Murder of Kathleen Jo Henry

Kathleen Jo Henry was killed on September 4, 2019, in room 323 of a TownePlace Suites hotel in Anchorage, Alaska. Henry was an Alaska Native woman from the Yup'ik village of Eek in western Alaska, born December 22, 1988, in Bethel, Alaska. She was a mother who was active on Facebook and other social media and enjoyed writing poetry. She earned her GED in 2012 while incarcerated at Highland Mountain Correctional Center in Anchorage's Eagle River neighborhood. At the time of her death she was 30 years old and had reportedly struggled with addiction, with prior contact with local law enforcement.

The case drew international news attention after it was revealed that Henry's killer had recorded her death in still photographs and numerous videos. Her remains were found along Alaska's Seward Highway on October 2, 2019. Anchorage Police Department detectives recognized the suspect, Brian Steven Smith, from a previous investigation and obtained a warrant for his arrest. Police stated that thirty-nine photos and twelve videos related to the assault and murder were discovered on an SD card, which was found by a woman on a phone she had earlier stolen from Smith's truck.

Smith was arrested on October 8, 2019, at Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport as he returned from a trip, and was subsequently booked into an Anchorage jail. Smith was born March 23, 1971, in the Queenstown area of South Africa, later immigrated to the United States, and became a U.S. citizen in September 2019.

Following his arrest in Henry's case, Smith was also charged with murdering a second woman, Veronica Abouchuk, after allegedly confessing and directing authorities to her remains, which police had already discovered on the 18th, likely before questioning. Detectives with the Anchorage Police Department and the Federal Bureau of Investigation continued examining Smith's background in both the United States and South Africa as part of an ongoing investigation. Smith has also been reported to have expressed racist views in online posts, including claims about crime rates among Black people.

On February 22, 2024, an Anchorage jury found Smith guilty on 11 felony counts, including the murders of both Kathleen Henry and Veronica Abouchuk, sexual assault, and tampering with physical evidence. On July 12, 2024, he was sentenced to 226 years in prison. Smith filed an appeal with the Alaska Court of Appeals on October 7, 2024; as of February 2026, briefings had not yet been filed in that appeal.