SERIALously - 343: Brian Walshe Trial: Secret Boyfriend, Diabolical Searches & an Explosive New Motive | Week 1 Trial Recap

Starting point is 00:00:00 At Pluralsight, we don't just teach skills. We are building the tech workforce, who deliver results fast, accelerated by top-tier content. Lead with confidence, lead with expertise. Visit us at Pluralsight.com to tap in and learn more. Hey, true crime besties. Welcome back to an all-new episode of Serialistly. Hello, hello, hello, hello, and welcome back to another all new episode of Serialessly with me, Annie Elise, and happy Friday, first and foremost, happy Friday.

Starting point is 00:00:51 This is a little bit different of an episode than we normally do. We obviously don't normally release episodes on Friday, yet, I heard you guys in the comments on headline highlights. I like to consider myself, you know, a podcaster of the people, if you will, and so many of you are hooked on this Brian Walsh trial. Some of you who have been following the case for years, you have listened to our deep dive, have, you know, are fully just, you know, immersed in the case. But some of you who are seeing clips on social media this week of the trial because it is a

Starting point is 00:01:24 wild one and are just now starting to, you know, dip your toe in the chaos. that is Brian Walsh. And so what I want to do is, first and foremost, what today's episode is I'm doing a recap of all of the bombshells and major takeaways that happened this week in the trial. However, if you guys like it, if you guys are into this, then we will do this throughout the course of the trial. And I think that, don't quote me on this, but I am pretty confident that the trial is slated to be four to six weeks. So if we do that, we will do a weekly recap every Friday giving you the breakdown of everything going on. And yeah. So what I want to do for this first one before I just like dive in to everything that happened this week. And I'm going to recap it

Starting point is 00:02:11 and just give you the need to know, not the everything you could know because I know you don't have a lot of time. You just want to know like, what really happened this week, Annie? What do I need to know? But before we do that, for those of you who are brand new to this case, I will link the deep dive in the show notes for you. So you can go listen to that, you know, this weekend while you're working out, while you're cleaning, whatever you want to do in the school pickup line. But I do want to just give a quick little nugget size recap of the case for anybody who's new. And maybe anybody who needs a little bit of a refresher on the whole situation. I'm just going to tell you, you know, who Brian is, who I also refer to as Quagmire, because that's what he looks like to me. He has

Starting point is 00:02:53 the most rectangle face I've ever seen. Um, who Anna Walsh, was how we got to trial and every unhinged revelation that came out this week. So I've got my notes here. I've got, you know, my water down here, and we are going to just like dive into this. Now, first I want to talk about Anna a little bit because obviously she is the most important person in this story. She is the person that everybody wants justice for. So Anna was born in Serbia and she came to the U.S. in 2005. Now, when she arrived in the U.S., she started working in the hospitality industry. And then she eventually met Brian while she was working at a hotel in Massachusetts. So the two of them got married in 2016. They had three sons together who are now

Starting point is 00:03:37 four, six, and eight years old, and seemingly had a great, you know, love story, happy family, three kids, all of the things. A few years later, Anna became a general manager of a very major real estate company. So then she started splitting her time between Massachusetts, and then Washington, D.C., where this real estate company was headquartered, and she had a townhouse there as well that she would stay in whenever she traveled. So she kind of was doing it all. I mean, she was raising her sons, making huge career strides in her life, all while kind of jumping back and forth between two states for home and work balance.

Starting point is 00:04:17 But Brian, on the other hand, he was not doing it all. He was kind of, I don't know, I guess you could call him, I don't know what the other word would be, just a fucking loser, because in 2021, he ended up pleading guilty in federal court to three counts of fraud. This was for selling counterfeit Andy Warhol paintings, which is very niche, I gotta say, but also, who thinks they can get away with something like that, right? I mean, I get it. Andy Warhol probably is not here to defend himself, or it's not, obviously, it's not here to defend himself, but like, how do you think you can get away with that in the art world? Obviously, art people would know if something is counterfeit, right?

