November 18, 2025 • 18 mins
A woman risks everything to step forward for a victim after finding pictures of her murder on a cell phone.
Thank you APNews.com, ktoo.org, kbtx.com, cbsnews.com, law.alaska.gov, abcnews.go.com, alaskasnewssource.com, alaskabeacon.com, ingramsmithturner.com, Casefile Presents on Youtube, nytimes.com, newyorkpost.com, bia.gov, anchoragepolice.com, vocal.media and Wikipedia for information contributing to today’s story.
This episode was written by Christy Arnhart, edited by John Lordan and is produced by LordanArts.
Do you have any comments, or a case you’d like to suggest? You’ll find a comment form and case submission link at LordanArts.com.
This is not intended to act as a means of proving or disproving anything related to the investigation. It is a conversation about the current known facts and theories being discussed. Everyone directly or indirectly referred to is innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.
LordanArts 2025
Thank you APNews.com, ktoo.org, kbtx.com, cbsnews.com, law.alaska.gov, abcnews.go.com, alaskasnewssource.com, alaskabeacon.com, ingramsmithturner.com, Casefile Presents on Youtube, nytimes.com, newyorkpost.com, bia.gov, anchoragepolice.com, vocal.media and Wikipedia for information contributing to today’s story.
This episode was written by Christy Arnhart, edited by John Lordan and is produced by LordanArts.
Do you have any comments, or a case you’d like to suggest? You’ll find a comment form and case submission link at LordanArts.com.
This is not intended to act as a means of proving or disproving anything related to the investigation. It is a conversation about the current known facts and theories being discussed. Everyone directly or indirectly referred to is innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.
LordanArts 2025
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:21):
Not all mysteries are buried deep in the past. Some
unfold in the world that we all live in now,
and in an age where nearly everything is captured on camera.
Some would think it's very hard for secrets to survive,
but sometimes, because of cleverness or luck, the truth stays
obscured and evil remains protected. Thankfully, in today's special solved case,
(00:45):
a brave Act cuts through the dark and gives two
families a chance at learning the truth and finding justice,
and the public a chance to understand the complexities of
crime attributed to very specific members of society. I'm John,
and this is the seriously mysterious and seriously disturbing case
(01:05):
of witness A. Sex workers face constant danger from everyone
around them, and if you pay attention to true crime,
you know they are some of the most vulnerable people
in our society. We all need to make money, but
this profession is literally night after night of putting yourself
in unknown and sometimes very dangerous situations. In Anchorage, Alaska,
(01:28):
in September of twenty nineteen, a woman found herself at
her wits end. Her real identity has been hidden by
the courts to protect her, but this woman, who has
been referred to as Valerie Castler in the media. Was homeless,
living in a tent behind Shiloh Missionary Baptist Church, and
found herself at one of the lowest points in her life.
(01:50):
On the thirtieth Valerie was picked up by a gentleman
in a black truck who was willing to pay for
her services. She drank flavored vodka from a Gatorade bottle
while the man drove them around town, and they got
to know each other a little better. After a short while,
the man stopped at a shell gas station to use
the ATM in order to get the money he had
promised Valerie for her services. While he was in the station,
(02:12):
Valerie found an old cell phone under her seat, and
she decided to pocket it. The man didn't notice, and
when he dropped her off at her tent that night,
he was still none the wiser to her theft. When
Valerie looked through the contents of that cell phone, she
found something very disturbing. There were thirty nine pictures and
twelve videos of a horrific murder that had been filmed.
(02:36):
If that wasn't terrible enough, it seemed that this murder
had been documented with the mindset that it could be
shown to some potential audience. In an unnamed hotel room,
a woman she didn't recognize was being beaten, tortured, and
suffocated by a man with a thick, distinctive accent. He
never shows himself on camera, but he narrates as he films.
