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A South African man, Brian Steven Smith, has been found guilty of murdering two women after his accent gave him away on a video that he made while torturing one of them in a hotel room in 2019.

Judge Kevin Mark Saxby of the Alaska Third District Superior Court read out the guilty verdicts for two counts of first-degree murder, multiple counts of sexual assault and tampering with physical evidence, and misconduct involving a corpse.

News24 previously reported that Smith had recorded at least one of the murders on a memory card, labelled “Homicide at Midtown Marriott”, a hotel where Smith was checked in, and where Henry was murdered. The South African allegedly could be heard laughing and telling his victim that it was time for her to die.

The police recognised his accent, which is quite uncommon in Alaska, and since they had dealt with Smith before, it pointed them in his direction.

A woman gave over the memory card to authorities after initially claiming she discovered it on the street. She later admitted she had taken it. She had a background as a sex worker, and Smith had picked her up. She stole some of his belongings from his car while he was using an ATM.

In addition to the evidence on the memory card, the prosecution presented a video clip of a police interview with Smith in which he appeared to acknowledge the crimes. During the more than five-hour questioning, Smith can be heard telling officers, “I’m convinced I’ve done this, I know I must have done this,” and “That is me. That is my stomach, that is definitely me.”

Smith confessed to shooting Abouchuk and dumping her body in an area he had described. At the start of the trial, Smith pleaded not guilty to all 14 charges.

Smith was living in Alaska with his fiance Stephanie Bissland, a local musician, and he became an American citizen in September 2019 – the same month Henry was murdered.

After his arrest, Bissland said in interviews that she could never have imagined her husband a killer and that there had been no signs he was capable of extreme violence and cruelty. According to local media, Bissland attended the trial.

In the years he’s lived in Alaska, Bissland said Smith worked at Alaska Tire Service, Dowl Engineers, the Marriott Suites near University Lake, and was just about to start a new position at the Residence Inn. After operating a guest house in South Africa, he had hoped to once again open his own hotel and was making good progress toward that dream, she said.

Bissland said that Smith liked to document his adventures, creating and sharing videos of vacations, bear viewing, his wife’s concerts, and apparently, murder.