Brian Smith, age 48, the man charged with the videotaped death of Alaska Native woman, 30-year-old Kathleen Henry, was indicted for the murder of a second Alaska Native woman that occurred a year prior.

The indictment was the result of a confession by Smith during the police interview in the death of Henry after his arrest. Smith told investigators that he had shot and killed 53-year-old Veronica Abouchuk and provided the location where he had dumped her body.

Alaska State Troopers had already located the remains of Abouchuk, consisting of a skull, at mile 4.5 of the Old Glenn Highway in April of this year. She was found to have been shot to the head.

During his interview with investigators, after revealing the killing of Abouchuk, he identified his victim after being shown a photo of her. She was positively identified on October 11th through dental records.

Abouchuk was last seen by family in July of 2018 and last seen at the Beans Cafe in October 2018. She was reported missing in February of this year.

Smith a recently naturalized citizen and originally from South Africa, was arrested on October 8th as he was arriving in Anchorage at the Ted Stevens International Airport six days after Henry’s remains were discovered at mile 108 of the Seward Highway.

The case against Smith was the direct result of an SD-card found in the Fairview area that contained 39 photos and 12 videos of the gristly murder of Henry at the midtown Marriott hotel. The imagery also captured audio where the suspect could be heard telling Henry to die and laughing as he carried out the horrific torture/murder.

Smith, who was under investigation for another crime was recognized by investigators by his English-sounding accent captured in the videos.

That memory card had also captured the partial license plate of Smith’s black 1999 Ford Ranger pickup belonging to Smith. Hotel and cell phone records provided information for detectives, including a reservation at the hotel and cell data showing him at the scene of the crimes.

Smith who was initially charged with 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, had additional charges of one count of first-degree murder, two counts of second-degree murder,  two counts of tampering with physical evidence as well as misconduct involving a corpse, for sexual penetration of a corpse.

Smith is being held on $250,000 cash performance and $500,000 cash appearance bail. the state has asked that his bail be raised to $2 million. That increase will be addressed at his arraignment on October 21st.

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