(02:58):
Everyone dies in my movie. The man could be heard saying,
what are my followers going to think of me? People
need to know when they are being serial killed. Terrified,
Valerie recognized the voice. It was the man that she
had just spent time with. Once the victim died, he
covered her body with a white blanket before placing it
(03:18):
on a luggage cart. Then he carried her body out
of the hotel and put her in his truck. After
he propped her up in different positions, as if playing
with a doll, he finally settled on one and the
video ended. Horrified, Valerie knew that she had something important,
but she was terrified of it. There was something familiar
(03:39):
that tugged at her mind. She knew the carpet of
the room that the murder had taken place in. It
was the same carpet that was used at the Marriott
Town Place suites and downtown Anchorage. Valerie knew that she
had to tell the police, but doing so could also
land her in jail for prostitution and possibly theft, or
so she thought. In a last gas sex workers are
(04:00):
given immunity from prosecution if they witness certain crimes and
report them, so she came up with a plan. Valerie
decided to change her story ever so slightly. She also
transferred the photos and videos to an SD card that
she had recently stolen from a local grocery store, and
she labeled it homicide at Midtown Marriott. When she handed
(04:22):
the SD card over to investigators, she told them that
she had found the card while out walking one day
near a grocery store where she met the mystery man
a couple of days before. Under more questioning, investigators pressed
hard for more information, and Valerie quickly came clean and
she told them the real details of the encounter. Sadly,
they would not be able to investigate the source of
(04:44):
the digital evidence. The cell phone itself was lost by
Valerie when she went walking through the woods. As her
side of the story was investigated, it was easy for
officers to corroborate at least some of her movements. CCTV
cameras at the gas station recorded the stops and the
man had made for the ATM, and it also got
a good view of the black Forward Ranger that he
(05:06):
was driving on the digital murder evidence. Timestamps on the
picture showed that they had been taken over a four
day period from September second to the sixth in twenty nineteen.
The last images were taken on September sixth and showed
the woman's body in the back of the man's truck.
Investigators could tell that the murdered woman was an Alaskan native,
(05:28):
but due to the amount of damage done to her face,
she was unrecognizable. They did, however, agree with Valerie that
the murder must have happened at the townhouse suites, as
they noticed the matching decor as well. With the evidence
a solid time frame, a location, and a description of
the vehicle, they only had to now identify the victim
and the murderer. As it turns out, finding the killer
(05:51):
was easier than any of them had planned. A woman
named Alicia Youngblood had contacted authorities back in twenty eighteen
regarding her then boyfriend, a South African man named Brian
Stephen Smith. While they dated, Smith made comments to Alicia
about a woman that he had killed, fearing for her life.
She had turned him into the police, and it even
(06:11):
gathered information for them, but it must have not been enough.
For some reason, that case simply went dormant, with investigators
never really offering any explanation as to why. Admittedly, although
Alicia had been told about the killings and had reportedly
even seen pictures of them, she didn't know their names
and had no concrete evidence for investigators to go on. Thankfully,
(06:35):
during the time that that case was active, investigators had
spoken to Smith in person. He was working at the
Marriott Townplace suites in downtown Anchorage, and he fit a
composite sketch that Valerie helped investigators create perfectly. When the
rental records that the suites were checked, they showed that
Smith had indeed stayed there from September second to the fourth,
(06:57):
the same range of days that the murder was believed
to have taken place. He also owned a black Ford Ranger,
and the partial license plate that investigators were able to
glean from the cell phone video matched it. More CCTV
footage from the suites was found from September fourth, showing
Smith using a luggage cart and loading something wrapped in
a white blanket into his truck. While sirch Warrens were
(07:19):
being conducted on Smith's property, his cell phone records, and
the sweets room that he had rented, officers went to
his home to speak with him. Unfortunately, he was nowhere
to be found.
Speaker 2 (07:36):
A decade ago, I was on the trail of one
of the country's most elusive serial killers. But it wasn't
until twenty twenty three when he was finally caught. The
answers were there, hidden in plain sight. So why did
it take so long to catch him? I'm Josh Seeman
and this is Monster Hunting the Long Island serial Killer,
The investigation into the most notorious killer in New York
(07:57):
since The Son of Sam available now listen for free
on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, wherever you get your podcasts.
