Bloody Knife Found in Search for Missing Mom

The day after a missing Massachusetts woman was last seen, her husband visited a Home Depot, where he purchased $450 worth of cleaning supplies and tarps, prosecutors say. That purchase prompted a search of the Cohasset home of Brian and Ana Walshe, where blood and a damaged bloody knife were found in the basement, prosecutor Lynn Beland said at Brian Walshe's arraignment hearing on Monday, per BuzzFeed News. He's charged with making misleading statements to investigators. Ana had been scheduled to fly from Boston to Washington, DC, for work on Jan. 3, per Fox News. Her husband said the 39-year-old real estate executive departed early on Jan. 1 instead, catching a rideshare to the airport.

But investigators say Ana didn't book a rideshare and wasn't scheduled on a flight. In fact, her phone pinged in the area of her home on Jan. 1 and 2, Beland said. Ana made calls to her mother, sister, and friend in the early hours of Jan. 1, though the calls went unanswered, per Fox. Walshe—who's under home confinement pending sentencing for a fraud conviction stemming from the sale of fake Andy Warhol paintings—claimed he made trips to a Whole Foods and CVS for his mother on Jan. 1, but he could produce no receipts, Beland said. She added Walshe made no mention of his Jan. 2 trip to Home Depot, where he paid cash for mops, buckets, and tarps while wearing a surgical mask and gloves, per CBS News.

Ana wasn't reported missing until Jan. 4. Beland said Walshe's statements "caused a delay in the investigation to the point that during the time frame when he didn't report his wife and gave various statements, that allowed him time to either clean up evidence, dispose of evidence," per BuzzFeed. According to CNN's sources, Walshe did an internet search on how to dismember a body and "how to dispose of a 115-pound woman's body." Crews have been searching through collected trash and dumpsters near the Swampscott home of his mother, the outlet reports. Walshe, 47, pleaded not guilty at Monday's hearing. He's held on $500,000 cash bail with his next hearing set for Feb. 9. (More missing person stories.)