Missing mother-of-three Ana Walshe promised a 'big surprise' in New Year

Missing Ana Walshe kept promising a ‘big surprise’ in the New Year and was in a hurry to sell off assets for cash, her friends revealed as the search for the Massachusetts mother of three continues. 

Mike and Mandi Silva told NBC Washington that in the last six months, something seemed off about their friend Ana – who was last seen on New Year’s Day.

The couple said that Ana, 39, had been rushing to offload assets for cash on December 28 or 29, including a car, and their apartment, which the Silvas had been renting. 

‘Nothing is adding up,’ Mandi Silva said.  

Silva said in the last text received from Brian Walshe on January 2, he said: ‘Happy new year. Sorry for the delay. I miss [sic] placed my phone and my son just found it.’

There was no mention of Ana at that time, although he had already told police she was missing. 

Days later, police arrested Walshe on suspicion of ‘misleading’ authorities but have not charged him with anything else.

On Monday, Walshe pleaded not guilty to misleading investigators in the hunt for his missing wife, but remained in jail on $500,000 bond.

The Silvas’ comments comes as new security video obtained by 7NEWS was released that shows Ana’s husband Brian Walshe, 46, at Press Juice Bar in Norwell, Massachusetts placing an order for three kid’s sized smoothies and two large smoothies on January 2 – a day after Ana was last seen at the family home in Cohasset.

Ana was reported missing to police on January 4 by her employer in DC – three days after her husband last saw her on January 1.

Cops have recovered a hack saw, a hatchet, and a rug, and found blood at a waste disposal site near her husband’s mother’s house.

Walshe has been accused by prosecutors of not giving a full account of his activities in the days after his wife vanished while the search for her was underway.

One of those activities was the trip to Norwell on Monday, January 2 – a day after Ana was last seen. Walshe had said he took his son to get smoothies. The couple have three sons, believed to be aged two, four, and six.

According to a receipt, at 9:57 a.m., Walshe ordered three kid’s sized chocolate peanut butter smoothies and two large peanut, banana and honey smoothies, 7NEWS reported. 

Hannah Connors, the juice bar’s manager, told the news outlet that she remembers ‘he was staying towards the door, towards the entrance. 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.’

‘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.’

Employees at the smoothie shop said Walshe paid for his order with a credit card and that it was not his first visit, and that staff considered him to be somewhat of a regular. 

On the same day, surveillance footage showed him at at a Home Depot in Rockland, authorities have learned. He purchased $450 worth of cleaning supplies, including mops, a bucket, and tarps, they said. 

Walshe was arrested just a few days later. 

This week, a friend of Walshe’s father claimed he was a ‘long-term patient’ at a psychiatric center and had been diagnosed as a ‘sociopath.’

Walshe had received treatment at Austen Riggs Psychiatric Center in Stockbridge, Massachusetts, before being discharged a few years ago, Jeffrey Ornstein alleged.

Ornstein, who was a friend of Walshe’s neurologist father, Dr Thomas Walshe, for 35 years, aired the claims in an explosive 2019 affidavit. 

He also claimed Walshe had been estranged from the rest of his family after he had been accused of stealing millions of dollars from Dr Walshe’s estate following his death.

Walshe’s cousin, and two close friends of his father, aired the accusations against him in the scathing 2019 court documents following the death of Dr Walshe in 2018.

Ornstein said he had known Brian Walshe since he was 13, but said father and son had been estranged since 2009.

He claimed that, when Walshe was released from Austen Riggs after around 12 years and attempted to contact his father, Dr Walshe turned him down.

Walshe’s wife Ana Walshe worked for real estate behemoth Tishman Speyer, and the couple owned several properties together – including their home in Cohasset and a $1.3million house in DC.

They also owned another property in Massachusetts, worth $1.4million – which they sold last year before she went missing.

The building went up in flames days after she vanished, but cops investigating the matter believe the fire is not linked to her disappearance.

On Monday, cops said they had found blood on a damaged knife and in the basement of their home in Cohasset.

Officers searching two waste facilities on Monday night found further potential evidence.

They trawled through security footage at West Wareham after finding blood, a hatchet, a hack saw, a rug and used cleaning products in a Peabody dumpster.

The first facility is an hour south of Ana and Brian Walshe’s home in Cohasset, while the other is 15 minutes from his mother’s house in Swampscott.

Walshe told officers he last saw his wife on January 1 at 6am, when she left to catch a flight to Washington DC for work.

Police told a judge he was spotted spending $450 on cleaning products in a nearby Home Depot on January 2.

He claims he only left the house once on January 2 – the day after she vanished – to take his son for ice cream. 

Authorities say it would have allowed him time to clean up evidence and dispose of it, setting his bail being at $500,000 in cash.

Prosecutors at Quincy District Court say Walshe’s statements, including claiming that he didn’t leave the house, delayed the investigation.