Starting point is 00:04:55 But anyways, he thought he could get away with it. So he pleaded guilty in federal court, and he was stuck on house arrest while he was waiting to be sentenced. So here you had Anna and arguably what could and should have been, this power couple, but you have this, like, loser on the other half of that. So fast forward to New Year's Eve, 2022. Anna, Brian, and a friend had a really quiet dinner at home, and everything seemed relatively normal in the Walsh household. But four days later, on January 4th, Anna's boss and Brian both reported her missing. Now, according to Brian, Anna left early in the morning that day for, in a ride share, whether it's an Uber, a lift, whatever it was, to catch a flight back to D.C. She left in

Starting point is 00:05:44 the morning, went to the airport, and was going back to D.C. However, once the police least started like really actually looking into that story, it quickly fell apart because they didn't find any record of a ride share receipt or, you know, history, digital trail, and also no record of any sort of flight being booked. However, what they did find early days investigation was they found footage of Brian at Home Depot right after Anna allegedly left. And what was Brian buying at Home Depot, you may be asking? Well, he was buying $450 worth of cleaning supplies, which, look, I get inflation is high. 1,000 percent, don't get me wrong. And this sounds cliche, but I literally had to buy a gallon of milk the other day because we were out and my kids drink it at night.

Starting point is 00:06:30 And I was kind of like, when did milk get so freaking expensive? But $450 of cleaning supplies, I mean, that is freaking crazy. How many Clorox wipes do you need? It's just like insane. And also, So let's not discount the fact that this is such abnormal stuff for a guy to be buying when your wife just disappeared, right? It doesn't look good. And also, here we, I know I'm going on a little bit of a rant here, but just stay with me. This kind of just proves in my mind, and this isn't to shame any of you men listening, but like, guys don't know where you get cleaning supplies. I get you can get it at Home Depot, but like that is such a guy thing to do, to go to Home Depot to buy cleaning supplies. that's the only store that you probably know of like I don't know and maybe that's just me because

Starting point is 00:07:17 I don't buy cleaning supplies at Home Depot because I rarely go to Home Depot but it's like there's a grocery store there's CVS there's Target like so it's just like this is such a fucking guy thing but anyway sorry I mean I know I'm going on a rant it's Friday and I've got so many thoughts in my head so anyway because of that discovery Brian ended up being arrested on January 8th for misleading the police because remember the ride share story fell apart, the flight story fell apart, it was bullshit. And that's when things really escalated. Because when the investigators searched the Walsh's family home, they found a bloody knife. And then, when they checked the family's electronics, they found some absolutely jaw-dropping

Starting point is 00:08:01 Google searches. And we always say the Google searches, they will get to you. And these Google searches, too, arguably have been like the focal point in this case for years. And I'm going to, worry, I'm going to break down exactly what those searches were in just a moment. I'm just trying to bring you up to speed. So roughly three weeks later, after Anna had disappeared by January 8th, 2023, she was still missing. And Brian was ultimately charged with her murder and with improperly moving her body. This on top of the initial charge of misleading police. Brian pleaded not guilty, and to this day, Anna's body has never been found. Which honestly, when you really break that down, that could be a huge problem for the prosecution. Because nobody means they can't confirm time of death,

Starting point is 00:08:49 cause of death, manner of death, and all of those things, they really do open up the door for reasonable doubt, truly. There have been a lot of cases that have been successful with nobody, but it just allows more of that doubt to creep in. And so, of course, with that, people did start wondering, too, if there is nobody. Even now, years later, could she have just left on her own. Is she even dead? Some even early on referred to it as another, you know, quote, gone girl case, which I don't like that because I feel like so many times people will jump to that. They did that with the Jennifer Dulo's case in Connecticut. It was dubbed the gone girl case. We obviously know what happened with that case. If you don't, it's a horrible

Starting point is 00:09:32 one. And her coward ass husband ended up taking his own life. But like was seen on CCTV footage, dumping things all throughout the city with his girlfriend, it's horrible. I'll link the deep dive to that as well if I remember. But anyway, my point is a lot of the times in situations like this when, and it's only when a female goes missing, never when a male goes missing, which, let's be honest, it usually is the female who goes missing at the spouse's hands. But anyway, people so quickly in the media are jumping on it as the gone girl case, right? So I don't think she did these Google searches herself.

