BOSTON — A Massachusetts man remains on trial on murder charges in the death and dismemberment of his wife after pleading guilty as jury selection began Tuesday for disposing of her body and misleading police.
Brian Walsh did not plead guilty to killing his wifeAnna Walsh, an immigrant from Serbia, was last seen early on January 1, 2023, after New Year’s Eve dinner at her home in Massachusetts. Her body was never found. Walsh’s first-degree murder trial is still scheduled to move forward, with jury selection continuing Wednesday.
In 2023, Walsh pleaded not guilty to all three charges against him: first-degree murder, misleading police, and intentionally transporting a human corpse in violation of state law. When he appeared in Norfolk Superior Court on Tuesday, he pleaded guilty to the two lesser charges, but not the murder charge.
Prosecutors said that starting on January 1, and for several days afterward, Brian Walsh conducted multiple searches online For “Dismemberment and the Best Ways to Dispose of a Body,” “How Long Before a Body Starts to Smell,” and “A Saw Is the Best Dismemberment Tool.”
When questioned by investigators, Walsh said his wife was called back to Washington, D.C., from Massachusetts on New Year’s Day for a work emergency. He did not contact his employer until January 4. The company — the first to notify police of Anna Walsh’s disappearance — said there was no emergency, prosecutors said.
Investigators said surveillance video showed a man resembling Walsh throwing what appeared to be heavy garbage bags into a dumpster not far from their home, and a search of a garbage processing facility not far from his mother’s home also turned up bags containing an axe, a saw, towels, a Tyvek hazmat suit, cleaning supplies, a Prada wallet, shoes like the ones Anna Walsh was last seen wearing, and a coronavirus vaccination card with her name on it.
Prosecutors also said Anna Walsh received $2.7 million in life insurance and named her husband as the sole beneficiary.
At the time, Walsh was at home awaiting sentencing in an unrelated art fraud case involving the sale of works of art Two fake Andy Warhol paintings. He was eventually sentenced this year to more than three years in prison and ordered to pay $475,000 in restitution.