SA killer gets 226 years for Alaska murders

Judge said there was no hope for rehabilitation

THE ACCENT on brutal torture, rape and murder videos led police to South African-born killer Brian Steven Smith in Anchorage, Alaska.

A judge, who sentenced him this week to 226 years in an Alaskan jail for two savage murders, said that there was no hope for rehabilitation, just the need to keep him off the streets.

Smith, now 53, recorded himself raping, beating and killing homeless Alaskan woman Kathleen Jo Henry, 30, on an SD card labelled “Homicide at Midtown Marriott”. The videos and images, which never showed Smith’s face were copied by a woman in possession of Smith’s phone and sent to police.

The 39 graphic pictures and 12 videos show a woman being brutally raped, beaten and murdered. Smith’s voice in the recordings led to his arrest in 2019.

A detective reviewing the images recalled an earlier investigation of a man with the same unusual accent. He made the link to Smith – who grew up in Queenstown (Komani) – because of his accent which stood out as there were so few South Africans living in Anchorage.

After Smith’s arrest, he confessed to shooting another woman, whose body was recovered and identified as Veronica Abouchuk, 52.

In January 2020, reporter Tanya Waterworth obtained a copy of the bail memorandum detailing the prosecution’s case. It revealed horrifying details.

It said the first image on the SD card showed a female Alaskan native with dark hair “lying on a floor next to a bed. She is completely naked and on her back. Her left eye was bruised and swollen shut. There was blood along the opening of her left eye. The female’s right eye was partially open. The female’s lips were bloody and blue”.

There were images of the body, wrapped in a sheet with the head exposed, being rolled on a cart to a black pick-up truck, later confirmed as belonging to Smith. The bail memorandum stated that in the first video “the person filming was slapping and strangling the female with his right hand around her neck”.

In the second video, “the man in the recording is saying ‘my hand’s getting tired’ and he proceeds to stomp on the female’s throat with his right foot. The male can be heard saying ‘you need to f ***** g die, b **** ’ and ‘just f ***** g die”.

Smith was convicted in February on 14 counts including two of murder in the first degree, sexual assault in the second degree, tampering with physical evidence and misconduct involving a corpse. This refers to sexual penetration of a corpse. Last week, Superior Court Judge Kevin Saxby sentenced Smith to 226 years in prison for the murders.

Alaska public media reported that Smith sat still, with no reaction, at the sentencing. His wife, Stephanie Bissland, sat behind him, but he did not look at her. After sentencing, jurors described the case as unspeakable and said it had taken a mental toll on them.

Lead prosecutor Brittany Dunlop called Smith truly evil, someone who should never be permitted “to walk among us”.

Abouchuk’s daughter Kristy Grimaldi provided a statement wishing that Smith would live the rest of his life with no hope. The Seattle Times reported the judge saying: “Both were treated about as horribly as a person can be treated. It’s the stuff of nightmares.”

Smith confessed to killing Abouchuk after picking her up in Anchorage when his wife was out of town. He took her to his home, and she refused when he asked her to shower because of an odour.

Smith said he became upset, retrieved a pistol from the garage and shot her in the head, dumping her body north of Anchorage.

Smith and Bissland, 69, met through online gaming and he went to Alaska in 2014, getting engaged soon after.

In an interview with a local station after her husband’s arrest, Bissland described Smith as an adoring husband who liked to go on “solo-trips around Alaska” which he documented on film.

In February 2020 Bissland spoke to Waterworth about how they came to know each other.

Blues musician Bissland, 69, said she and Smith met via online gaming in February 2013 and Skyped for the first time in March 2013 and the relationship grew. Smith tried to get a visa to work in the US so he could visit his new girlfriend Stephanie in Alaska, but the restrictions were too tight.

Bissland said that in July 2013, Smith proposed to her on Skype. She said “Yes” and planned her first trip to South Africa to meet face-to-face in August 2013.

“I first saw him rushing over to me in the Durban airport. We were both excited and happy and not awkward at all. The next day we drove to Estcourt and stayed in the guesthouse he managed. He proposed again on his knee.”

In September 2013, Bissland petitioned for a visa for her fiance and Smith arrived in March 2014. Smith proposed again and gave her his mother’s De Beers flower-shaped engagement ring. They were married on May 17, 2014.

Bissland said that on learning of his arrest, “I was horrified and could not believe it. No one who knew him believed it.” Detectives “showed me that there were things I didn’t know, I was a mess, lost”.

She said she and Smith exchanged letters and she had visited him in jail. She said they never discussed the case, but “just us”. “Some people are hot on why I haven’t divorced him, why would I stand behind him, why visit? I am his wife. I am helping the part of the man I married,” she said.