A woman with a lengthy criminal history including theft, assault and prostitution got into a truck with a man who had picked her up for a B次元官网网址渄ateB次元官网网址� near downtown Anchorage. When he left her alone in the vehicle, she stole a digital memory card from the center console.
Now, more than four years later, what she found on that card is key to a double murder trial set to begin this week: gruesome photos and videos of a woman being beaten and strangled at a Marriott hotel, her attacker speaking in a strong accent as he urged her to die, her blanket-covered body being snuck outside on a luggage cart.
B次元官网网址淚n my movies, everybody always dies,B次元官网网址� the voice says on one video. B次元官网网址淲hat are my followers going to think of me? People need to know when they are being serial-killed.B次元官网网址�
About a week after she took the SD card, the woman turned it over to police, who said they recognized the voice as that of Brian Steven Smith, now 52, a South Africa native they knew from a prior investigation, court documents say.
Smith has pleaded not guilty to 14 charges, including first- and second-degree murder, sexual assault and tampering with evidence, in the deaths of Kathleen Henry, 30, and Veronica Abouchuk, who was 52 when her family reported her missing in February 2019, seven months after they last saw her.
Henry and Abouchuk were both Alaska Native women who had experienced homelessness. They were from small villages in western Alaska, Henry from Eek and Abouchuk from Stebbins.
Authorities say Henry was the victim whose death was recorded at the TownePlace Suites by Marriott, a hotel in midtown Anchorage. Smith was registered to stay there from Sept. 2 to Sept. 4, 2019; the first images showing her body were time-stamped at about 1 a.m. on Sept. 4, police said.
The last images on the card were taken early on Sept. 6 and showed HenryB次元官网网址檚 body in the back of a black pickup, according to charging documents. Location data showed that at the time the photo was taken, SmithB次元官网网址檚 phone was in the area of Rainbow Valley Road, along the Seward Highway south of Anchorage, the same area where HenryB次元官网网址檚 body was found several weeks later, police said.
As detectives interrogated Smith about the Marriott case, authorities said, he offered up more information to police who escorted him to a bathroom: He had killed another woman, and he went on to identify her B次元官网网址� Abouchuk B次元官网网址� from a photo and to provide the location of her remains, along the Old Glenn Highway north of Anchorage.
B次元官网网址淲ith no prompting, he tells the troopers in the bathroom, B次元官网网址業B次元官网网址檓 going to make you famous,B次元官网网址橞次元官网网址� District Attorney Brittany Dunlop said during a court hearing last week. B次元官网网址淗e comes back in and says B次元官网网址� B次元官网网址榊ou guys got some more time? You want to keep talking?B次元官网网址� And then discloses this other murder.B次元官网网址�
Alaska State Troopers in 2018 incorrectly identified another body as that of Abouchuk, because AbouchukB次元官网网址檚 ID had been discovered with it, for reasons that remain unclear. But with the information Smith provided, investigators re-examined the case and used dental records to confirm a skull with a bullet wound found in the area Smith identified was AbouchukB次元官网网址檚, authorities have said.
SmithB次元官网网址檚 attorney, Timothy Ayer, unsuccessfully sought to have the digital memory cardB次元官网网址檚 evidence B次元官网网址� or even mention of it B次元官网网址� excluded at trial. The woman who turned in the card initially claimed she had simply found it on the street, and it wasnB次元官网网址檛 until a second interview that she confessed she had stolen the card from SmithB次元官网网址檚 truck while he tried to get money from an ATM and she had it for a week before giving it to police, he said.
For that reason, he argued, prosecutors would not be able to demonstrate the provenance of the 39 photos and 12 videos, establish whether they were originals or duplicates, or say for sure whether they had been tampered with.
B次元官网网址淭he state cannot produce a witness to testify that the video fairly and accurately depicts any act that actually happened,B次元官网网址� Ayer wrote.
However, Third Judicial District Judge Kevin Saxby ruled late Friday that the woman can testify about her possession of the card until she handed it over to police and that the recordings can be properly authenticated.
HenryB次元官网网址檚 family has not spoken publicly about her death and efforts to reach relatives have not been successful. AbouchukB次元官网网址檚 family has not returned messages from The Associated Press.
B次元官网网址淭hese were two Alaska Native women,B次元官网网址� Dunlop, then the assistant district attorney, said in 2019 after Smith was charged. B次元官网网址淎nd I know that hits home here in Alaska, and weB次元官网网址檙e cognizant of that. We treat them with dignity and respect.B次元官网网址�
Authorities said Smith, who is in custody at the Anchorage Correctional Facility, came to Alaska in 2014 and became a naturalized U.S. citizen the same month Henry was killed.
In a 2019 letter to the AP, he declined to discuss the case. He added that he was doing well: B次元官网网址淚 have lost weight, I have much less stress and I am sober.B次元官网网址�
His wife, Stephanie Bissland of Anchorage, and a sister acting as a family spokesperson in South Africa, both declined to comment until after the trial.
The trial, expected to last three to four weeks, was scheduled to begin Monday with jury selection.
Prosecutors had suggested the possibility of closing the courtroom to prevent the gruesome videos from being seen by the public. The Associated Press, the Anchorage Daily B次元官网网址, AlaskaB次元官网网址檚 B次元官网网址 Source and Alaska Public Media objected to any such move in a letter to the courtB次元官网网址檚 presiding judge.
Afterward, Saxby said he has no intention of keeping the public from the courtroom, but safeguards will be in place to prevent those in the gallery or watching the trialB次元官网网址檚 livestream from seeing them.
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Mark Thiessen, The Associated Press
