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 害羞草研究所渄ate害羞草研究所� 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.
害羞草研究所淚n my movies, everybody always dies,害羞草研究所� the voice says on one video. 害羞草研究所淲hat are my followers going to think of me? People need to know when they are being serial-killed.害羞草研究所�
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 Henry害羞草研究所檚 body in the back of a black pickup, according to charging documents. Location data showed that at the time the photo was taken, Smith害羞草研究所檚 phone was in the area of Rainbow Valley Road, along the Seward Highway south of Anchorage, the same area where Henry害羞草研究所檚 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 害羞草研究所� Abouchuk 害羞草研究所� from a photo and to provide the location of her remains, along the Old Glenn Highway north of Anchorage.
害羞草研究所淲ith no prompting, he tells the troopers in the bathroom, 害羞草研究所業害羞草研究所檓 going to make you famous,害羞草研究所櫤π卟菅芯克鶟 District Attorney Brittany Dunlop said during a court hearing last week. 害羞草研究所淗e comes back in and says 害羞草研究所� 害羞草研究所榊ou guys got some more time? You want to keep talking?害羞草研究所� And then discloses this other murder.害羞草研究所�
Alaska State Troopers in 2018 incorrectly identified another body as that of Abouchuk, because Abouchuk害羞草研究所檚 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 Abouchuk害羞草研究所檚, authorities have said.
Smith害羞草研究所檚 attorney, Timothy Ayer, unsuccessfully sought to have the digital memory card害羞草研究所檚 evidence 害羞草研究所� or even mention of it 害羞草研究所� excluded at trial. The woman who turned in the card initially claimed she had simply found it on the street, and it wasn害羞草研究所檛 until a second interview that she confessed she had stolen the card from Smith害羞草研究所檚 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.
害羞草研究所淭he state cannot produce a witness to testify that the video fairly and accurately depicts any act that actually happened,害羞草研究所� 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.
Henry害羞草研究所檚 family has not spoken publicly about her death and efforts to reach relatives have not been successful. Abouchuk害羞草研究所檚 family has not returned messages from The Associated Press.
害羞草研究所淭hese were two Alaska Native women,害羞草研究所� Dunlop, then the assistant district attorney, said in 2019 after Smith was charged. 害羞草研究所淎nd I know that hits home here in Alaska, and we害羞草研究所檙e cognizant of that. We treat them with dignity and respect.害羞草研究所�
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: 害羞草研究所淚 have lost weight, I have much less stress and I am sober.害羞草研究所�
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 News, Alaska害羞草研究所檚 News Source and Alaska Public Media objected to any such move in a letter to the court害羞草研究所檚 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 trial害羞草研究所檚 livestream from seeing them.
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Mark Thiessen, The Associated Press