Starting point is 00:10:06 I don't think Ghana did. but there was, of course, speculation of could she have just disappeared on her own accord? Because it appeared, based on we'll get into more of these details soon, it appeared that she was planning on potentially leaving Brian, that she already had a new relationship brewing. So there, and it kind of, you know what, again, another rant, I'm sorry, but it also reminds me of Drew Peterson, not to be confused with Scott Peterson. Remember when Stacy disappeared, his wife, and he's like, oh, she just probably packed a bikini and went off with her. her guy, da-da-da-da-da. It's like, get a grip. Be original for a second here. So anyway, in years past, as we're building up to trial, and then right before his trial was set to begin on November 18, 2025, Brian suddenly changed his plea for the lesser two charges.

Starting point is 00:10:55 He admitted that he was guilty of misleading the police and also in, sorry, can't talk, and also improperly moving Anna's body. Which, that's really huge when you think about it because it kind of means that Brian will at least face some sort of punishment because the defense is basically admitting like yeah there was a body Anna did die and he did move it so not only does it shut down the whole like she just ran away theory it immediately shuts it down but it also starts to make you wonder like okay he is starting to assume some guilt some responsibility but I don't know thinking through that It is good that he will face some sort of punishment for pleading guilty to those.

Starting point is 00:11:41 Don't get me wrong. But based on so many cases I've covered, even when people are found guilty, whether they admit guilt or they're just found guilty, of concealing a body, moving a body, unlawful disposal of a body, the punishment is obviously not nearly as severe as it would be for a guilty verdict on a murder charge. So it's like, yeah, maybe you're serving a couple years. I think I even saw one case where it was like 18 months for that, which seems so crazy, right? But it's obviously not what you would be serving for the actual murder charge.

Starting point is 00:12:16 And so that's where it starts to get a little bit sticky with all of this. But so even though he admitted to guilt with those two things, he really dug his heels in and maintained that he was not guilty of murder. So his murder trial officially kicked off this week on December 1st. And here's the thing. Brian's trial is a massive deal in Massachusetts. I mean, it's a massive deal everywhere, and I'm saying it go viral all over the place for many reasons. But in Massachusetts, it's huge because several of the investigators and the witnesses

Starting point is 00:12:49 in this case were literally just in the hot seat because they were involved in the Karen Reed trial that was also in Massachusetts. He's actually, Brian Walsh is in the same county and courthouse and all of these things, which if you're not familiar, obviously Karen Reid, I'm sure you are familiar, she was accused of killing her boyfriend by hitting him with her car. However, her defense had argued that she was actually the victim because it was this huge, massive police cover-up. She eventually was found not guilty of murder or manslaughter, and ever since then, people have wondered how that case may ultimately affect Brian's outcome because a bunch of the same investigators are involved in it. So that

Starting point is 00:13:29 means that everybody has a ton at stake here, right? Anna's justice, Brian's freedom, the reputation of the entire Massachusetts state police force. I mean, they're all hanging in the balance. And something else, and I mentioned this on headline highlights this week, Thursday's episode, Michael Proctor, I know most of you know that name if you followed Karen Reed, he was the lead investigator in the Anna Walsh case. So it seems as though the defense is going to use that to their advantage to be like, hey, he's been disgraced and fired and all these things from the state police force, but they can now use that because he's such a sleaze bag to be like, he doesn't do thorough investigations. There was shoddy police work, all of these different things, because his name

Starting point is 00:14:15 literally taints anything that he touches, you know? And also, little fun fact, just some trivia here, Beverly Canoni, the judge over the Karen Reid case, was supposed to be the judge over Brian Walsh's trial. However, they ended up switching that out so she's not, but just kind of shows you how closely intertwined these players are, right? So with all of that in mind, and now, you know, the quick backstory to bring you up to speed, let's get into all of the unhinged bombshells that happened this week in the first few days of this trial. During opening statements, prosecutors had laid out evidence that they really do plan to present in this. They admit that, yes, it is circumstantial, but it still paints a pretty vivid picture of what may have happened to Anna.

