Brian Walshe killed and dismembered his wife Ana Walshe and disposed of her body in dumpsters, a prosecutor with the Norfolk district attorney’s office said at his arraignment on Wednesday.

“Rather than divorce, it is believed that Brian Walshe dismembered Ana Walshe and discarded her body,” prosecutor Lynn Beland said.

Brian Walshe, 47, was arraigned in Quincy District Court on charges of murder and disinterring a body without authority.

The hearing was the first time that prosecutors definitively said Ana Walshe, the Massachusetts mother of three who has been missing since the new year, is believed to be dead.

In court, Beland laid out some of the evidence that led to that charge, including the discovery of Ana Walshe’s belongings and her blood in the garbage.

Surveillance video captured a person appearing to be Brian Walshe tossing heavy bags into a dumpster in Abington and in Swampscott, Beland said. 

The bags in Swampscott contained blood stains, cleaning equipment, a hacksaw, a hatchet, boots and a purse worn by Ana Walshe and her Covid-19 vaccination card

the prosecutor said. Her and her husband’s DNA also were found on human blood in the trash, she said.

Further, in the days after her disappearance, Brian Walshe allegedly made a series of Google searches:

“How to dispose of a dead body if you really need to,” “dismemberment and how to dispose of a body,”

“can you be charged with murder without a body,” and “can you identify a body with broken teeth,” according to the prosecutor.