That Smith Case News Today

>> reporter: what we definitely learned, anderson, is you know, a lot more about the timeline in court today, much of it linked to the alleged internet searches that walshe conducted on december 27th, january 1st, the second and fourth internet searches about things such as dna, divorce, and a decomposing body. >> i think the number one concern is finding ana and finding out what happened. >> reporter: the timeline in the mystery of what happened to ana walshe spans more than two weeks...

Street from me in quincy district court. norfolk county does not have the high number of homicides as surrounding areas, but there are heinous crimes that take place in this county. the other case you were talking about 20 years ago with joseph romano, this is eerily similar, taking the wifes body parts, putting them into a trash bag, lugging them to a trash compaq investor out to a land fill somewhere. thats eerily similar to what happened here. >> thank you so much. really appreciate it. jus...

Incriminating. theyre right out of a horror movie. judges have a standard instruction theyll give juries. theyll say science has not yet invented a way to look into the human minds, but looking at someones google history is darn close. this is more incriminating than a confession really because confessions sometimes people dont tell the full truth. this tells you exactly what hes thinking. the key issue for prosecutors is going to be proving some sort of premeditation, some sort of deliberation ...

Going into a case like that. one is circumstantial evidence. and the other is the double jeopardy factor which is if you get it wrong the first time and you find the body a year later, you cant go back on it. so, prosecutors weigh these very carefully. in this case, part of what theyre doing is fronting what appears to be somewhat overwhelming circumstantial evidence. >> mary ellen, there is another kind of evidence you think is important, pattern evidence. can you talk about that, what that mea...

Now, which family ends up being the parent, thats still to be known. but at least we know that theres going to be loving families that are going to be welcoming them in, who are just not sure of the process. but least the initial steps are done. >> did she ever talk to you about her husband? >> she never mentioned him much. we mostly had a professional connection, but she was always talking about her boys. that was the biggest thing, her boys, her boys, her boys. thats the thing that stuck with ...

The phone? how often do they call home? how often do they post on social media? and then all of a sudden, all of those contexts just stop abruptly, that lends itself to the idea that this person didnt voluntarily go missing. this person is likely dead, and the cause of death is homicide -- or manner of death is homicide. so, again, they have to establish the fact that heres somebody thats vibrant, communicates all the time, 24/7, and now it just stops, consistent with the timing, for example, of...

Think they can walk, but not all defendants walk. i think a victory is relative, and in this case its about reducing the degree of crime and looking at mitigating factors. >> mark, would you see this going to trial? if its about sort of mitigating factors and managing the defendants expectations of not going to walk but, you know, what sort of a reduced sentence he could actually get, does that argue for some sort of plea agreement? >> if you think about it, you dont get to argue a lot of litiga...

Investigation thats ongoing, so despite all of the horrific details that we heard in court today that youve been listening to, expect to get even more details about the prosecutions case, as this case proceeds. and of course were going to learn more about what the defense will be. we can also tell you that the next court date is scheduled for february 9th. anderson. >> thanks very much. again, this hour were going to be covering all the aspects of this case. there are so many details we le learn...

And alibi him up. the more he talked and the more he gave them fraudulent information, bad information, he painted himself into a corner that led prosecutors to focus on his actions and activities and start looking at him as a primary suspect in this case. >> danielle, as somebody whos been in law enforcement for a long time, youve seen a lot, what do you -- whats -- is this -- i mean, have you ever seen google searches like this? >> ive seen similar google searches, not quite this intense and t...

Others around the nation wait to hear the conclusion, it may be a grim one. nothing is proven in this case, not even the death threat brian walshe allegedly made to his wife nine years ago. it is worth noting intimate partner abuse affects some 10 million people in this country each year. one in four women are victims. so are one in nine men. this is far from the only case in which a husband is accused of killing a spouse they vowed to love and cherish. >> at this point, were not ruling in or ou...