EX-KOMANI MAN ACCUSED OF MURDER IN ALASKA
Smith claims to have attended Queen’s College but no records found
Friends and colleagues of former Komani resident Brian Steven Smith, who allegedly filmed himself killing a woman in Alaska, have described him as a “meek and mild” character who was among the least likely people to commit such a heinous act.
Smith, 48 – whose Facebook profile says he is a former Queens College pupil – was arrested in Anchorage, Alaska, on October 8 and charged with killing a woman who has been identified as Kathleen Jo Henry, 30 years old.
According to Alaskan media, on September 30 someone discovered an SD card on the ground with videos and images related to the killing of Henry.
The card, which was labelled “Homicide at midtown Marriott”, contained 39 images and 12 videos. Images showed a naked Henry being beaten and strangled.
A video allegedly showed Smith yelling and laughing at her, telling her to die. Other footage allegedly showed Smith stomping on her neck and choking her to death.
Smith’s arrest for the crime has come as a huge shock to those who knew him in South Africa. Until his departure for Alaska five years ago, he had been working in the information technology sector in Port Elizabeth.
Andrew Matheson Raaff was Smith’s boss some 15 years ago.
“He was a normal guy. I could not believe it when I was told about this,” Raaff told the Dispatch on Wednesday.
“He could be a bit impatient when the pressure was on, but he was a hard worker who would often work long hours. He was funny, a very vivacious character.”
Raaff said while he did not socialise with Smith, he was aware that he had met a woman overseas and he had left Port Elizabeth for the US five years ago. He had lived with another friend of theirs for a period, he said.
“I would chat to him on Facebook about every six months. He would comment on my posts and I on his, and then we would chat. He told me he was happy in Alaska, and he found life so much easier.
“I think something must have snapped in him. He was a runof-the-mill guy. I would have bet a million rand that he was the least likely person to do this.”
Another Port Elizabethan, Dave Evans, shared a house with Smith in Central “about 10 or 12 years ago”, when both men were still single. Evans, too, painted a picture of a man who on the face of it appeared incapable of such crimes.
“Andrew was meek and mild. He had a bit of a twisted sense of humour, but never violent,” Evans said. “He was in IT, and mainly kept to himself. He worked doing smaller computer jobs, filling cartridges, things like that.”
Evans said his housemate did not socialise a lot, and seemed “a bit clumsy around the girls”.
“He was shy, although he did have the gift of the gab.”
He believes Smith met his wife, an American, online and then relocated to the US as a result.
While Smith’s Facebook profile says he attended Queens College, the school’s spokesperson, Charwin Knoetze, said they could not find any record of a Brian Steven Smith in their Queen’s College yearbooks.
“I have only looked in 83, 84 and 85. Neither do we have any current staff member, who was employed around that time, to attest to his character.”
According to news reports this week, Smith had been answering questions on the Quora website about SA, apartheid and the history of Africa in August. He made racist comments about black people, saying “wherever they go there is a spike in criminal activities”.
Smith was arrested at Anchorage’s Ted Stevens International Airport and appeared in court on October 8.
The police investigation revealed Smith had booked a hotel room for two days and that the carpet in the hotel room where the murder allegedly took place matched that of the room into which he was booked.
Smith was placed in custody, with his bail set at $500,000 (about R7.4m), and he is to appear in court again on October 21.
He made racist comments about black people, saying ‘wherever they go there is a spike in crime’