Case 320: Veronica Abouchuk & Kathleen Henry
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This is a heads up for our valued listeners to let you know that our mid-year pause on episode releases is coming up. This year, our pause will be slightly longer than usual, with the last episode being released on May 31. We will be back with brand new episodes on July 19. As always, this isn't a holiday for us. Taking some time between releases gives our team the essential space we need for research, writing and production.

A significant amount of time and effort goes into each and every episode of Casefile to ensure accuracy, respect and in-depth storytelling. The mid-year pause allows us to maintain the high standard you've come to expect and deserve. We appreciate your understanding and ongoing support.

We will return in July with the high profile multi-parter that has been several years in the making. In the meantime, why not check out some of the latest Casefile Presents series or revisit our back catalogue. Also, keep an eye out for two new Casefile Presents releases coming soon.

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Late in the afternoon on Monday September 30 2019, a call came through to police in the city of Anchorage, Alaska, regarding a disturbing discovery in the Fairview neighborhood, just east of downtown. A passerby who'd been near a grocery store at the corner of Gamble Street and 13th Avenue had noticed something lying on the ground.

It was a microSD card, a small flash memory device commonly used in portable electronics such as digital cameras and mobile phones. The card was labeled "Homicide at Midtown Marriott". Driven by curiosity, the person who found the card inserted it into a device to examine its contents. It held a series of photographs and videos, all dated earlier that month.

The content was of amateur quality and appeared to have been recorded on a smartphone. Upon pressing play on one of the videos, the viewer was immediately confronted by the image of a naked woman with long dark hair sprawled on her back across a distinctive patterned carpet. Her face was severely bruised, swollen and bloodied. From behind the camera, a man spoke with a distinct accent.

Though his face and body never appeared on screen, his hands were visible as he struck and strangled the battered woman, who reacted weakly as though she was barely conscious. All the while, the man mocked her in a flat, chilling tone. You live, you die. You live, you die.

Almost two weeks earlier, on the night of Thursday September 19 2019, 52-year-old Valerie Kassler had been standing near the grocery store at the corner of Gamble Street and 13th Avenue in Anchorage. Just before 2am, a lone man emerged from the cold darkness. He was white with a short, solidly built frame, grey hair, and sharp facial features.

As he spoke, Valerie noticed his voice was marked by a foreign accent that sounded European to her. Valerie, who performed sex work, agreed to go with the man. She got into the passenger seat of his black Ford Ranger pickup truck and he drove her a few blocks south to Mulcahy Baseball Stadium, then onto the neighboring Sullivan Arena. They stayed in his truck until 4am when the man said that he needed to withdraw cash to pay her.

He drove to a Shell gas station and pulled in. The man began searching his truck for a misplaced cell phone. It wasn't his regular phone, but an older, additional model he happened to have in the vehicle for some reason. After a brief, unsuccessful search, he gave up and went into the gas station to use the ATM.

He returned a few minutes later and continued driving Valerie around until 7am before dropping her off at a tent in a wooded area near a church where she was staying at the time. Once alone in her tent, Valerie pulled out the man's phone. She had found it under her car seat while he was inside the gas station and had pocketed it without a word. Its battery was dead, so she went elsewhere to charge the device.

Once it powered up, she returned to her tent and turned it on. Scrolling through the phone's apps, she stumbled upon a series of images and videos taken earlier that month. Valerie, who struggled with alcohol and drug use disorder, had spent the past two weeks on a prolonged bender. When she viewed the phone's contents, she immediately sobered up.

A man had filmed himself violently attacking and cruelly mocking a badly beaten woman inside a room. The patterned carpet beneath the woman was instantly familiar to Valerie. It was the same one found in the guest rooms at the Marriott Town Place Suites in downtown Anchorage, about two miles south of Fairview. While the attacker's face never appeared on the video, his voice did. Valerie immediately recognized his distinct accent.

It belonged to the man she had spent the previous night with, the owner of the phone. Valerie didn't know what to do. Reporting the troubling discovery might lead to her own arrest, either for stealing the phone or worse, for prostitution if she admitted why they were together in the first place. Finally, driven by the fear that the man might harm another woman, Valerie came up with a plan.

Days after taking the phone, she transferred its incriminating images and videos to a micro SD card. She then labelled the card "Homicide at Midtown Marriott", wanting authorities to have as much information as possible about the crime once they got their hands on it. On Monday September 30, Valerie went to her doctor's office with the SD card.

She made up a story about finding the card on the ground near the grocery store where she had first encountered the man. The doctor called the police on Valerie's behalf and she handed the card over to investigators. Although Valerie initially lied about how she came into possession of the SD card fearing legal repercussions, she eventually came clean and admitted to having stolen the offender's cell phone.

By the time she spoke with police, however, she no longer had the device, explaining that she had since lost it somewhere in the woods. Investigators corroborated her account by reviewing CCTV footage from the Shell gas station where she said the man had stopped to withdraw cash.

The footage showed the man entering the store, browsing snacks and drinks, then spending several minutes at the ATM before returning to his truck, where Valerie was waiting. The SD card contained 12 videos and 39 photos in total, all created over a three-day period between September 3 and 6 2019.

The victim appeared to be an Alaska native woman, though the injuries to her face were so severe that she was unrecognizable. Neither the offender's face nor body were visible in any of the content, but his right hand could be seen repeatedly slapping and strangling the woman. She struggled to breathe, clawing at his wrist in a desperate attempt to make him stop.

At intervals, he loosened his grip, leaving her gasping for air before the assault resumed. Throughout the videos, the man's voice could be heard. Speaking with a distinctive foreign accent, he complained that his hand was getting tired, before inflicting further harm on the woman with his foot. He verbally abused her, stating, "You need to fucking die, bitch. Just fucking die."

At one point, he pulled out a piece of string and wrapped it around the woman's neck, tightening it and then releasing it. Each time he let go, he said the words "You live" followed by the words "You die" as he pulled the string toward again. Then he added: "Sadly, in my movies, everyone dies."

