Anchorage, AK – The sentencing of Brian Steven Smith, scheduled for July 12, 2024, highlights the tragic consequences of the Anchorage Police Department’s long running failure to address murders of marginalized women. Smith will be sentenced for the murder of Veronica Abouchuk and the murder of Kathleen Jo Henry. A brave woman brought detailed information about other murders committed by Smith to Anchorage Police a year before his arrest in 2019.
On August 14, 2018, Alicia Youngblood reported detailed information about murders committed by Smith to police. Despite her numerous calls, interviews, and even a drive to Eklutna, her concerns were dismissed, with Anchorage PD telling her that her boyfriend was just playing a sexual role play game with her. Alicia’s persistence in trying to get the police to listen was met with indifference, reflecting a troubling pattern in how women’s voices are often disregarded by authorities.
The turning point in the case came in October 2019 when a heroic sex worker gave an SD card to Anchorage Police. The sex worker was villainized by many media outlets reporting on the story, who reduced her to a mere prostitute with a criminal record in their reporting. Still, on the SD card was a horrific video of Kathleen Jo Henry’s murder, which finally led to Smith’s interrogation by Anchorage Police.
“Without her the case would never have moved forward since they had closed the report from Youngblood a year earlier without completing an investigation about the detailed information she provided about several murders committed by Smith,” says Batts.
During his interrogation in October 2019, Smith made several chilling statements, one of them: “…if you want to kill someone, yeah, a prostitute is probably your best bet. Well, actually not a prostitute. They usually have a pimp or whatever that’ll sort of keep track of them or whatever.”
The “whatever” refers to sex workers working together, having someone who knows where they are and who they are with, or sharing information about a client—all measures that can enhance their safety. In Smith’s words, sex workers are easier targets if this “whatever” support system is absent from their lives. Under HB66, signed by Governor Dunleavy today, sex workers and sex trafficking survivors who are convicted of working together for safety will be sentenced to register as sex offenders.
Amber Batts, a member of Community United for Safety and Protection (CUSP) attended the trial last February. She has continued to organize and shed light on the ongoing issues with police handling of the Smith case.
A forensic artist’s picture of an unknown victim, created from three deleted pictures of a woman found in Smith’s phone during his arrest in 2019, was released in a court document on July 3, 2024. Batts went to the courthouse on July 5, 2024 and found the graphic photos included in the sentencing memorandum. “The pictures are difficult to look at, and I question if this woman was white if they would be showing these? Anchorage PD has known about this woman since 2019, and they could have tried to find out who she was back in 2019. They chose to wait 5 years. Why?”
Batts said “When APD consistently fails to investigate crimes against sex workers, women experiencing homelessness or addictions, or Alaska Native women, seeing many within those groups as unworthy of following through with an investigation, it keeps the cycle of harm going and shows that these crimes aren’t taken seriously, making us easy prey.”
“Here we are 40 years out from the Robert Hansen case,” said Terra Burns of CUSP, “and sex workers are still going to the Anchorage Police Department with solid information and evidence of serial killers, and Anchorage PD is still allowing the serial killers to continue to prey on us after receiving these reports. How can we fix this broken police department to actually serve and protect all Alaskans?”
The Community United for Safety and Protection is a group of current and former sex workers, sex trafficking survivors, and our allies working towards safety and protection for everyone in Alaska’s sex industries. Visit our website at
www.sextraffickingalaska.com.
The following images are excerpts of the police narrative reports from Alicia Youngblood reporting Smith to Crimestoppers, then to Anchorage Police Officer Cordie and Lt. Carson, on August 14, 2018.
* The report is dated 8/17/2018, the initial contact via Crimestoppers is listed as August 14, 2018 at 1602 hours. We have left pages of graphic information out of this report out of respect for the victims and the victims families.
By ASN HUB
