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Picture courtesy: (Mark Thiessen) A South African man who became a US citizen through naturalization has been found guilty of murdering two Alaska Native women, crimes that were captured on a stolen memory card.
(The Post News)- A South African immigrant in the US has been sentenced to 226 years in prison for the murders of two Alaska Native women who went missing in 2019.
Brian Steven Smith, 53, originally from Queenstown in the Eastern Cape, South Africa, received a 99-year sentence for the killings of 30-year-old Kathleen Jo Henry and 52-year-old Veronica Abouchuk in Anchorage, Alaska’s largest city.
Last week, Superior Court Judge Kevin Saxby handed down the lengthy prison sentence to Smith, which includes an additional 28 years for charges related to sexual assault and tampering with evidence.
Smith, an IT technician married to an American woman, was convicted in February for the murders of Henry and Abouchuk.
He confessed to being the perpetrator in a video recording of one of the murders and also acknowledged disposing of the victim’s remains during police questioning.
Smith had obtained US citizenship through naturalisation shortly before brutally torturing and murdering Henry at an Anchorage hotel in September 2019.
The videos and images that never showed Smith’s face were copied by a woman in possession of Smith’s phone and sent to police.
In the murder of Henry, Smith was also facing charges related to the fatal shooting of Abouchuk, which had occurred over a year prior.
Notably, the location that Smith provided to the police as the site where he had disposed of Abouchuk’s remains matched the exact wooded area north of Anchorage, where Alaska state troopers subsequently discovered her skull, which bore a gunshot wound, in April 2019.
This grim discovery corroborated the details Smith had initially provided to the authorities, further implicating him in Abouchuk’s murder.
Smith’s distinctive South African accent was recognised in the torture footage found on a digital camera memory card, which was later submitted to the authorities, leading to his identification as the perpetrator.
The judge described the treatment of both victims as utterly heinous and inhumane, equating it to the most terrifying and disturbing scenarios imaginable, akin to the darkest of nightmares.
In January 2020, journalist Tanya Waterworth acquired a copy of the prosecution’s bail memorandum, which outlined the disturbing details of the case against Smith.
dditional images showed the victim’s body, wrapped in a sheet with her head visible, being transported on a cart towards a black pickup truck, which was later identified as Smith’s vehicle.
ccording to Alaska Public Media, Smith displayed no emotion and remained motionless during the sentencing.
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