Husband of missing woman ‘searched for 10 ways to dispose of a dead body on Google’ after she was last seen
The husband of a woman who disappeared around New Year’s Day made a series of disturbing Google searches – including “10 ways to dispose of a dead body if you really need to” – in the minutes before he told police he had last seen her, prosecutors have said.
Brian Walshe, who lived with his wife in Massachusetts, also searched for “how to stop a body from decomposing” after Ana Walshe, 39, went missing.
Ms Walshe has still not been found and is presumed to be dead.
Walshe, 47, is accused of assaulting and beating his wife with intent to murder her and moving her body or remains, according to a criminal complaint.
He has pleaded not guilty to the charges.
Walshe had made an internet search on 27 December for “what’s the best state to divorce for a man”, prosecutors at Quincy District Court in Massachusetts said.
“Rather than divorce, it is believed that Brian Walshe dismembered Ana Walshe and discarded her body”, Norfolk County Assistant District Attorney Lynn Beland said.
Ms Beland said investigators found the couple’s DNA, a hacksaw, shears and a hatchet in bags that had been disposed of in a rubbish container at Walshe’s mother’s apartment complex in Swampscott, about 40 miles north of Cohasset, where they lived.
In the early morning hours of 1 January, in the hour before he originally told investigators that his wife had left their home to catch a flight to Washington DC, prosecutors said he made dozens of disturbing Google searches on his son’s iPad including “how long before a body starts to smell”, “how to bound a body”, “how long for someone to be missing to inherit”, and “can you throw away body parts”.
He is accused of making further Google searches later that morning such as “how long does DNA last”, “can identification be made on partial remains” and “dismemberment and the best ways to dispose of a body”.
Walshe also allegedly searched for “how to clean blood from wooden floor”, “what happens when you put body parts in ammonia”, and “is it better to throw crime scene clothes away or wash them”.
The next day, on 2 January, Walshe’s internet searches included “hacksaw best tool to dismember”, “can you be charged with murder without a body”, and “can you identify a body with broken teeth”, prosecutors said.
Walshe is accused of buying three rugs at a HomeGoods store the same day.
Ana Walshe was last seen at around New Year’s Day. Pic: NBC Boston
He also bought cleaning products, mops, brushes, tape, a tarpaulin, a protective suit with boot covers, buckets, goggles, baking soda and a hatchet at a Home Depot store in Rockland, prosecutors said.
On 3 January, a surveillance video captured Walshe travelling to a site with rubbish containers in Abington, a town about 15 miles southwest of Cohasset, where he was seen carrying and discarding items that appeared to be heavy.
He then travelled to an apartment complex in Abington and another in Brockton, about four miles west of Abington, where he discarded more items.
Police later tried to track down the bags he was seen putting in rubbish bins in the first location in Abington, but they had already been destroyed after having been picked up and transported for shredding and incineration, prosecutors said in court.
Walshe also allegedly conducted more Google searches that day, including: “what happens to hair on dead body?”, “what is the rate of decomposition of a body found in a plastic bag compared to on a surface in the woods?” and “can baking soda make a body smell good?”.
On 4 January, the day Ms Walshe’s employer reported her missing and police interviewed Walshe at his home, he bought items including towels, bathmats, men’s clothing and a rubbish bin, prosecutors said.
When authorities arrived at the house, they saw Walshe’s Volvo had a plastic liner and the seats were down; a few days later, the liner was gone and there were fresh vacuum streaks on the carpet, prosecutors said. Analysis later showed blood in the car.
On 5 January, the day the search for Ms Walshe became public, Walshe’s phone records show he travelled first to a day care centre and then to his mother’s apartment complex in Swampscott.
Walshe showed little to no emotion during his court appearance
Surveillance video captured him in an area of the complex where more rubbish containers were located.
Authorities later searched the contents of the containers after they had been moved to a waste transfer station and found 10 rubbish bags that included stains consistent with blood.
A protective suit was found in the rubbish bags.
