"Missing Massachusetts woman Anna Welsh: mother breaks silence - 'Clearly, there were problems'."."

"I have only one wish - for my daughter to be alive," said the mother of missing Massachusetts woman Ana Valsha in an interview with Fox News Digital.

Published on January9,2023,10:12 PM EST | Updated on January9,2023,10:42 PM EST

EXCLUSIVE:

BELGRADE, Serbia

- The missing real estate executive from Massachusetts, who has been missing since January 1, begged her mother to come visit from her home country of Serbia just a week before her disappearance, which has led the now-worried woman to believe that her daughter had "problems" at home before she went missing, she told Fox News Digital.

"She just said, 'Please, mom. Come tomorrow,'" said Milanka Ljubicic, the mother of the missing 39-year-old Ana Valshe, in an interview conducted on Monday and later translated into English. "This means that, obviously, there must have been some problems."

Lyubichich, 69, spoke with Fox News Digital outside her apartment building in Belgrade, Serbia, where she recalled how her daughter sent her a message on December 25, asking her to come to Washington, D.C. the next day. She said, "She wrote in the evening, urging me to come to Washington the next day." She remembered responding, "I can't get ready in one day. I'm 69 years old, I need to take my medications and a thousand other things." Lyubichich said that instead, she suggested coming the following day. Ana did not give Lyubichich any reasons for the urgency. Lyubichich proposed that her daughter visit her instead on January 5 or 6, but her daughter said that wasn't necessary. "She said, 'You don't need to come in January. Brian and I are planning for February,'" Lyubichich recalled.

A woman missed a call from her daughter around midnight on December 31 and another call shortly after that. "She called again at 1 AM, and I missed that call too. She called her older sister, who was also asleep. Then she tried to call her bridesmaid, who didn't hear the phone because of the loud music," she said. "And now I regret not picking up the phone because she has disappeared."

Ana Walsh, the mother of three young boys, was last seen in the early hours of January 1, when she was supposed to take a rideshare to the local airport to catch a flight to Washington, D.C.

The CEO of Tishman Speyer was scheduled to travel to Washington on January 3 but stated that an urgent situation required his early arrival. Her company reported her missing to the police on January 4, after, according to attorney Brian Walsh, he contacted the firm inquiring about Ana's whereabouts.

But in the days between Ana's disappearance and the report of her missing, Brian Walsh allegedly lied about his whereabouts. Investigators say that Walsh not only told them he had been shopping at places like CVS and Whole Foods, where he may not have actually been, but he also failed to mention that he spent about $450 on cleaning supplies at Home Depot in Rockland, Massachusetts. According to court documents and officials, Walsh was seen on video "wearing a black surgical mask, blue surgical gloves, and making a cash purchase" of items including mops, tape, and protective coverings. Investigators also found blood and a bloody damaged knife in the family's basement, and tracked Ana's mobile phone in the area of the family home in Cohasset on January 1 and 2. Meanwhile, Brian's mobile phone "pinged" in other parts of Massachusetts, such as Brockton and Abington, despite his restriction from being in those areas under the terms of his house arrest.

Walsh was arrested on Sunday and charged with misleading the police. The police attribute the charge against Walsh to his deliberate, intentional, and direct responses to questions about his whereabouts on Sunday, January 1, 2023, and Monday, January 2, 2023, which they called "a clear attempt to mislead and slow down the investigation." Walsh's defense attorney, Tracy Miner, argued that her client had otherwise been open with the authorities but did not mention his trip to Home Depot. She noted that he was "extremely cooperative." Walsh, who was previously convicted of art fraud, was held on a bail of $500,000 in cash or $5 million in surety bond.

When asked about Brian Walsh, Ljubicic described how her daughter was sometimes "frustrated" by the restrictions Ana faced due to the house arrest imposed on her husband, such as having to "work in Washington while living alone in the house, while he was home with three kids." "From time to time, his mom helped out. There may have been a disagreement about that, and then on New Year's Eve," she continues, "you have a few drinks and relax, etc." But Ljubicic added, "I can't believe anything happened. During all the time I spent with my son-in-law, I never noticed anything bad about him."

Lubichich said that her daughter "loves him, and they love each other." "I can't believe he ever did anything to her," she said. "He told the police that everything was fine with Ana." Lubichich said she last saw her daughter when she visited Belgrade at the end of November. She stayed for 10 days. "I can't believe something like this could happen to me," she said. "I have only one wish - for my daughter to be alive."

Fox News Digital's Rebecca Rosenberg contributed to this report.