bloody knife in the basement of the Walshes rented Cohasset home, news has constantly been breaking

Brian Walshe is in jail, charged with misleading investigators.

More serious charges are expected, but many are wondering, when. “A lot of people are wondering why he isn’t charged with a murder already,” asked Boston 25 Reporter Bob Ward. “We haven’t confirmed 100 percent what happened to her. We don’t have a body,” said former Boston US Attorney Carmen Ortiz.

During her tenure as Boston’s top federal prosecutor, Carmen Ortiz supervised the prosecutions of Whitey Bulger and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev.

Ortiz explains, that while detectives wait for evidence analysis to return from the crime lab, the investigation is still moving forward.

“At the end of the day you are going to want evidence that establishes proof that a certain act occurred and that there’s no doubt about that,” Ortiz said. You want to make sure you get it right.”

Investigators are also taking a hard look at the relationship between Ana and Brian Walshe itself.

As I first reported Thursday night, in 2014, before the two were engaged, Ana told police in Washington DC that Brian threatened to kill her.

In 2018, she posted an Instagram selfie of a bruised eye.

Ortiz tells me whatever was happening in the Walshe house, behind closed doors, long before New Year’s Day, is an important part of this case as police search for a motive.

“Is this something that was planned? Premeditated? Or was this something that occurred as a result of an argument, the heat of passion, and then (he) panicked  and may have done something terrible, or even worse to the body.”

For now, Brian Walshe remains held on high bail and his wife Ana Walshe, the mother of his three children, is missing.

This is a developing story. Check back for updates as more information becomes available.

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