Woman Finds A Memory Card On The Street And Is Floored By Its Contents

 

What if you found a mysterious SD card lying on the pavement, amid cigarette butts, gum wrappers, and other detritus? Would you pick it up? It would be so easy to pop it in your computer and feast upon the digital contents of someone else's life.

A woman in Alaska found herself in this position. Excited to discover a stranger's lost photos, she slipped the memory card into her home computer, unaware that she was completely unprepared for what she was about to see.

When an Alaska resident found a lone SD card sprawled out on the street on September 30, 2019, it taunted her. Her day was about to get way more complicated, not to mention darker, than she had anticipated.

Thinking that there may have been something juicy stored on said card, she grabbed it off of a street in Alaska's Fairview neighborhood, ready to find out what was on it.

When she finally jammed the card into her computer, the suspense nearly killing her, she was welcomed to a collection of 39 photos and 12 videos. The contents of the card were horrific.

She could barely catch her breath when she saw the card was labeled "homicide at midtown Marriott." Though shock and fear overcame her, she couldn't help but glance at the photos and videos. She just had to see if it was the real deal.

To her horror, the photos and videos were of a woman who experienced a violent assault. She couldn't have imagined that her day would turn into an episode of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit. Thankfully for her, she wasn't the victim in this case.

Law & Order: Special Victims Unit

She reported the SD card to the police immediately. When authorities took a look at the card, they found the disturbing images and agreed that they were the real thing, but that wasn't even the most haunting part.

Even more chilling, the videos showed that while the strangled female victim desperately searched for air, the murderous man howled with laughter at her pain. That's the stuff of nightmares.

It was just two days after the Alaska resident reported the card that police received a call about human remains found at mile 108 of the Seward Highway. They figured it was more than mere coincidence.

FBI Special Agent Steve Forrest stated, "I can't discuss details of the case, but can confirm the FBI has provided and continues to provide investigative and technical assistance." Together, they'd get to the bottom of this disturbing mystery.

While thoroughly analyzing the videos, the police recognized the man who had "some sort of an English sounding accent" from another investigation, the affidavit stated. This, too, was no coinkydink.

The man was Brian Smith of South Africa. A man of the same name was registered at Marriott's TownePlace Suites in Anchorage from September 2nd to 4th. His whereabouts matched their theories, and Smith was arrested on October 8th.

NY Daily News

With Smith in custody, they compared the carpet from the photos and videos to the carpet in his hotel. It was a match. The 48-year-old Smith was in deep water. Being an organized, label-friendly murderer doesn't exactly pay off.

On October 14th, Smith was "indicted on one count of first-degree murder, two counts of second-degree murder, two counts of second-degree sexual assault, and three counts of tampering with physical evidence" as told by court records.

Smith's public defender, Daniel L. Lowery, announced that his client would make a plea of not guilty. Until his trial, Smith would continue to reside in custody at Anchorage Correctional Complex. Yeah, uh, keep him there.

His murder victim depicted in the videos was 30-year-old Kathleen J. Henry, as disclosed by Anchorage police. The grand jury found that Smith put her through "substantial physical torture." She was just in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Henry's death was a blow to the community that cherished her. After the murder, Henry's Facebook page was laced with endearing messages. "Rest with JESUS Kathleen .. I SCREAM FOR JUSTICE/ LIFE IN IMPRISONMENT," one Facebook user blared with passion.

Kathleen J. Henry / Facebook

Henry was an indigenous Alaskan woman, her untimely death adding to the growing list of missing and murdered indigenous women in the state. Alaska's Native Peoples Action group desperately hopes to see this alarming reality change.

Twitter / @kendrakloster

"We're just really tired of hearing all the violence that's going on against indigenous women," Executive Director Kendra Kloster stated. "We can highlight the topic and start talking about it and figuring out what we can do."

Twitter / @NPActionAlaska

The Anchorage Police Department also encouraged people to speak up. "This serves as another example of when you see something suspicious, say something," the department stated. You never know when a person's life is at stake.

Alaska Public Media

The enigma that began with a solitary, lost memory card was thankfully solved in good time, but that's not always the case. Some murders remain mysteries for decades upon decades, just marinating in the gloom of inscrutable death.

Unsolved murders have a way of fascinating people on a primal level. Whether if it's for their grim nature or simply because of the mystery involved, there's no denying their appeal. American mystery fiction novelist Raymond Chandler and many other authors, including Dorothy L Sayers and P.D. James, felt that way about the strange murder of Julia Wallace in 1931.

Even though police in Liverpool, England, suspected Julia's husband, William Herbert Wallace, they were never able to officially pin him with the crime. A 52-year-old insurance salesman, people noted how annoyed William seemed while riding a train to a mysterious destination on the fateful winter night of January 20th, 1931.

