Ana Walshe, an ambitious 25-year-old from Serbia, met her husband Brian, the son of a prominent neurologist, at an upscale hotel in Massachusetts in 2008 in a moment she described as “love at first sight.”
The pair crossed paths when the young woman, who then went by Ana Knipp, was working at the luxury Wheatleigh Hotel in the Berkshires as a reservations manager.
“It was love at first sight for me and I feel the same way about Brian to this day,” she wrote in a 2021 letter asking for leniency in her husband’s art fraud case.
After dating long-distance for years, the pair tied the knot Dec. 21, 2015, in an intimate ceremony at the Emmanuel Episcopal Church in Boston and soon had three young boys ages 2, 4 and 6.
TIMELINE OF ANA WALSHE’S DISAPPEARANCE AND BRIAN WALSHE’S ARREST
On New Year’s Day, the Tishman Speyer real estate executive mysteriously vanished from the couple’s Cohasset home, and her husband has been arrested for misleading investigators about her disappearance.
The couple wed in front of a few dozen family and friends, according to a witness. In one photo, Ana Walshe stands beside her husband beaming in a fairytale white tulle dress, a long veil and an elaborate beaded necklace, as she clutches a bouquet of roses.
BLOOD, KNIFE FOUND IN HOME OF MISSING MASSACHUSETTS REAL ESTATE EXEC: PROSECUTORS
The wedding party later dined at now shuttered French restaurant L’espalier in Boston.
When Ana Walshe met her soon-to-be husband, she was already married to Mark Knipp, whom she divorced in 2014, records shows.
Knipp appears to have also worked at the picturesque hotel as an executive sous chef, according to the website Hotel Executive.
The same year as her divorce, cracks began to show in her new relationship. Ana Walshe called police on Brian for allegedly threatening to kill her and her friends – but the case was closed when she refused to cooperate, according to a police report.
ANA WALSHE’S HUSBAND BRIAN WALSHE IS A ‘SOCIOPATH’ AND ‘PHYSICALLY VIOLENT:’ COURT DOCS
In court papers, a family friend described Brian Walshe as a “sociopath,” and “physically violent.”
But his wife portrayed a loving husband and doting father in the 2021 letter to U.S. District Judge Douglas Woodlock.
“Brian is the love of my life, my life partner, best friend and father of my three sons,” she wrote after her husband pleaded guilty to selling fake Andy Warhol paintings to an art dealer in Los Angeles and a buyer in France for $225,000.
ANA WALSHE SUFFERED INJURY SEEN IN INSTAGRAM PIC WITH EDITED CAPTION
At the time, Ana Walshe was working as a director of operations for the Mutlu Group at eXp Realty, while her husband was on house arrest awaiting sentencing in his art fraud case.
“Our three sons are constantly hanging off Brian’s neck, and they just can’t get enough of him,” she wrote, adding he was the “cook of the family.”
“Without Brian, I would be forced to quit my job which I love,” she added. She argued that he had turned his life around and deeply regretted his crimes.
ANA WALSHE’S FRIEND PLEADS WITH BRIAN WALSHE TO ‘HAVE THE GUTS’ TO TELL POLICE THE TRUTH
In October of last year, Brian Walshe was about to receive a no-jail sentence when prosecutors learned that he had plundered the estate of his late father, Thomas Morecroft Walshe.
The two became estranged more than a decade earlier after Brian Walshe allegedly swindled him out of $1 million. The esteemed neurologist left his only son “my best wishes but nothing else” in his will, which prosecutors said Brian then destroyed before draining his dad’s bank accounts and selling off his valuables.
After the judge postponed Brian Walshe’s sentencing to investigate the alleged embezzlement, Ana Walshe wrote a second letter in June 2022.
During the eight months that Brian Walshe had been on house arrest, Ana gushed that her husband had “brought the entire family comfort and joy.”
The driven businesswoman started a new job in February as a regional manager at Tishman Speyer in Washington, D.C. and bought a $1.3 million townhouse in the affluent neighborhood of Chevy Chase.
In March, she sold the family’s Jerusalem Road home in Cohasset for $1.385 million. Both properties were listed solely in her name, according to public records.
In Cohasset, the family was living in a rented $1 million colonial on Chief Justice Cushing Highway – where investigators found blood and a bloody knife in the basement after her disappearance.
MISSING MASSACHUSETTS MOM ANA WALSHE’S HUSBAND SEARCHED HOW TO DISMEMBER BODY: REPORT
It was Brian Walshe’s wife who appeared to foot the majority of the household bills.
Ana Walshe graduated from the University of Belgrade before earning a master’s in hospitality management at Cornell University.
Meanwhile, her husband dropped out of Carnegie Mellon University years before they met, according to court papers.
It’s unclear what, if any, legitimate work he did during their marriage.
On his LinkedIn page, he lists himself as the CFOs of various organization that don’t appear to have websites.
The prosecutor in the federal case said Ana Walshe benefited from her husband’s crimes, noting that he transferred $115,000 of cash he stole from his victims into her account.
After selling the fake Andy Warhols to the French buyer, the couple went on a shopping spree at Prada, Moran wrote in a court filing.
Brian Walshe also appears to have gifted her a 2015 Maserati for Valentine’s Day.
In a February 2019 photo posted to Instagram, Ana Walshe is seated in the driver’s seat of a Maserati, flashing a large diamond wedding ring. “The best Valentine’s gift of my life!” she wrote in the caption. Kiss to my husband who makes all of my childhood dreams come true!”
At Brian Walshe’s arraignment Monday for misleading investigators, prosecutors disclosed that he bought $450 in cleaning supplies from Home Depot one day after his wife went missing.
He’s being held on a $500,000 bond.
