A woman with a long criminal history, including theft, assault and prostitution, got into a truck with a man who took her on a “date” near downtown Anchorage. When he left her alone in the vehicle, she stole a digital memory card from the center console.
Now, greater than 4 years later, what she found on that card is the key to a double murder trial set to begin this week: gruesome photos and videos of one other woman beaten and strangled at a Marriott hotel while her attacker speaks with on a strong note when he talked her into dying and her body, covered with a blanket, was taken outside on a luggage cart.
“Everyone always dies in my movies,” says a voiceover in considered one of the videos. “What will my supporters think of me? People need to know when they are being serially killed.”
About a week after taking the SD card, the woman turned it over to police, who said they recognized the voice of Brian Steven Smith, now 52, of South Africa, whom they knew from a previous investigation, according to court documents.
Smith has pleaded not guilty to 14 charges, including first- and second-degree murder, sexual assault and tampering with evidence, in reference to the deaths of Kathleen Henry, 30, and Veronica Abouchuk, 52, after her family reported her missing in February 2019. , seven months after they last saw her.
Henry and Abouchuk were Alaska Native women who experienced homelessness. They got here from small villages in western Alaska, Henry from Eek and Abouchuk from Stebbins.
Authorities say Henry was the victim whose death was reported at the TownePlace Suites by Marriott hotel in downtown Anchorage. Smith was registered there from September 2 to September 4, 2019; Police said the first photos of her body were dated around 1 a.m. on September 4.
Charging documents say the last photos on the card were taken early on September 6 and showed Henry’s body in the back of a black pickup truck. Location data showed that at the time the photo was taken, Smith’s phone was in the area of Rainbow Valley Road along Seward Highway south of Anchorage, the same location where Henry’s body was found weeks later, police said.
Authorities said that as detectives questioned Smith about Marriott, he provided more information to police who escorted him to the bathroom: He killed one other woman, then identified her – Abouchuk – from a photo and gave the location of her stays, along Old Glenn Highway north from Anchorage.
“Unprompted, he tells the soldiers in the bathroom, ‘I’m going to make you famous,’” District Attorney Brittany Dunlop said during a court hearing last week. “He comes back and says… ‘Do you have a little more time? Do you want to talk further? And then it reveals another murder.”
In 2018, Alaska State Troopers misidentified one other body as Abouchuk’s because, for unclear reasons, Abouchuk’s ID was discovered on it. Authorities said, nonetheless, that based on information provided by Smith, investigators re-examined the case and, based on dental records, confirmed a skull with a gunshot wound found in a location Smith said belonged to Abouchuk.
Smith’s attorney, Timothy Ayer, unsuccessfully sought to have evidence on the digital memory card excluded and even mentioned at trial. The woman who returned the card initially claimed she simply found it on the street, and only during a second interview did she admit that she stole the card from Smith’s truck when he tried to withdraw money from an ATM and she or he said she kept it for a week after which hand them over to the police.
For this reason, he argued, prosecutors won’t give you the chance to prove the origin of 39 photos and 12 videos, determine whether or not they are originals or duplicates, or determine with certainty whether or not they were fakes.
“The State cannot appoint a witness to testify that the film fairly and accurately depicts any event that actually occurred,” Ayer wrote.
But Third Judicial District Judge Kevin Saxby ruled late Friday that the woman could testify about having the card until it was turned over to police and that the recordings may very well be properly authenticated.
Henry’s family has not spoken publicly about her death, and attempts to reach relatives have been unsuccessful. Abouchuk’s family didn’t respond to messages from The Associated Press.
“These were two Alaska Native women,” Dunlop, then an assistant district attorney, said in 2019 after Smith was charged. “And I know it hits home here in Alaska, and we are aware of it. We treat them with dignity and respect.”
Authorities said Smith, who’s in custody at the Anchorage Correctional Facility, got here to Alaska in 2014 and have become a naturalized U.S. citizen the same month Henry was murdered.
In a 2019 letter to the AP, he declined to discuss the matter. He added that he was doing well: “I’ve lost weight, I have a lot less stress and I’m sober.”
His wife, Stephanie Bissland of Anchorage, and his sister, who serves as family spokesman in South Africa, declined to comment until the trial ends.
The trial, expected to last three to 4 weeks, was scheduled to begin Monday with jury selection.
Prosecutors suggested the possibility of closing the courtroom to prevent the gruesome videos from being shown to the public. The Associated Press, Anchorage Daily News, Alaska’s News Source and Alaska Public Media opposed the move in a letter to the chief justice.
Saxby then said he had no intention of isolating the public from the courtroom, but security could be put in place to prevent people in the gallery or watching the livestream of the trial from seeing it.
