Authorities testing items found in search for missing Massachusetts woman Ana Walshe

BOSTON — Officials are testing items — including a hacksaw and an apparently bloody rug — collected by investigators searching for Massachusetts woman Ana Walshe, a 39-year-old mother of three who was last seen New Year’s Day, according to WFXT.

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Unidentified sources told the news station that the rug recovered by investigators is also believed to have human tissue on it.

A source earlier told WFXT that evidence linked to Walshe had been found Monday night as investigators searched a dumpster in the North Shore area. Officials did not immediately say what evidence was found.

In a statement obtained by The Patriot Ledger, officials with the Norfolk County district attorney’s office said they collected “a number of items” during searches north of Boston on Monday “which will now be subject to processing and testing to determine if they are of evidentiary value to this investigation.”

Officials declined to specify what items are being tested.

Police said Walshe was last seen early New Year’s Day. Her husband, 47-year-old Brian Walshe, told investigators that she was supposed to take a rideshare to Boston Logan International Airport for a flight to Washington, where she works for a real estate company, according to WFXT. No evidence has surfaced that she arrived at the airport.

Her employer reported her missing on Jan. 4.

Investigators focused Monday on a dumpster at an apartment complex in Swampscott where Brian Walshe’s mother lives, according to WFXT. Sources told the news station that the dumpster was taken to a trash transfer station in Peabody, where authorities spent hours sifting through its contents.

Brian Walshe has been under house arrest while awaiting sentencing in an unrelated federal case. He had gotten permission to drive his mother to her home on New Year’s Day, according to WFXT.

Neighbors of Brian Walshe’s mother told the news station they got chills when they learned why police were investigating the dumpster at their apartment complex.

“The one over there is automatic. When you close the door, it compacts,” Patt Tradd said, according to WFXT. “It’s a scary thing to think about that. God forbid, somebody put something in there, the compactor would compact it.”

Authorities have charged Brian Walshe with misleading a police investigation after officials said he lied about his whereabouts after his wife was last seen. At a court hearing on Monday, Assistant District Attorney Lynn Beland said he was supposed to be under house arrest on Jan. 2, though surveillance cameras caught him buying hundreds of dollars’ worth of cleaning supplies at a Home Depot.

He also claimed to have gone to a Whole Foods and a CVS store across the street from his mother’s apartment, though investigators could find no evidence to corroborate his story, Beland said in court.

“These various statements caused a lot of delays, to the point that during the timeframe when he didn’t report his wife (missing), that gave him time to either clean up evidence or dispose of evidence,” she said, according to WFXT.

Beland said investigators also found blood and a damaged, bloody knife in the Walshe family’s home in Cohasset.

Brian Walshe pleaded not guilty Monday to misleading a police investigation. A judge set his bail at $500,000, WFXT reported.

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