A husband prosecutors say misled them in the search for his wife was granted bail despite being on parole and under house arrest for fraud

• Brian Walshe was arrested on charges of misleading police in the case of his missing wife.
• Walshe was granted bail Monday despite being on parole for a prior conviction.

The husband of a missing Massachusetts mother of three was granted bail Monday — despite being on parole for a fraud conviction involving two fake Andy Warhol paintings.

Brian Walshe, 47, was arrested Sunday and charged Monday with misleading investigators in the search for his wife Ana Walshe, 39, who was reported missing on January 4, 2023. After a two-day search, prosecutors with the Norfolk District Attorney's office turned their attention to Brian Walshe, calling into question his previous statements to police, according to an affidavit filed Monday.

In addition to finding a bloodied knife in the couple's Cohasset, Massachusetts, basement, investigators also discovered searches in Brian Walshe's internet history including "how to dispose of a 115-pound woman's body," two law enforcement sources told CNN.

Walshe told police he went to CVS and Whole Foods on day one of his wife being missing, though no footage at either store showed him there.

In a statement to The Daily Beast, Brian Walshe's defense attorney, Tracy Miner, said her client has "been incredibly cooperative" with police.

The charges announced Monday weren't Brian Walshe's first run-in with the law. In an unrelated April 2021 case, he pleaded guilty in connection to taking and attempting to sell two Warhol paintings on eBay. He was currently on parole awaiting sentencing and was only permitted to leave the house at certain times with the court's permission.

Prosecutors said the paintings were two pieces from Warhol's 1978 work, "Shadows." The original listing price for the paintings was $100,000. The buyer arranged to buy the paintings outside of eBay for $80,000, according to the complaint. After buying the paintings, the buyer noticed the promised authentification seal from the Andy Warhol Foundation was not on the back of the artwork.

An affidavit completed by an FBI agent investigating Walshe's art trade indicated Walshe had purchased two authentic Warhol paintings at auction, then "falsely offered the authentic paintings for sale in his eBay listing," but "delivered fake paintings" to the victim.

The gallery owner who Brian Walshe attempted to sell the paintings to spoke to The Daily Beast on Monday.

"He knows how to play the legal system, he knows how to play everyone and everything," Ron Rivlin told The Daily Beast. "He's very calculated."