Ana Walshe.Photo: Instagram

Friends of missing momAna Walsheare pleading with the state to keep her young children together and place them with people they already know.
Bardhi says shortly after, Massachusetts authorities stepped in and took the children, ages 2, 4, and 6, from Brian’s mother and placed them in state custody.
“Today was supposed to be the day that they get placed in foster care and potentially separated,” Bardhi told PEOPLE on Thursday. “These are three boys under 6 who you don’t know what they’ve seen, heard, experienced, within the last two weeks. The trauma to potentially think about separation — absolutely not.”
She adds, “Do not just place them in a random foster care situation, when there are people — Ana’s close friends — that want to take them in.”
Ana, 39, was reported missing Jan. 4, three days after she was allegedly last seen at her Cohasset, Mass., home.
Since then, authorities have arrested her husband Brian, 47, on a charge of misleading a police investigation in connection to her disappearance. He has pleaded not guilty, and his attorney Tracy Miner declined PEOPLE’s request for comment.
Prosecutors also accused Brian of spending $450 on cleaning products on Jan. 2, after he was captured making the purchase on Home Depot surveillance footage.
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In the couple’s basement, blood and a bloodied knife were allegedly discovered, prosecutors announced Monday.
Citing anonymous law enforcement officials,CNNreports Brian also allegedly conducted internet research on how to dismember and dispose of a body.
While Brian awaits his Feb. 9 court appearance on the charge of misleading police, in a separate case, he also awaits sentencing in relation to a 2016 art scam, in which he was convicted of wire fraud after selling two fake Andy Warhol paintings.
source: people.com