What we know so far about the disappearance of Ana Walshe, the missing mother from Cohasset

Ana Walshe was at her Cohasset home early on New Year’s Day around 4 or 5 a.m., supposedly with plans to take a ride share to Logan Airport to hop on a flight to Washington, D.C., according to authorities.

A family member was the last person to see the 39-year-old property management executive that morning, Cohasset Police Chief William Quigley said Friday.

Brian Walshe, the 46-year-old husband of Ana Walshe, was arrested by Cohasset Police and Massachusetts State Police for “misleading a police investigation,” officials announced shortly before 5 p.m. on Sunday evening.

Walshe is expected to be arraigned in Quincy District Court on Monday.

It is the first major development in a confounding case that, so far, has produced many more questions than answers.

Whether Ana Walshe even got into a vehicle on Jan. 1 remains unclear, and police know for certain the married mother of three never got on any plane, Quigley said.

Three days later, she was reported missing.

“At this point, it’s a missing person investigation,” Quigley told reporters during a press conference on Jan. 6. “We’re just trying to locate Ana and get her home safely. We have nothing to support [the notion] anything [is] suspicious or criminal.”

The details emerged Friday, a day after police first called on the public for help in locating Walshe, who is described as 5 feet, 2 inches tall, and weighing 115 pounds.

Law enforcement officials say she has brown hair, brown eyes, and “an olive complexion.” Walshe is believed to speak with an Eastern European accent.

Here’s what we know so far:

‘We just need a call from her’: What authorities have said

According to Quigley, Walshe initially had a flight booked to Washington D.C.’s Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport from Logan Airport on Jan. 3.

Walshe works for a Washington-based property management firm and commutes weekly between Massachusetts and the nation’s capital city, Quigley said.

But instead of going on Jan. 3 as planned, Walshe appears to have changed plans with the intent to head down on Jan. 1 instead, according to police.

“It’s been reported that she was called to D.C. to handle some type of emergency at one of the properties that she manages,” Quigley said. “That’s why she was attempting to go to D.C. early. She did have a flight booked for the third, but she never got on that flight.”

Quigley said only that a family member saw Walshe at her home early on Jan. 1, when she was seeking to take a ride-share service to the airport in Boston. Police were told her husband was sleeping when she left and Walshe had bags with her at that time, he said.

Police contacted ride-share companies but, as of Friday morning, were not able to confirm she actually entered a vehicle, he said.

Quigley noted it’s not uncommon for a ride-share driver to take business offline or operate outside of a given app. Detectives are probing that possibility, he said.

Police, however, confirmed with all airlines operating at Logan Airport that Walshe has not boarded any planes since that time.

Walshe and her husband own a townhouse in D.C. and keep a vehicle at the property, Quigley said.

“The vehicle is in D.C. We’re able to confirm that,” he said. “We’ve been working with Washington D.C. Metro Police. They’ve searched the townhouse. There are no signs of her there.”

Walshe was reported missing on Wednesday, Jan. 4, and police received simultaneous reports of her disappearance from her employer and from Brian Walshe, who lives in Cohasset.

Authorities previously said that Brian Walshe was working with them to help locate his wife.

“Her husband has been fully cooperative. Her family has been cooperative,” Quigley said last week. “She has a family that lives outside the country. She has quite a few friends both here and in Washington, D.C., that have been very cooperative and working with detectives, and the company that she worked for, the security department, has been very helpful.”

Sunday’s arrest was not the first time Brian Walshe had been charged with a crime. In April 2021, he pleaded guilty in Boston federal court to selling two fraudulent Andy Warhol paintings in 2016.

Quigley said Cohasset police spoke with federal law enforcement and, as of Friday, Brian Walshe’s conviction and his wife’s disappearance “seem to be two very separate things.”

“Again, the husband’s been very cooperative, but our main focus today is trying to locate Ana,” Quigley added. “Hopefully we get a phone call from her or someone that she knows that will let us know that she’s OK.”

According to Quigley, Ana Walshe’s cell phone has been turned off since around Jan. 1. Additionally, authorities have not seen any activity with her debit and credit cards, or any other digital footprint she could have left, he said.

Investigators have searched for other evidence such as video footage caught on cameras around her neighborhood, but that probe has so far not yielded any material, according to Quigley.

Police are not sure why she was reported missing days after she was last seen, but Quigley added it’s “not abnormal for her to work long hours and not contact home right away.”

Authorities are also not aware of any mental illness issues concerning Walshe, he said.

“You know, life is challenging sometimes,” Quigley said, when asked if there is any belief she would take off without notice. “She has three small kids, the oldest being 6, the youngest being 2. The holidays, working out of state — sometimes life gets chaotic. So, you know, it may be a case where she just needed a break and if that’s the case, we just need a call from her or someone who has talked to her.”

Anyone with information is asked to contact Cohasset Police Det. Harrison Schmidt at 781-383-1055 ext. 6108 or [email protected]

Friend: ‘She would not go a day without speaking to her husband and her kids’

Alissa Kirby described her friend, Ana Walshe, as a “loving and loyal wife and mother of three beautiful boys,” WCVB reports.

“She loves her family, and I know in my heart, that of her choice, she would not go a day without speaking to her husband and her kids,” she said.

Kirby and other friends and loved ones are trying to stay hopeful.

“We’re just … praying that she’s OK,” she said. “That’s really the focus right now.”

Another friend, Evan Turell, told the news station, “She is loved by so many and we just want to see her home.”

Firefighters extinguished a blaze at Walshe’s former home Friday afternoon

On Friday afternoon, heavy smoke and flames led fire personnel to a home at 725 Jerusalem Road in Cohasset, where Walshe lived until recently, according to WCVB.

“It’s a very strange coincidence. We have the fire marshal’s office and our detectives who will be assigned here to investigate this fire,” Quigley said.

The fire on Jerusalem Road started near damaged piping close to a natural gas fireplace insert, Jake Wark, a spokesman for the state Department of Fire Services, told The Boston Globe.

The four occupants of the home, three adults and a young child, safely escaped before firefighters arrived, according to Cohasset police. No one was injured.

Cohasset Fire Chief John Dockery told the The Patriot Ledger that first responders had “extreme difficulty” extinguishing the blaze once it reached the home’s attic. The fire caused the roof to collapse.

Walshe purchased the property in 2020 for $800,000 and sold it for $1.385 million in March 2022, according to the Globe.

Cohasset search continues through weekend

Cohasset police said Saturday that their search of Walshe’s home and the nearby areas had concluded. Twenty State Police Troopers, three K-9 teams, and the State Police Air Wing all collaborated in the search efforts.

Police divers searched a small stream and a pool with “negative results,” according to Cohasset police.

“The ground search will not resume unless police develop new information that so warrants it,” police said Saturday.

But authorities returned to Walshe’s home on Sunday. Investigators returned to the property on Chief Justice Cushing Highway in Cohasset Sunday morning at about 9 a.m., a spokesman for Cohasset police told the Globe.

Police took photographs of a car parked near the home, Boston 25 reported. A K-9 unit was also called in to assist with the investigation.

Another group of uniformed officers could be seen carrying what appeared to be hiking gear. They emerged from the woods nearby and gathered in front of the home for several minutes.

It is not clear if Brian Walshe’s arrest is connected with the activity on Sunday morning.