Prosecutors rested their first-degree murder case against Brian Walshe after calling two dear friends of his wife Ana to the stand Wednesday.
Jurors in Norfolk County Superior Court heard testimony from Gem Mutlu, a friend of the couple and former employer of Ana, as well as Alyssa Kirby, a friend Ana became close with after taking a job and moving part-time to D.C.
The friends’ testimony took up the bulk of the prosecution’s last day presenting their case against Walshe, who they say killed and then dismembered Ana in January 2023.
Walshe pleaded guilty to lying to police and mishandling Ana’s body last month but maintains that he did not kill his wife. Instead, his defense team claims she had a “sudden unexplained death.”
Prosecutors asked the witnesses to try to speak to their last conversations and moments with Ana before she disappeared, including what Ana told them about her relationship with Walshe.
Mutlu, who initially met Ana through Walshe at a leadership class they attended, called her “the sister I never had” and “an exceptional human being.”
He said they often shared confidences and in a conversation on Dec. 29, 2022, Ana talked with him about missing her children while she worked in D.C., and continued issues with Walshe’s federal fraud case.
Ana invited him over for New Year’s Eve at her and Walshe’s rented Cohasset home, an evening Mutlu described as festive and joyful.
Ana’s whole family, Brian and their three kids, were very close to Mutlu.
“I saw them as my own,” he said, his eyes starting to water on the stand as he talked about the Walshe’s oldest son greeting him and making him a necklace on Dec. 31.
Mutlu testified that he saw Ana texting her lover William Fastow (who he only knew to be a friend of Ana at the time) while they sat at the kitchen island and Walshe served wine and food.
All three signed a champagne bottle box, and Ana’s message read, “Wow! 2022… What a year! And yet, we are still here and together! Let’s make 2023 the best one yet! We are the authors of our lives… Courage, love, perseverance, compassion, & joy. Love, Ana.”
Mutlu left around 1:30 a.m., Jan. 1, and never saw Ana again.
A few days later, when Brian called him to say Ana was missing, Mutlu was shocked.
“I didn’t understand how Ana could be missing and we could not know about this since the first day of January,” he said on the stand. “We had not known about this for three days, and the tone of [Brian’s] voice was not panicked.”
After Mutlu’s testimony and before Kirby’s, jurors saw more footage of Walshe buying cleaning supplies and home decor, as well as disposing of something in a Brockton apartment complex’s dumpster.
They also heard from Walshe’s probation officer, who explained that Walshe was supposed to be under home confinement, meaning he could only leave the house for set, scheduled activities, like picking up his kids from daycare and seeing his mother.
Kirby’s tearful testimony finished the day and the Commonwealth’s case.
On the stand, Kirby described becoming best friends with Ana after she moved to D.C.
“We just kinda clicked like sisters,” she said, saying they spoke and/or saw each other about once a week.
Prosecutors published a photo of Kirby and Ana together on Dec. 29, the same day as Ana’s conversation with Mutlu, and Kirby burst into tears.
The two friends had gone out that night for drinks, karaoke, and dancing, but Kirby said that Ana didn’t act like herself.
“She was kinda breaking down,” Kirby said. “That was unusual for her.”
Ana was tired, sad, and complained about the toll travel, the federal fraud case, and even a lack of intimacy was causing in her marriage with Walshe.
“Their marriage had been really strained for a long time,” Kirby said, and Ana told her that she was hoping Walshe would take responsibility for the federal charges he had pleaded guilty to — even if that meant jail time, she just wanted her family to be together.
Kirby said she hadn’t known about Ana’s affair, only that she had a crush on Fastow, but Ana had told Kirby that Walshe’s mother had spoken to a psychic who said Ana was cheating. Ana said the situation was weird and scary.
Ana also told Kirby that Walshe rarely told Ana he loved her, but often asked Ana how much she loved him. Ana had recently replied, “not as much,” because of everything that was going on in their lives.
“She was falling out of love,” Kirby said Ana told her and Walshe.
Now that the Commonwealth has called all its witnesses to the stand, the defense will start presenting its case in court on Thursday.
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