Police say abandoned SD card labeled 'homicide' led to arrest of murder suspect

An abandoned SD card labeled "Homicide at midtown Marriott" discovered on a street in Anchorage, Alaska led to the arrest of a suspect on a first-degree murder charge.

According to the Associated Press, the card contained 39 images and 12 videos that depict a brutal assault of a woman in a hotel, including being strangled multiple times by her attacker. Other images on the card showed the woman “lying face down on what appeared to be a black bed of a truck," according to prosecutors.

Authorities believe the woman shown in the video is the same woman whose remains were found on Oct. 2 near the intersection of Seward Highway and Rainbow Valley Road southeast of Anchorage but they have yet to publicly identify her.

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The media on the card also helped police piece together what they believe happened and firm up a timeline. The New York Timesreports that upon visiting the TownePlace Suites by Marriott Anchorage Midtown, police found the hotel's carpet matched that shown in the images and videos on the card.

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The videos and photos found on the card were dated between Sept. 4 and Sept. 6 while the hotel confirmed to police that the man in the video had registered a room with them from Sept. 2 through Sept. 4. The last images on the card were dated as 1:12 a.m. on Sept. 6.

Authorities identified the man in the card media as Brian Steven Smith, who was familiar to police through another investigation. Cell phone data for Smith, obtained via a warrant, showed Smith's photo pinged at a location at 1:07 a.m. on Sept. 6 in the same vicinity as where the remains were eventually discovered.

Police believe Smith, who is being held on $500,000 bail, filmed the attack and murder himself though they didn't say whether or not he was the one who actually labeled the SD card with "homicide."