what Brian Walshe googled

(Trends Wide) — What is the best state for a man to get divorced?

Dismemberment and the best ways to dispose of a body.

Can they charge you with murder without a body?

These are just some of the Google searches prosecutors say Brian Walshe did in the days before and after allegedly murdering his wife Ana, dismembering her and disposing of her remains in dumpsters in suburban Boston.

Prosecutor Lynn Beland read the disturbing records aloud to the court, during the hearing in which Brian Walshe, 47, was charged with murder and unauthorized disinterment of a body. He had previously been accused of misleading investigators in the case of his wife’s disappearance. Walshe pleaded not guilty to all charges and his defense attorney suggested that the evidence against him was not strong.

All but one of the Google searches were done after Ana Walshe was last seen on January 1 and before the place where she works reported her missing on January 4.

Misty Marris, a defense attorney, told Trends Wide that the Google searches “really gave investigators a map of what to look for and where to look.”

Specifically, the searches revealed to prosecutors Brian Walshe’s focus on dismemberment and disposal of a body, as well as insight into his motive, including a search on divorce and another on inheritance, Marris said.

“The story has really been coming together, and those Google searches were essential in putting the pieces together,” he said.

John Miller, police chief and Trends Wide intelligence analyst, similarly said: “He basically puts his plan questions into Google searches, as prosecutors allege.”

Adding to the unpleasant nature of the searches, some of them were conducted on her son’s iPad, the prosecutor said.

Brian Walshe in his appearance this Wednesday in the Quincy District Court charged with murder and disinterring a body without authority. Credit: WBTS

Here’s a timeline of the Google searches that were mentioned in court at Brian Walshe’s arraignment on Wednesday, along with what prosecutors say he was doing at the time:

December 27:

What is the best state for a man to get divorced?

January 1: Brian and Ana Walshe went to bed around 1 or 1:30 a.m. after celebrating the New Year with a friend, he told investigators, an affidavit read. Brian Walshe told police that Ana Walshe left early that morning for her job in Washington, the affidavit says, but there is no evidence that she left the house.

• 4:55 am – How long before a body starts to stink?
• 4:58 am – How to prevent a body from decomposing?
• 5:47 am – 10 ways to dispose of a dead body if you really need to
• 6:25 am – How long does someone have to be missing to inherit
• 6:34 am – Can you drop body parts?
• 9:29 am – What does formaldehyde do?
• 9:34 am – How long does DNA last?
• 9:59 am – Can identification of partial remains be made?
• 11:34 am – Dismemberment and the best ways to dispose of a body.
• 11:44 am – How to clean the blood from the wooden floor?
• 11:56 am – Luminol to detect blood.
• 1:08 pm – What happens when you put body parts in ammonia?
• 1:21 pm – Is it better to put away the clothes from the crime scene or wash them?

January 2: Brian Walshe traveled to a Home Depot and paid $450 in cash for supplies, including mops, a bucket, goggles, tarps, an ax and baking soda, according to prosecutors.

• 12:45 pm – Hacksaw best tool for dismemberment.
• 1:10 pm – Can you be charged with murder without a body?
• 1:14 pm – Can you identify a body with broken teeth?

January 3:

• 1:02 pm – What happens to hair on a corpse?
• 1:13 pm – What is the rate of decomposition of a body found in a plastic bag compared to a surface in the woods?
• 1:20 pm – Can baking soda hide or make a body smell good?