The man hummed the suspenseful instrumental theme from the movie Jaws, made bizarre sound effects with his mouth and tongue, and sang the song "Thunderstruck" by Australian rock band AC/DC. As the woman struggled to breathe, the man laughed and mocked her as he continued to torture her. He complained about how long she was taking to die, berating her that it was cutting into his drinking time.

When some of her blood got onto his hand, he became upset and accused her of giving him hepatitis. At times, he spoke as though acknowledging an audience that might be watching the videos. He made remarks about trying to get the right action shot and winning an Oscar. At one point, he said to the victim: "Listen, you need to finish this movie, because I just can't fucking go on anymore. What are my followers going to think of me?"

People need to know when they are being serial killed. The woman appeared to be unconscious throughout, with her occasional defensive reactions and attempts to breathe seeming more like reflexes than conscious actions. In total, the videos amounted to more than 35 minutes of harrowing footage. A distinct blue and black bag was occasionally visible in the frame.

The first still image had been taken at 12:59am on Wednesday September 4. In this picture, the woman was still lying on the hotel room floor next to a bed, her right eye partially open and her left eye bruised and swollen shut, with blood along its opening. Her lips were blue and bloodied. Later images showed the woman wrapped in a bedsheet, posed halfway on the foot of the bed with red ligature marks visible on her neck.

Two hours later at 2:51 and 2:52 AM, photos taken in a parking lot showed a rolling hotel luggage cart parked next to a black older model Ford Ranger pickup truck with a white topper on it. The woman's body lay on the luggage cart, covered by a white blanket with her head partially exposed. Following this were seven photos of the woman lying face down in the back of the truck.

She was covered by the white blanket as well as a blue tarp and concealed from view by the white top fitted to the truck bed. The last of these photographs was dated Friday September 6 at 1.12am, more than 48 hours after the first video was taken. Nothing in the photos or video footage immediately revealed the identities of either the victim or the offender.

Valerie Kastler provided a physical description of the man whose phone she had stolen, but the most compelling lead was his distinctive accent. Valerie thought the man sounded European, but some of the police officers speculated that he might be English. However, one detective reviewing the videos knew that it was neither of those. He knew because he recognised the voice as soon as he heard it.

2016 had been a difficult year for 39-year-old Alicia Youngblood. Over the course of two weeks, she had been laid off at work, lost her home after her landlady needed to sell the property, and her truck broke down. Family and friends supported Alicia and her six children until she could get back on her feet, but by the summer of 2017, she was ready for a fresh start.

She decided to move north from her home in Texas to the state of Alaska. Alicia's warm, outgoing personality coupled with her adventurous spirit ensured that the change wouldn't be too difficult. She found a job at an engineering firm called Dowell Engineering and began making friends in her new city, Anchorage. One of these friends was a 46-year-old colleague named Brian Smith.

The two got to know each other after Smith started training Alicia to perform site inspections. Smith was relatively new to Anchorage as well, having moved there from South Africa in 2014. Years earlier, he had served in the South African Army before working at a software company and later managing guest houses. At one point, he tried to launch his own online dating site, but it didn't take off.

However, he did have personal success in meeting someone online. In 2013, Brian Smith began an internet relationship with an American woman named Stephanie, whom he met through online gaming. Stephanie had previously worked as an administrative officer for US immigration in Anchorage, and Smith, who harbored dreams of one day opening an inn in Alaska, was happy to relocate.

The pair married in 2014 and Smith had lived in Anchorage ever since. He enjoyed exploring the Alaskan wilderness and its remote backcountry, often uploading videos of his adventures online onto his personal YouTube channel. He also shared footage of Stephanie performing on stage as a musician along with clips from a trip they took to Hawaii.

To those who knew him, Smith came across as someone who was meek, affectionate, and fond of corny dad jokes. But despite the public image he projected of a happily married man, Smith was privately frustrated by Stephanie. Specifically, he felt their sexual connection was lacking. Stephanie was two decades older than Smith, and she needed time and forewarning to engage in intimacy.

Wanting a more spontaneous sex life, Smith began to look outside of his marriage. In 2018, Brian Smith turned his attention to Alicia Youngblood and the two co-workers struck up a romantic relationship. As they grew closer, they began to confide increasingly personal things to one another. They spoke about difficult past experiences, sometimes jokingly trying to one-up each other.

Smith also shared explicit sexual fantasies with Alicia, sending her messages about how he wanted to tie her up, choke her, and pour vodka down her throat. But by the middle of August 2018, the fantasies took a troubling turn when Smith shared something deeply disturbing with Alicia. He told her that he had killed someone.

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According to Smith, about a week prior in the early morning hours of Friday August 3 2018, he'd picked up a sex worker near the Department of Motor Vehicles building in Anchorage. After the woman got into his car, Smith drove them both to her small studio apartment, which was located just a few minutes away.

Smith claimed that while they were there, he cut off the sex worker's underwear and removed it from her body. He then killed her before taking photos and videos of her corpse. Alicia was horrified by Smith's admission.

She later placed a call to Crimestoppers and shared what she knew about Smith's claims to Anchorage Police. But without the alleged victim's name, an address, or any evidence for the detectives to verify, there was little they could do. In the meantime, Alicia tried to coax more information from Smith in the hopes he would give her something concrete for police to investigate.

She contacted him via Facebook Messenger feigning a prurient interest in his claims and demanding that he provide evidence of the murder. After some back and forth, Smith told Alicia: "I think I would like you to see those video clips." Alicia encouraged Smith to send them to her, replying: "Do you see now why I want to see them so badly? I need to see them." Smith responded:

"I acted a little bit psycho because I enjoyed it so much. It was a huge relief after being good for so many years. I'm still worried you will think I'm messed up." Although Smith never sent Alicia the videos, he did show them to her in person along with some photos. Alicia did her best to describe what she'd seen to the police.