Speaker 1 (08:14):
Investigators were not only trying to locate Brian Stephen Smith,
they were still saddled with a huge question who exactly
was their murder victim. While some officers canvas neighborhoods with
the weak physical description that they had, other investigators combed
through missing persons reports, and there they came across one
(08:34):
for thirty year old Kathleen Joe Henry. Kathleen was born
on December twenty second, nineteen eighty eight, in Bethel, Alaska,
and was a native of the u Pick from the
Eskimo village of Eke. Kathleen's life had been challenging, to
say the least. She had fallen out of contact with
her family a few years prior. They had no idea
(08:55):
where she was staying or what she could be up to.
She was a divorcee with addiction issue that she struggled
with and from time to time. This, along with the
nature of her work, brought her into contact with the
local authorities. During her stay at Alaska's Highland Mountain Correctional
Center in twenty twelve, she obtained her ged, which only
furthered her love of writing poetry. However, by September of
(09:18):
twenty nineteen, no one in her family had heard from
Kathleen in weeks. Three days after Valery passed along the
memory card to the police, investigators received a call that
would change the course of the investigation. Human remains had
been found near the Seaward Highway in South Anchorage, Winter
and wildlife in Alaska had not been kind to the
(09:39):
woman's remains, and she was in an advanced state of decomposition.
When the remains were finally identified using dental records, they
were found to be Kathleen Joe Henry. Soon after the discovery,
Smith's cell phone records were finally obtained. His location data
showed that he was in the Rainbow Valley Road area
the night. Investigators believed that Kathleen had been killed. This
(10:02):
road sits along the Seaward Highway, but Smith had still
not been seen in or around town. Thankfully, that newly
acquired data showed that he was recently in the Washington,
DC area. It was later discovered that this trip was
under the guise of being on a vacation with his wife,
Stephanie Bisland of Anchorage. Homeland Security obtained Smith's flight information,
(10:25):
and when he flew back to Anchorage on October eighth,
he was arrested at Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport. His
vehicle was taken into custody and processed. A McDonald's receipt
was found in the truck from the day that Smith
disposed of Kathleen's body. CCTV footage from that McDonald shows
Smith in his truck and there is another woman with him.
(10:46):
This woman was identified as another local sex worker, and
to this day has not been found. Under questioning, Smith
at first seemed confused as to why he had been detained.
Even when he was confronted with the evidence, which clearly
featured his voice, he proclaimed his innocence. As frequently happens,
his story would start to shift. He then stated that
(11:09):
he had simply found the dead body of an unknown
woman in the back of his truck, and in a panic,
not knowing who it was or how it got there,
he got rid of the body in the location where
Kathleen was eventually found. Smith changed his story several more times,
but after hours of interrogation, he turned to investigators and
told them, I'm going to make you guys famous. In
(11:32):
gruesome detail. He began to tell the men about a
murder he had committed back in twenty eighteen. While driving
by a grocery story, he picked up a homeless Native
Alaskan woman fetter and got her drunk. He said that
he usually drove by homeless shelters and picked up women
for sex because they were so desperate they would do anything.
Since his wife was gone for the weekend. He took
(11:53):
the woman home, where she watched TV in a basement
room that was converted into a living room with sofas.
Smith said the woman stank and he was afraid that
his wife would be able to smell her when she
returned home, so he asked the woman to take a shower.
When she said no, he said it pissed him off,
so he shot her in the head with the twenty two.
