A convicted prostitute who stole a memory card from a date is horrified to discover gruesome footage of a woman being beaten and strangled — with the stolen card now at the center of a double-murder trial.
The unknown thief had stolen an SD card from the center console of a date truck during a rendezvous in Alaska — turning it over to police a week later after discovering the horrors it contained, according to court documents in the trial of Brian Steven Smith, a 52-year-old US citizen.
It was labeled “Murder at the Midtown Marriott” — and contained nearly 40 photos and a dozen videos of Kathleen Henry, 30, being beaten and strangled in 2019 and then smuggled out of the Anchorage hotel hidden under a blanket on a luggage cart, the documents said.
It includes the killer stomping her throat and saying, “You gotta die king, bitch.”
“In my movies, everyone always dies,” the man said. “What will my followers think of me? People need to know when they are serial killers.”
Brian Steven Smith, 52, is scheduled to face a double-murder trial Monday in the deaths of Kathleen Henry, 30, and Veronica Abouchuk, 52. AP
The photo also shows Henry “lying on the floor next to the bed… completely naked and on his back,” according to charging documents obtained by South African outlet IOL.
“The man in the recording was talking, saying something like ‘My hands are getting tired’ and he continued to stomp the woman’s throat with his right foot,” the document said.
“The man can be heard saying ‘You gotta f–king die, bitch’ and ‘just f–king die.’”
Kathleen Henry, 30, was allegedly filmed being murdered in September 2019. Facebook
Police recognized the distinctive voice of the married South African Smith from earlier investigations, court documents said.
Authorities believe the footage was taken at the TownePlace Suites by Marriott in Anchorage — where Smith was registered to stay from Sept. 2 to Sept. 4, 2019.
The first image showing Henry’s body was time-stamped around 1 a.m. on Sept. 4 — while he was still at the hotel — and the last is from early Sept. 6, showing Henry’s body in the back of a black Ford Ranger pickup truck that Smith owned, the lawsuit alleges. the document.
Smith’s phone was also traced to the area where Henry’s body was later found.
During questioning about Henry’s death, Smith allegedly also confessed to killing Veronica Abouchuk, 52 — and gave authorities the location of her body.
“Without prompting, he told the trooper in the bathroom, ‘I’m going to make you famous,'” District Attorney Brittany Dunlop said at a court hearing last week.
“He came back in and said, ‘You got time? Do you want to continue talking?’ And then he revealed this other murder.”
Abouchuk was 52 when his family officially reported him missing in February 2019, months after they last saw him. Like Henry, he had gone through a period of homelessness.
Smith allegedly confessed to killing Veronica Abouchuk when questioned about Henry’s death. AP
Alaska State Troopers in 2018 mistakenly identified another body as Abouchuk, because Abouchuk’s ID was found with it, for reasons that remain unclear.
But dental records later confirmed she was the woman whose skull was found with a bullet wound where Smith told police to look, authorities said.
Smith has since pleaded not guilty to 14 charges, including first and second degree murder, sexual assault and tampering with evidence. He faces a possible 99 years in prison if convicted.
Her lawyer, Timothy Ayer, tried unsuccessfully to have any mention of the memory card or its contents excluded from the trial, arguing that prosecutors could not prove whether the 39 photos and 12 videos were original or if they had been altered.
“The State cannot present witnesses to testify that the video fairly and accurately depicts any act that actually took place,” the lawyer said in court documents.
But Third Judicial District Judge Kevin Saxby ruled late Friday that the woman who seized the SD card could testify about taking it and holding it for a week before he turned it over to police, and that the recording could be properly authenticated.
The trial is scheduled to begin Monday with jury selection, and will likely take three to four weeks to complete.
Authorities say Smith came to Alaska in 2014 and became a naturalized US citizen the same month Henry was killed.
His wife, Stephanie Bissland of Anchorage, and a sister who is acting as a family spokeswoman in South Africa, both declined to comment until after the hearing.
With Postal wire.
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Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