Starting point is 00:15:03 They talked not only about Brian's trip to Home Depot right after her disappearance and all of that cleaning supplies, where he also was caught on surveillance camera buying, get this, a hatchet and a hacksaw, which tell me why you need that right after your wife disappeared, but he was also caught on camera showing him tossing trash bags into a dumpster around the same time as she was missing. And when investigators searched trash bags that were found near his mother's home, they found several weapons. They also found Anna's shoes and her COVID vaccination card. So then we start to shift into not only the evidence of what they saw him buying, what was on surveillance, what was being disposed of, but we get into the motive of it. And according to the

Starting point is 00:15:49 prosecution, there are no less than three separate reasons that Brian wanted Anna dead. First, Ana had millions of dollars in life insurance policies. And as we know, Brian was the sole beneficiary of those policies. And that matters a lot, not in just like the general grand scheme of things. We know that money is oftentimes a huge motivator for people to take the lives of their spouses. But remember, Brian owed hundreds of thousands of dollars because of his art fraud case. So how was he going to pay that? He was on house arrest. He was kind of a loser deadbeat.

Starting point is 00:16:27 She, meanwhile, had all of this money. He was going to be the one who would get all of that money. So definitely a financial motivation there. Second, we learned for the very first time during this trial, there was some rumblings in the past few years, but now it has officially been brought into play. We know that Anna was allegedly having an affair with a man, specifically the man who sold her that townhouse in Washington, D.C. So, retaliation, anger, control, jealousy, all of these things, or couple them together, right? He's mad that she's having an affair and he wants her money. Third possible motive is that, like I said earlier and I alluded to, the couple was apparently

Starting point is 00:17:09 headed for divorce. Anna was planning to move herself and their sons all the way to Washington, D.C., and just get away from Brian entirely. So I think, honestly, if you look at all of that. all three of those separate motives. I mean, looking at them separately, they all are strong enough to, you know, independently be enough

Starting point is 00:17:29 for a motive for murder. But they also all layer over top one another. Affair, money, taking the cut boys away in custody, it feels almost like a recipe for this catalyst that could just end up ultimately being this huge motive in all of it, right? Not to say that they couldn't, again, stand independently from one another,

Starting point is 00:17:49 but combined, it's like, It is massive. So then came the defense's opening statement, which I have to say it honestly shocked a lot of people. Because they didn't claim, obviously, that Anna ran away. They couldn't, based on him admitting that he disposed of her body. And they also didn't suggest that she ended her own life, which kind of was a surprise. I would feel like, okay, well, if they're admitting that he disposed of her body and lied to the police, how would he have come across her body

Starting point is 00:18:20 it seems like not the obvious choice or the smart choice but like a good argument would be that she took her own life and that he panicked but they didn't even try to suggest that she took her own life they also didn't blame some mystery killer

Starting point is 00:18:37 somebody who came in in the night and killed her in her sleep they didn't accuse the police of corruption like in the Karen Reed case like so many people thought that they were going to do But instead, they said something that absolutely nobody saw coming. They said that Brian came to bed after their New Year's Eve dinner with their friend, that he nudged on us so hard that she fell directly off the bed,

Starting point is 00:19:01 and because of that fall off the bed, she, quote, succumbed to her injuries, or I'm sorry, a quote, sudden and unexplained death. I mean, hold on. I'm sorry. I have fallen off the bed by accident. My kids fall off the bed regularly. They're toddlers. How on earth does somebody fall off of the bed get injured so badly that it kills them

Starting point is 00:19:28 and that they succumb to their injuries in this sudden and unexplained death? I just, I feel like I'm rolling my eyes so hard that I can see my brain. It makes no sense. But then, that was their story. And according to them, Brian panicked and he tried to cover. it up so that he could protect their kids. They claimed that Brian was so terrified of being accused of killing Anna and going to jail that he thought that disposing her body and lying about everything was a better idea. And the other surprising part of the defense's opening,

Starting point is 00:20:03 I have to say, they told the jury that they would hear all about this story, which, as far as I can tell the only person who can really tell that story for the jury to hear firsthand is Brian himself, which kind of has everybody wondering, I mean, especially me, is he actually going to take the stand, and is he going to testify in his own defense? That feels extremely ballsy, but at the same time, I kind of feel like all of the evidence is stacked against him that maybe it's just a Hail Mary. I don't know. It's also, though, incredibly rare in these very high-profile murder trials, so everybody is definitely on edge waiting for that. So after opening statements, the prosecution's first witness was the police sergeant Harrison Schmitt, and he was the lead investigator for the case.

