ANCHORAGE, Alaska — A stolen digital memory card containing gruesome recordings has become the central piece of evidence in a double murder trial set to begin in Alaska this week. The memory card was initially taken by a woman with a criminal history, who stole it from the center console of a truck while the owner had left her alone in the vehicle. More than four years later, the contents of the card have been linked to the deaths of Kathleen Henry and Veronica Abouchuk.
The disturbing photos and videos on the memory card depict a woman being beaten and strangled at a Marriott hotel. The attacker, speaking with a strong accent, can be heard urging the victim to die. In one video, the voice says, In my movies, everybody always dies. What are my followers going to think of me? People need to know when they are being serial-killed.
The woman who stole the memory card eventually turned it over to the police about a week after taking it. Authorities recognized the voice on the recordings as that of Brian Steven Smith, a South Africa native who they had previous knowledge of from an unrelated investigation.
Smith, now 52, has pleaded not guilty to a total of 14 charges, which include first- and second-degree murder, sexual assault, and tampering with evidence. The victims, Kathleen Henry and Veronica Abouchuk, both Alaska Native women who had experienced homelessness, were from small villages in western Alaska. The recordings on the memory card indicated that Henry was the victim killed at the Marriott hotel.
The timeline provided by location data on the card and Smith’s phone placed him in the area where Henry’s body was found several weeks after the last images on the card were taken. During police interrogations, Smith voluntarily disclosed information about another murder. He identified Veronica Abouchuk from a photo and revealed the location of her remains as investigators re-examined the case and authenticated the information he provided.
Smith’s defense attorney, Timothy Ayer, sought to exclude the memory card’s evidence from the trial, arguing that the prosecution could not sufficiently prove its authenticity. However, the judge ruled in favor of admitting the evidence and allowing the woman who turned in the card to testify about her possession of it.
The trial, expected to last three to four weeks, began Monday with jury selection. Prosecutors had initially suggested closing the courtroom to prevent the public from seeing the disturbing videos, but the judge confirmed that the courtroom would remain open with safeguards in place to prevent graphic content from being seen by those in attendance or watching the trial’s livestream.
The families of the victims have chosen not to speak publicly about the case, and Smith’s wife and a family spokesperson declined to comment until after the trial.
Brian Steven Smith, a South Africa native who became a naturalized U.S. citizen in the same month Kathleen Henry was killed, has been in custody at the Anchorage Correctional Facility. In a letter to The Associated Press in 2019, he declined to discuss the case but stated that he was doing well.
With the trial now underway, the memory card’s shocking contents will play a crucial role in determining the fate of Brian Steven Smith as the legal proceedings progress.