On 8 January, prosecutors searched the family’s home and found blood in the basement, a damaged knife with blood on it, another knife, a heavy-duty large tarpaulin and plastic liners.
Police arrested Walshe the same day.
Phone records indicated Ms Walshe’s mobile device was at her family home on New Year’s Eve until 3.14am on 2 January, at which point it was turned off, prosecutors said.
Walshe showed little to no emotion when he appeared in court on Wednesday.
In a lengthy statement, Walshe’s lawyer, Tracy Miner, claimed the media “has already tried and convicted” him.
Politicians have sent messages of support to Joe Biden, who has been diagnosed with prostate cancer.
The 82-year-old, who is the oldest person to ever serve as US president, was described as a “fighter” with people wishing him a “fast and full recovery”.
US President Donald Trump said he was “saddened” by the news, adding: “We extend our warmest and best wishes to Jill and the family, and we wish Joe a fast and successful recovery.”
Former US president Barack Obama said: “Michelle and I are thinking of the entire Biden family.
“Nobody has done more to find breakthrough treatments for cancer in all its forms than Joe, and I am certain he will fight this challenge with his trademark resolve and grace. We pray for a fast and full recovery.”
Read more: Biden diagnosed with ‘aggressive’ form of prostate cancer
Barack Obama (right) with Joe Biden at a campaign event in 2022. File pic: Reuters
British Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said he was “very sorry to hear President Biden has prostate cancer”.
“All the very best to Joe, his wife Jill and their family, and wishing the President swift and successful treatment,” he added.
After a poor debate performance against Mr Trump and amid escalating concerns for his health, Mr Biden withdrew from the 2024 election and endorsed his vice president Kamala Harris.
Ms Harris wrote on X: “We are keeping him, Dr. Biden, and their entire family in our hearts and prayers during this time.
“Joe is a fighter – and I know he will face this challenge with the same strength, resilience, and optimism that have always defined his life and leadership. We are hopeful for a full and speedy recovery.”
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Mr Biden’s diagnosis: What we know
Former US president Bill Clinton wrote on social media: “My friend Joe Biden’s always been a fighter. Hillary and I are rooting for him and are keeping him, Jill, and the entire family in our thoughts.”
Hillary Clinton, who unsuccessfully ran for president in 2016, said she was “thinking of the Bidens as they take on cancer, a disease they’ve done so much to try to spare other families from”.
Speaker of the US House Of Representatives Mike Johnson said it was “sad news” and his family “will be joining the countless others who are praying” for Mr Biden.
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Former House speaker Nancy Pelosi described Mr Biden as a “great American patriot” and said she was “praying for him to have strength and a swift recovery”.
Mr Trump’s secretary of state, Marco Rubio, wrote on social media he and his wife were “united in prayer for the Biden Family during this difficult time”.
In 1990s and early 2000s New York, Sean “Diddy” Combs was the person to be seen with.Â
Now on trial in Manhattan, his hair grey, his beard grown, it’s hard to imagine that he was “the Pied Piper… of the most elite level of partying of that time” – but that’s how Amy DuBois Barnett describes him.
She was the first Black-American woman to run a major mainstream magazine in the US, and based in Manhattan at a time when hip hop was at its zenith.
“Urban culture really ran the city,” she says. “That’s where so much of the money was… you had all the finance bros trying to get into Puffy (Combs) parties, all the fashion executives trying to get into Puffy parties.”
And while he was welcomed by the highest echelons of the arts and entertainment world, she says: “He was never known for being a calm kind of individual.”
Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs in New York in July 2004. Pic: AP
Combs was “very dismissive” with her, and she admits: “Puff never particularly liked me that much.”
But DuBois Barnett would often get invited to his parties because she was able to feature his up-and-coming artists in her magazines.
From editor-in-chief of Ebony magazine, she’d go on to become the editor-in-chief of Honey and Teen People magazines, and then deputy editor of Harper’s Bazaar.
She says the man she met at those parties “lacked warmth” and seemed “complicated”.