(12:13):
He didn't even know what her name was, and he
said that she had been nothing but kind to him
all night. He left her body near the Old Glen
Highway in Eclutna, by the power plant. He was then
shown photos of women who police thought might possibly have
been murder victims, and that's when Smith pointed to a
picture a fifty two year old Veronica Abuchik. Veronica suffered
(12:36):
from mental illness and alcoholism, and would spend some of
her life experiencing homelessness. Although she kept up with her family,
they eventually lost touch with her, and in twenty nineteen
she was reported missing. That same year, a skull had
been found in the area by mushroom hunters. That skull
had a bullet wound in it. Dential records would confirm
(12:57):
that the skull belonged to Veronica. Yth was arrested and
formally charged with the murder of Veronica Obuchuk and Kathleen
Henry in October of twenty nineteen. He would face fourteen
charges in total, even though he pled not guilty, Prosecuting
Smith would be easy with the prior confessions he had
made and all the evidence the search warrants had uncovered.
(13:19):
Smith's ex girlfriend, Alicia Youngblood, had testified before a grand
jury in this case, helping them go forward with prosecuting him. However,
sadly before his actual trial, Alicia took her own life
in July of twenty twenty one. The trial would finally
be heard in early twenty twenty four. The room was
heavy with the emotional weight of the proceedings. Family members
(13:41):
and advocates filled the courtroom. Supporters outside held signs demanding
justice for missing and murdered Indigenous women, and ultimately, the
jury wasted little time making their decision. After less than
two hours of deliberation, they found Brian Stephen Smith guilty
on all fourteen counts degree murder, sexual assault, tampering with evidence,
(14:03):
and misconduct involving a corpse, among others. When it came
to the sentencing, Superior Court Judge Kevin Saxby handed Smith
what prosecutors requested a two hundred and twenty six year
sentence for the murder of Kathleen Jo Henry. The jury
had found an aggravating factor, that being that she was
subjected to substantial physical torture, and this triggered a mandatory
(14:27):
ninety nine year term. The rest of the decades came
from his other counts, including the killing of Roonica Obuchik
and all the supporting offenses. The judge's words were dark
and resolute. There is no hope, There is no restoration.
There is only preventing mister Smith from killing again. While
(14:48):
he will clearly be in prison for life, there is
some question about the full extent of his offenses. Remember,
in his video he referred to himself as a serial killer,
so the possibility that there are more and two victims
is extremely high. Even in court, prosecutors presented other images
and a sketch of a third possible victim whose remains
have never been identified. After his sentencing, the media and
(15:12):
advocates began pushing further trying to identify the other women
in these images, women whose stories may still be untold
and whose families may not truly know their fate. Perhaps
the person who is most confused about this whole case
is Smith's wife, musician Stephanie Bisland. She was stunned when
she found out about her husband's dark exploits. She claims
(15:35):
to have no idea what was going on or knew
about any of the murders that he had committed. Quote
when I think about that, I think about how could
I have missed something like that. I've never seen anything
that dark in him, she insisted. Alaskan Native women face
very high rates of violence, with violence against these women
(15:55):
being a long standing crisis in the area. There is
a very high murder rate of mine them. Homicide is
the third highest cause of death for women age fifteen
to twenty four, and yet it seems that few want
to step up and help. The worst part of stories
like this one is that they're far from rare. For
every case that makes headlines, there are countless others that
(16:16):
never do. Until the lives of Indigenous women are valued
and protected as fiercely as anyone else's, this crisis will
continue and the silence around it will remain the most
seriously mysterious factor of it all. At least one person
has found some piece in all of this sadness, and
that's Valerie. The deaths of these women weighed heavily on
(16:37):
her mind. She had actually known Kathleen, but didn't recognize
her on Smith's cell phone because of the extensive damage
that had been done to her. Valerie would raise her
voice for Kathleen putting herself in danger by taking the
stand and testifying her identity was protected in court, where
she was referred to as witness a. But no doubt
(16:58):
this brave act brought a word of worry and stress
into her life. When she was asked why she wanted
to do it, she simply said that she considered Kathleen
her friend, a friend that she wanted to help go home.
Do you have any insights or even a case you'd
like to suggest, Feel free to send it to me.
