DEDHAM, Mass. (WPRI) — Digital forensic specialist and Providence College alum Connor Keefe was back on the stand Friday to discuss cell phone records he recovered from Brian and Ana Walshe’s phones.
The prosecution wrapped up its questioning with a text Brian sent to Ana’s phone the day after investigators allege he killed her.
“I still love you! Hahaha,” Keefe read out loud in court.
Brian is on trial for a first-degree murder charge after he pleaded guilty last month to misleading police and improperly disposing his wife’s body in 2023.
The prosecution is trying to prove Brian killed Ana on Jan. 1, 2023, because of his money problems and her affair. But the defense maintains that Ana died from a sudden medical episode.
On Thursday, the prosecution had Keefe read through Brian’s searches, including one from Christmas day, when Ana’s flight back from Washington, D.C., was canceled because of a snowstorm.
“Ana Walshe found dead,” Keefe read.
But in his longest cross-examination yet, defense attorney Larry Tipton said the prosecution had cherry-picked through the cell phone data and taken that search out of context. He said Brian made another search in that same time period for “Christmas day plane crash.”
Both searches, he said, were made before Ana texted Brian that she was driving back.
Tipton also revealed that Brian made a reservation on Dec. 30.
“Are you aware of the fact that Mr. Walshe actually made a reservation for a New Year’s Day dinner at the Nightshade restaurant for himself and Mrs. Walshe?” Tipton asked Keefe.
“I was not aware of that,” Keefe replied.
Also in court Friday, the jury saw some of the tools that were uncovered from the dumpster outside Brian’s mother’s house in Swampscott, including pliers and a measuring cup that still had the powder used for fingerprinting.
The jury also heard from Dr. Richard Atkinson, the state’s deputy chief medical examiner, who was tasked with testing the rug that was also found in the dumpster.
“Normally we’re not involved in examining items, just bodies of people,” he explained. “In this case, the objective was to determine whether there was any human tissue on these items.”
The trial is expected to resume Monday morning with more of Atkinson’s testimony. The judge told jurors she anticipates the evidence portion of the trial to wrap up in two weeks.