While the footage hadn't shown an actual murder, Alicia recalled seeing a light-skinned black woman who appeared to be either unconscious or possibly dead. In one picture, a naked Brian Smith stood over the woman who was sprawled out with her eyes closed. Some of the videos showed him violating her sexually. Smith told Alicia that he'd wanted to cut her breasts off, but hadn't.

Terrified that Smith might attack another woman, Alicia kept in regular contact with Anchorage police over the following weeks, updating them with every new admission he made. She even handed over her phone so they could access the messages the two had shared, hoping they might find something to kickstart an investigation. One day, Smith took Alicia to a power plant in Eklutna, a native village within the municipality of Anchorage.

He claimed to have dumped the woman's body in the vicinity, pointing out an old mattress and a black bag he said were linked to the crime. Alicia later took the police to this same location. With the help of a search dog, they located the black bag and took it into evidence. However, this bag was later misplaced.

Detectives gained access to Brian Smith's cell phone records to verify whether he had indeed left town on the night of the supposed murder. His phone had not pinged any towers in the Eklutna area. Given that no proof of any crimes was uncovered, investigators began to suspect that Smith's story to Alicia Youngblood was nothing more than a sexual roleplay fantasy.

After maintaining regular contact with Alicia for about a month, Anchorage police marked the case file as closed. The lead detective noted, "...based on the investigation to date, with no possible victim identified and or the video of the incident not seen by anyone other than Alicia Youngblood, this case is being suspended at this time, unless additional information is obtained at a later date."

After this, Alicia swiftly left Anchorage with her children and severed ties with Brian Smith for good. There weren't many South Africans living in Anchorage at the time, so when a detective who had previously investigated Alicia Youngblood's claims reviewed the cell phone footage of a woman being violently attacked in an Anchorage hotel room, one detail stood out: the offender's voice.

His distinctive accent was instantly recognizable to the investigator. It belonged to 48-year-old Brian Smith. Even more disturbing was the date of the footage. It had been recorded in September 2019, ruling out the possibility that it was the same video Alicia claimed to have seen more than a year earlier in August 2018.

If Alicia had been correct about having seen a video depicting a murdered woman, did this mean Brian Smith had multiple victims? While Smith had worked a few different jobs following his international move, by the time police started investigating him in late 2019, he was employed as a maintenance worker at the Marriott Town Place Suites in downtown Anchorage, the same hotel where it was believed the cellphone footage was shot.

Less than two weeks before the SD card was handed in to police, Smith had obtained his US citizenship and officially became an American. His wife had been his financial sponsor.

Following the internal tip-off that the man in the video was Brian Smith, detectives checked the Marriott Town Place suite's records and found that Smith had booked room 323 from September 2 until September 4 using his employee discount. The carpet in the room also perfectly matched that shown in the images and video footage.

Vehicle registration records revealed that Smith and his wife owned a 1999 black Ford Ranger pickup truck, which was consistent with the vehicle used by the assailant. When detectives zoomed in on the images, they could see a small portion of the truck's license plate, making out the numbers 8-7. The final three numbers on Smith's license plate were 8-7-8.

Armed with this evidence, detectives wrote up affidavits for warrants to search Brian Smith's home, truck, and cell phone records. Officers visited Smith's residence and workplace, but he wasn't at either location, nor was his truck. Detectives set up surveillance at the house while a search warrant was executed at room 323 of the Marriott Town Place Suites.

Nothing of significance was found there, but CCTV footage from the hotel's parking lot had captured Smith with the luggage cart, loading something wrapped in a white blanket into his truck. Meanwhile, detectives studied the face and physical characteristics of the woman in the murder video to try and identify who she might be.

In addition to noting her general appearance, race and her likely height and weight, she had a small mole in the crease of her right eyelid. Case detective Brendan Lee cross-checked these features with missing persons reports and Anchorage Police Department databases. Images of the woman's face were taken from the video, along with pictures of Smith's truck, and distributed to patrol officers and homeless shelters statewide.

Anyone who recognized the woman or had recent contact with her was instructed to pass their information on. Among the reports of missing women shared with police was that of 30-year-old Kathleen Henry. She had been living in Anchorage since at least 2016, though she hadn't been in touch with her family for several years. Kathleen's life had been shaped by hardship.

She had dropped out of high school, gone through a divorce, struggled with alcohol use, experienced mental health challenges, and had frequent interactions with law enforcement. Despite all this, she'd been immensely proud when she earned her GED in her early 20s. Investigators found that no one had heard from Kathleen in recent weeks. Detective Lee obtained a photograph of Kathleen Henry from the Department of Motor Vehicles.

Not only did she bear an overall resemblance to the woman seen in the video, but she had a small mole in the crease of her right eyelid. The search for Kathleen had only just begun when the situation suddenly took a dark turn. Wednesday October 2 2019 marked just 10 days since police had received the SD card depicting the brutal assault and likely murder of an unidentified Alaska native woman.

That morning, shortly after 9 o'clock, a call came in from two railroad workers stationed near milepost 108 along the Seward Highway, approximately 19 miles southeast of downtown Anchorage. The pair had been working near the Rainbow Trailhead hiking area, where the Alaska Railroad tracks run parallel to the highway, framed by a backdrop of snow-capped mountains.

The workers had made a grim discovery just beyond the road's guardrail, the remains of a woman lying in the fetal position beside the tracks in an advanced state of decomposition. It appeared she had been pushed over the guardrail and had gone undiscovered for nearly a month. Wildlife likely foraging ahead of winter had hastened the decomposition, reducing her body to a partial skeleton.

Some bones were missing, but her jawbone remained intact. Dental records later confirmed the remains belonged to Kathleen Henry. Investigators were certain that Kathleen was the woman in the murder video. Their certainty was bolstered by the records that came through for Brian Smith's cell phone. Data revealed that his phone had been at the Marriott Town Place Suites during the period when the videos were made.