Starting point is 00:20:51 Now, Harrison testified that about four of the interviews that he did with Brian in the days after Anna's disappearance were a little bit odd. See, in those interviews, Brian insisted that Anna had flown to D.C. for that work emergency and that he hadn't seen her sentence. He also stated that she left wearing a dress, a black jacket, hunter boots, and carrying her prada bag. He said that he loved her, that he, of course, would never hurt her. He denied that they had any serious financial problems, but he did admit that he was frustrated about how little time Anna was spending with the family because of her busy job. So a little bit of like resentment brewing underneath. Now, the other big moment in those interviews actually had.

Starting point is 00:21:37 nothing to do with Brian and everything to do with another one of the state troopers who was present along with Sergeant Schmidt. And that was none other than Michael Proctor. Which honestly, every time I hear Proctor's name, it's like red flags go up. If you watch Stranger Things, you know, when the wheel gets like the goosebumps on the back of his neck, I feel like that's what I feel like is, what's, is Vecna? Is his name Vecna? Is he coming? Is that Michael Proctor? Which is like, honestly, kind of same. But yeah, he was the lead investigator. and Karen Reed, as I mentioned. And so it came out that he was sending his co-workers, those absolutely horrible vulgar texts about Karen during that whole investigation. And it really

Starting point is 00:22:19 showed just how biased he was with the defense, right? Or against the defense, I should say. So exposing Proctor's conduct really did in Karen's case help convince the jury that she wasn't guilty. And like I said, it got him fired. But this case is different because it's not the defense necessarily who's like arguing everything. They're not even claiming police corruption or cover up. They even admitted that Brian lied in those initial interviews. But I don't know, it's just, again, two close of ties. So as much of a complete loser douche canoe proctor may be and as vecta as he may be, it may not end up even mattering here in the grand scheme of things. But next up for the prosecution was trooper Nick Garino. And he's an expert.

Starting point is 00:23:06 and phone data, which, again, close players, close area. That name may also ring a bell because he also testified in the Karen Reed trial. He's also tied to a big murder case in Massachusetts, a third one, the death of Sandra Birchmore. We've covered that case extensively as well. Again, a lot of intertwined players in that case. So he claimed that he, I actually, I'm not going to talk to you really about the Sandra case, just because I don't want to get too far off on that. and I know I'll go off on a rant. So I just want to kind of talk with you a little bit about what he had to do with Brian's case. But he talked about the Google searches that were found on devices in Brian's house,

Starting point is 00:23:48 which I'm going to get to the fullest of everything that was searched in just a minute. But for now, I do want to note that it was previously reported that those searches were actually made on the kids' iPads, which kind of brought this whole, like, sinister element to it. people are like he's searching these things on his own children's devices like what kind of sick freak does that however in court we learned that that rumor was not true the searches were actually made on brian's personal computer but because of that they happened to sync to his son's ipad which i know i've mentioned these google searches a lot without saying what they were so i bet you're like okay annie come on like let's get to it tell me what the freaking searches were so here we go

Starting point is 00:24:30 okay, and buckle up because what he searched and clicked on around the time of Anna's disappearance, it is nothing short of absolutely diabolical and mind-blowing. And there are a ton of them, so I can't read all of them for you, or we would literally be here all day. But here are some of the more crazy ones, okay? On the morning of January 1st, so the day after that New Year's Eve dinner, Brian searched 10 ways to dispose of a dead body, quote, or in parentheses, not quote, if you really need to. How long before a body starts to smell? How long for someone to be missing to inherit? Is it possible to clean DNA off of a knife? Can identification be made on partial

Starting point is 00:25:18 human remains? Best ways to dispose of body parts after murder. Six ways to dispose of a body murder, murder, murder, how to clean blood from a wood floor, want to get away with murder, question mark, is it better to throw away crime scene clothes or wash them? Can the FBI tell when you accessed your phone? I mean, pretty diabolical, but one of the main things that sticks out to me is if you're trying to say that you nudged her off the bed and she fell and died of this sudden unexplained death, their quote, and exact words, not mine, then why, even if you are then searching frantically how to clean up, you know, and how to dispose of a body and all that, that would explain those searches. But it wouldn't explain the search of best ways to dispose of body

Starting point is 00:26:14 parts after murder. Why would you even be throwing the word murder in those searches? And it wasn't just that search. It was six ways to dispose of a body, murder, murder, murder, want to get away with murder question mark so why would you be throwing the word murder in those searches right right brian right so the next day on january second brian searched how long do stores keep security footage how to dismember a body hacksaw the best tool to dismember a body details of dismemberment discussed in murder trial can you be charged with murder without a body no corpse question mark? No problem. Notable murder convictions without a body. Can you identify a body with broken teeth? Disposing of a body in the trash. And there was another one and I should have actually

