Jurors in the Brian Walshe murder case saw video footage of the defendant tossing a black plastic bag into a liquor store dumpster and buying cleaning supplies in the days following his wife Ana’s disappearance.
Prosecutors had already shown they jury photos of brown-red stained pieces of carpet, tissues, and slippers, but a forensic scientist finally confirmed in court on Monday that those stains as well as others found inside the Walshe home were blood.
The Commonwealth is trying to prove that Walshe killed Ana in the early hours of New Year’s Day 2023. Although he pleaded guilty to lying to police about her disappearance and mishandling her body, Walshe maintains he’s innocent on the murder charge.
He instead claims that Ana died from “sudden unexplained death,” and that he feared if he didn’t cover it up, people might believe he murdered his wife, and he would lose custody of his three boys.
Jurors in the morning session at Norfolk Superior Court got to hear some of this argument play out when the defense cross examined Dr. Richard Atkinson, a forensic pathologist for the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner.
Walshe’s lawyer Larry Tipton asked Atkinson several questions about how someone could suddenly and unexpectedly die from natural causes, without injuries.
“People die suddenly quite often… but in a young person that has no medical history, yes, it’s rare,” Atkinson said.
When the prosecution had the opportunity to redirect, Atkinson said, “There was no evidence of any type of death… there’s not a body to autopsy.”
Without a body, prosecutors turned to blood.
In the afternoon, they called Matthew Sheehan, a forensic scientist at the Massachusetts State Police Crime Lab, to the stand.
Sheehan said several brown-red stains on the basement floor of the Walshe home tested positive for blood, as well as a few marks on the basement stairs. Sheenhan also said a knife found above the refrigerator also tested positive.
Along with the items from and areas of the house, Sheehan testified that many items found in a dumpster where Walshe’s phone was tracked also had blood on them, including snippers, a hammer, a hacksaw, a hatchet, towels, tissues, painter sheets, a sponge, two pairs of slippers, a tyvek suit, and several cut up pieces of carpet.
In addition to the blood, Sheehan said he also observed some human hairs in the evidence. He also testified that the hatchet found in the dumpster had a greasy substance on the head — something he said was consistent with tools that had cut through human flesh to body fat.
Samples were taken from the hatchet head and several other items to be tested for DNA.
Jurors also saw several videos of surveillance footage taken in the days after Walshe said Ana disappeared.
In one video from New Year’s Day, Walshe pulled up to a Swampscott liquor store near his mother’s home that he was know to frequent and tossed away a black trash bag in a dumpster.
In several other videos from the days that follow, Walshe buys cleaning supplies including a mop, painters buckets, rags, three 64-ounce bottles of ammonia, and five bottles of hydrogen peroxide
At a self-check out register at a Weymouth Lowes, Walshe bought a new trash can, but instead of doing it alone, in this video from Jan. 4 — the day he reported Ana missing — one of his children is also seen in the shot with a blurred-out face.
Walshe seems to look at himself in the live video footage from the check-out kiosk, fixing his hair in the reflection, while his son uses the barcode scanner on the trash can with help from a Lowes worker.
Judge Diane Freniere estimated that the trial is about two-thirds of the way through. So far, only the prosecution has presented their case. Testimony is set to resume Tuesday.
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