Ana Walshe’s lover faces down her husband Brian Walshe at murder trial

The man who had an affair with murdered Massachusetts mom Ana Walshe told jurors Thursday she was planning to tell her accused killer husband, Brian Walshe, about the tryst — and she was “despondent” about not being able to spend more time with their three sons.

William Fastow took the witness stand in Norfolk County Superior Court in Dedham, Mass. Thursday at the fourth day of the murder trial against Walshe, 50, telling jurors how he and Ana started dating just weeks after she began living part-time in Washington DC for a new job.

Walshe, meanwhile, remained in their Cohasset, Mass. home, caring for their three young boys while Ana went back and forth between the two homes, Fastow testified.

Fastow said Ana was “despondent” that she wasn’t able to be more involved with their kids and she relied on Walshe to be the primary caregiver for the boys, since Walshe had a federal art fraud conviction and was on home confinement in the Bay State and couldn’t move to DC.

Fastow told the jury that Ana eventually decided she needed to tell Walshe about her romance with Fastow because she didn’t want him finding out from someone else.

“Ana felt it was really important that when Brian was to find out about the relationship, that he would hear it from her. She had expressed a great concern, and I think she felt it would be a strike against her integrity if he found out a different way,” Fastow told the jury.

Ana and Walshe were initially referred to Fastow, a real estate broker, when they were looking to buy a townhouse in the nation’s capital that Ana could live in while she worked there.

“We quickly became close friends then confidants and before long we started an intimate relationship,” Fastow said, according to a report by CNN. “We would share conversations about our lives, what we were going through, personal troubles, those sorts of things.”

Fastow — who was separated from his wife at the time — testified he spoke to Ana every day, saw her a few times a week, attended functions with her, went on dates and took her on his sailboat in Annapolis, Maryland.

While Fastow never met Walshe in person, he had seen him on Zoom calls during the home buying process and he learned early on that Walshe had a federal art fraud case that plagued Ana and Walshe’s marriage.

The issue came up when an insurance company wouldn’t cover a policy for the $1.3 million townhouse they bought in DC and Ana told Fastow about how Walshe was on home confinement in Cohasset as part of his criminal case, he testified.

He also said Ana planned to tell Walshe about the affair, which Fastow himself made no secret of.

Walshe’s lawyer told jurors Monday during opening statements that Ana never planned to break up the marriage and fiercely guarded her secret from Walshe.

Ana had been anticipating Walshe and the boys moving to DC in 2022 after Walshe was supposed to be sentenced in the federal case but the sentencing got postponed and Fastow and Ana ended up getting more serious after that, Fastow testified.

Fastow stopped dating other people and he and Ana spent Thanksgiving 2022 in Dublin, Ireland together and they spent Christmas Eve together with Fastow’s friends in Annapolis. Her flight to Massachusetts was cancelled the next day so Ana ended up driving home, he testified.

Fastow said he and Ana planned to meet on Jan. 4 to discuss the future of their relationship but all of a sudden on New Year’s Day Ana stopped answering his messages and Fastow never heard from or saw her again. His last contact with Ana was texting with her just as the New Year rang in, he testified.

He found out she was missing when Walshe called him twice on Jan. 4 and left him a voicemail, explaining he didn’t know where she was and asking Fastow for help tracking her down, Fastow testified. Walshe’s voicemail to Fastow was played for the jury.

Fastow also detailed for jurors the problems in Ana and Walshe’s marriage including that Walshe was upset that Ana wasn’t home on Christmas Eve.

“There were some points of contention,” Fastow testified.

Walshe is accused of killing Ana around New Year’s Day 2023 and dismembering her body and dropping the remains in dumpsters never to be found.

Prosecutors claim that Walshe was motivated in part by his discovery of Ana’s affair in addition to their already strained marriage owing to his legal problems, including an impending prison sentence and $400,000 in restitution.

Fastow told the jury the criminal case was the main strain on Ana’s marriage.

“The biggest stressor was his inability to resolve his criminal case, and the fact that, because of that, she couldn’t be with her children and bring them back to Washington, DC, and the fact that it felt like it was holding up her life,” Fastow testified.

The paramour also said Ana and Walshe got into fights over how much Walshe spent, since Ana was the only one pulling in a salary at the time, Fastow said.

Walshe admitted weeks before trial to lying to cops and getting rid of her body but he still maintains he didn’t kill her.

His lawyer claimed Monday that Ana died of “sudden unexplained death” and Walshe panicked, believing he’d be blamed and their boys would be left alone, so he got rid of the body.