Ana Walshe’s mom says she ‘simply can’t consider’ the disturbing Google searches allegedly made by her son-in-law

BELGRADE, Serbia — Ana Walshe’s mom is holding out hope that her daughter remains to be alive and “simply can’t consider” that her son-in-law Brian Walshe made the disturbing internet searches related to murder and dismemberment that prosecutors unveiled in court docket Wednesday, she informed NBC Information.

“I feel that she simply left someplace, to get away, possibly she was bored with every part … It is just my assumption. I nonetheless don’t know the reality about what occurred,” Milanka Ljubicic, 69, mentioned from her residence in Belgrade, Serbia, on Thursday.

“I simply hope that she is alive. Anyplace, however alive. That’s my solely hope,” she added of her daughter.

Ljubicic’s feedback come a day after prosecutors said that Brian Walshe, 47, made an web search Dec. 27 for “what’s the best state to divorce for a man” — and that “rather than divorce, it is believed that Brian Walshe dismembered Ana Walshe and discarded her body,” Norfolk County Assistant District Legal professional Lynn Beland mentioned.

Brian Walshe pleaded not responsible to the costs of each homicide and deceptive an investigation, and is being held with out bail pending indictment.

His lawyer, Tracy Miner, mentioned in a press release launched Wednesday that the media “has already tried and convicted Mr. Walshe” and that “we will see if the prosecution can” show their case towards her consumer.

Ana Walshe’s stays haven’t been recovered, however history shows that a defendant can be charged and convicted with murder without a body, so long as there’s sufficient circumstantial proof for a jury to deduce that the sufferer is lifeless and the defendant is responsible.

Beland mentioned in court docket Wednesday that investigators discovered the couple’s DNA, together with a Covid vaccination card for Ana Walshe, 39, and a hacksaw, reducing shears, a hatchet and stains according to blood in trash luggage that had been disposed of in a dumpster at Brian Walshe’s mom’s house complicated in Swampscott, about 40 miles north of Cohasset, the place they lived. Investigators discovered these gadgets and others after they’d been moved to a waste switch station in Peabody, a city about 5 miles north of Swampscott.

Investigators also found blood and a bloody, damaged knife within the basement of the couple’s Massachusetts residence, and an intensive troubling web search historical past linked to Brian Walshe, who Googled queries together with “10 ways to dispose of a dead body if you really need to” and “how to stop a body from decomposing” within the minutes earlier than he initially informed police he final noticed his spouse.

Of that search historical past prosecutors detailed in court docket Wednesday, Ljubicic mentioned: “Sure, I’ve seen it, in fact it made me upset, however I simply don’t consider in that. As a result of Brian was by no means aggressive, he was by no means mad or livid, God forbid. I simply can’t consider in it.”

‘I always thought good of him’

Ljubicic added that her daughter “never complained about her husband, never,” and mentioned that she spent 16 months complete with the couple over three worldwide visits.

“I always thought good of him,” she said. “He was always in a good mood, telling jokes. He was the main cook in the house, always made us food.”

Ljubicic also claimed that Brian Walshe saved her life when she was visiting the United States in 2021 and “had some health issues.”

She didn’t elaborate, however in letter final Might that she submitted to Massachusetts District Courtroom forward of Brian Walshe’s sentencing in a wire fraud case, she wrote that he “found me experiencing what he thought was a stroke” and “immediately got my daughter and called emergency services.” (Courtroom paperwork present that Brian Walshe was ordered to forfeit $225,000, however doesn’t seem to have been sentenced to any jail time in that case.)

“I can safely say without his presence I would not have survived,” Ljubicic wrote within the letter, including that “he further continued to take care of me during my recovery at the house.”

Ljubicic informed NBC Information that “he absolutely adored Ana, the way she is, and said many times he missed her very much while she was away from work.”

“From what I know, everything was just fine between them,” she said.

She added that she was not aware that her daughter accused Brian Walshe of threatening to kill her in 2014, before they were married, according to a report filed with Washington, D.C., police obtained by NBC Washington. The report did not identify Brian Walshe by name, but an agency spokesperson confirmed he was the person accused of having threatened Ana Walshe over the phone. No charges were filed, and the case was closed because of a lack of cooperation from the victim, according to the spokesperson.

