SA man guilty of murders

TWO ALASKAN WOMEN: BUST BY RECORDING OF 1 DEATH ON CELLPHONE In video Brian Smith says: ‘In my movies, everybody always dies.’

ASouth African man, Brian Steven Smith, has been found guilty of the murders of two Alaskan native women.

He was arrested after police were given footage of one of the murders that was found on his cellphone. The footage was copied to a memory card and handed in to police by a woman who had stolen it from his truck.

Smith later confessed to killing the other woman, whose body had been misidentified by police.

The man was found guilty of murdering Kathleen Henry in 2019 and Veronica Abouchuk in either 2018 or 2019. He was also found guilty of multiple counts of sexual assault.

He is expected to be handed a life sentence. Alaska does not have the death penalty.

The video footage of Henry’s killing led to Smith confessing to the murder. The footage showed him beating and strangling Henry. Although Smith’s face was not visible, he was identified by his South African accent.

The Independent reports that in the video, which was labelled ‘Murder at the Midtown Marriott’, Smith could be heard saying: “In my movies, everybody always dies.”

Smith confessed to shooting Abouchuk and dumping her body. He picked her up while his wife, Stephanie Bissland, was out of town. He told police he shot her in the head after becoming upset that she would not take a shower. He said he was aggravated because she smelled.

Bissland met Smith online in 2013 and accepted his marriage proposal before meeting him in person. He moved from KwaZulu-Natal to Alaska after that and became a US citizen in 2019.

At his trial, she said she suspected his heavy drinking led to him committing the crimes.

“He was very good for me, but he had another life, I guess,” Bissland said.

Bissland also has no plans to divorce him. She said she will continue to write letters to him and visit him. “I said my vows,” she added.

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