Local and state police in Massachusetts used police dogs to scour a wooded area near the Cohasset home of a missing mom and searched the family pool Saturday afternoon.
Cohasset police gave the media a brief update on the search for Ana Walshe at the staging area along Route 3A as a helicopter circled above.
It’s unclear what police were looking for in the pool, and police haven’t said what led them to two specific quadrants of the woods.
Cohasset Police Chief William Quigley told “Fox and Friends Weekend” on Saturday morning that finding Walshe is the department’s “top priority.”
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The 39-year-old mom of three hasn’t been seen since New Year’s Day. She was reportedly expected to take a rideshare to Logan International Airport in Boston and board a flight to Washington D.C., where she works in a real estate company, Quigley said.
But she never reached the airport, according to police, and her family and her employer Tishman Speyer, reported her missing on Wednesday.
As the local search continues, Quigley said detectives are headed to D.C. to follow up on potential leads and conduct interviews alongside D.C.’s Metropolitan Police Department.
“Every hour, we’re getting more concerned for her well-being,” the Cohasset police chief told “Fox & Friends Weekend.”
“We have more questions than answers,” he said.
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He reiterated the statement later in the TV interview when asked about the two-alarm fire at her former home, which Quigley called “very strange circumstances.”
The cause of the fire is underdetermined and remains under investigation, according to Cohasset Fire Chief John Dockray.
But the Office of the State Fire Marshal and Cohasset police said it “does not appear to be suspicious.”
Walshe’s employer Tishman Speyer told Fox News Digital in a previous interview that it was assisting authorities “in their ongoing search for our beloved colleague, Ana, and are praying for her safe return.”
Her disappearance is being treated as a missing person’s case thus far, Quigley said, noting that there is “nothing to support anything suspicious or criminal.”
Alissa Kirby, identified as Walshe’ friend of Walshe, told WCVB that she’s concerned for friend.
“She’s a loving and loyal wife and mother of three beautiful boys,” Kirby told WCVB.
Walshe hasn’t left any digital footprint since vanishing and her cell phone has been shut off, police said.
She was first reported missing Wednesday, the same day she had a plane ticket out of Boston Logan International Airport.
However, she did not get on that plane, and detectives were told she was heading back to D.C. early on New Year’s Day to handle an emergency linked to one of the properties she manages.
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Another wrinkle in the case is her husband’s criminal past.
Brian Walshe, pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in Boston in 2021 after being arrested a few years earlier for selling two fake Andy Warhol paintings to a South Korean buyer for $80,000, according to federal prosecutors.
Quigley said that case appears to be unrelated to Ana Walshe’s disappearance. He said Brian Walshe, who said he was asleep at the time Ana walked out the door early Sunday, is cooperating with investigators.
Police have asked the public to send any information or tips to tips@cohassetpolice.com.
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Police describe Ana Walshe as being 5 feet 2 inches tall and around 115 pounds.
She has brown hair, brown eyes, an olive complexion and is believed that she speaks with an Eastern European accent, according to authorities.