Friend who spent New Year’s Eve with missing mother says she was ‘festive’

A friend who celebrated New Year’s Eve with missing Massachusetts mother Ana Walshe said there was “no indication” anything was amiss.

Ana, 39, and her husband Brian, 46, invited people over to their Cohasset home, which was ‘festive’ and an ‘elaborate meal’ was served.

The couple reportedly ‘toasted’ the new year just hours before the real estate executive disappeared in the early hours of New Year’s Day.

She has not been seen since, and cops discovered traces of blood, an axe, a hacksaw, a rug and used cleaning products while searching through dumpsters while searching for the mother-of-three.

Walshe has since pleaded not guilty to “misleading the authorities” in connection with his wife’s disappearance.

He told police he got lost on his way there on January 1, which he says was the last day he saw his wife.

Family friend Gem Mutlu told her WBZ-TV: ‘We hug and celebrate and toast just what you do in the new year.

‘I was really looking forward to the new year. There was no indication of anything other than celebrating the new year, trouble awaiting.

Mutlu said he was surprised after receiving a call from Walshe to say that Ana was missing.

He says they hugged goodbye around 1:30 in the morning, after a party at the Walshes’ house.

Ana had been sitting on a stool at the kitchen counter, texting her friends throughout the meal and the party.

Mutlu added: “There was absolutely no indication that any minimal tragedy, disappearance or anything else could have happened that night.”

“Both Ana and Brian have had a huge individual and collective impact on my life. My greatest fear had shifted to the children, I wondered if the children were safe.

“Part of me had this suspicion all along that there might have been foul play and somehow the story didn’t add up.”

The couple had been staying in separate homes, with Ana commuting to DC daily for work and staying there at their $1.4 million estate.

Her employers reported her missing on January 4, and her husband did not raise the alarm with officials.

Police officers investigating the disappearance of Massachusetts mother of three, Ana Walshe, found traces of blood, an axe, a hacksaw, a rug and used cleaning supplies while searching through dumpsters near the her mother-in-law’s house.

The new development follows the revelation that Walshe had searched the internet for “how to get rid of a 115-pound woman’s body.”

Cops also found a knife in the basement of the family’s home with blood on it, as well as on the floor, and reported that he had spent $450 at Home Depot on cleaning supplies.

The Norfolk District Attorney’s office confirmed a “number of items” were recovered from the Peabody transfer station after hours of sifting through trash.

In a statement, they said: “Search activity conducted north of Boston yesterday resulted in the collection of a number of items that will now be subject to processing and testing to determine if they have probative value to this investigation.”

Police were also seen in the parking lot of the apartment complex where Walshe’s mother lives.

The containers were taken with a police escort to the transfer station in Peabody to be searched.

It comes after Walshe told investigators that he visited his mother’s home in nearby Swampscott on New Year’s Day but got lost.

Authorities initially treated the case as a missing person, but sources say they now believe Ana may have been murdered, describing her as 5’2 and 115 pounds in an appeal about her whereabouts.

Walshe was previously seen on surveillance video shopping for heavy cleaning supplies despite telling police he had been home when Ana was last seen alive.

He told police his wife disappeared after she took a car to Boston’s Logan Airport on January 1 around 6 a.m.

However, ride-sharing services show no pickups at the family’s home and Ana’s cell phone continued to ring at the property for two days.

Ana wasn’t reported missing until January 4, when her office called the police because she didn’t show up for work.

Since then, police have been combing the coastal town of Cohasset for any sign of her.

Authorities say Walshe gave police misleading statements about his and his wife’s actions at the time of their disappearance, giving him enough time to clean up a possible crime scene.

Prosecutor Lynn Beland told the court on Monday: “These various statements caused a delay in the investigation to the point that during the period of time that he did not report his wife and gave various statements, it gave him time to clean up the evidence, get rid of the evidence and cause a delay.

Investigators seized two trash trailers in the search, and a business owner said police contacted him late Saturday, adding that the last time they were emptied was just before the New Year.

Art con man Walshe was recorded leaving a Cohasset police station Monday morning, where he beamed and beamed at reporters.

He was charged with fraud after allegedly selling two fake Andy Warhol paintings for $80,000 in 2016, meaning he is under house arrest pending sentencing in federal court.

This means he has to report when he’s going somewhere, but the camera caught him going to Home Depot on Jan. 2 after saying he never left the house except to take his son out for ice cream.

Walshe was arrested Sunday night as detectives continued to search for his real estate executive wife.

He hasn’t used his phone or credit cards since he disappeared and he hasn’t shown up for work.

Walshe’s bail was set at $500,000 cash, after police searched the home the couple shared and discovered blood on a knife and in the basement.

Quincy District Court prosecutors say Walshe’s statements, including the claim that he did not leave the house, delayed the investigation.