“I didn’t know back then, I’ve seen it recently in the media,” Ljubicic said of that alleged threat. “They got married after that, got kids … I don’t know what to say. I had no knowledge about it at all.”

She also claimed she had “absolutely no idea” that one family friend described Brian Walshe as a “sociopath” and a “very angry and physically violent person” in a bitter court battle that ensued over his father’s estate following his 2018 death in which friends and family accused Brian Walshe of stealing hundreds of thousands of dollars of his father’s money. Ljubicic learned about those allegations from recent news reports, she said.

Living arrangements were a source of strife

One point of contention between the couple, Ljubicic conceded, was over their living arrangements.

The couple’s home base was in Cohasset, a wealthy Boston suburb. But Ana Walshe traveled to Washington — more than 400 miles south — each week for her job at Tishman Speyer, a real estate company where she was a regional general manager. Cohasset police previously said the couple had a residence in Washington as well.

Ana Walshe loved her job, according to her mother, but hated being away from her three sons, ages 2, 4 and 6 — but the family couldn’t move because in October 2021, Brian Walshe was ordered to home confinement and not to leave the state of Massachusetts after pleading guilty to three counts in the wire fraud case six months earlier.

“She was bothered by the fact they had to stay because in Washington, D.C., they had better living conditions, and she could not cope without children for so long,” Ljubicic said. “They hoped this legal process around Brian would last only for a couple of months, and they can be together. But it dragged for a year or so.”

But even still, Ljubicic said, she “wasn’t worried at all” about her daughter’s security or her relationship along with her husband.

“We didn’t speak over the phone every day, because she was working a lot, but we exchanged text messages. And for me, those texts were enough,” she mentioned.

A type of texts got here on Christmas Day, when Ana Walshe requested her mom, “Mama, can you please come tomorrow?” Ljubicic mentioned.

“I told her — ‘Anci, I cannot get ready for tomorrow, let’s try the day after tomorrow,’” she mentioned, utilizing a nickname or time period of endearment for ‘Ana.’

Ljubicic wound up not coming to the U.S. as a result of she informed her daughter it will be extra handy for her to come back in January and keep for 2 months. Ana Walshe replied saying she and her husband had “plans” for February, although it isn’t clear what that meant.

“After the first text, when she asked me to come promptly, I asked her why the urgency. She replied that Brian and her are not getting along about the kids, where the kids would spend time, whether in Boston, Cohasset or Washington, D.C., where they own a house,” Ljubicic added.

“I understood that they were trying to make an arrangement where to live together … About what happened that night, I have no idea,” she mentioned, including that she has obtained “no official word” from Serbian or U.S. officers about what transpired.

Serbia’s appearing consul basic in New York, Olgica Vlacic, didn’t instantly reply to an inquiry.

On New 12 months’s Eve, Ana Walshe known as her mom, however she was sleeping and didn’t reply, Ljubicic mentioned.

“[The next day] I texted her, wishing Happy New Year, but there was no response,” she mentioned. “Even then I didn’t think something bad had happened, just wasn’t thinking in that direction.”

In keeping with prosecutors, Ana Walshe’s telephone has been turned off because it pinged close to the household residence in Cohasset simply after 3 a.m. Jan. 2, a day after Brian Walshe told police his wife left the home to catch a flight to Washington from Logan Airport, which authorities couldn’t affirm. There has not been any exercise on Ana Walshe’s bank cards since she was final seen, prosecutors mentioned.

‘She is … very a lot hooked up to her household’

A spokesperson for the Massachusetts Division of Kids and Households beforehand mentioned that the Walshes’ three kids are in state custody and declined to supply extra data, citing state and federal privateness legal guidelines.

Ljubicic mentioned that so far as she is aware of, the youngsters are in state custody and “doing properly,” including, “I don’t know the place precisely they’re.”

She added that she isn’t able to taking custody of the kids herself, citing numerous well being points together with coronary heart issues, diabetes and hypertension.

Ana Walshe was born in Belgrade and holds twin citizenship in Serbia and the U.S., Vlacic beforehand confirmed.

Ljubicic described her daughter as “a extremely distinctive little one, that I can inform you as her mom,” she mentioned.

“She could be very hard-working, skillful, very a lot hooked up to her household,” Ljubicic added.

Jovana Djurovic reported from Belgrade, Serbia. Julianne McShane reported from New York.