WHAT A TWIST

Hubby of Missing Massachusetts Mom Charged With Misleading Police

Brian Walshe, whose wife vanished New Year’s Day, is already awaiting sentencing for an art swindle.

The art-swindler husband of a missing real-estate executive has been charged with misleading police currently searching for the mom of three.

Ana Walshe, 39, vanished on New Year’s Day, failing to take a flight she had booked from Massachusetts, where she lives, to Washington, where she works.

She never showed up to her job and hasn’t used her phone or credit cards, police said. Friends said the disappearance was extremely out of the ordinary—she would not abandon her three sons, who are between 2 and 6 years old.

Her husband, Brian Walshe, 46, told cops he was asleep when Ana ordered a rideshare from their Cohasset home to Logan International Airport in Boston.

Police initially said Brian Walshe was cooperating with the investigation—but the case took a turn Sunday night when they released a statement announcing his arrest.

He is scheduled to be arraigned on Monday. “Additional facts may or may not be entered into the record at that time,” police said.

Brian Walshe pleaded guilty in 2021 to wire fraud and other charges for selling Andy Warhol forgeries. He was looking at a no-jail sentence but prosecutors switched gears and are seeking 30 months after he was accused of embezzling funds from his father’s estate while he was out on bail.

Dozens of cops have scoured the woods near the couple’s Cohasset home, a stream, and a pool with no trace of her—and they don’t plan to resume the search on the ground unless new evidence suggests they should.

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Tracy Connor

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