Brian Walshe told pal he lost phone the same day wife vanished

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Brian Walshe seen one day after wife Ana Walshe went missing

Brian Walshe is seen on surveillance footage at a juice bar just one day after his wife, Ana Walshe, went missing on New Year’s Day. (Jonathan Bruno)

REVERE, Mass. — Art swindler Brian Walshe told his friend he lost his phone the day his wife, Ana, mysteriously disappeared from their Cohasset home, according to text messages obtained by Fox News Digital.

Mike Silva, who was renting an apartment from the Walshes, wished his pal a Happy New Year at 7:24 a.m. on Jan. 1 — but he didn't receive a reply until the next day.

"Happy new year. Sorry for the delay. I miss [sic] placed my phone and my son just found it," Brian Walshe wrote.

He told investigators that his Tishman Speyer executive wife had kissed him goodbye shortly after 6 a.m. on Jan.1 to catch a flight to Washington, D.C., for an emergency work trip.

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Brian Walshe sent a text message to a friend on Jan. 2 saying he'd lost his phone one day after his wife, Ana Walshe, vanished. (Mike Silva/Instagram)

But prosecutors say she never got into a taxi and her cellphone continued to ping near her home on Jan. 2.

Less than two hours after Brian Walshe replied to Silva, he went on a shopping spree at Home Depot in violation of his house arrest stemming from his felony convictions for hawking fake Andy Warhol paintings.

Wearing a black surgical mask and blue surgical gloves, Brian Walshe was allegedly captured on surveillance footage paying cash for $450 in cleaning supplies, according to an affidavit.

Ana Walshe holds her three children in an October 2022 Instagram post. (Ana Walshe/Instagram)

He was arrested Sunday for misleading investigators after his wife vanished, including omitting the bizarre excursion to Home Depot.

The father of three also told police he lost his cellphone, the affidavit says.

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"Walshe related one of the boys must have taken and lost his phone during new years eve and new years day," the document states. Brian Walshe said his son later found his phone under a pillow.

According to an affidavit, Brian Walshe may have picked up cleaning supplies at Home Depot in Rockland, Massachusetts, after his wife was last seen. (David McGlynn for Fox News Digital)

Investigators found blood and a bloody knife in the basement of the Walshes' home and police later recovered a hatchet, a hacksaw and trash bags with blood from a waste facility, WBZ-TV reported. 

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Ana Walshe was reported missing by her employer Jan. 4 after she did not show up to work in Washington, D.C.

The Walshes' three boys, ages 2, 4, and 6, are in the custody of Children and Family Services, while their father remains jailed on $500,000 cash bail.