Brian Smith indicted for second murder

Anchorage police announced Thursday that Brian Smith is now the suspect in a second homicide.

The victim has been identified as 52-year-old Veronica Abouchuk. Her body was found in April of 2019 on mile 4.5 of the Old Glenn Highway. On Oct. 11 of this year, her body was identified.

Police say that during interrogation for the murder of 30-year-old Kathleen Henry, whom he allegedly murdered at the TownePlace Suites by Marriott on Sept. 4, Smith admitted to shooting another female victim between 2017 and 2018.

He provided police the location of her body, and his account corroborated with evidence from a skull containing a bullet hole that had already been recovered. The second victim was identified by police, and Smith was indicted on the additional charges by a grand jury today. Those include counts of tampering with evidence and misconduct involving a corpse.

Deputy District Attorney Brittany Dunlop said that Smith was indicted on the second murder charge earlier on Thursday. The grand jury also was asked to make a special finding of substantial torture.

An SD card was found on the street in Fairview labelled "Homicide at Midtown-Marriott," and contained images that appeared to be from the murder. It showed various stages of beating to Henry's body. Henry's body was found near the Seward Highway.

If convicted at trial, and found to have subjected the first victim to substantial torture, Smith will be sentenced to a mandatory 99 years of imprisonment. He is currently in jail with bail set at $250,000 cash performance and $500,000 cash appearance, but prosecutors say that they are asking for that to be raised to $1,000,000.

"We hope that these charges bring some closure to folks for their missing loved ones," said Dunlop.