Then at around 1am on Friday September 6, Smith's phone had pinged off a tower along a rural stretch of the Seward Highway. This placed him in the same area where Kathleen's body was dumped and was consistent with the timestamp on the final photo taken in the back of Smith's truck.

Investigators believed that Smith had kept Kathleen's body in the back of his truck beneath the white blanket and blue tarp for about 48 hours before discarding her on the side of the road. While police had been surveilling Brian Smith's home since honing in on him as a suspect, his phone data revealed something else. He was no longer in Anchorage.

Smith's phone was now pinging towers almost 4,300 miles away in the United States capital of Washington, D.C. Detectives initially had no idea why he would be there, but they soon found out he was on a vacation with his wife. They notified local law enforcement and FBI agents in the D.C. area and requested their assistance in locating and surveilling Smith.

By Friday October 4, two days after Kathleen Henry's remains were found, Smith was located and placed under covert surveillance. Homeland Security notified Anchorage detectives that Smith was scheduled to fly back to Alaska a few days later on Tuesday October 8. Detectives prepared to pounce as soon as his flight landed. Meanwhile, Smith's Ford Ranger was located and impounded.

A search of the vehicle turned up a black Adidas bag which contained duct tape, nylon rope, latex gloves, and garbage bags. Detectives also found a number of receipts, including one from the retail store Walmart marked Wednesday September 4, hours before Smith began his assault against Kathleen Henry. He'd purchased some beer and a cell phone, which was possibly the device he'd used to document the murder.

There was also a receipt for a bottle of Clorox bleach from Home Depot. Another receipt showed that he'd purchased two burgers from a McDonald's restaurant at 1:59am on Friday September 6, less than an hour after he was believed to have dumped Kathleen's body. Detectives requested the CCTV footage from that McDonald's for this time period.

Cameras at the restaurant's drive-thru window had captured Smith as he pulled up to it and placed an order. He was wearing a red polo-style shirt with his left elbow leaning out the open window. In the bed of his truck was the white blanket and blue tarp shown in the SD card images. Surprisingly, sitting next to Smith in the passenger seat was an unknown woman rummaging through a handbag.

It appeared as though Smith had driven downtown and picked up another woman right after disposing of Kathleen Henry's body. Pictures of the mystery woman were distributed to Anchorage police officers and a possible identification was provided, but she was unable to be located. At 3pm on Tuesday October 8 2019, Detective Brendan Lee and his colleagues stood at Ted Stevens International Airport in Anchorage.

They were waiting for Brian Smith's flight from Washington DC to land. Smith was returning home solo as his wife was staying in Virginia a little longer to visit family. When detectives saw the 48-year-old disembark his plane, they ushered him directly into an interrogation room. Smith sounded slightly confused as his Miranda rights were read to him.

He asked if he was being interviewed about a crime he'd been the victim of a couple of months earlier. His truck had been broken into and his wallet, a GoPro video camera, and some papers were stolen. Detectives listened patiently as Smith detailed the break-in, before informing him that he wasn't there for that reason. They actually wanted to ask him about an SD card that had been handed in and had pictures of his truck on it.

Smith claimed to know nothing about this. Changing tack, the detectives asked Smith whether he ever stayed at the Marriott Hotel where he worked. Smith said that a few weeks earlier he'd stayed there after having a fight with his wife. On the first night, he stayed alone in the room, getting drunk on whiskey. On the second night, he brought a woman back to his room.

"Between us, I have been known to sometimes go out and find a companion," Smith admitted. He said he sometimes cruised by homeless shelters looking for vulnerable women, stating: "If you drive past, you can find easy girls. Ten bucks, twenty bucks, they'll do anything." Smith said he would consume excessive amounts of alcohol with these women and pay them for sex.

He boasted that sometimes the woman would be so drunk that he didn't even need to pay. Smith claimed that on Thursday September 5 2019 he met a woman at a shelter and took her back to his hotel room. Smith said he had sex with her that night, then dropped her back at the shelter the next morning. He described the woman as having very short hair and wearing heavy makeup. This did not match Kathleen Henry's appearance.

Detectives showed Smith photos of Kathleen from the SD card and asked if he recognized her. Smith was adamant that he didn't. "This looks like someone that's really been beaten up a bit," he said. Detectives then began playing some audio from the videos so Smith could hear Kathleen being berated by her killer. "That sounds like me," Smith responded. "What's happening with this?"

The detectives informed him that the videos were made by an individual holding a phone and filming the woman from above while strangling her. The footage was timestamped and confirmed to have been made in the Marriott Town Place Suites room that he'd been staying in the previous month.

While Smith admitted that it was his voice on the recording, he claimed to know nothing about what had happened and said the woman in the video was not the person he'd picked up that night. "Who would record stuff like this?" he exclaimed. Detectives presented Smith with the phone data they'd obtained and pointed out that his shoes were clearly visible in some of the footage, but he continued to deny any knowledge.

Upon learning that investigators were also speaking to his wife in Virginia at that very moment, Smith became upset that his infidelity would be revealed. All of a sudden, he provided a new detail. According to Smith, he'd been at work on Wednesday September 4 when he'd noticed a substance dripping out of his truck. Concerned, he'd looked inside and saw a woman's dead body hidden beneath a white blanket and a blue tarp.

Smith did not recognize the woman or know how she'd come to be in his truck. He panicked about what to do. He knew that if he reported the discovery, no one would believe he was innocent. So instead, he waited until after midnight on Friday September 6, when his wife was fast asleep, to dispose of the woman's body along the Seward Highway.

Smith said that after he dumped the woman's body, he drove back to Anchorage and threw the blanket and tarp in a random dumpster, the location of which he could not recall. When Kathleen Henry's remains were found just under a month later, Smith saw news reports about it and felt relieved that she'd been discovered before the winter snow set in. The detectives didn't buy this story.

