‘If I did this, I don’t remember’: Jurors review interrogation footage of Brian Smith claiming he does not remember murder victim

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (KTUU) - Jurors watched the recording of a 2019 multi-hour police interrogation when the Brian Smith murder trial resumed on Tuesday in Anchorage Superior Court.

Smith is on trial for murdering two women, Kathleen Jo Henry and Veronica Abouchuk, more than four years ago.

Shortly after he became a suspect in the murder of Henry, Anchorage police learned Smith was in Washington, D.C., with family. When he unexpectedly flew back to Anchorage on Oct. 8, 2019, homicide detectives met him and took him to a room at the airport to begin the interrogation.

At first, Smith did not understand that the purpose of the interrogation was related to a murder investigation, telling detectives he thought they might be talking to him about a theft he had reported from his Ford Ranger.

But as the questioning continued, the detectives made clear they were interested in something far more serious. They showed Smith photos of a bruised and beaten woman and played a short audio recording of the woman moaning.

The photos and audio were from photos and videos taken from Smith’s phone, which was stolen from his truck by someone who spent an afternoon with him.

Jurors saw those graphic videos and photos during Monday’s court session.

When detectives showed Smith more and more photos and shared what they knew about his past actions and whereabouts, Smith repeatedly said things like, “I don’t remember,” “I do not remember this,” “I don’t remember this girl,” and “if I did this, I don’t remember.”

Later, when detectives showed him more photos and told Smith that they did not believe his claims of memory loss, he conceded at one point how a particular photo appeared to show him and Henry.

“I don’t remember the face, I don’t remember — that’s my truck, that’s my truck, that’s my voice, that looks like my shoes. I wear jeans usually, it looks like jeans in the picture,” Smith told investigators during the interview. “I honestly, I do not — I’ve got a blank. If that’s me, I’ve got a total blank. Something is blocking this out of my mind.”

The detectives continued to bore into inconsistencies and his memory failures and he continued to say he could not remember specifics, until at one point, Smith admitted one photo showed a body in the back of his truck.

Smith said he just coincidentally found it there and then panicked and dumped it alongside the railroad tracks near Six Mile Creek off the Seward Highway.

“Why would you not call? A reasonable person would call the police and say, ‘Hey, I found a dead body,’” Detective Brendan Lee said to Smith. “What they wouldn’t do is wait two days, keep the dead body in the back of their car, drive it home, park it in the driveway and then take it out to a spot and not only dump the body over the guardrail, but take the other stuff that’s with her to a different place. What does that look like? And then take pictures of her in the back of your truck. Nobody else could have done that.”

“I...I...I...I know,” stammered Smith. “I was the only person there when I dumped her.”

“Your question was, ‘What would somebody do? Normally, I would guess, what the hell, I’m going to call the police,” Smith added.

“OK, but this time you didn’t, why?” pressed the detective.

“Because I had been with a girl and if I have to bring this up, it would come up and my wife would find out that I slept with somebody,” Smith said.

Smith’s wife was in the courtroom Tuesday, as were relatives of the two victims.

Prosecutors expect to finish playing the police interrogation of Smith during Wednesday’s court session.

Go to Alaska’s News Source’s website to catch a livestream of the trial, which is scheduled to begin at 8:30 a.m. Monday-Thursday.