A stolen digital memory card with gruesome recordings leads to a double murder trial in Alaska

By MARK THIESSEN
Associated Press

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — The double murder trial of a man accused of killing two Alaska Native women is set to begin more than four years after a woman turned in a stoled digital memory card that authorities say contained gruesome recordings of one of the killings. Police say they recognized the accented voice on some of the videos as that of Brian Steven Smith, a South Africa native they knew from a prior investigation. Smith has pleaded not guilty to 14 charges, including first- and second-degree murder, in the deaths of 30-year-old Kathleen Henry and Veronica Abouchuk, who was 52 when her family reported her missing in February 2019. The trial is scheduled to begin Monday with jury selection.