BRUTAL

Man Charged With Murder After Discarded Memory Card Reveals Video of Hotel Room Slaying

The SD card was labeled “homicide at midtown Marriott,” authorities said.

A 48-year-old man has been charged with murder after authorities say someone found a memory card containing multiple photos and videos of him beating and killing a woman in an Anchorage, Alaska, hotel room. A woman called the Anchorage Police Department on Sept. 30 and said she had found a discarded SD card on a downtown Anchorage street containing pictures and videos of another woman being strangled, beaten, and raped, according to an affidavit of the criminal complaint. Detectives recognized the suspect, Brian Steven Smith, from the videos because Smith is involved in a separate ongoing investigation, Anchorage Police Department spokesman MJ Thim told the Anchorage Daily News. Some of the videos showed the woman being strangled and struggling to breathe as a man laughed about it, according to the affidavit. The SD card was labeled “homicide at midtown Marriott,” authorities said. The slain woman’s body was found last week along the Seward Highway, south of Anchorage, the Daily News reports. Her identity is unknown at this time.