They asked Smith why he would take photographs of Kathleen's body at the dump site if this was the case, and why those pictures would be on the same SD card as the murder videos. After several more hours of interrogation, Smith admitted that he and some friends occasionally talked about how to commit the perfect murder. Alaska, apparently, is like the best place to do it, Smith said.

You can drive a hundred miles somewhere, dump something, and no one's ever going to find it." Smith eventually changed his story yet again. He said that he must have murdered Kathleen, but couldn't remember doing so. He blamed alcohol, and then suggested he might have blocked out the memory due to the horror of it.

He also said that a phone had gone missing from his car and he wondered if perhaps, quote, "a girl had taken it" and in turn leaked the footage. By 8:30pm Smith had been speaking with police for more than five hours. He was informed that he would be going to jail that night and his clothing and phone would be taken into evidence.

Yet, there was still the matter of another woman Smith had confessed to killing in 2018, according to his former girlfriend and colleague Alicia Youngblood. Investigators were left wondering: Were there more victims they had yet to uncover? Were they now face-to-face with a serial killer they had never known existed? A detective asked Smith directly: "Have you ever killed anybody else?"

"I'll just be straight up with you. Are we going to find any evidence that you're attached to any missing persons either here or in South Africa?" Smith flatly denied having committed any other murders. At 8:40pm, they paused for a bathroom break and the detectives escorted Smith to the restroom. They kept their body cams switched on while he relieved himself.

As Smith then went to leave without washing his hands, one of the detectives directed him to the basin and told him to wash up. In response, Smith quipped, "If you know what I've been up to, you would know I don't even care about this now." Drying his hands under the hand dryer, he added, "All I can say is that you're gonna be famous."

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Thank you for listening to this episode's ads. By supporting our sponsors, you support Casefile to continue to deliver quality content. When Brian Smith was taken back to the interrogation room to go through some paperwork, he asked the detectives, Are you guys in a rush to go home? They replied that they were not.

Then, out of nowhere, Smith began talking about how a long time ago, he had been home alone for a weekend while his wife was out of town. Smith had gotten drunk, found a homeless Alaska native woman, and offered her a meal and a warm place to stay. The woman agreed, and Smith drove her back to his house.

Upon their arrival, they went downstairs to a carpeted basement living area that had a couple of couches, a television, and some bookshelves. Smith said that the woman was so drunk she was slurring her words. She lay down on a red couch where she alternated between watching TV and dozing off. Smith thought she smelled bad and told her to go take a shower.

He claimed he was nervous that his wife would be able to smell that a homeless person had been in their house. The woman said no, but Smith insisted. Frustrated by her refusal to do as he asked, he went to his garage and retrieved a .22 caliber pistol that he kept there. Smith then went back to the basement and again demanded that the woman shower.

When she continued to refuse, he shot her in the head as she lay on the couch watching TV. Smith said he didn't know her name or remember anything that she had been wearing, but he thought she was in her mid-forties. Smith said that the woman was very nice and hadn't done anything to him. "She just pissed me off," he explained. After killing the woman, Smith took photos of her and did things to her body.

He admitted that he later showed some of these pictures to his former girlfriend and colleague Alicia Youngblood in August 2018. After documenting his crime, Smith drove the woman's body 35 miles northeast to the native village of Eklutna, throwing her clothing out of the car window as he drove. He left her remains near the old Glen Highway.

Smith told detectives that he had lied to Alicia about some details of the crime, including that it had taken place in the woman's apartment. Some of the videos he'd shown her were not things that he had filmed. However, he had been telling the truth about leaving the woman's body at the Eklutna power plant. Detectives presented Smith with several photographs of missing women who matched the general description of the woman he claimed to have killed.

Upon viewing the first image, Smith paused, then stated, "I think that's her." 52-year-old Veronica Abowchuk had been reported missing in February of 2019. Although she was a loving and doting mother of four who was full of life and had a large family that cared for her deeply, Veronica struggled daily with the lasting effects of trauma.

As a child, she was sexually abused which subsequently led to her having PTSD and alcohol use disorder. In 2005, Veronica and her family suffered further when one of Veronica's sisters, 35-year-old Martha Toms, was found severely beaten underneath a picnic table in an Anchorage park. Martha died the next day and her murder remains unsolved as of 2025.

Veronica's struggles meant she often went through transient periods, which made her hard to locate. She couch surfed between friends and family members, stayed at shelters, or sometimes lived on the streets of Anchorage. Despite the lack of consistency in her day-to-day life, Veronica would intermittently contact her loved ones, especially around the holidays, and often showed up unannounced at her sister's home.

However, by late 2017, Veronica's family were hearing from her less and less. When she failed to collect her permanent fund dividend check, an annual payment made to eligible Alaska residents, they knew something was wrong. Then Veronica's daughter received a devastating phone call informing her her mother had died of an overdose and she needed to visit the medical examiner's office to identify her body.

But it turned out that the remains didn't belong to Veronica after all. Another woman had died while carrying Veronica's ID card. How this woman had come into possession of the card was unknown. Although Veronica's family were relieved, she was still missing and their concern for her wellbeing remained.

With the different people providing conflicting information, it was difficult to pin down exactly when the last known contact with her had been. As 2018 was drawing to a close, there was still some hope that Veronica might reach out during the holidays, just as she always did. But Thanksgiving came and went with no sign of her.

Veronica's loved ones checked hospitals and various locations downtown, making inquiries with anyone who might have crossed paths with her. With no confirmed sightings by February 2019, Veronica was officially reported missing. Months continued to pass with no word from Veronica Abauchuk, leaving her family with no idea where she might have gone.

Eight months later, in October, Brian Smith confessed to police that he had callously executed Veronica in the basement of his home. The revelation solved another enduring mystery that had been plaguing authorities. Six months earlier, two mushroom pickers foraging in a klootna had stumbled upon a human skull about 100 yards off the Old Glen Highway.

