Judge sets trial date for Massachusetts man charged with killing his wife

BOSTON (AP) — A judge has set a date of Oct. 20, 2025, for the trial of a Massachusetts man charged with killing his wife.

Brian Walshe faces first-degree murder, misleading a police investigation and other charges in the death of his wife, Ana Walshe, whose body has never been recovered. He has pleaded not guilty to all charges.

Walshe, dressed in a suit and his wrists in handcuffs, appeared Monday in Norfolk Superior Court before Judge Diane Freniere, who recently took over the case.

Walshe’s defense team is seeking documents related to the handling of two other cases by Norfolk County investigators — including the Karen Read murder trial and the alleged killing of Sandra Birchmore by a Stoughton, Massachusetts, detective Matthew Farwell.

Freniere didn’t rule Monday.

Defense attorneys are specifically seeking emails and text messages from the lead investigator on the Karen Read case, Trooper Michael Proctor, who helped lead the investigations that resulted in the arrests of both Walshe and Read.

Proctor, who was relieved of duty, revealed he’d sent vulgar texts to colleagues and family, calling Read a “whack job” and telling his sister he wished Read would “kill herself.” He said his emotions had gotten the better of him.

Prosecutors have said some of the information sought by defense attorneys is privileged or exempt because of a pending federal prosecution.

Ana Walshe, who is originally from Serbia, was last seen early on Jan. 1, 2023 following a New Year’s Eve dinner at her Massachusetts home with her husband and a family friend, prosecutors said.

Brian Walshe said she was called back to Washington, D.C., on New Year’s Day for a work emergency. He didn’t contact her employer until Jan. 4. The company — the first to notify police that Ana Walshe was missing — said there was no emergency, prosecutors said.

Prosecutors have said that starting Jan. 1 and for several days after, Brian Walshe made multiple online searches for “dismemberment and best ways to dispose of a body,” “how long before a body starts to smell” and “hacksaw best tool to dismember.”

Prosecutors have also said that Ana Walshe had taken out $2.7 million in life insurance naming her husband as the sole beneficiary.

Walshe was also sentenced earlier this year to more than three years behind bars over an unrelated art fraud case involving the sale of two fake Andy Warhol paintings. He was ordered to pay $475,000 in restitution.

Walshe’s scheme, prosecutors said, started with his selling the two original Warhol paintings in 2011 to a gallery. From there, he obtained replicas of the paintings in 2015 and sold those to a buyer in France before trying to sell the two fake abstracts on eBay.