"I am a complete stranger around here," William said to the train's conductor, who told him which stop to get off. Even after leaving the train, he still couldn't find the address he'd been told to report to by someone named R. M. Qualtrough, who called him at his Liverpool Chess Club the previous night.

Even though he'd never met the man, William still decided to take the 7:30 p.m. meeting at 25 Menlove Gardens East that night. He continued to struggle finding the address and was reported to have asked several people on the street for help. All the while, he was sure to remind them of his intended meeting time.

Police have long believed that reminding strangers of the time he was to have his meeting was likely William's attempt to establish an alibi during his wife's murder that night. After failing to find the address altogether, he decided to call it quits and returned home.

At 8:45 p.m., John and Florence Johnston, William's next-door neighbors, saw him outside of his home. He approached them, claiming to be locked out of his home; he even asked if they'd heard anything unusual that night.

The Wallaces then followed William to the back of the home, where he attempted to get in. This time, he was successful, and they waited for him outside while he looked for his wife. A few moments later, he reemerged from the home and exclaimed, "Oh come and see, she's been killed. They've finished her, look at her brains."

At that moment, William noticed that the cupboard where he kept his life insurance money had been opened and everything inside had been stolen. The police later found this detail incredibly strange, since no other valuables from the house had been taken. Alarmed, his neighbors called the police and a doctor.

After nearly 30 minutes, the police came and immediately noted that not much of the home had been disturbed during the murder/burglary. Even though many people believe the police botched their only attempt to collect solid evidence immediately following the crime, they did notice something important: the Macintosh jacket beneath Julia's person.

John Edward Whitly MacFall, a lecturer of forensic medicine at Liverpool University, assessed the cadaver. He claimed that Julia had died at 8 p.m., 45 minutes before William had arrived home. This appeared to clear William's name, though he would later say he was probably wrong about his estimate for the time of death.

One thing was for certain, though: Julia had been hit repeatedly over the head with a blunt object. With her body being discovered in front of the home's fireplace, police believed she must have been singed by the flame as she fell to the ground, as her Macintosh jacket had been burned.

There was blood splattered on all of the walls and on the ceiling of the home. When checking the sinks and shower, it was discovered that none of them had been used that night, meaning the assailant had left the home still covered in blood. There were a few suspects, but none as likely as William himself...

Nevertheless, William continued to proclaim his innocence to the officers during their investigation. He was sure to remind them that he'd been out searching for the mysterious address at the time of Julia's death. When asked who he thought might've killed his wife, he said, "I have no suspicion of anyone."

Police continued to collect evidence against William in the following days. In fact, the switchboard user at the police station narrowed the call made to his home by "R.M. Qualtrough" to have been placed in a phone booth less than 500 yards from his home.

Most notably, the phone booth was right next to the train station where William left to head to the chess club that night. The police assumed he'd tried to establish an alibi by placing the call himself and then boarding the train to nowhere.

Despite this growing evidence, witnesses from the train placed William on his return trip at 7:06 p.m. This would've made him killing his wife impossible, as witnesses claim to have seen Julia alive between 6:30 and 6:45 p.m. that evening.

For this reason, the case completely enamored the public, namely mystery fiction author Raymond Chandler. "The Wallace case is the nonpareil of all murder mysteries. I call it the impossible murder because Wallace couldn’t have done it, and neither could anyone else," he once said.

Even though all they had was circumstantial evidence against William, the police went ahead and formally charged him with Julia's murder. During his four-day trial in April of 1931, the prosecution argued that he'd committed the murder while completely naked. This way, he could simply wash the blood from his body.

When he was called to the stand, witnesses were put off by William's calm, cold demeanor. Many people thought his lack of emotion was what ultimately sealed his fate. After just a few short hours of deliberation, he was found guilty of Julia's murder.

"You, William Herbert Wallace, have been convicted of murder upon the verdict of the jury," the court clerk said that day. "Have you anything to say why sentence of death should not be passed upon you according to law?" To which William replied, "I am not guilty. I cannot say anything else."

William was then sentenced to death by hanging. Despite the lack of evidence against him, his execution was scheduled to take place just one month later in May of 1931. Just a few short weeks later, however, something changed...

Suddenly, the case was overturned by Justice Gordon Hewart at the Court of Criminal Appeal in London. He claimed that the case the prosecution made against William was not provable beyond a shadow of a doubt and that William should be a free man.

Completely diminished by his wife's unsolved murder, William finally decided to move away to a quiet home in Wirral, England. Tragically, he suffered from a rare kidney disease and fell seriously ill during Christmas of 1932. Just a few short months later, in February, he succumbed to the disease.