The skull had a bullet wound on its left side with no exit wound but metal fragments lodged inside. No other remains were found nearby. After Brian Smith confessed to dumping a woman in that same location, investigators compared the skull to Veronika Abauchuk's dental records. It was a match.

Police searched Smith's home and found the .22 caliber pistol he had described as the murder weapon, along with several other firearms and two homemade gun silencers. They also found 10 different cell and burner phones and a number of SD cards, digital cameras, and laptops. Smith claimed he bought and sold used electronics online as part of a side hustle.

However, one thumb drive was found to contain some deleted video clips which experts were able to recover. The videos showed Veronica Abauchuk lying on Brian Smith's couch both before and after she was killed. Initially, Veronica was wearing clothes, but in the footage taken post-mortem, she was naked. It appeared that Smith had removed her clothing and posed her deceased body.

In one short video, a naked Brian Smith appeared on camera leaning over Veronica. In another photograph, Veronica's body had been moved to the floor and covered with a blanket. The television in the background was still turned on, with President Donald Trump visible on screen. Investigators scoured Smith's entire home, including the basement area where he said he'd committed the murder.

There, they noticed some suspicious stains on an area of the blue carpet. These stains tested positive for blood, prompting investigators to remove a 9 by 10 foot segment of the carpet for forensic testing. The blood was found to belong to Veronica. Although investigators couldn't pin down the exact date of Veronica Abauchuk's murder, they estimated it had been in early August 2018.

shortly before Smith had bragged to Alicia Youngblood about the crime. Investigators repeatedly asked Smith why he had filmed his crimes. In particular, why had he talked about followers while murdering Kathleen Henry as though he had an audience? They wanted to know if he had been asked to create violent content or whether he'd uploaded any of it online. Smith said he hadn't.

The only content he'd shared online had been made consensually with another woman who had given her permission for Smith to post it on an adults-only website. Bryant Smith's two confirmed victims, Kathleen Henry and Veronica Abauchuk, were both Alaska Native women. When asked whether he was prejudiced against the group, Smith said he'd asked himself that same question.

He'd ultimately decided that he only preyed on these women because they were homeless and therefore, to his mind, easy targets. However, Smith was known to harbour racist thoughts. He maintained two Facebook accounts under false names that he used to air views he knew his wife wouldn't approve of, including bigoted opinions. He also had an account on the social media question and answer site Quora.

When one user asked whether white people automatically assumed all black people were criminals, Smith replied: "White people don't assume it. Everyone assumes it when they look at police crime statistics. Wherever black people go in the world, there is an immediate rise in crime. It is a statistical fact that blacks are more than 600% more likely to violate the law."

This figure cited by Brian Smith was not a statistical fact, instead appearing to be one he himself concocted. Brian Smith was ultimately indicted on 14 felony charges for killing Kathleen Henry and Veronica Abauchuk, including one count of first-degree murder, two counts of second-degree murder, two counts of second-degree sexual assault, and three counts of tampering with physical evidence.

Despite his confessions to detectives, Smith pleaded not guilty to all charges. A grand jury was held and Smith's ex-girlfriend Alicia Youngblood was one of the witnesses who testified against him. However, Smith's trial was subsequently delayed by the COVID-19 pandemic. In July 2021, Alicia Youngblood died by suicide, two and a half years before Brian Smith faced court.

Brian Smith's trial finally began in February 2024. His defense team fought against having the footage from the SD card and Smith's interrogation admitted into evidence, but the judge disagreed. Jurors were shown extensive portions of Smith's police interview, as well as some of the footage of Kathleen Henry's murder.

While care was taken to ensure that only the jury could see the screen displaying the videos, the disturbing audio could be heard throughout the courtroom. Some individuals in attendance believed that Smith appeared to look smug and smirked at certain points while listening attentively to the audio. His wife Stephanie sat in the front row of the public gallery clutching her hands.

She attended the trial consistently, sitting near the family members, loved ones and supporters of Smith's victims. Stephanie told the South African publication IOL that after learning what her husband had done, she had grieved, but was choosing to support, quote, "...the part of the man I married."

Case detective Brendan Lee gave testimony that he'd listened to a recorded jailhouse phone call between Smith and Stephanie, in which Stephanie asked Smith if he'd had sex with the women he'd killed. Smith apparently replied, "Not with those two." This statement caused a stir in the public gallery. "She's only worried about the ones he did sleep with," one woman retorted.

The judge later told the jury to dismiss Detective Lee's comments about the phone call. Valerie Kastler, whose theft of Smith's phone had kickstarted the entire investigation, played a crucial role as a prosecution witness, testifying about her discovery of the harrowing footage of Kathleen Henry's murder.

It was later revealed that Valerie had actually known Kathleen, but she hadn't recognized her in the footage due to the severity of Kathleen's facial injuries. Valerie expressed her desire to testify, saying she considered Kathleen her friend and she just wanted her to go home. The defense team sought to undermine Valerie's credibility by highlighting inconsistencies in her story.

They pointed out how she'd initially claimed to have found the footage on a discarded SD card, only to later admit she had stolen Smith's cellphone from his car. The defense implied that Valerie had a hidden agenda. Perhaps she was seeking public attention or even attempting to hide some secret of her own. They even insinuated that she might have doctored the footage to wrongfully implicate Smith.

When asked by the prosecution if she had access to video editing software that could have been used to manipulate the footage, Valerie responded with a simple laugh, saying "No." In addition to the videos Smith had taken of his victims and the phone data placing him at various crime scenes at pertinent times, the prosecution also shared a series of highly suspicious messages sent by and to him.

Of particular interest was an exchange between Smith and a friend of his named Ian Calhoun. Although the now 27-year-old Calhoun was two and a half decades younger than Smith, the pair had become friends after meeting at work. At the time of Kathleen Henry's murder, Calhoun was 22 and a drummer in a heavy metal band called Atonement Denied. Smith had occasionally gone to the band's shows.

