A hearing was held Wednesday afternoon in the case of Brian Walshe, the man accused of killing his wife Ana and dismembering her body in 2023.
Much of the hearing in Middlesex Superior Court (the case is being tried in Norfolk Superior Court but a new judge, who's been based in Middlesex County, has taken over) focused on suspended Massachusetts State Police Trooper Michael Proctor, who led the investigation in the Walshe case as well as the Karen Read murder case.
While prosecutors filed a response to the defense team's request for evidence and objections about issues involving DNA testing, it wasn't discussed at length. Prosecutors said at the last hearing, in December, that they were still waiting to receive all of the DNA evidence in the case, which was originally expected earlier in the year. The hold-up was reportedly over who will pay for testing of key samples of evidence through a private lab.
At the last hearing, the new judge assigned to oversee the trial scheduled jury selection for Oct. 20, 2025. The trial is expected to last three or four weeks.
According to court filings, hundreds of pages of notes and over 2,500 images from the Norfolk County District Attorney's Office are now in possession of Walshe's defense attorneys. Many of the records given to the defense team Tuesday involve Proctor, who is set to face a trial board next week due to misconduct allegations stemming from the Karen Read murder case.
Proctor was the lead investigator in both cases. His testimony at Read's first trial — which ended with a hung jury — raised serious questions about police integrity.
The list of records given to Walshe's attorney's include notes taken by Proctor from when he was a lead investigator on the Cohasset case.
Want updates on the Walshe murder case as they come in, plus in-depth background and analysis? Listen to "The Searches for Ana Walshe" on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get podcasts.
Ana Walshe was reported missing in January of 2023, and a few weeks later, her husband Brian Walshe was arrested on charges including murder, misleading an investigation and improperly moving a human body. He is now being held without bail.
The Walshe case is one of the most high-profile murder cases in the area in recent years. Ana Walshe was first reported missing just a few days into 2023, and as the search for her grew more desperate, her husband Brian began facing charges. He was first charged with misleading police, and eventually murder. He has pleaded not guilty to all charges.
The 39-year-old mom of three's body was never recovered. Prosecutors alleged that Brian killed her in their Cohasset home early New Year's Day, dismembered her body and discarded it into the trash.
Brian allegedly made a series of Google searches on their son's iPad that centered around discarding of a body.
Prosecutors will likely need to lean on digital evidence — including DNA lab testing and internet searches — to try and secure a conviction from a jury, since Ana's body was never found, criminal justice experts have told NBC10 Boston.
During the search for Ana, law enforcement eventually found in a dumpster near Brian's mother's house pieces of clothes and jewelry that Brian Walshe said she was wearing when she left their house early New Year's Day, along with a hacksaw that had a bone fragment in, prosecutors have said.
