Ana Walshe.Photo: Facebook
Ana Walshewas confident and ambitious. The 39-year-old immigrated from Serbia and worked in the hospitality industry before she became a standout in the competitive real estate business in Boston and Washington, DC.
“You know the kind of person who walks into a room and is big energy, driven, smiling?” her friend Pamela Bardhi, a former colleague at Boston’s Exp Realty, says in this week’s issue of PEOPLE. “That’s Ana — a radiant spirit.”
So, it seemed completely out of character when the devoted mom of three boys, ages 2, 4 and 6 vanished without a trace on New Year’s Day.
Her husband, Brian Walshe, 47, told authorities that Ana left their home in affluent Cohasset, Mass., before 7 a.m. on Jan. 1 for a work trip to Washington, where she recently landed a high-ranking position with a real estate investment company.
Ana Walshe.Facebook
But when she didn’t show up to work, police launched an investigation on Jan. 4.
Her case took a grim turn when authorities allegedly found a broken, blood-smeared knife in the family’s basement.
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It soon became public that the Walshe’s seemingly storybook romance came with a dark side. In 2014 Ana reported to police that an unnamed man — Washington, D.C., Metro Police now confirm it was Brian — threatened to kill her.
On Jan. 8 Brian was arrested and charged with misleading investigators. Already under house arrest and pending sentencing forselling fake Andy Warhol paintingsin 2018, Brian pleaded not guilty to misleading police.
Brian Walshe.Greg Derr/AP/Shutterstock
At the time, her friend’s feared the worst. “It’s gut-wrenching,” says Bardhi. “You can’t wrap your mind around it.”
On Tuesday, authorities added a murder charge, for which he has yet to be arraigned.
“The continued investigation has now allowed police to obtain an arrest warrant charging Brian Walshe with the murder of his wife,” Norfolk County District Attorney Michael Morrissey said in a video statement released Tuesday.
Speaking withFOX News Digitaloutside her Belgrade, Serbia, apartment on Jan. 9, Ana’s mother Milanka Ljubicic recalled thelast text conversation she hadwith Ana on Christmas Day.
“She just said, ‘Please, mama. Come tomorrow,'” Milanka said through a translator. “Which means, that clearly, there must have been some problems.”
If you are experiencing domestic violence, call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-7233, or go tothehotline.org. All calls are toll-free and confidential. The hotline is available 24/7 in more than 170 languages.
source: people.com