Starting point is 00:27:10 mentioned it with the teeth. One search he also had made that I remember stuck out to me and I mentioned it yesterday in Thursday's episode. He also said, can you identify a body with partially broken teeth? Like, which makes me just think he was probably pulling out her teeth and maybe the root stuck. I don't know. And he was wondering if that could still lead to identification. Just sick. So then the day after that, on January 3rd, Brian searched, can baking soda make a dead body smell good? Cleaning up blood without leaving a trace, five tips.

Starting point is 00:27:46 How long for a dismembered body to decompose? I mean, seriously, guys, you cannot make this stuff up. This is basically a list of things not to Google, okay, if you don't want people to ever suspect you of murder. Definitely don't Google these things, which, again, I get that the prosecution doesn't have a body, but like, honestly, hello, hello, the writing is on the wall. These searches are literally the next best thing to having a body. They kind of just point this big neon flashing sign saying,

Starting point is 00:28:17 a guilty, a murderer, like, especially when you remember the defense's whole strategy was that she died of this unexplained medical event, and he panicked and had to cover it up. Which, why wouldn't you see him Googling things then like, help my, help, my wife is unresponsive, or fall, caused death, best hospitals near me, how to do CPR when somebody won't wake up, you're not Googling things with the word murder in them. So, I don't know, you see, you, we also saw murder literally typed out three times in a row in black and white, murder, murder, murder, murder. So the defense, it obviously doesn't look good for Brian, but the defense insisted that these searches do totally make sense for somebody who's panicking and just trying to understand his wife's

Starting point is 00:29:02 unexplained death. I get the defense has to defend, but like, come on. They also claimed that he started with that more general search term about death and then only added the word murder because the search engine suggested it to him, which I'm curious if the jury is going to buy any of that because it feels pretty freaking far-fetched to me. Now, Trooper Garino also read some of Brian's searches from before Anna disappeared, which this really kind of gives us more of a glimpse into possible motive and maybe even narrowing it in a little bit. On December 26, the day after Christmas and five days before the New Year's Eve dinner,

Starting point is 00:29:45 Brian searched on an adult video site, and he searched, and this kind of makes me laugh, because it's just like, what a freaking loser. But he searched, cheating wife seduces another man to impregnate her, which, look, everybody's going to have their own kink and their own thing that they're into, but like, this just screams desperado and loser bill to me. Sorry, it does. He also searched Best State to divorce for a moment. man, and then he also searched Washington, D.C. divorce lawyers. So, I mean, it definitely seems

Starting point is 00:30:21 like divorce was on Brian's mind, whether he was thinking of divorce or he knew that she was going to divorce him, so he was trying to search to get ahead of it. And he lived in Massachusetts. She was in D.C. So part of me is wondering, did he search Washington, D.C., divorce lawyers? Because, you know, if you hire a divorce lawyer, they cannot work for your spouse after that. and that's what a lot of people do in high-profile divorces, actually. Like if I were going to divorce my husband tomorrow, not that we're high profile, but just going to walk you through the technique. I would search all of the best divorce attorneys in the Orange County and L.A. area.

Starting point is 00:30:59 And I don't know if just a consultation is enough or if you actually have to like pay them a dollar or what it is, but then I would go to all of them. I would have the consultation, pay them if required. again, I don't know the exact regulation, and then I would only go with the one that I want, but because I already had met with all those other best attorneys, Jeremiah wouldn't be able to hire them. So the fact that he was looking at D.C. divorce lawyers kind of makes me wonder if that could have been a strategy here knowing, him knowing, that she was going to be filing. I don't know. But anyway, it just seemed odd. Another piece of this, though, could be the

Starting point is 00:31:35 complete opposite. It could be because he just wanted out of the marriage, or more. Maybe not. I don't know. Who really knows? But according to the defense, the divorce was going to be mutual. And actually, they said that it was going to be a strategy to protect their assets because of all of the money that Brian owed from that art fraud case. They even tried to support that argument by pointing out that Brian was also searching for expensive rings and luxury cars around the same time that he made those divorce searches, basically implying that if he was shopping for fancy gifts for Anna, he definitely wasn't trying to divorce her, which my argument to that would be, who's looking for luxury cars for your spouse, really? It feels more midlife crisis to me. It seems

