A Massachusetts judge has ruled that Brian Walshe, a Boston-area fraud convict facing charges of murdering his wife Ana, is fit to stand trial.
Walshe, who recently survived a prison stabbing incident in September, made a court appearance dressed in a dark suit, with his hands restrained.
Judge Diane Freniere delivered the ruling after a one-hour hearing on Friday, setting the trial to commence on December 1.
The trial was initially slated for October, but proceedings were paused just before jury selection. Judge Freniere had ordered Walshe to be evaluated at Bridgewater State Hospital due to concerns regarding his mental well-being.
Brian Walshe is shown at Quincy District Court on January 18, 2023, facing charges for the murder of his wife, Ana Walshe, in Quincy, Massachusetts. (Photo by Craig F. Walker/Pool via REUTERS)
Judge Freniere stated that she received a thorough assessment from Bridgewater, which affirmed Walshe’s competency for trial. The defense team did not challenge these conclusions.
Separately, she denied Walshe’s motion for a change of venue. Jury selection is expected to be completed by the end of next week.
Ana Walshe’s remains have not been recovered. She was last seen on New Year’s Day in 2023, and prosecutors allege her husband dismembered her in their Cohasset, Massachusetts, home before hiding her remains.
Brian and Ana Walshe raise a toast on their wedding day in the lounge of L’Espalier in Boston, Massachusetts on Monday, December 21, 2015. (Obtained by Fox News Digital)
They floated two potential motives at a hearing in July.
The first is that Brian Walshe discovered an affair between his wife and another man, whose name he allegedly searched on Google a half-dozen times. The second, prosecutors said, was that Walshe hoped his wife’s disappearance might help him avoid prison in his art fraud case, where he owes nearly $500,000 in restitution.
Ana reportedly confided in a friend shortly before her disappearance that Walshe was convinced having custody of their children would help him evade incarceration in the federal case, according to prosecutors. And he was the beneficiary of her $2.7 million life insurance policy.
Ana Walshe commuted from Massachusetts to Washington, D.C., each week to work at a real estate job, her friends told WCVB. (Cohasset Police Department)
Investigators say they found digital evidence showing Walshe allegedly searched Google more than a dozen times for instructions on how to dispose of human remains. Then they say they found video of him at Home Depot, buying mops, goggles and a knife. They also allegedly recovered a hacksaw and a “small bone fragment” in a dumpster outside Walshe’s mother’s house.
But one of the detectives on the case was former Massachusetts State Trooper Michael Proctor, who was fired in the fallout of his handling of the investigation into Karen Read, who was acquitted on murder charges earlier this year in the death of her boyfriend, Boston cop John O’Keefe.
Brian Walshe, accused of killing wife Ana, who disappeared on New Year’s Day 2023, enters the courtroom for his arraignment. (Greg Derr/The Patriot Ledger via AP, Pool)
Brian Walshe has pleaded not guilty.