You'll find a comment form and case submission link at
(17:19):
Lordenarts dot com. Thank you, Apnews dot com, K two
dot org, kBT X dot com, Cbsnews Law dot Alaska
dot Gov, ABC News, Alaska News Source, Alaska Beacon Ingram Smith,
Turner dot Com. Case file presents on YouTube, The New
York Times, The New York Post, Bia dot gov, Anchorage
(17:40):
Police dot com, Vocal dot Media, and Wikipedia for information
contributing to today's story. This episode was written by Christy Arnhardt,
edited by John Lorden, and produced by Lordenarts. Thank you
to our audience here for the live recording session hosted
on the YouTube channel Lordenarts Studio two. And a special
thank you to all of our support orders at PayPal, Patreon,
(18:02):
and on coffee. I'm John Lorden. Please join us again
next week for another case I know you'll find seriously
mysterious
Not all mysteries are buried deep in the past. Some
unfold in the world that we all live in now,
and in an age where nearly everything is captured on camera.
Some would think it's very hard for secrets to survive,
but sometimes, because of cleverness or luck, the truth stays
obscured and evil remains protected. Thankfully, in today's special solved case,
(00:45):
a brave Act cuts through the dark and gives two
families a chance at learning the truth and finding justice,
and the public a chance to understand the complexities of
crime attributed to very specific members of society. I'm John,
and this is the seriously mysterious and seriously disturbing case
(01:05):
of witness A. Sex workers face constant danger from everyone
around them, and if you pay attention to true crime,
you know they are some of the most vulnerable people
in our society. We all need to make money, but
this profession is literally night after night of putting yourself
in unknown and sometimes very dangerous situations. In Anchorage, Alaska,
(01:28):
in September of twenty nineteen, a woman found herself at
her wits end. Her real identity has been hidden by
the courts to protect her, but this woman, who has
been referred to as Valerie Castler in the media. Was homeless,
living in a tent behind Shiloh Missionary Baptist Church, and
found herself at one of the lowest points in her life.
(01:50):
On the thirtieth Valerie was picked up by a gentleman
in a black truck who was willing to pay for
her services. She drank flavored vodka from a Gatorade bottle
while the man drove them around town, and they got
to know each other a little better. After a short while,
the man stopped at a shell gas station to use
the ATM in order to get the money he had
promised Valerie for her services. While he was in the station,
(02:12):
Valerie found an old cell phone under her seat, and
she decided to pocket it. The man didn't notice, and
when he dropped her off at her tent that night,
he was still none the wiser to her theft. When
Valerie looked through the contents of that cell phone, she
found something very disturbing. There were thirty nine pictures and
twelve videos of a horrific murder that had been filmed.
(02:36):
If that wasn't terrible enough, it seemed that this murder
had been documented with the mindset that it could be
shown to some potential audience. In an unnamed hotel room,
a woman she didn't recognize was being beaten, tortured, and
suffocated by a man with a thick, distinctive accent. He
never shows himself on camera, but he narrates as he films.
(02:58):
Everyone dies in my movie. The man could be heard saying,
what are my followers going to think of me? People
need to know when they are being serial killed. Terrified,
Valerie recognized the voice. It was the man that she
had just spent time with. Once the victim died, he
covered her body with a white blanket before placing it
(03:18):
on a luggage cart. Then he carried her body out
of the hotel and put her in his truck. After
he propped her up in different positions, as if playing
with a doll, he finally settled on one and the
video ended. Horrified, Valerie knew that she had something important,
but she was terrified of it. There was something familiar
(03:39):
that tugged at her mind. She knew the carpet of
the room that the murder had taken place in. It
was the same carpet that was used at the Marriott
Town Place suites and downtown Anchorage. Valerie knew that she
had to tell the police, but doing so could also
land her in jail for prostitution and possibly theft, or
so she thought. In a last gas sex workers are
(04:00):
given immunity from prosecution if they witness certain crimes and
report them, so she came up with a plan. Valerie
decided to change her story ever so slightly. She also
transferred the photos and videos to an SD card that
she had recently stolen from a local grocery store, and
she labeled it homicide at Midtown Marriott. When she handed
(04:22):
the SD card over to investigators, she told them that
she had found the card while out walking one day
near a grocery store where she met the mystery man
a couple of days before. Under more questioning, investigators pressed
hard for more information, and Valerie quickly came clean and
she told them the real details of the encounter. Sadly,
they would not be able to investigate the source of
(04:44):
the digital evidence. The cell phone itself was lost by
Valerie when she went walking through the woods. As her
side of the story was investigated, it was easy for
officers to corroborate at least some of her movements. CCTV
cameras at the gas station recorded the stops and the
man had made for the ATM, and it also got
a good view of the black Forward Ranger that he
(05:06):
was driving on the digital murder evidence. Timestamps on the
picture showed that they had been taken over a four
day period from September second to the sixth in twenty nineteen.
