Brian Walshe, who admitted dumping his wife’s body – which was never found – is convicted of her murder.

Brian Walshe was found guilty of the first-degree murder of his wife, Ana Walshe, whose body was never found.

Walshe was emotionless in a Massachusetts courtroom Monday as the jury reached a verdict after just hours of deliberation. He will be sentenced on Wednesday.

Ana Walshe, a 39-year-old Serbian immigrant and real estate executive, was last seen in the early hours of January 1, 2023, after a small New Year’s Eve gathering at the couple’s Cohasset home.

Her 50-year-old husband has admitted dismembering his wife and lying to police, but claims he did not kill her.

He claimed she went on an emergency business trip to Washington, DC, ordering a car to take her to Logan International Airport in Boston. But her company, which first reported her missing, said there was no emergency at work.

Prosecutors said Ana never boarded a rideshare and there is no evidence she ever boarded a flight. Her cell phone, as well as her credit and debit cards, remained inactive after her disappearance.

“Ana Walshe died because he killed her and he intended to kill her,” prosecutor Anne Yas told the court during closing arguments on Friday. “He wasn’t going to DC for an emergency at work; there was no emergency. It’s just a story the defendant told people.”

Walshe claimed that after his wife left the house, he visited his mother in Swampscott, went shopping at CVS and Whole Foods and spent time with his children.

But prosecutors said he spent the New Year traveling to several drugstores and hardware stores, buying heavy-duty cleaning products, a Tyvek protective suit and a utility knife — purchases they say were preceded by online searches like “How long before a body starts to smell?” and “Dismemberment and the Best Ways to Dispose of a Corpse.”

Over the next few days, investigators said, he continued to search for “how to dismember a body with a chainsaw.” He did not report his wife missing until January 4, when her employer contacted the police after he was unable to get in touch with her.

Surveillance footage later showed a man who resembles Walshe throwing heavy bags of trash into dumpsters. A search of a bin near her mother’s house revealed bags containing a hatchet, saw, towels, a protective suit, cleaning agents, a Prada purse, boots like those Ana was last seen in and her Covid-19 vaccination card. Prosecutors said many items tested positive for her DNA.

“The defendant did not want anyone to find Ana’s body and know how she died,” Yas told the court. “So the defendant bought cutting tools … and cut up the body of Ana, the woman he claimed to love, and dumped her in dumpsters,” she said.

He didn’t just want her dead, “he needed her dead,” Yas said. “It was a marriage in crisis.”

Yas pointed out that Walshe at the time had “no assets” and was under house arrest for his federal case.

Meanwhile, Ana was beginning to prosper as “the marriage was beginning to deteriorate,” Yas said in court, adding that he had set up rooms in DC for their children. However, Walshe needed the children with him so he could be the primary carer in an effort to avoid prison, Yas said. At the time, Ana also took out a $2.7 million life insurance policy naming her husband as the sole beneficiary, prosecutors said.

In a move that surprised courtroom watchers, the defense rested earlier this week without calling any witnesses, and Brian Walshe did not testify in his own defense despite speculation he could take the stand to explain his version of events.

During closings, defense attorney Larry Tipton repeatedly called Brian Walshe “a loving husband and a loving father” with “no reason” to kill his wife. He previously told the court his client panicked after a “sudden unexplained death”, claiming Walshe found Ana anxious after their New Year’s Eve celebration.

“When she went into the bedroom and started to get into bed, she felt something was wrong,” Tipton said, recalling Walshe’s claim that Ana “rolled off the bed.”

“You have a sudden unexpected event that results in confusion, panic and fear,” Tipton said Friday. “All of those things that are so disturbing, horrific” and could be argued to show guilt, he said, referring to Walshe’s disposal of her body. But he insisted he did not kill his wife.

Tipton also took issue with Walshe’s internet searches, arguing that if he did them “with murder on his mind”, why is the first search referring to the murder “six hours later”, on January 1, 2023?

“Context matters,” Tipton said. “The first time the word murder is used in these horrific searches is six hours” after they began.

Tipton also argued that the dismemberment and cleanup searches did not mean he killed her, arguing there was nothing to suggest a plan or intent to kill Ana.

“Even if they’re not talking about the crime, they’re just as angry,” Tipton said. “It’s thinking about how you clean a concrete floor” in the basement.

“Ask yourself, why is the man looking now if he had intended to kill his wife?” asked Tipton.

The defense acknowledged that Walshe lied to investigators, but argued that his actions reflected fear, not guilt. Without a body, Tipton pointed out, “investigators could not determine the cause of death.”

“Mr Walshe loved Ana Walshe, the mother of his three children,” Tipton added. “Mr. Walshe is not guilty. He is not guilty.”

During the closely watched trial, the court heard from William Fastow, the man prosecutors identified as Ana Walshe’s boyfriend.

Fastow said he met Ana in March 2022 when he sold her a house in Washington. Their relationship quickly escalated into an “intimate relationship”. They shared dinners, nights on his sailboat, nights at his house, and even a Thanksgiving trip to Ireland.

“Ana felt it was very important that when Brian found out about the relationship, he heard it from her,” he said. “She expressed great concern and I think she felt it would be a blow to her integrity if he found out another way.”

Fastow said they plan to ring in the New Year together on Jan. 4 and talk about the future. He last heard from her on New Year’s Eve. His subsequent texts and calls went unanswered.