A recent report from one of the last people to see missing Massachusetts mom Ana Walshe before she vanished sheds light on the woman’s final hours, and speaks of his suspicions “that there may have been foul play.”
Gem Mutlu spent the New Year with Brian and Ana Walshe at their home in Cohasset, Massachusetts, last seeing the woman when he hugged her goodbye around 1:30 a.m. on Jan. 1. Mutlu and Ana Walshe had met through her husband.
“We hugged and celebrated and we toasted, just what you do over New Year’s,” Mutlu told local news station WBZ-TV. “There was a lot of looking forward to the new year. There was no indication of anything other than celebrating the new year, problems on hold.”
Mutlu told WBZ that he and the Walshe family had a “festive” New Year’s Eve that consisted of an “elaborate meal” that Brian cooked. He said that Ana Walshe was “texting with friends” and “sitting next to me at the barstool at their kitchen.”
“There was absolutely no indication that any modicum of a tragedy, of disappearance, or anything else could have happened that night,” he reportedly said.
Mutlu added that he learned of Ana’s disappearance on Jan. 4 when he was called by Brian.
“I said what’s wrong? Is there something wrong?” he recalled. “He said, ‘Yeah, Ana is missing.’”
Walshe, a mother of three young boys, was last seen in the early morning hours of Jan. 1 when she was supposed to take a ride-share service to a local airport to board a flight bound for Washington, D.C., although she was previously scheduled to depart for D.C. on Jan. 3. She allegedly said there was an emergency that required her to fly there earlier than expected.
Tishman Speyer real estate, the company where she was an executive, reported Ana missing to police on Jan. 4 after her husband contacted the firm asking about her whereabouts, according to his defense attorney.
In the days between Ana’s disappearance and the missing person’s report, Brian Walshe allegedly lied about his own whereabouts with investigators claiming he told them he had traveled to stores such as CVS and Whole Foods where he may not have actually been.
However, Walshe allegedly neglected to mention that he had spent $450 in cash purchasing cleaning supplies from a Home Depot in Rockland, Massachusetts.
According to court documents and officials, Walshe was spotted on surveillance video “wearing a black surgical mask, blue surgical gloves and making a cash purchase” of items including mops, tape and drop cloths.
Investigators discovered blood and a bloody, damaged knife in the basement of the couple’s home and traced Ana’s cell phone to the area of the family’s Cohasset home on Jan. 1 and Jan. 2.
Brian’s cell phone pinged in other parts of Massachusetts, such as Brockton and Abington where he was not allowed to be due to the terms of his home confinement. He was under house arrest due to a previous conviction for art fraud and was allowed to leave his home only if he reported his whereabouts to authorities.
On Tuesday, officials revealed investigators had recovered even more evidence related to their search for Walshe and removed, and later replaced, a dumpster taken from the home of Brian Walshe’s mother, located nearly 35 miles from the couple’s residence.
Walshe claimed he had taken a trip to his mother’s house on Jan. 1, stating that it took him longer than usual to get home because he got lost.
Brian Walshe was arrested on Sunday and charged with misleading a police investigation and was ordered held on $500,000 cash bail over a $5 million surety bond.
Police said the charge stemmed from Walshe’s alleged “intentional, willful, and direct responses to questions about his whereabouts on the days of Sunday, January 1, 2023 and Monday, January 2, 2023.” They further called it “a clear attempt to mislead and delay investigators.”
Walshe’s defense attorney, Tracey Miner, argued that her client was otherwise forthcoming with authorities but that he had neglected to mention his trip to Home Depot, noting that he had been “incredibly cooperative.”
Mutlu told WBZ Ana and Brian Walshe, 46, have been “individually and together very impactful on my life.”
“Both Ana and Brian have been individually and together very impactful on my life. “A part of me had this suspicion all along that there may have been foul play and that somehow just the story just wasn’t adding up,” Mutlu told WBZ.
“My biggest fear had shifted towards the children,” Mutlu said. “I wondered if the children were safe.”
Scroll down to leave a comment and share your thoughts.