The last images were taken on September sixth and showed
the woman's body in the back of the man's truck.
Investigators could tell that the murdered woman was an Alaskan native,
(05:28):
but due to the amount of damage done to her face,
she was unrecognizable. They did, however, agree with Valerie that
the murder must have happened at the townhouse suites, as
they noticed the matching decor as well. With the evidence
a solid time frame, a location, and a description of
the vehicle, they only had to now identify the victim
and the murderer. As it turns out, finding the killer
(05:51):
was easier than any of them had planned. A woman
named Alicia Youngblood had contacted authorities back in twenty eighteen
regarding her then boyfriend, a South African man named Brian
Stephen Smith. While they dated, Smith made comments to Alicia
about a woman that he had killed, fearing for her life.
She had turned him into the police, and it even
(06:11):
gathered information for them, but it must have not been enough.
For some reason, that case simply went dormant, with investigators
never really offering any explanation as to why. Admittedly, although
Alicia had been told about the killings and had reportedly
even seen pictures of them, she didn't know their names
and had no concrete evidence for investigators to go on. Thankfully,
(06:35):
during the time that that case was active, investigators had
spoken to Smith in person. He was working at the
Marriott Townplace suites in downtown Anchorage, and he fit a
composite sketch that Valerie helped investigators create perfectly. When the
rental records that the suites were checked, they showed that
Smith had indeed stayed there from September second to the fourth,
(06:57):
the same range of days that the murder was believed
to have taken place. He also owned a black Ford Ranger,
and the partial license plate that investigators were able to
glean from the cell phone video matched it. More CCTV
footage from the suites was found from September fourth, showing
Smith using a luggage cart and loading something wrapped in
a white blanket into his truck. While sirch Warrens were
(07:19):
being conducted on Smith's property, his cell phone records, and
the sweets room that he had rented, officers went to
his home to speak with him. Unfortunately, he was nowhere
to be found.
Speaker 2 (07:36):
A decade ago, I was on the trail of one
of the country's most elusive serial killers. But it wasn't
until twenty twenty three when he was finally caught. The
answers were there, hidden in plain sight. So why did
it take so long to catch him? I'm Josh Seeman
and this is Monster Hunting the Long Island serial Killer,
The investigation into the most notorious killer in New York
(07:57):
since The Son of Sam available now listen for free
on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, wherever you get your podcasts.
Speaker 1 (08:14):
Investigators were not only trying to locate Brian Stephen Smith,
they were still saddled with a huge question who exactly
was their murder victim. While some officers canvas neighborhoods with
the weak physical description that they had, other investigators combed
through missing persons reports, and there they came across one
(08:34):
for thirty year old Kathleen Joe Henry. Kathleen was born
on December twenty second, nineteen eighty eight, in Bethel, Alaska,
and was a native of the u Pick from the
Eskimo village of Eke. Kathleen's life had been challenging, to
say the least. She had fallen out of contact with
her family a few years prior. They had no idea
(08:55):
where she was staying or what she could be up to.
