BOSTON — Brian Walshe has been charged with the murder of his wife, Ana, in a new turn in the case that has captured local and national headlines for the past two weeks and the first hard acknowledgment that this has moved from a missing-persons case to a homicide investigation.
Norfolk District Attorney Michael Morrissey took the unusual step Tuesday of releasing a video announcing a murder warrant against Brian Walshe, the 47-year-old Cohasset man who has already been charged with misleading cops in the investigation into his wife’s disappearance.
“The continued investigation has now allowed police to obtain an arrest warrant charging Brian Walshe with the murder of his wife,” Morrissey said.
This means authorities have decided that Ana Walshe is dead, as has been feared but up until this point unconfirmed.
Morrissey, the former state senator, said in the minute-long video that Walshe is being taken to Quincy District Court for arraignment on the new charge of murder. Following that, more information will be available.
Morrissey said the “intensive” investigation by police — one that played out very much in the public eye, with news cameras capturing cops searching dumpsters and a garbage incinerator, among other areas — had led to this point.
Brian Walshe, a convicted art fraudster, has maintained his innocence on the charge of misleading police.
Ana Walshe vanished New Year's Day.
———