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NORWELL, MASS. (WHDH) - A search for evidence spanning multiple towns continues this week as authorities collect clues in the search for a missing Cohasset woman, including every trip and stop made by the woman’s husband.
A day after Ana Walshe was last seen and two days before she was reported missing, her husband, Brian, made a series of stops that have been under scrutiny ever since police expanded their search.
Walshe has already been charged with misleading a police investigation and is currently in custody. Held on a $500,000 bond, he has been accused by prosecutors of not giving a full account of his activities while the search for his wife was underway.
Part of those activities included a trip to Norwell on Monday, Jan. 2, a day after Ana was last seen early on New Year’s Day. Authorities say Brian claimed he took a trip with his son to get smoothies. That same day, law officials said surveillance footage showed him at a Home Depot in Rockland, where he purchased $450 worth of cleaning supplies, including mops, a bucket, and tarps.
New video obtained by 7NEWS shows Walshe did buy smoothies that day, with security video showing him pacing in the Press Juice Bar in Norwell, placing an order around midmorning.
“It was kind of busy – I was just making stuff so I didn’t really have an interaction with him,” said Hannah Connors, the juice bar’s manager. “It was just the transaction at the register and that was pretty much it.”
According to a receipt from the store, at 9:57 a.m., Walshe ordered three kid’s sized chocolate peanut butter smoothies and two large peanut, banana and honey smoothies.
“I remember he was staying towards the door, towards the entrance,” Connors said. “Usually, people will go sit down and hang out but he didn’t go over there. He was just waiting for it and he left as soon as he got it.”
Court paperwork stated how Walshe was under home confinement as he waited to be sentenced for a federal crime. He was allowed to leave his home between 8-10:30 a.m. to drop his children off at school. Video inside the store shows the manager walking him out during those hours.
“I grabbed the little stopper at the door just to prop it open, and he had the tray so I was like ‘Oh, let me grab the door,” the manager said.
Walshe was arrested days after the visit and charged with misleading police: news that left workers at the juice bar in disbelief.
“We know our regulars and stuff, but we were just too busy,” Connors added. “I didn’t have a conversation with him, but just to think he was here is absolutely mind-blowing.”
Workers say Walshe paid for his order with a credit card and that it was not his first visit, with staff considering him to be somewhat of a regular.
Nearly a week later, he appeared at Quincy District Court. Prosecutors said he misled police by telling them Ana had left for the airport in an Uber or Lyft on Jan. 1 to fly to Washington D.C., where she works for a real estate agency. However, officials said there was no evidence she left the house and that her phone pinged at her home location on both Jan. 2.
Further investigations have led officials to several sites over the past few days, including a search at a Peabody transfer station which authorities said resulted in a number of items being collected, which are being tested to see if they are connected to the case.
7NEWS sources confirmed that some of the evidence found includes a hacksaw, parts of a rug, trash bags with blood on cloth, and evidence connected to cleaning supplies.
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