Ana and her sister were raised in war-torn Serbia, living through years of ethnic conflict and a genocide, according to a court filing submitted by Ana’s mother, Milanka Ljubicic.
Ana Walshe was a high-powered executive whose hard work allowed her to quickly move up the professional ranks in the hospitality industry.
Court documents and public records obtained by Inside Edition Digital outline her remarkable ascent after arriving in this country as a young immigrant.
That remarkable life was cut short earlier this month according to prosecutors, and now her husband, Brian Walshe, is accused of murdering the mother of three, dismembering her body, and scattering the remains.
Ana and her sister were raised in war-torn Serbia, living through years of ethnic conflict and genocide according to a court filing submitted by Ana’s mother, Milanka Ljubicic.
After attending the University of Belgrade in her native country, Ana traveled to the United States and eventually enrolled at Cornell University in New York, according to her LinkedIn profile.
Her first job after arriving in the States was at the famed Inn at Little Washington in Virginia.
She wrote about her time there in an Instagram post last year.
"So many aspects of the positions I held in the beginning did not include any glamorous tasks. (making beds, cleaning toilets, polishing glasses, setting up tables, serving bread, etc.), and often resulted in working up to 16 hours per day, I now (some 15 + years later) reap the benefits of the work ethic, discipline and endurance and cherish memories of the journey like no other," wrote Ana.
Ana eventually transferred to the Wheatleigh, a luxury estate in the Berkshires, which is where she met Brian Walshe.
"It was love at first sight for me and I feel the same way about Brian to this day," said Ana in a 2021 court filing submitted as part of hr husband's sentencing memo. "We tried a long distance relationship for a few years, until I moved permanently to Boston in 2015. We got engaged and married the same year, and the following year we welcomed our first son Thomas."
A few years after Ana started dating Brian, she filed a police report claiming that he threatened to kill her during their courtship, but then refused to cooperate with investigators when they attempted to follow up on her allegation.
She and Brian married in Boston in 2015, and had three children over the next five years. It was Ana's second marriage.
Ana had worked for a series of Boston properties starting in 2015 according to her LinkedIn, keeping her close to home.
She made the decision however to accept a position in Washington, D.C. with Tishman Speyer a year before she went missing.
Norfolk County property records show that Ana sold the family’s Cohasset home for $1.385 million, two years after purchasing the property for $800,000. The deed to that property was in Ana's name.
She then almost immediately put all that money into a new home in D.C., where records show she bought a $1.3 million townhouse last March.
Suffolk County property records also show that Ana sold an apartment on December 29, two days before she went missing.
It is unclear what the family’s plan was at the time Ana went missing, as despite owning a new home in D.C., they were also renting a property in Cohasset.
That is where police found traces of blood in the basement after being alerted to Ana’s disappearance by her employer. Her husband did not report her missing despite claims that he called police, according to the Cohasset police log. Brian was arrested soon after for misleading a police investigation.
A week later, he was charged with her murder.
This was not his first run-in with the law.
Brian entered a guilty plea in April 2021 to a slew of federal charges including one count each of wire fraud, interstate transportation for a scheme to defraud, possession of converted goods and an unlawful monetary transaction.
Federal prosecutors alleged that Brian photographed two authentic Andy Warhol paintings from the artist’s “Shadows” series that he had taken from a friend, used those photos to sell the artwork to a dealer in California, and then sent the dealer two forgeries.
Court documents obtained by Inside Edition Digital show that prosecutors argued that Brian should serve a 30-month prison sentence, but the judge delayed sentencing and allowed Brian to stay under house arrest after the defense submitted their sentencing memo in September 2021.
That memo included Ana's letter championing her husband.
The judge was then “moments away from pronouncing a … non-imprisonment sentence” for Brian when prosecutors accused him of committing additional acts of fraud and embezzlement.
In a supplemental sentencing memo, prosecutors alleged that Brian lied to probation officers, misled authorities about the amount of money he received from both his wife and mother while claiming he could not pay the court-ordered restitution to his victims, and destroyed his father's final will and testament after being disinherited so that he could be appointed as the personal representative of his father's estate.
Federal prosecutors further alleged that Brian then sold off and liquidated assets in the brief period that he had control over his father's estate.
Prosecutors once again argued for a 30-month prison sentence for Brian.
BRIAN WALSHE SUPPLIMENTAL SENTENCING MEMO
"What happened to the money Walshe took from the victims in this case helps explain the real reason Walshe committed these frauds: to sustain his lavish lifestyle using unlawful means," claimed federal prosecutors. "For example, after obtaining $145,000 from Victim 3 in France, Walshe’s credit card receipts show that he and his wife went shopping at Prada. Similarly, the money that Walshe obtained from Victim 1 mostly went to pay credit card debt, which included charges for travel and restaurants."
Court records show that the judge ordered a hearing on these allegations, but before that could happen, Brian was arrested by local law enforcement and charged with hampering a police investigation for statements he made to authorities after his wife went missing.
He is now charged with murder and will remain behind bars until his next hearing.
Brian's attorney said last week that the allegations against his client are weak and entered a not guilty plea on his behalf.
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