At 12:54am on Wednesday September 4 2019, the same time that Kathleen Henry's murder was being filmed, Smith sent Calhoun a Facebook message asking: "Heh, you up? I'm having fun." Calhoun hadn't replied until more than 6 hours later at 7:08am, responding: "I was not up. Sounds like you were having a lot of fun."

At 9:16am, Smith wrote back, "Hi. I did have fun. Wanted to share." Calhoun replied quickly, "We need to have a drink soon." Smith then told him, "I have something to show you. Something I can't keep for too long." The pair arranged to meet after work later that day in a secluded park near Ian Calhoun's home in Anchorage's Hillside neighborhood.

Phone information indicated both men were at this park together for about 10 minutes between 4:46 and 5:56 pm on Wednesday September 4 2019. Investigators believed that Smith had been showing Calhoun Kathleen Henry's body inside his truck.

One month later, at 12:55pm on Wednesday October 2, the day that Kathleen Henry's remains were found, Calhoun sent Smith a link to an article about the discovery. Smith replied with one word: "Oops." Calhoun wrote back: "As soon as I saw it, I knew I should send you a text." The pair then exchanged a flurry of messages. Smith,

I'm surprised it took so long. In a few weeks snow would have covered it. Calhoun: I was kinda hoping that it would hurry and snow. Smith: Me too from what was said lol. Calhoun: But that means I'll be in the clear. At the time these messages were exchanged, Smith was on vacation with his wife in Washington DC

He told Calhoun they would talk properly upon his return, writing, "'There is something else I must tell. I will talk next week. But keep an eye on this about any leads. Can't talk. Not alone. Everyone is upset that I am carrying my phone around on vacation.'" Smith was arrested when he arrived back in Anchorage one week later before he had a chance to speak with Ann Calhoun again.

Calhoun did not appear as a witness in court, with his attorney asserting his client's Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination. The court found this claim valid, meaning Calhoun could not be compelled to testify unless the prosecution granted him immunity, which they refused to do.

The revelation that another person could have had knowledge of and was even possibly involved in Smith's crimes was yet another twist in a case that had already shocked Alaska. The defense didn't present any witnesses, and Brian Smith chose not to testify. In closing arguments, Smith's attorney focused on undermining the state's witnesses and evidence.

However, the jury deliberated for less than two hours before convicting Smith on all counts. They also found there were aggravating factors in Smith's murder of Kathleen Henry, namely the substantial physical torture he had subjected her to. While Smith was awaiting sentencing, it was announced that federal prosecutors had also charged him with unlawfully obtaining US citizenship on the grounds that he had lied in his application.

When asked whether he had ever committed a crime he hadn't been arrested for or if he'd been involved in killing, hurting or sexually assaulting someone, Smith had answered no. Whether or not his citizenship will be revoked remains to be seen. But in July 2024, 53-year-old Bryant Smith was sentenced to 226 years in prison with a mandatory 99-year sentence for each murder.

As Alaska does not have the death penalty, capital punishment was never an option. In handing down his sentence, the judge said that Smith was one of the worst offenders he had ever encountered due to the joy he took in torturing and murdering vulnerable women. He added: "There is no hope. There is no restoration. There is only preventing Mr. Smith from killing again.

Veronica Abowchuk's sister said she was grateful the jury had convicted Brian Smith, stating, But it still hurts a lot. Veronica's daughter described the period where her mother was missing as a complete nightmare.

When the police had first informed her that her mother had been murdered, she'd hoped it was a mistake, just as it had been when a deceased woman was found carrying Veronica's ID card. Finding out that it was true was devastating. Veronica's son told news outlet KTOO that his family's tragedy was shared by far too many Alaska Native families whose loved ones were either missing or murdered.

The stigma of homelessness and addiction had made his mother and Kathleen Henry faceless to broader society and easy targets for a man like Brian Smith. Quote,

Despite Smith's desire to target vulnerable women he believed were overlooked and uncared for by society, both Kathleen Henry and Veronica Abauchuk were deeply loved and profoundly missed by their families. Kathleen had a passion for writing poetry, and her Facebook posts revealed a thoughtful young woman who often reflected on her life and struggles. One post read:

"I live daily with a whole lot of soft-hearted, not hatred feelings. Unless someone treats me with disrespect, treat others the way you want to be treated." Another post stated: "I got to fly because I am light as a feather." Veronica found joy in teaching her younger relatives how to cook, often sharing a signature dish she made with chicken and cornflakes.

She was also known for her artistic skills, particularly the beautiful grass baskets and dolls she handcrafted. Both women left behind lasting memories of love, creativity, and resilience, serving as a reminder of the individuals they were beyond the tragic circumstances of their deaths. Advocates for missing and murdered Indigenous people attended Brian Smith's trial in support of the two women and their families.

In a symbolic statement of solidarity, many painted red handprints over the lower half of their faces, covering their mouths. This red handprint has come to represent the plight of Missing and Murdered Indigenous People, or MMIP. In the United States, four in five Native American and Alaska Native women have experienced violence in their lifetime. More than 56% have experienced sexual violence.

Despite making up just 1.1% of the US population, Native American and Alaska Native women are murdered at 10 times the national average. Anchorage ranks third in the US for the city with the highest number of cases.

According to Data for Indigenous Justice, an Alaska Native-led non-profit, 5,712 cases of missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls were reported in 2016. Only 116 of these were logged in the U.S. Department of Justice database.

Given that Brian Smith deliberately targeted members of this vulnerable group and spoke about serial killing in his videos, there has been speculation that he may have more victims, either in Alaska, other states he was sent to for work, or his home country of South Africa. Authorities are aware of at least two other Alaska native women Smith might have harmed.

