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COHASSET, MASS. (WHDH) - As jury selection in the Brian Walshe trial was set to kick off Tuesday, Walshe changed his plea from not guilty to guilty on two charges, misleading a police investigation and unlawfully conveying a body.
“Do you wish to offer a change of plea from not guilty to guilty?” the clerk asked.
“I do,” Brian Walshe said.
The Cohasset man is charged with killing his wife Ana, 39, nearly three years ago and hiding her body.
Walshe admitted to misleading police officers back in 2023 when Ana was considered missing. Police asked for the public’s help in finding her and firefighters drained the family pool searching for her. State troopers led searches in nearby woods.
Walshe also confessed to moving a body.
“Mr. Walshe, did you in fact, willfully remove or convey the body of Ana Walshe or her remains?” the judge asked Walshe.
“Yes, your honor,” Walshe said.
Prosecutors said it was several days before authorities were notified Ana was missing. Surveillance video captured Walshe buying cleaning products in the day following her disappearance. Her body has never been found.
Prosecutors also said they did not negotiate this plea and questioned how Walshe could plead guilty to getting rid of a body, if he doesn’t admit his wife his dead.
“I asked you whether you were married, do you remember that?” Judge Diane Freniere asked.
“Yes, your honor,” Walshe said.
“Under the law, when someone dies or when someone is dead, that means you can no longer be married to them, do you understand that?” Freniere asked.
“Yes, your honor,” Walshe replied.
“So, are you married today?” Freniere asked.
“Lawfully not married today,” Proges said.
After changing two of the three pleas, jury selection began. The court is looking for 16 total jurors, four of them being alternates. Nine were seated as of Tuesday.
On Friday, a judge ruled Walshe was competent to stand trial after it was delayed for a hearing.
He will be sentenced on the two charges on which he pleaded guilty at a later date.
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