Alaska: A digital memory card found on a street in Alaska’s largest city contained videos of a woman being strangled and pictures of her face down in the back of a truck, according to police and a charging document released Wednesday.
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Anchorage police believe human remains found along a highway earlier this month are those of the woman. Authorities said they are working to identify her and her manner of death.
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Police said they arrested Brian Steven Smith, 48, on a murder charge Tuesday. Smith had a brief court appearance Wednesday in which he was not asked to enter a plea. A judge said he would appoint for Smith a public defender when Smith said he could not afford a lawyer.
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Deputy District Attorney Brittany L. Dunlop said the process calls for the case to be brought before a grand jury. The investigation continues.
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A charging document filed by the Department of Law and based on a review of the investigation so far graphically describes the images and videos on the card, which someone last week reported finding on a street in Anchorage. The card contained 39 images and 12 videos, the document states.
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The videos show the woman being strangled, with a man’s voice in one saying “just … die,” according to the document. There are pictures of the woman under a blanket on a hotel luggage cart near a truck and in the truck bed, the document states.
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Police spokesman MJ Thim said police believe Smith recorded the events himself. He said police believe the killing occurred in early September.
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Smith lives in Anchorage but is from South Africa, Thim said.
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Police reviewing the footage remembered Smith, who has an accent, from another investigation and found he was registered in early September to a room at a local hotel whose carpet matched that in the footage, the document says. They also used vehicle and cellphone records in their investigation.
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