Amy DuBois Barnett
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“When he walked in the room, all of the energy changed. Puffy had his trusted individuals around him… immediately the area around him would become kind of crowded with everybody vying for his attention,” she says.
“I think that was also partially why he didn’t particularly like me because I wasn’t really vying for his attention.
“He really reserved that attention for the people that he was either attracted to… or the people that he thought were important enough to his business success.”
Amy DuBois Barnett (right) with publisher Desiree Rogers at an event for Ebony magazine
She says it was common knowledge that he wasn’t someone to cross due to “rumours… of what he could do”.
“There were a lot of people within journalism, within media, within other industries that were afraid of his influence and also afraid of his temper,” she adds.
“When things at parties would not go his way or somebody didn’t bring him something quickly enough, or… the conversation wasn’t going his way… he would just kind of snap and he was just not afraid to yell at whoever was there.
“There was not a lot of boundaries in his communication, let’s just put it that way.”
Combs on the red carpet at the height of his success
But she says it was a time when a tremendous amount of misogyny was running throughout music, things that in today’s culture would certainly give pause for thought.
“So many things happened to me, everything from getting groped at parties to getting locked in a limousine with music executives and having him refuse to let me out until I did whatever he thought I was going to do, which I didn’t.”
She insists: “We didn’t have the vocabulary to understand the degree to which it was problematic… it was a thread that ran throughout the culture.”
Getting off a private jet during his heyday
Star-studded parties were the ultimate invite
At the time, a ticket to one of Combs’s star-studded “white parties” was the ultimate invite.
She admits: “It was like nothing you’ve ever seen before… the dress code was very strict.
“No beige, no ecru, absolutely white, you would literally be turned away if your outfit was wrong. Puffy did not sort of tolerate people in his parties that didn’t look ‘grown and sexy’ as it were.”
She says people would mingle by the poolside listening to the best DJs in the world, while topless models posed dressed as mermaids and waiters handed out weed brownies from silver platters.
“It was every boldface name you could possibly imagine, just this gorgeous crowd.”
At an event with model Naomi Campbell
Behind the glamour, prosecutors now allege there was a man capable of sexual abuse and violence, and a serious abuse of power. Criminal charges which he’s already pleaded not guilty to and strenuously denies.
Without question, Combs had the golden touch. Expanding his music career into business enterprises that in 2022 reportedly took his net worth to around £1bn. For decades his success story was celebrated.
“I think that in the black community, there is a feeling that if a black man is successful you don’t want to bring him down because there are not that many… these are cultural forces that are rooted in the systemic racism that’s present in the United States… but I think that these were part of what potentially protected Puffy against people speaking out.”
Couple became ‘isolated and very unhappy’
While Combs had amassed a small fortune over the course of two decades which she encountered him, the former magazine editor says his behaviour had markedly changed from the first party she went to, to her last.
“The last was a post-Grammys party, in 2017 or 2018, and just the vibe was very different. He was really kind of isolated in a corner with Cassie, you know, looking very unhappy.”
Diddy and Cassie together on the red carpet
For around 10 years, Combs had a relationship with the singer Cassie Ventura which ended in 2018.
Once over she filed a lawsuit that both parties eventually settled alleging she was trafficked, raped, drugged and beaten by the rapper on many occasions – which he denied. Last week she made similar claims in court.
A court sketch of Cassie giving evidence against Combs in court this week. Pic: Reuters
A court sketch of Combs listening to evidence from his former partner Cassie. Pic: Reuters
“Cassie looked very glassy-eyed and there was a sadness about her energy. Whatever was happening between the two of them, I mean, it didn’t feel positive,” says DuBois Barnett.
“They were sort of holed up in the corner for almost the entire night… it did feel very different from the kind of jubilant of energy that he projected in his earlier incarnations.”
For Combs, his freedom depends on how these next few weeks go. His representatives claim he is the victim of “a reckless media circus”, saying he categorically denies he sexually abused anyone and wants to prove his innocence.
In particular, they say, he looks forward to establishing the “truth… based on evidence, not speculation”.
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