Who is Brian Walshe? Court records show two versions of missing Cohasset womans husband

For Ana Walshe, her relationship with her husband, Brian, was love at first sight.

In a letter dated Sept. 7, 2021, to a federal judge as part of an art fraud case against Brian Walshe, Ana wrote that she felt the same way about Brian to this day. The pair dated long distance until Ana moved to Boston in 2015. They got engaged and married in the same year. And a year later, they had their first son.

Brian is … my love, my life partner, best friend, and father of our three children, Ana Walshe wrote. We share responsibilities around our household and our children. The boys love spending time with Brian. When he tells [our son] that he is going to step away to run an errand, [our son] immediately asks him when he would be back.

A mutual friend, in another 2021 letter written five days earlier, said the pair is a joy to be around.

They challenge each other to be the best version of themselves and are so content in each others company, the friend, Jessica Roy, said. We have spent many a meal, vacation, or walk on the beach with them and their boys together. In recent years, it has been a pleasure to watch Brian with his three boys. He has such a gentle, natural way with them, and I can only hope to be as good of a parent someday.Read more: Bloody rug, hacksaw, hatchet reportedly found in trash in search for missing Cohasset woman Coming from wealth

But now Ana Walshe is missing, last seen on Jan. 1. Her whereabouts are unknown. And Brian Walshe, who initially was praised for his cooperation with investigators, has been charged with misleading a police investigation. He was arrested Sunday and arraigned in Quincy District Court Monday.

Local police said they found blood and a damaged, bloody knife in the basement of the Walshes Cohasset home. No further charges have been filed against Brian Walshe since his arraignment.

The case of Brian Walshe is unique in part because of a separate court case he faces at the federal level, where he pleaded guilty in connection to an elaborate art fraud scheme, that offers a trove of documents outlining who Brian Walshe is and where he came from.

In those court filings, prosecutors say Brian Walshe is a man who comes from family wealth.

He graduated from boarding school and had the opportunity to attend Carnegie Mellon University, the University of Massachusetts Amherst, Northeastern University, and the JFK School of Government at Harvard University.

He worked for his own consulting firm, as a real estate agent, and even as a representative of a Spanish wine company, according to court documents.Fraud victims say he was a con man

It is that background, formed out of a rarified part of society many do not get to see, that federal prosecutors said Brian Walshe used to facilitate a long, complicated fraud over many years that was dangerous, bold, and harmful.

He took advantage of these very traits to ensnare his victims, prosecutors wrote in court documents.Read more: Search of missing Cohasset woman Ana Walshes home complete, DA says

Indeed in their own letters to federal Judge Douglas Woodlock, the victims of the art fraud acknowledged Brian Walshes alleged ability to con them through his likeability, communication, and reassurance.

One of the art fraud victims said he had made hundreds of purchases over a 10-year period, but there was only one person who managed to scam him Brian Walshe.

Mr. Walshe also seemed to be a likable guy, genuine in communication, and quite accommodating a skill of a successful con-man, the victim said. He was vocal of his generational wealth and his familys successes. He had the address of a multimillion-dollar home on his [drivers] license to back it up. Unfortunately for Walshe, and thankfully for the law enforcement and the judicial system, criminals get caught.A loving father

But both friends and family of Brian Walshe paint a very different picture of him, including Ana Walshe, who in her own letter described Brian Walshe as very loving, nurturing and patient with their two sons.

[He] understands from personal experience the impact that a father has on his children, Ana Walshe wrote.

In the words of Brian Walshes lawyers, he turned guilt stemming from art fraud into good for his community, family, and himself.

His mother, Dana Walshe, wrote a letter to Judge Woodlock begging and pleading for your mercy and compassion for Brian Walshe.

Brian showed poor judgment and has accepted responsibility for his behavior, she wrote. A sentence to jail that you might impose on Brian will have a serious impact on me. My son is the only reason I get up in the morning. He is the only person to take care of me and he is always there for me.Read more: Missing Cohasset woman Ana Walshe tried calling family, friends on night of disappearance

A self-described friend of Brian Walshe for over seven years, Roy, wrote that she was happy to count him and Ana as some of my own greatest friends. Roy said she was new to Boston when she first met Brian, who was someone who first made me feel at home here.

His warmth, spirit, and sense of humor drew me in instantly, Roy wrote in a letter dated Sept. 2, 2021. He has a way of bringing people together and connecting on a genuine level, which was exactly what I needed when I was meeting a lot of people in a new city, but didnt yet have deep connections with many.

According to federal prosecutors, Brian Walshe still enjoys many benefits of a lavish lifestyle. He has a family standing by him, the support of his mother, a job, and lives in a home less than a mile from the beach in Cohasset.

Government lawyers also maintain in court documents that Brian Walshe was a conman, who used those skills not just in the art fraud case, but in other facets of his life.

Prosecutors say Brian Walshe borrowed $500,000 from a college friend and never repaid it. He would attend elaborate, expensive dinners and ask his friends to pay for him.

He claimed to be the CEO of a friends company, prompting the actual CEO to call the friend into the real executives office to explain why [Brian Walshe] was claiming to be the CEO when he didnt even work for the company, according to court filings.Read more: Missing Cohasset womans husband was searching web for how to get rid of body, reports say

And the owner of Brian Walshes former condo in Lynn said he did not forward along a check made out to the seller. Instead, Brian Walshe cashed it and kept the money, according to court documents.

What happened to the money [Brian] Walshe took from the victims in this [art fraud] case helps explain the real reason [Brian] Walshe committed these frauds: to sustain his lavish lifestyle using unlawful means, court documents from government attorneys said.