Starting point is 00:32:22 more like you're searching at these fancy cars because you know you're about to come into a lot of money and you are someone who clearly is motivated by money, which is why you try to sell counterfeit paintings of Andy War, Andy Warhol artwork. Like, I get, again, that the defense needs to defend, but hopefully the jury is seeing through this. Now, after all of those absolutely wild searches, the next key witnesses were from Uber and Lyft, the ride share companies. And both of them confirmed that Anna never called for a ride share to the airport, not at any point between January 1st or all the way to January 8, 2023. Another witness confirmed that Anna had two different life insurance policies that were worth over

Starting point is 00:33:08 a million dollars. And like I said, Brian was the sole beneficiary. And we already kind of knew this, but what we didn't know is that it was Brian who originally wanted to take out a policy on himself. And when he was denied because of his federal art fraud case, the insurer kind of said, I guess, that he suggested applying under Anna's name instead. We also learned that Ana had to undergo extensive health testing to qualify for these policies, and she got the absolute best possible rating, the healthiest that you can be. Which begs the question, can somebody who is incredibly healthy just drop dead from some sort of unexpected medical event and fall to the ground? Just a few years after all of this testing was done? I mean, I suppose we have seen healthy

Starting point is 00:33:58 people suffer from heart attacks that are unexplained aneurisms, things like that, but I don't know. I'm no doctor. It just kind of seems like all of this evidence is making a very clear picture. So then, Davis Gould from the Massachusetts State Police Crime Lab testified about what he had found in Brian's car on January 9th. He found red stains on both front visors. He also found red stains on the driver's side controls and in the mats in the trunk area, all of which tested positive for blood. He also found more than a dozen exam-style gloves, so think like latex gloves. But Davis wasn't just in charge of the car.

Starting point is 00:34:43 Shortly after analyzing the car, he was also called to help at a recycling plant. And there, he found what prosecutors say were Anna's belongings, her green boots, her jacket, and a black Prada handbag, all of which just so happened to perfectly match the outfit that Brian described to the detective, that she was wearing when she supposedly left for the airport. They also found towels, tape, gauze, a robe, and slippers, all of which was covered in reddish-brown stains. And if that's not horrifying enough,

Starting point is 00:35:21 they also discovered a hammer, wire cutters, a hatchet, a hacksaw, and a tarp. Basically, it is an entire dismemberment starter kit. And the worst of all, Davis and his team found what appeared to be hair, human tissue, and skin. Which, I mean, how absolutely sickening, because if this is all true, not only did Brian murder his wife, but he dismembered her, he tossed her personal belongings, he tossed pieces of her body, just all of it in the trash, in this recycling plant, like they were nothing. And it also begs the question, where did he perform this? dismemberment? Was it at their family home while their children were upstairs sleeping or playing video games, like, or at school and then they came home from school? It's so sick. So later in the week on Thursday, we got another bombshell. William Fasto took the stand, and this is the guy that

Starting point is 00:36:22 Anna was allegedly having this affair with. So he admitted that he and Anna became really close after he sold her that townhouse in D.C. And then they eventually did start an intimate relationship. According to William, they went out on a ton of dates. She regularly would spend the night over at his house. They spent the holidays together away from Brian and the kids, and they even traveled to Ireland together. So apparently they were so serious that they even considered themselves exclusive,

Starting point is 00:36:53 except, you know, the tiny detail that not only was Anna still married, but he was still married as well. So naturally, this caused some tension in Anna and Brian's relationship because, remember, she almost missed Christmas Day with the boys and she was spending holidays with this guy, almost kind of starting this brand new family, which certainly I don't agree with. I think that if you want to get out of a relationship,

Starting point is 00:37:15 like I will say, just get a divorce, but also it's not an excuse for murder, right? Now, you have to think, too, It might seem a little bit weird for the prosecution to call a witness who makes Anna, let's just be honest, look a little bit bad. But remember, one of their big goals in all of this, the primary goal, is to show that Brian had a motive for wanting Anna dead. And this long-term, physical, intimate, emotional affair with a guy in another state, someone that she was prioritizing above her family, I mean, that absolutely could be motive. And William's testimony also dropped a little bit of a second hint at Motive 2. He said that in the months leading up to her disappearance,

Starting point is 00:38:00 Anna spent a ton of time decking out her D.C. townhouse with furniture, kids' toys, kids' furniture, just getting ready to move her sons there and move them away from Brian. So could that have been what finally set him off? She was going to literally start a new life with William. she was going to bring her kids there, replace Brian entirely. So did he just spiral and lose it because his life was, William was going to like step into the shoes of his life? I don't know.

