BELGRADE, Serbia — Anna Walsh’s mother is hopeful her daughter is still alive and ‘can’t believe’ it was her son-in-law, Brian Walsh, who made the Annoying searches on the Internet related to murder and dismemberment That plaintiffs disclosed in court Wednesday, she told NBC News.
“I think she just left somewhere, to run away, maybe she’s tired of everything… It’s just an assumption. I still don’t know what really happened,” said Milanka Ljubicic, 69, from her home. In Belgrade, Serbia, on Thursday.
Of her daughter, she added, “I just hope she’s alive. Anywhere, but alive. That’s my only hope.”
Ljubicic’s comments come After the day of the plaintiffs said That Brian Walshe, 47, ran an Internet search on Dec. 27 for “what is the best state to divorce a man” — and that “instead of a divorce, Brian Walshe is believed to have cut up Anna Walsh and disposed of her body,” Norfolk County Assistant District Attorney Lynn Beland said.
Brian Walsh has pleaded not guilty to the charges of murder and misleading the investigation, and is being held without bail pending an indictment.
His attorney, Tracey Miner, said in a statement released Wednesday that the media had “already tried and convicted Mr. Walsh” and that “we will see if the prosecution can” prove its case against her client.
Anna Walsh’s remains have not been recovered, however History shows that a defendant can be charged and convicted of murder without a corpseas long as there is sufficient circumstantial evidence for the jury to conclude that the victim died and the defendant is guilty.
Biland said in court on Wednesday that investigators found the couple’s DNA, along with a Covid vaccination card for Ana Walshe, 39, a saw, scissors, hole and stains consistent with blood in trash bags that had been disposed of in a dumpster in Brian’s mother’s apartment complex. Walsh in Swampscot, about 40 miles north of Cohasset, where they lived. Investigators found these and other items after they were taken to a waste transfer station in Peabody, a town about 5 miles north of Swampscott.
investigators Blood and a damaged bloody knife were also found in the basement of the couple’s Massachusetts home, and an alarmingly thorough Internet search history linked to Brian Walsh, who Googled queries including “10 ways to dispose of a corpse if you really need to” and “how to stop a corpse from decomposing” in the minutes which preceded originally telling the police that he had last seen his wife.
“Yes, I saw it, of course it bothered me, but I don’t believe it,” Ljubicic said of the search history prosecutors cited in court on Wednesday. “Because Brian was never aggressive, he was never, God forbid, angry or angry. I just can’t.” to believe in him.”
“I always thought it was good”
Ljubicic added that her daughter “never, ever complained about her husband,” and said she had spent 16 months with the couple on three international visits.
She said, “I always thought he was good. He was always in a good mood, making jokes. He was the main cook in the house, and he always made food for us.”
Ljubicic also claimed that Brian Walsh saved her life when she was visiting the US in 2021 and “she had some health issues”.
She didn’t elaborate, but in a letter last May that she filed with the Massachusetts District Court before Brian Walsh was sentenced in a phone fraud case, she wrote that he “found me suffering what he thought was a stroke” and “immediately my daughter was injured and called emergency services.” (Court documents show that Brian Walsh was ordered to forfeit $225,000, but it does not appear that he was sentenced to any prison time in this case.)
“I can safely say without him I would not have survived,” Ljubicic wrote in his letter, adding that he “continued to look after me during my recovery at home.”
“He absolutely loved Anna, the way she is, and said several times that he missed her so much when she was away on business,” Ljubicic told NBC News.
“From what I know, everything was fine between them,” she said.
She added that she did not know that her daughter She accused Brian Walsh of threatening to kill her in 2014, Before getting married, according to a report filed with Washington, D.C., NBC Washington was acquired by the police. The report did not identify Brian Walsh by name, but an agency spokesperson confirmed that he was the person accused of threatening Anna Walsh over the phone. No charges were filed, and the case was closed due to the victim’s lack of cooperation, according to the spokesperson.