One week before his sentencing, the state released a sentencing memorandum which included some shocking information. While going through one of Smith's cell phones, investigators had found three images of an unidentified Alaska Native woman, clearly beaten and lying either unconscious or deceased on the ground.

Amber Batts is an activist from Community United for Safety and Protect, or CASP, which advocates for the safety of sex workers. She has visited Brian Smith a number of times and corresponded with him in an attempt to gain further information. Amber's personal nickname for Brian Smith is BS, a nod to his initials and the shorthand term for the word bullshit.

When talking to Amber, Smith claimed the unidentified woman in the grisly photos was just a friend who had fallen over while the pair were out and laughing together uproariously. He told a similar story to the police. The state included these three images in their sentencing memorandum, along with a forensic artist's sketch of the woman.

When MMIP advocates saw these images, they immediately recognized the woman as 38-year-old Cassandra Buskovsky. Cassandra was reported missing in August 2019, the month before Kathleen Henry was murdered. When Cassandra's family were shown the photos found on Brian Smith's phone, they confirmed the woman was her.

Despite this, the woman was still officially marked as unidentified, with prosecutors stating they could not verify her name or whether she was even deceased. In September 2024, Cassandra Boskovsky's family went to court to request a presumptive death hearing. They wanted to obtain a death certificate for Cassandra while also setting the story straight about what had likely happened to her.

Cassandra's family wore red t-shirts printed with a photo of a young Cassandra on them, along with the words, "'Where is Cassandra?' "'Justice for Cassandra' and "'We want answers.'" Like Veronika Rabouchak and Kathleen Henry, Cassandra Boskovsky was vulnerable and struggled with addiction, but her relatives knew her to have a great capacity for love.

At Cassandra's presumptive death hearing, Detective Brendan Lee testified that Brian Smith's foot was visible in the photographs. During their search of Smith's home, police had also found shoes that matched the pair Cassandra was wearing in the pictures. Navy Adidas high tops with three stripes in different shades of pink.

The six-person jury found that Cassandra had been a victim of homicide and there was enough information to grant a death certificate. Although this provided some relief for Cassandra's loved ones, they, along with MMIP advocates, remain angry that Anchorage Police discovered these photographs in 2019, yet didn't make them public until Smith's sentencing almost five years later.

During that time, Cassandra's loved ones had endured torment not knowing what had happened to her. Michael Livingston, a retired police officer and MMIP activist, told Alaska Public Media, quote, "...this story really is a microcosm of a bigger challenge that we have in Alaska."

How many other pictures do the Anchorage Police Department or other law enforcement agencies in Alaska have who may, in the pictures, appear to be deceased? And we're wondering why it's the policy of the Anchorage Police Department to not reach out to the families and say, could this possibly be your daughter?

Cassandra's family were able to hold a memorial service for her, but they still want to bring her remains home and have Smith held responsible for Cassandra's murder. While Anchorage police have indicated that the investigation is ongoing, as of mid-2025 there are no further updates. In the meantime, MMIP advocates are offering a $500 reward for information leading to Cassandra's remains.

They are also offering a $500 reward for information that leads to the arrest of Ian Calhoun, the friend of Bryant Smith who appeared to be complicit in Kathleen Henry's murder. Some speculate that Calhoun may have played a more active role in this crime, and possibly Smith's other crimes, than is currently known.

MMIP activists say there is enough evidence to charge Calhoun with failure to report a violent crime committed against an adult and or hindering prosecution. However, prosecutors have said that they will not be charging Calhoun unless new evidence comes to light.

Activists have staged several protests in downtown Anchorage in front of police headquarters and the district attorney's office, as well as outside of Ian Calhoun's home. They have also started a Change.org petition titled, Arrest Ian Calhoun Now. As of the writing of this episode, the petition has 5,500 signatures.

In an interview with KNBA radio station, MMIP activist Antonia Comack said it was important to speak out against Calhoun's apparent complicity, as silence allows society to ignore the ongoing dehumanisation of native women. We need to set a precedent with Ian Calhoun and have him arrested, she stated.

Standing in stark contrast to Ian Calhoun were the two women who reported Brian Smith's crimes to the authorities, Alicia Youngblood and Valerie Kassler. After Smith showed Alicia videos of Veronica Rabowchuk's body, she contacted the police multiple times, trying to prevent him from harming anyone else.

Despite her repeated attempts, Smith went on to kill Kathleen Henry and likely Cassandra Boskovsky as well. The news of Smith's crimes was devastating to Alicia, who took her life less than two years after Smith was arrested. Her family and friends remember her as a passionate listener and trusted friend with a beaming personality and an indescribable love for her children.

In her obituary, they wrote: "Alicia graced our world, but those of us who knew and loved her, she graced our lives." Valerie Kastler has been hailed as a hero for turning over evidence of Brian Smith's crimes, despite fears of facing misdemeanor charges for theft and prostitution.

In a piece for the Alaska Beacon, activist Amber Batts emphasized that it's important for sex workers to know that in the state of Alaska, they have immunity from prostitution charges when reporting heinous crimes.

Batts explained that fear of legal repercussions for so-called moral crimes can deter sex workers from cooperating with authorities, even when they possess vital information about far more serious offences, such as murder. One of Veronika Rabaučak's sisters has said she will always be grateful for what Valerie did, stating...

"If it wasn't for that, we wouldn't have known what he did to my sister and Kathleen." Amber Batts told Alaska Public Media that Valerie is a brave, amazing woman, adding: "Rather than just saying, 'Oh, it's too difficult, I don't know what to do, I'm just going to leave this the way it is and go on with my life,' she chose to go above and beyond to get that information to police."

Amber was the one to inform Valerie Kessler that Brian Smith had been found guilty the day after the verdict came down. It was Valerie's birthday and she smiled upon hearing the news, stating: "I'd do it again, 'cause those ladies needed to cross over, and their souls make it to heaven." Ever wonder what your lashes are destined for?

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