“We’re just one story,” said Sean Hinson, the son of one of the murdered women. “We’re one piece of that puzzle. Everyone has their own piece.'
Rena Sapp hugs her sister Margie Lestkenoff, after the guilty verdicts in the Brian Smith trial were read. Both are sisters of Veronica Abouchuk, who Smith confessed to killing sometime around 2018.
They hoped their presence would show the jury how much they cared. And whether that was a factor in the final outcome, the jury reached guilty verdicts on all 14 counts against Smith in less than two hours. The unusually quick verdict came as a relief for Veronica Abouchuk’s older sister, Margie Lestenkof.
Much of the testimony focused on an SD memory card that gave police their big break in the case. The card, labeled “Homicide at midtown Marriot,” came from a sex worker, who told them she found it on the ground. It had footage of Kathleen Henry’s torture and murder — and in the background, Smith’s chipper voice with his South African accent, gleefully narrating the footage, as he taunted Henry for being too slow to die.
But Ingram said it helped to spend time with the Abouchuk family, as they quietly supported each other. She said their kindness and perseverance helped to restore the dignity of the victims. From what Kathleen shared on her Facebook page, it was clear she had her struggles, but there was one proud post — that she had earned her GED at the age of 24 at the Hiland Mountain Correctional Center, where she was remembered as someone who loved to write poetry. She died six years later.
There were other visits, but after a few weeks, her mother would return to the streets. And then in 2018, she disappeared. Kristy Grimaldi and her brother Sean Hinson. Their mother, Veronica Abouchuk, had another son and daughter. Grimaldi and Hinson say women like their mother need compassion and understanding but have been stigmatized because of their struggles to survive on the streets of Anchorage, making them vulnerable to killers like Brian Smith.
After police confronted Smith with video of Kathleen Henry’s murder in 2019, he surprised them by confessing to Abouchuk’s murder. The prosecution played video from a police interview with Smith, in which he sounded almost casual about the killings. But despite all that she saw and heard during the trial, Lestenkoff says she will always be grateful to Valerie Casler, who gave the police the SD card that ultimately led to Smith’s arrest.Lestenkof calls Casler a hero, even though she initially lied to police about the history of the SD card she turned over to them.
Nickerson says it wasn’t easy for Casler to admit she was a deeply addicted drug user, who lived in a tent and survived as a sex worker. She told the court she had been on what she called “a date” with Smith, when she stole his phone from his truck. And while her testimony may have been messy, Nickerson says we cannot ignore what the footage revealed.
Prosecutors say Youngblood went to police to report what Smith had revealed to her but later took her own life. The investigation into Smith appeared to be on hold until a detective recognized his voice on Casler’s memory card.
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