Of this alleged threat, Ljubicic said: “I didn’t know at the time, I saw it recently in the media. They got married after that, they had kids… I don’t know what to say. I had absolutely no knowledge of it.”
She also claimed she had “absolutely no idea” that a family friend had called Brian Walsh a “sociopath” and “a very angry, physically violent person” in a bitter court battle that followed his father’s posthumous death in 2018 in which friends, his family and his family accused Brian Walsh allegedly stole hundreds of thousands of dollars from his father’s money, and Ljubicic learned of the allegations from recent news reports, she said.
The living arrangements were a source of strife
Ljubić admitted that one point of contention between the couple was over their living arrangements.
The couple’s home base was in Cohasset, an affluent suburb of Boston. But Anna Walsh traveled to Washington, D.C. — more than 400 miles south — every week for her job at Tishman Speyer, the real estate firm where she was regional general manager. Cohasset Police previously said the couple had a residence in the capital as well.
Anna Walsh 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 to Washington, D.C. because in October 2021 Brian Walsh was ordered to stay home and not leave Massachusetts yet. Pleading guilty to three counts of phone fraud six months ago.
“The fact that they had to stay bothered her [in Cohasset] Because in Washington, D.C. they have better living conditions, and she couldn’t cope without that [her] “Children for a long time,” said Ljubicic. And they hoped that this legal process around Brian would only last a couple of months, and they could be together. But it lasted a year or so.”
But still, Ljubicic said she was “not worried at all” about her daughter’s safety or her relationship with her husband.
“We didn’t talk on the phone every day, because she was working so much, but we did exchange text messages. For me, those texts were enough.”
One such letter came on Christmas Day, when Anna Walsh asked her mother, “Mama, can you come over tomorrow?” Ljubicic said.
“I told her – ‘Forget it, I can’t prepare for tomorrow, let’s try the day after tomorrow’,” she said, using a pseudonym or idiom for “Anna”.
Lubesic ended up not coming to the US because she told her daughter it would be more convenient for her to come in January and stay for two months. Anna Walsh responded, saying she and her husband have “plans” for February, though it’s not clear what that means.
“After the first text, when she asked me to come right away, I asked her why the urgency was. She replied that Brian and she didn’t get along with kids, where kids spend time, whether in Boston or Cohasset or Washington, D.C., where they have a home,” Ljubicic added.
“I understood that they were trying to arrange a place to live together… About what happened that night, I have no idea,” she said, adding that she had not received “any official word” from Serbian or American officials about what happened.
Serbia’s acting consul general in New York did not immediately respond to an inquiry.
On New Year’s Eve, Anna Walsh called her mom, but she was asleep and didn’t answer, Ljubicic said.
“[The next day] I texted her, wishing her a Happy New Year, but there was no response.” “Until then I didn’t think anything bad had happened, I wasn’t thinking in that direction.”
According to prosecutors, Ana Walshe’s phone has been off since it was called near the family home in Cohasset just after 3 a.m. on January 2. A day after Brian Walsh told police his wife had left home to catch a flight to D.C. from Logan Airport, which the authorities could not confirm. Prosecutors said there had been no activity on Anna Walsh’s credit cards since she was last seen.
“She… is very attached to her family.”
A spokesperson for the Massachusetts Department of Children and Families previously told NBC News that the Walshes’ three children are in state custody and declined to provide more information, citing federal and state privacy laws.
As far as she knows, the children are in state custody and are “doing a good job,” Ljubicic said, adding, “I don’t know exactly where they are.”
She added that she is unable to take care of the children herself, citing various health issues including heart problems, diabetes and high blood pressure.
Anna Walsh was born in Belgrade and holds dual citizenship in Serbia and the United States, Oljeka Vlasic, acting Consul General of Serbia in New York, previously confirmed to NBC News.
Ljubicic called her “a really unique child, and I can tell you she’s her mother,” she said.
“She is hardworking, skilled and very attached to her family,” Ljubicic added.
Jovana Djurovic reports from Belgrade, Serbia. Julian McShane reports from New York.