She was a divorcee with addiction issue that she struggled
with and from time to time. This, along with the
nature of her work, brought her into contact with the
local authorities. During her stay at Alaska's Highland Mountain Correctional
Center in twenty twelve, she obtained her ged, which only
furthered her love of writing poetry. However, by September of
(09:18):
twenty nineteen, no one in her family had heard from
Kathleen in weeks. Three days after Valery passed along the
memory card to the police, investigators received a call that
would change the course of the investigation. Human remains had
been found near the Seaward Highway in South Anchorage, Winter
and wildlife in Alaska had not been kind to the
(09:39):
woman's remains, and she was in an advanced state of decomposition.
When the remains were finally identified using dental records, they
were found to be Kathleen Joe Henry. Soon after the discovery,
Smith's cell phone records were finally obtained. His location data
showed that he was in the Rainbow Valley Road area
the night. Investigators believed that Kathleen had been killed. This
(10:02):
road sits along the Seaward Highway, but Smith had still
not been seen in or around town. Thankfully, that newly
acquired data showed that he was recently in the Washington,
DC area. It was later discovered that this trip was
under the guise of being on a vacation with his wife,
Stephanie Bisland of Anchorage. Homeland Security obtained Smith's flight information,
(10:25):
and when he flew back to Anchorage on October eighth,
he was arrested at Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport. His
vehicle was taken into custody and processed. A McDonald's receipt
was found in the truck from the day that Smith
disposed of Kathleen's body. CCTV footage from that McDonald shows
Smith in his truck and there is another woman with him.
(10:46):
This woman was identified as another local sex worker, and
to this day has not been found. Under questioning, Smith
at first seemed confused as to why he had been detained.
Even when he was confronted with the evidence, which clearly
featured his voice, he proclaimed his innocence. As frequently happens,
his story would start to shift. He then stated that
(11:09):
he had simply found the dead body of an unknown
woman in the back of his truck, and in a panic,
not knowing who it was or how it got there,
he got rid of the body in the location where
Kathleen was eventually found. Smith changed his story several more times,
but after hours of interrogation, he turned to investigators and
told them, I'm going to make you guys famous. In
(11:32):
gruesome detail. He began to tell the men about a
murder he had committed back in twenty eighteen. While driving
by a grocery story, he picked up a homeless Native
Alaskan woman fetter and got her drunk. He said that
he usually drove by homeless shelters and picked up women
for sex because they were so desperate they would do anything.
Since his wife was gone for the weekend. He took
(11:53):
the woman home, where she watched TV in a basement
room that was converted into a living room with sofas.
Smith said the woman stank and he was afraid that
his wife would be able to smell her when she
returned home, so he asked the woman to take a shower.
When she said no, he said it pissed him off,
so he shot her in the head with the twenty two.
(12:13):
He didn't even know what her name was, and he
said that she had been nothing but kind to him
all night. He left her body near the Old Glen
Highway in Eclutna, by the power plant. He was then
shown photos of women who police thought might possibly have
been murder victims, and that's when Smith pointed to a
picture a fifty two year old Veronica Abuchik. Veronica suffered
(12:36):
from mental illness and alcoholism, and would spend some of
her life experiencing homelessness. Although she kept up with her family,
they eventually lost touch with her, and in twenty nineteen
she was reported missing. That same year, a skull had
been found in the area by mushroom hunters. That skull
had a bullet wound in it. Dential records would confirm
(12:57):
that the skull belonged to Veronica. Yth was arrested and
formally charged with the murder of Veronica Obuchuk and Kathleen
Henry in October of twenty nineteen. He would face fourteen
charges in total, even though he pled not guilty, Prosecuting
Smith would be easy with the prior confessions he had
made and all the evidence the search warrants had uncovered.
