nicolas_/iStock(ANCHORAGE, Alaska) — A man accused of killing a young woman and saving videos of the crime to a memory card has now been charged in a second slaying, authorities said.
Brian Smith was initially arrested on Oct. 8 for the September 2019 murder of 30-year-old Kathleen Henry. During that investigation, detectives determined Smith was also responsible for the death of 52-year-old Veronica Abouchuk, Anchorage police said on Thursday.
“After he committed each murder, he dumped the body along the side of a road like unwanted trash,” prosecutors said in a bail request document.
Abouchuk, who was last seen by her relatives in July 2018, was reported missing by family in February 2019, police said.
In April, human remains were found near an Anchorage highway, and on Oct. 11, days after Smith’s arrest, the remains were identified as Abouchuk, police said.
When Smith was interviewed for the Henry case, he confessed to shooting a woman between 2017 and 2018, and he provided the location of her body, court documents said.
A skull with a gunshot wound — later identified as belonging to Abouchuk — was recovered near the location Smith identified, the documents said.
Smith’s attorney declined to comment to ABC News on Friday on the Abouchuk case.
Smith was taken into custody on Oct. 8 for first-degree murder in connection with Henry’s death. He pleaded not guilty and his attorney declined to comment to ABC News last week.
Police were led to Smith when a woman found an SD card labeled “Homicide at midtown Marriott” lying on the ground on Sept. 30, according to court documents.
The memory card contained disturbing videos from early September that showed a woman being beaten, raped and strangled, according to court documents.
Some of the footage showed a naked woman “moaning and struggling to breathe,” and trying to fight back, documents said. In another video, the suspect is seen stomping on the woman’s throat with his foot, documents said, and laughing as he strangles her.
Images also showed the victim, later identified as Henry, in the back of a truck, documents said.
Detectives found that Smith’s phone pinged “to a location on Rainbow Valley Road along the Seward Highway within minutes of the last still image from the SD card of the female in the back of the black truck,” according to court documents. Henry’s remains were found on Oct. 2. near Seward Highway, police said.
Smith had a room registered at the same hotel during that time period and has a car matching the truck seen on the footage, court documents said. His accent also matched the voice heard in the video, court documents said.
A grand jury on Thursday returned a supplemental indictment on charges including murder in connection with Abouchuk’s death, officials said. Smith is expected to be arraigned on Oct. 21 on the second indictment. His attorney did not immediately respond to ABC News’ request for comment on Friday.
At Thursday’s news conference, police would not say if Smith could be connected to more victims.
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