Ana Walshe praised husband Brian Walshe in a letter to a judge 7 months before he was charged with her murder: 'We are all looking forward to the new chapter in his life.'

• Ana Walshe wrote letters to a federal judge praising her husband, Brian Walshe.
• Brian Walshe has now been charged with murdering Ana, who went missing earlier this month.

Just seven months before Brian Walshe was charged with the murder of his wife, Ana Walshe wrote a letter praising him to a federal judge.

Walshe, 47, was charged with his wife's murder on Tuesday, but has been held in jail since January 8, when authorities accused him of misleading the investigators who were searching for Ana. Ana's employer was the first to report her missing on January 4 when she didn't arrive at work.

Massachusetts prosecutors have outlined some of the evidence against Walshe, saying they found a bloody knife in the couple's basement and a chilling search history on their son's iPad, including the queries "can you be charged with murder without a body" and "is it better to throw crime scene clothes away or wash them."

Walshe had been on house arrest while awaiting sentencing for a fraud conviction. Walshe pleaded guilty in 2021 to selling fake Andy Warhol paintings.

Court documents from the fraud case show his wife had publicly supported him multiple times, telling a judge of his accomplishments as a father and community member.

"Brian has been working consistently on breaking the past habits of his family and we are all looking forward to the new chapter in his life," Ana wrote in a letter dated June 1, 2022.

In the letter, Ana thanked Judge Douglas Woodlock for allowing her husband to remain on house arrest while he awaited sentencing.

She also commended her husband for saving her mother's life. She wrote that her mother experienced a "major neurological event" in December of 2021, and that Walshe picked up on her distress and immediately called for help.

"She keeps repeating that she wouldn't be here if it wasn't for her son-in-law, Brian," Ana wrote. "Not only did he save her life, but he also brought her and the entire family comfort and joy during the course of her illness."

Earlier in Walshe's fraud case, Ana wrote a similar letter to Judge Woodlock describing intense "suffering" in her husband's life stemming from his childhood.

"Brian has been deeply affected by his childhood and relationship with his parents. He was taught to lie and hide," she wrote. "He was told that he was a loser, that his parents should have not had him, that he had no chances of making anything of himself in life, and that he was a lost cause. A deep feeling of shame governed his life."

Ana noted in her letter that her husband's childhood trauma troubled him throughout his life, "and was the determining factor of how he showed up for himself and others in the past."

But despite Walshe's actions, Ana still praised her husband's "big heart" and his love for his family.

"Brian is the love of my love, my life partner, best friend, and the father of our three children," she wrote.