Starting point is 00:38:33 Later in the day, Massachusetts State Trooper Connor Keefe took the stand. And he testified that on his phone last pinged at a tower, last pinged near a tower at the Walsh home around 3 a.m. on January 2nd, 2023. So this is again just more proof and another reminder that she definitely was not already on a flight or in D.C. like Brian had said. And it wasn't just on his phone that he had tracked. He was also keeping an eye on Brian as well. And on January 5th, Brian's phone pinged at his mom's apartment, which, okay, it's not a problem until you realize that it pinged specifically at the far corner of the complex right next to a giant trash can. impactor. After that, Brian's phone hit a ton of different locations, including Lowe's, the hardware store, of course, the infamous Home Depot trip. And as if we hadn't heard enough from Brian's unhinged Google searches, he also testified about two more. Brian searched William

Starting point is 00:39:38 Fasto and Anna Walsh found dead. Those two searches, in quotes, which isn't, I guess, that wild under the defenses like he found her dead theory, except for a tiny, tiny problem in all of this. He made those searches on December 25th, six days before the New Year's Eve dinner. So why would he be Googling about his wife dying days before she even went missing, not even confirmed dead? I mean, to me, it screams premeditation. Also, why are you searching William Vastow, the boyfriend. It seems like he found out about it. Maybe he found out about it because it was the holiday

Starting point is 00:40:24 and remember who she was splitting time with became a point of contention. He discovered the boyfriend's name. I don't know, but screams premeditation to me. So it's only been one week so far, but honestly, it has been absolutely wild. And to me, still, the most shocking part in all this are those Google. searches. I had heard some of them obviously before, but hearing the entire list read out loud in court, I don't know. It just hits different. It's insane. I can't imagine being that jury and just sitting there hearing all of this and think, you know, what's going through their brains as they're

Starting point is 00:41:00 listening. I feel like my jaw would be on the floor. I'd be wearing my face and would not have a poker face. That's why it's a good thing. I'm never on a jury. So I don't know. I'm curious. I'm really curious, do you, do any of you listening by the entire unexplained medical death event story that the defense is trying to spin? Or do you think that they're just throwing whatever will stick, hoping that a Hail Mary happens? I don't know. And I'm wondering if you think that the prosecution is going to lean into one of the three possible motives or all of them as like this giant motive. And what, what do we think about Brian? Is he going to testify? I don't know. That will be wild. What do you think? So that's it for the recap for week one. I will, if you guys

Starting point is 00:41:47 like this, let me know in the comments. Just say yes, yes, yes. And let me know on Spotify, Q&A, Apple reviews. And we can do these every Friday, where I just give you like a nugget size recap of like the need to know. So yeah, we'll see where this goes. I'm confident that the jury is going to get it right, but I have been wrong before Casey Anthony. So let me know what you guys think. All right, Thanks again for tuning in to another episode of Serialessly. I will be back on the mic with you. First thing, Monday morning with an all new deep dive into a case. Don't forget, subscribe to the YouTube channel.

Starting point is 00:42:20 Hit the subscribe button if you haven't yet. That way you won't miss these updates as we do them or future episodes. And if you're listening on the podcast, make sure you're following the podcast so that you also don't miss these bonus episodes since they aren't in our regular release calendar. All right, guys, thank you so much. And until the next one, be nice. Don't kill people. just get a divorce, don't go to Home Depot for cleaning supplies, and definitely stay the heck off Google. All right. Bye.

Starting point is 00:43:09 Thank you. THEIRMANI, THEIRMANILEEN SULLIVAN

SERIALously - 343: Brian Walshe Trial: Secret Boyfriend, Diabolical Searches & an Explosive New Motive | Week 1 Trial Recap

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