Man in "intimate" affair with Ana Walshe testifies at Brian Walshe murder trial
Jurors in the Brian Walshe murder trial heard testimony from seven witnesses Thursday, including a man involved in an affair with Ana Walshe before her death. Brian Walshe is accused of murdering his wife and dismembering her body in 2023.
The 50-year-old Brian Walshe has pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder. On the first day of jury selection, he pleaded guilty to improperly disposing of his wife's body and misleading police during the investigation. Judge Diane Freniere said Wednesday she has not yet decided if jurors will be allowed to know about those guilty pleas.
In opening statements, the prosecution and defense both acknowledged that Ana Walshe was having an affair with a real estate agent named William Fastow. He was the first witness called on Thursday and was on the stand for around three hours.
Attorneys Kelli Porges and Larry Tipton are defending Walshe.
Ana Walshe's affair
Fastow took the stand Thursday morning. He said he has been a real estate broker for 20 years. He worked in Boston before moving to Washington, D.C.
He helped the Walshe family purchase a townhouse in Chevy Chase, Maryland. Fastow said they quickly became close friends, then started an intimate relationship.
Fastow said they would go to dinner together, attend functions, go sailing on his boat, and participate in fitness dates. He added that when they weren't together, they spoke nearly every day.
Fastow was asked if he kept his relationship with Ana Walshe secret.
"I did not, no," he said. "Ana felt it was really important that when Brian was to find out about the relationship that he would hear it from her. She had expressed great concern and I think she felt it would be a strike against her integrity to find out a different way."
Fastow said that in the summer of 2022, his relationship with Ana Walshe became more serious and he stopped seeing women other than her. They began to spend holidays together that year, traveling to Dublin, Ireland for Thanksgiving. Fastow and Ana Walshe spent Christmas Eve together in Annapolis.
Ana's flight to Massachusetts Christmas Day was canceled due to snow and she was forced to drive home, missing much of the holiday with her children. Fastow said Brian and Ana Walshe had an argument about her missing holidays.
"She told me they had had an argument about it and there were some points of contention," he said.
Fastow said he and Ana Walshe had plans on January 4, 2023 to celebrate the new year and discuss what their future could look like together.
"We had a number of conversations about what our life together might look like, what merging two families together would look like, how that might work," Fastow said. "But I always said to Ana she needed to figure out how she wanted things to be with Brian and what she wanted that to look like for her life before we could make any sort of commitments or decisions."
Brian Walshe calls William Fastow
Fastow said he tried to call Ana on Jan. 2, 2023 but it went straight to voicemail. He called her from a landline, worried that she had blocked his cellphone, but was unable to reach her.
Brian Walshe called Fastow on January 4, but he sent the call to voicemail. No voicemail was left on Fastow's phone.
"I was in an intimate relationship with his wife. I had not heard from her in several days. And frankly I was concerned maybe he had found out and was calling to confront me," Fastow said when asked why he did not answer the call.
Several hours later, Brian Walshe called again but Fastow pushed it to voicemail again. This time, Brian Walshe left a message saying his wife was missing and he was contacting anyone who may have spoken to her.
Fastow spoke to Brian Walshe, and offered to go to Ana's home in D.C. to check if she was there. Brian gave him the code to the garage, but Ana was not there and there was no car in the garage.
William Fastow completes testimony
On cross-examination, Porges asked Fastow if it was true that Ana Walshe always spoke about Brian in a positive light. Fastow said that was true.
Porges asked if it was true that Ana cared for her husband deeply.
"Very much so," he said.
Fastow had said that he voluntarily provided messages he had exchanged with Ana Walshe to police as part of the investigation. Porges asked why some communications had been deleted. He said that he would periodically delete messages.
"Honestly? I said things to Ana that I might have found embarrassing that I didn't want to look at so I would delete the messages," he said.
Fastow said Ana had never hinted to him that her husband knew of the affair.
Fastow completed his testimony and stepped down shortly before noon.
