The prosecution in the case of Ana Walshe has read out a list of Google searches allegedly made by the defendant, Brian Walshe, who is facing charges of murder and disinterring a body. Among the searches allegedly made by Brian on the morning police believe Ana went missing, there are queries such as "can you throw away body parts" and “10 ways to dispose of a dead body if you really need to”.
Ana Walshe was reported missing by colleagues on January 4. Brian Walshe told police in an affidavit that his wife Ana had left for her job in Washington DC on January 1 – though the prosecution says there is no evidence she left home that morning, and she hasn't been seen since.
In court on Wednesday, as Brian Walshe was arraigned, prosecutor Lynn Beland read out Google searches the prosecution alleges were made in the early hours of January 1.
4:55 a.m.: “How long before a body starts to smell”
4:58 a.m.: “How to stop a body from decomposing”
5:20 a.m.: “How to embalm a body”
5:47 a.m.: “10 ways to dispose of a dead body if you really need to”
6:25 a.m.: “How long for someone to be missing to inherit”
6:34 a.m.: “Can you throw away body parts”
9:29 a.m.: “What does formaldehyde do”
9:34 a.m.: “How long does DNA last”
9:59 a.m.: “Can identification be made on partial remains”
11:34 a.m.: “Dismemberment and the best ways to dispose of a body”
11:44 a.m.: “How to clean blood from wooden floor”
11:56 a.m.: “Luminol to detect blood”
1:08 p.m.: “What happens when you put body parts in ammonia”
1:21 p.m.: “Is it better to throw crime scene clothes away or wash them”
The prosecution alleges that Brian traveled to a Home Depot on January 2, spending $450 on supplies including cleaning equipment, tarps, and a hatchet. Among the Google searches read out for that day were "hacksaw best tool to dismember". Further searches related to decomposition and masking the smell of a corpse.
Police believe Ana's remains were discarded in a dumpster, the contents of which would have been shredded and incinerated. Beland told the court that a man matching Brian Walshe's description had been seen on surveillance footage throwing a heavy garbage bag into a dumpster on January 3.
“It is easy to charge a crime and even easier to say a person committed that crime. It is a much more difficult thing to prove it, which we will see if the prosecution can do. I am not going to comment on the evidence, first because I am going to try this case in the court and not in the media," Brian Walshe’s attorney Tracy Miner said in a statement seen by WHDH.
"Second, because I haven’t been provided with any evidence by the prosecution. In my experience, where, as here, the prosecution leaks so called evidence to the press before they provide it to me, their case isn’t that strong. When they have a strong case, they give me everything as soon as possible. We shall see what they have and what evidence is admissible in court, where the case will ultimately be decided.”
Walshe, who has pleaded not guilty to all charges, has been held without bail.
