Officials in Massachusetts are becoming more concerned as each day passes over the safety and health of a Cohasset mom of three who disappeared on New Year’s Day, but now an odd development has made the mystery all the stranger.
The Cohasset Police Department has thus far categorized the still unsolved disappearance of Ana Welshe as merely a “missing persons” case, because to date there is no evidence of any sort of crime.
But friends and family say that it is highly suspicious that the missing loyal wife and mother has remained out of contact for more than a week. They are alarmed that there is no footprint of her whereabouts at all. No financial transactions can be found traced to her credit and ATM cards, and her cell phone has not been turned on since the day she disappeared.
Walshe, who is described as five-foot two, with brown hair and eyes, and speaks with an Eastern European accent, disappeared early on New Year’s morning after she took a rideshare to Logan International Airport in Boston for a business trip to Washington D.C., Fox News reported.
Ana Walshe, 39, left her house early on New Year’s Day to catch a flight to Washington DC from Massachusetts for work. She never made it on the plane. She has three children at home. Her husband was allegedly asleep when she left and is cooperating. #MissingPerson pic.twitter.com/3tDA5ahGLS
— Rose (@901Lulu) January 6, 2023
But the missing woman never boarded her plane, officials said.
“Every hour, we’re getting more concerned for her well-being,” Cohasset Police Chief William Quigley said on Saturday. “We have more questions than answers.”
Walshe was headed to Washington D.C. for her job with the D.C.-based real estate company Tishman Speyer. The company told the media that it is fully cooperating with officials “in their ongoing search for our beloved colleague, Ana, and are praying for her safe return.”
Chief Quigley added that his office is working with both the Massachusetts State Police and the D.C. Metropolitan Police to investigate the woman’s disappearance.
Quigley added that there is no evidence of murder or abduction, and he hopes Walshe will be found and that nothing criminal is discovered about her disappearance.
“Life is challenging sometimes. She has small kids — the oldest being 6 and the youngest being 2 — the holidays, working out of state — sometimes life gets chaotic, and it may be a case where she needed a break, and if that’s the case, we need a call from her or someone who has talked to her,” Quigley said in a statement, according to WCVB-TV.
Still, friends seem to feel the chief’s hopeful characterization of the disappearance is out of step with the woman they know.
“She’s a loving and loyal wife and mother of three beautiful boys,” said Alissa Kirby, a friend, WCVB reported. “She loves her family, and I know in my heart that of her choice, she would not go a day without speaking to her husband and her kids.”
“Honestly, I’m scared. Really, really scared,” Kirby added.
Then, to make the whole case even stranger, on Friday, a fire broke out at a home in which Walshe used to live.
The home in Cohasset broke out in flames, causing its inhabitants — a couple, their toddler and nanny — to flee the premises as the fire department worked to douse the blaze. All inhabitants made it out safely and are in no danger, CBS Boston reported.
Breaking: Cohasset Police/ Fire not at an attic fire on Jerusalem Road— at a house missing person Ana Walshe and her husband sold a few months ago. #WCVB pic.twitter.com/OJf2HYZ5Ap
— Mary Saladna (@MaryWCVB) January 6, 2023
Chief Quigley exclaimed that the fire was a “very strange coincidence. We have the fire marshal’s office and our detectives who will be assigned here to investigate this fire,” WCVB reported.
The fire does seem to be nothing but a coincidence. The Office of the State Fire Marshal said that so far the fire “does not appear to be suspicious,” according to Fox.
In yet another odd twist, Walshe’s husband has a criminal record after his 2021 conviction on federal charges of trying to sell forged Andy Warhol paintings to a South Korean buyer for $80,000. Police have dismissed the man’s criminal past as having any part in the woman’s disappearance.
Everyone looking for Walshe hopes there will be good news once all is said and done, but the the longer she stays missing, the more unlikely her safe return seems.
Everyone is praying for her well-being.
This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.