"We were sort of expecting there to be more tension or more discussion about problems in her relationship with Brian Walshe," WBZ legal analyst Jennifer Roman said. "And Mr. Fastow didn't give us any of that. He really says that she seems to have respected Brian Walshe."
"She was a powerhouse"
Suzanne Garland, owner of The Bar Method in Hingham, and Ashley Cimmino, an instructor at the fitness studio, both briefly testified on Thursday following Fastow's time on the stand.
Brian Walshe's attorney claimed during opening statements that he found his wife unresponsive in bed in the early morning hours on New Year's Day. They claim Ana Walshe suffered a "sudden and unexplained death."
The prosecution attempted to highlight through Garland and Cimmino's testimony that Walshe was in excellent health leading up to her death.
"She was a powerhouse," Cimmino said when asked about Ana's performance in the strength class.
Garland said that Ana had to sign an agreement that attests to her health when she became a member.
During a brief cross-examination, Porges noted that no medical documentation is required and the form is only self-reporting.
Brian Walshe's iPhone
Massachusetts State Police Trooper Connor Keefe, who was also a witness in the Karen Read trial, testified for several hours Thursday afternoon.
Keefe was asked under direct examination about iPhone tracking, testifying about various locations where Brian Walshe's device was tracked in the days after his wife was reported missing.
The trooper also went through various Google searches Brian Walshe made on his phone between December 25, 2022 and January 4, 2023. One of the locations was The Claremont in Abington. Earlier in the afternoon with the general manager of the complex on the stand, prosecutors showed surveillance video of what they allege is Walshe placing black bags into dumpsters.
"Right now, the jury does not know that he pled guilty to improperly disposing of a body," legal analyst Jennifer Roman said. "So right now, we've got the jury seeing for the first time, surveillance of Brian Walshe actively dumping items in dumpsters where we know clothing of Ana Walshe was found."
Keefe testified that on Christmas Day, Walshe searched for "William Fastow DC real estate," "Christmas Day plane crash" and "Ana Walshe found dead."
That was the day that Fastow testified earlier that Walshe was supposed to fly from Washington, D.C. to Massachusetts to be with her family, but her flight was canceled due to snow. She ended up driving back to Cohasset.
On January 6, 2023, Brian Walshe sent a text message to a painter about a hole in the ceiling of his home. Previous testimony included photographs of the hole and also drywall pieces in a drawer in the bedroom.
Rulings in Brian Walshe trial
Before jurors were brought in for the day, Judge Freniere made two rulings.
The judge ruled that she will delay sentencing on the two charges that Brian Walshe pleaded guilty to until the jury has reached its verdict on the first-degree murder charge.
Freniere said the length of Walshe's sentence for those two charges would depend on if he his found guilty of murder or not.
The judge in a separate ruling decided that she would allow text messages between Fastow and Ana Walshe into evidence because they could show Brian Walshe's state of mind and potential motive to kill
What has happened in the Brian Walshe trial?
Walshe told police that his wife left early on New Year's Day to get a ride to the airport and fly to Washington, D.C. for a work emergency after the couple hosted a dinner party the night before. Investigators said there was never any evidence to support those claims.
For the first time during opening statements, his attorneys offered his explanation for what they say happened. Tipton said Walshe cleaned up from the New Year's Eve party, came upstairs and found his wife dead in bed. The defense attorney said Walshe panicked and decided to lie to police.
So far in the trial, jurors have heard police interviews with Brian Walshe while a massive search was underway for Ana Walshe in early 2023. Her body was never found.
The jury has also heard from representatives from Uber, Lyft and Jet Blue, as well as a life insurance representative who testified about how Brian Walshe served to benefit financially from his wife's death.
Jurors also saw photos of bloodstained items that police discovered inside dumpsters located behind Brian Walshe's mother's home. Testimony has also focused on Brian Walshe's allegedly violent internet searches.
The trial is expected to last three or four weeks.