The Cohasset mother whose New Year’s Day disappearance has gripped the state and the nation lived here in Marblehead with her husband and children a couple of years ago.
“I’m beside myself. It’s a very scary situation,” said Judith Doane, who sold the home at 6 Edgewood Road to Ana Walshe in 2018 and lived nearby. Walshe and her family moved to Cohasset in 2020.
“I hope to God she’s alive. I’m praying that she’s alive,” Doane told the Marblehead Current.
Walshe’s husband, Brian, was arrested Jan. 8 on charges that he “committed the crime of misleading police investigators,” according to Cohasset Police. The couple has three young sons.
“She had those babies,” Doane said. “My husband and I took the kids a couple of times.”
Doane remembers Ana as always looking her best.
“She is absolutely beautiful, always decked out,” Doane said. “I never saw her in sweatpants or a sweatshirt.”
Law enforcement moved their search to a dumpster outside the Swampscott apartment complex where Brian Walshe’s mother lives and then to a landfill in Peabody, where they found a hacksaw and blood evidence, according to the Boston Globe.
“It’s all creepy,” Doane said. “My concern is for the boys. I hope they’re going to go with family, or at least stay together.”
Doane kept in touch with Ana Walshe after she moved away.
“We were going to visit them this year,” Doane said.
Doane last heard from Ana the day after Christmas.
“In her last text, she said that we were the best neighbors she ever had,” Doane said. “She sent us a video of the boys with the Christmas presents we sent to them.”
Doane remembers Brian Walshe playing with his sons outside their Edgewood Road home.
“He was outside with the kids all the time,” she said.
Marblehead Police Chief Dennis King declined to comment on the investigation. Anyone with information about Ana Walshe is asked to contact Cohasset Detective Harrison Schmidt at 781-383-1055, ext. 6108, or email hschmidt@cohassetpolice.com.
Editor Leigh Blander is an experienced TV, radio and print journalist.
