PEABODY — Investigators searched a wooded area of the city near Interstate 95 Tuesday morning in connection with the disappearance of Cohasset mother Ana Walshe, whose husband, Brian Walshe, is charged with her murder, officials said.
The search, which was conducted in an area near the highway and a shopping center on Bourbon Street, yielded nothing, according to David Traub, a spokesperson for Norfolk District Attorney Michael Morrissey’s office.
“Two persons in the Peabody community unconnected to the prosecution of Brian Walshe contacted police investigators with their belief that an area of that community may be of investigative interest in that matter,” Traub said in an email. “A search of that area by the Massachusetts State Police (Special Emergency Response Team) yielded nothing.”
The Tuesday morning search came as prosecutors revealed in a court filing that DNA analysis of items recovered in connection with the case is expected to be completed in the next two weeks.
“The Commonwealth is currently awaiting DNA analysis from an independent laboratory and is expected to have those results in approximately two weeks,” prosecutors wrote in a joint motion to continue filed in Norfolk Superior Court Tuesday.
The site where police searched Tuesday morning is not far from a transfer station that was the subject of an earlier search. During that search, prosecutors said, investigators found a hatchet, a hacksaw, towels, a protective Tyvek suit, cleaning agents, a Prada purse, boots that resembled the ones that Ana Walshe was last seen wearing, and a COVID-19 vaccination card with her name. Some of the items had what looked like human blood on them and both Brian and Ana Walshe were deemed “contributors” to the DNA on the items through testing, prosecutors said.
Brian Walshe, a former resident of Lynn, faces charges of first-degree murder, misleading a police investigation/obstruction of justice, and improper conveyance of a human body in connection with his wife’s disappearance. Her body has not been found.
In January, investigators took away a dumpster located outside of The Landing at Vinnin Square apartment complex, where Brian Walshe’s mother lives, in Swampscott. Brian Walshe was also seen on surveillance footage in close proximity to a dumpster located just outside Vinnin Liquors. That dumpster belongs to JRM Hauling and Recycling, a company based in Peabody.
Ana Walshe, a mother of three who is originally from Serbia, was reportedly last seen leaving the family’s home in Cohasset in the early morning hours of Jan. 1. She was on her way to the airport for a flight to Washington D.C., where she worked for a real-estate company, authorities said. Her employer reported her missing Jan. 4.
Starting Jan. 1 and for several days after, Brian Walshe made multiple online searches using terms such as “dismemberment and best ways to dispose of a body,” “how long before a body starts to smell,” and “hacksaw best tool to dismember” on an iPad belonging to one of his sons, prosecutors said.
Investigators also found a surveillance video from Jan. 3 of a man resembling Brian Walshe throwing what appeared to be heavy trash bags into a dumpster at an apartment complex in Abington, which is 15 miles from Cohasset.
He and his wife’s three young children are now in state custody.
Material from The Associated Press was used in this article.
