CNN —
As Massachusetts prosecutors build their case against Brian Walsh, they have laid out substantial evidence that the husband killed his wife on New Year’s Day and disposed of her body in a gruesome manner.
Brian Walsh, 47, appeared in court on Wednesday to be charged with murder and unlawfully digging up or moving a corpse. Walsh has been in jail since Jan. 8, when he was arrested on charges of misleading investigators looking for his wife, 39-year-old Anna Walsh.
He pleaded not guilty to all three charges.
Prosecutors charged in Quincy District Court on Wednesday that Brian Walsh killed his wife, with whom he shares three children, because he wanted to end their marriage. Their criminal complaint against the husband says he assaulted and beat Anna Walsh to death.
“It is believed that instead of getting a divorce, Brian Walsh dismembered Anna Walsh and disposed of her body,” prosecutor Lynn Beland told the court.
Beland presented a range of evidence that led to the charges against the husband, including the discovery of Anna Walsh’s blood and personal items in local rubbish, phone records showing Brian Walsh’s movements and his alleged Google searches relating to dismemberment and body disposal .
Investigators have been searching for Anna Walsh since her workplace reported her missing on January 4. Prosecutors said for the first time Wednesday that she was presumed dead, but did not say whether her body had been found.
Brian Walsh allegedly told police his wife left their home for a work trip to Washington, D.C., around 6 a.m. on New Year’s Day. But Beland said there was no evidence Ana had made such a trip and the wife’s phone continued to ring in the area of the house until about 3 a.m. on Jan. 2.
Brian Walsh’s defense attorney, Tracy Miner, said in a statement Wednesday that she would not comment on the evidence and suggested that prosecutors’ case against her client appeared weak. She said she has not been sent the evidence yet.
“In my experience, when, as here, the prosecution leaks so-called evidence to the press before providing it to me, their case is not as strong,” she said. “When they have a strong case, they give me everything as soon as possible. We will see what they have and what evidence is admissible in court, where the case will ultimately be decided.
Walshe is being held without bond and is next expected in court on February 9.
Anna Walsh, a corporate real estate manager, will commute between the family’s home in Cohasset, Mass., and her job in Washington, D.C., her former colleague Pamela Bardi told CNN. Bardi described Anna as a “force to be reckoned with” and a “supermom” to her three sons, aged between 2 and 6.
The couple’s children are in the custody of the Massachusetts Department of Children and Families, a spokesman said. Bhardi said a “stream of families” offered to take the children so they could stay together.
Prosecutors say Brian Walsh’s phone records show he traveled to several apartment complexes in different cities where he is accused of dumping evidence in dumpsters.
Surveillance video from two of the complexes showed his Volvo and a figure matching his description throwing bags into the dumpsters, Beland said.
The trash from those containers was burned before investigators could sift through it.
However, investigators were able to track the trash that the husband dumped at his mother’s home in Swampscott, a town about an hour’s drive north of Walsh’s home.
Ten garbage bags of evidence were found at a garbage collection station containing visible bloodstains, a hacksaw, a hatchet, towels, rags, gloves, a heavily stained carpet and a Tyvek suit – a near-full body covering often used to protect against contaminants or hazardous materials, Beland said.
In the bags, investigators also found Anna Walsh’s Covid-19 vaccination card, a Prada bag she was carrying and part of a necklace matching the one seen in photographs, the prosecutor said.
The state crime lab tested some of the bloody items in the bags and found DNA from Anna and Brian Walsh on a pair of slippers and the Tyvek suit. The wife’s DNA was also found in some tissues, she said.
In addition, a search of the couple’s home found blood stains and a bloody knife in the basement, prosecutors said.
Blood was also found in Walsh’s car, Beland said. Police noticed a plastic liner in the back of his car the day Anna Walsh was reported missing, but the husband later told investigators he threw the liner away, the prosecutor said.
Brian Walsh’s Internet records show several dark Google searches for decomposing bodies, dismembering and disposing of human remains, Beland said.
All but one of the searches occurred on or after the day prosecutors say Brian Walsh killed his wife, she said.
The husband looked stoic as Beland read the searches aloud in court, shaking his head only once when the prosecutor said he had conducted some of the searches on his son’s iPad.
The first, she said, was on Dec. 27: What is the best divorce state for a man?
Here are some of the searches he claims he made between January 1 and 3:
- How long before the body starts to smell?
- What does formaldehyde do?
- How long does DNA last?
- Can identification be made from partial remains?
- Dismemberment and the best ways to dispose of the body.
- How to clean blood from wooden floors.
- What happens when you put body parts in ammonia?
- Is it better to collect the clothes from the crime scene or wash them?
- Hacksaw the best tool for dismemberment.
- Can you be charged with murder without a corpse?
“He’s basically laying out the questions about his plan in Google searches, as prosecutors allege,” said CNN’s chief law enforcement and intelligence analyst John Miller.
Prosecutors also listed numerous items Brian Walsh allegedly bought that they say are connected to his wife’s murder.
At Home Depot on Jan. 2, prosecutors say he wore a face mask and rubber gloves while buying mops, brushes, duct tape, a Tyvek suit with boot covers, buckets, baking soda and a hatchet. Beland said he spent about $450 at the store earlier.
The husband also went to Home Goods that day and bought three rugs, Beland said.
Two days later, he allegedly went to Home Goods and TJ Maxx, where he bought towels, bath mats and men’s clothing, Beland said. He then went to Lowe’s, where the prosecutor said he bought wipers and a garbage can.
Meanwhile, Beland said there has been no activity on Anna Walsh’s credit cards.
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