Two of Ana Walshe’s closest friends testified about how her marriage to husband Brian was falling apart — as she out-earned him 5-to-1 and revealed that they hadn’t had sex in over a year.
Walshe’s best pal, Alissa Kirby, testified through tears Wednesday that the mother of three hit an emotional “breaking point” just days before her disappearance because of her strained marriage with Brian, thanks mostly to his federal conviction for art fraud.
Kirby – who was called as the final prosecution witness in the murder case against Walshe – told jurors in Norfolk County Superior Court in Dedham, Mass., how she went out drinking with Ana on Dec. 29, 2022, just three days before Ana disappeared on New Year’s Day.
That night, Ana “was really upset. She was kind of breaking down because everything had been very hard,” Kirby said, as she started crying.
Ana “was upset about so much. She was really hitting a breaking point. We talked about a lot of things,” Kirby said.
Kirby explained that Brian’s art fraud case was the biggest stressor on Ana’s marriage because he was stuck at their Cohasset, Mass. home on house arrest with their three boys while Ana was living part time in Washington, DC, where she had a high-powered job making $300,000 a year.
“She really wanted to be with her kids, their marriage had been really strained for a long time,” Kirby said of Ana.
Brian Walshe has admitted to ghoulishly chopping up his wife’s body and throwing her in multiple dumpsters — but claims she died suddenly in her sleep, and that he did not kill her.
Her remains have never been found.
Ana wanted Brian “to take responsibility” for his crimes even if it meant serving prison time, so they could move past it and move the family back together, Kirby said Ana told her.
The stress of the federal case and the physical distance between Ana and Brian also caused them to stop having sex, Kirby said Ana confided in her.
“She told me that aside from everything being really difficult, they hadn’t been intimate for a long time,” Kirby said. “Maybe over a year.”
Brian had been depressed over the criminal case and Ana felt “her energy was being drained,” Kirby said of why the couple stopped sleeping together.
Kirby began weeping on the witness stand, after a photo was shown to the jury of the two friends on that last night they had together.
Earlier Wednesday, another close friend and confidant of Ana, Gem Mutlu, recounted for jurors spending a “festive” New Year’s Eve with the couple at their home.
But he said Brian told him he only made $50,000 or $60,000 that year, while Ana made five times that with her bonuses.
Mutlu was also emotional on the witness stand as he remembered the last moments he ever spent with Ana as the trio drank champagne, remembered the difficulties of the past year while looking forward to what the new year would bring.
The trio signed the box for the $125 bottle of Lanson Noble Cuvee Brut they quaffed, which jurors saw photos of.
“Wow! 2022 … What a year!” Ana wrote on the box of bubbly. “And yet, we are still here and together!”
Mutlu left that night around 1:30 a.m. on New Year’s Day, and prosecutors say Brian then killed Ana, dismembered her body and disposed of it in dumpsters, never to be found again.
Mutlu said Brian called him on Jan. 4 claiming Ana left New Year’s Day for a work emergency and Brian hadn’t heard from her since.
“I was incredulous,” Mutlu recalled of his response to Walshe. “I said, ‘What work emergency could there be on New Year’s. It’s commercial real estate.’”
“It didn’t make sense to me that she would leave,” he said later.
Mutlu’s reaction to the odd news was to ask Walshe if he’d had a fight with Ana.
“His response was, ‘No, did it look like we had an argument when you were there?’” Mutlu said.
Mutlu said he was struck by Walshe’s tone when he said Ana had disappeared.
“It was way more even-keeled and toned down,” Mutlu started to say before Walshe’s defense attorney objected and the judge sustained it.
“His tone was not panicked,” Mutlu said.
Outside of the jury’s presence, Mutlu said that Ana told him she was seeking counseling for the stresses in her life, something Mutlu agreed would be good for her. He also said he told Ana he wanted to talk further in person — an opportunity he was never given after she disappeared.
The defense has claimed Ana died without explanation and Walshe, believing he would be blamed, tried to cover up the death.
But prosecutors have claimed that their strained marriage explains his motive for the alleged murder.
Walshe’s federal case placed a financial and emotional strain on them because he owed close to $500,000 in restitution, he had mounting legal bills, he couldn’t leave Massachusetts and he faced an impending prison sentence.
Prosecutors also claim Walshe was jealous because of Ana’s affair with William Fastow — the man who sold them their DC townhouse.
But the defense claims Walshe didn’t know about the affair — in an apparent attempt to dispel the alleged motive.
The defense has also argued Ana was deeply in love with Brian and never planned to leave him.
Prosecutors rested their case, and the defense will have the opportunity to call witnesses Thursday morning.
Brian pleaded guilty to lying to cops and to disposing of Ana’s body but he has maintained he isn’t guilty of murder.