(13:19):
Smith's ex girlfriend, Alicia Youngblood, had testified before a grand
jury in this case, helping them go forward with prosecuting him. However,
sadly before his actual trial, Alicia took her own life
in July of twenty twenty one. The trial would finally
be heard in early twenty twenty four. The room was
heavy with the emotional weight of the proceedings. Family members
(13:41):
and advocates filled the courtroom. Supporters outside held signs demanding
justice for missing and murdered Indigenous women, and ultimately, the
jury wasted little time making their decision. After less than
two hours of deliberation, they found Brian Stephen Smith guilty
on all fourteen counts degree murder, sexual assault, tampering with evidence,
(14:03):
and misconduct involving a corpse, among others. When it came
to the sentencing, Superior Court Judge Kevin Saxby handed Smith
what prosecutors requested a two hundred and twenty six year
sentence for the murder of Kathleen Jo Henry. The jury
had found an aggravating factor, that being that she was
subjected to substantial physical torture, and this triggered a mandatory
(14:27):
ninety nine year term. The rest of the decades came
from his other counts, including the killing of Roonica Obuchik
and all the supporting offenses. The judge's words were dark
and resolute. There is no hope, There is no restoration.
There is only preventing mister Smith from killing again. While
(14:48):
he will clearly be in prison for life, there is
some question about the full extent of his offenses. Remember,
in his video he referred to himself as a serial killer,
so the possibility that there are more and two victims
is extremely high. Even in court, prosecutors presented other images
and a sketch of a third possible victim whose remains
have never been identified. After his sentencing, the media and
(15:12):
advocates began pushing further trying to identify the other women
in these images, women whose stories may still be untold
and whose families may not truly know their fate. Perhaps
the person who is most confused about this whole case
is Smith's wife, musician Stephanie Bisland. She was stunned when
she found out about her husband's dark exploits. She claims
(15:35):
to have no idea what was going on or knew
about any of the murders that he had committed. Quote
when I think about that, I think about how could
I have missed something like that. I've never seen anything
that dark in him, she insisted. Alaskan Native women face
very high rates of violence, with violence against these women
(15:55):
being a long standing crisis in the area. There is
a very high murder rate of mine them. Homicide is
the third highest cause of death for women age fifteen
to twenty four, and yet it seems that few want
to step up and help. The worst part of stories
like this one is that they're far from rare. For
every case that makes headlines, there are countless others that
(16:16):
never do. Until the lives of Indigenous women are valued
and protected as fiercely as anyone else's, this crisis will
continue and the silence around it will remain the most
seriously mysterious factor of it all. At least one person
has found some piece in all of this sadness, and
that's Valerie. The deaths of these women weighed heavily on
(16:37):
her mind. She had actually known Kathleen, but didn't recognize
her on Smith's cell phone because of the extensive damage
that had been done to her. Valerie would raise her
voice for Kathleen putting herself in danger by taking the
stand and testifying her identity was protected in court, where
she was referred to as witness a. But no doubt
(16:58):
this brave act brought a word of worry and stress
into her life. When she was asked why she wanted
to do it, she simply said that she considered Kathleen
her friend, a friend that she wanted to help go home.
Do you have any insights or even a case you'd
like to suggest, Feel free to send it to me.
You'll find a comment form and case submission link at
(17:19):
Lordenarts dot com. Thank you, Apnews dot com, K two
dot org, kBT X dot com, Cbsnews Law dot Alaska
dot Gov, ABC News, Alaska News Source, Alaska Beacon Ingram Smith,
Turner dot Com. Case file presents on YouTube, The New
York Times, The New York Post, Bia dot gov, Anchorage
(17:40):
Police dot com, Vocal dot Media, and Wikipedia for information
contributing to today's story. This episode was written by Christy Arnhardt,
edited by John Lorden, and produced by Lordenarts. Thank you
to our audience here for the live recording session hosted
on the YouTube channel Lordenarts Studio two. And a special
thank you to all of our support orders at PayPal, Patreon,
(18:02):
and on coffee. I'm John Lorden. Please join us again
next week for another case I know you'll find seriously
mysterious
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