National series highlights Alaska MMIP crisis, questions of justice for Alaska Native people
- Alaska Beacon
- 12 hours ago
- 5 min read
Documentary series ‘Lost Women of Alaska’ now airing on HBO examines the crisis through the investigation of an Anchorage serial killer and how local police handled the case
By Corinne Smith
Alaska Beacon
A new investigative documentary series on HBO highlights the ongoing crisis of missing and murdered Indigenous peoples in Alaska, particularly Alaska Native women, through the case of serial killer Brian Steven Smith. The series examines how the Anchorage Police Department handled the case and considers lingering questions of justice for victims and families.
The new three-part series “Lost Women of Alaska” focuses on the case dubbed the “memory card murders.” It gets its name because the killer was exposed when graphically violent images and videos were found on his phone and turned into the Anchorage Police Department in 2019. Smith, a South African national who married an Alaskan, was arrested and convicted of killing two Native women, Kathleen Jo Henry and Veronica Abouchuk, in 2024 and is currently serving a 226 year sentence.
“No human being should be taken from the world in that manner,” said Heather Kalmakoff, an advocate for Alaska Native welfare, in the film.
Henry and Abouchuk were reported missing in Anchorage, and the film details how they endured complex challenges — clergy abuse, violence, addiction, and being displaced from rural communities — that resulted in them being unhoused and vulnerable to being victimized by Smith. In the film, family and friends share their grief and describe how the women were beloved family members.
“Daughters, sisters, mothers, friends — every woman taken has her story,” says narrator Octavia Spencer, an Academy award-winning actress who is the executive producer of the series.
The documentary chronicles how family, friends and advocates have questioned how the Anchorage Police Department handled the case. One year before Smith’s arrest, a prior romantic partner, Alicia Youngblood, came forward reporting to police he had confessed to her that he had committed murder. But at the time, police said there was not enough evidence to make an arrest. After another woman, Valerie Casler stole Smith’s phone and uncovered the violent images and videos, he was arrested in 2019 and later convicted. During sentencing, advocates found more graphic photos taken by Smith of another woman – never publicized by Anchorage police — in court documents that they published and immediately identified as a missing woman, Cassandra Boskofsky.
“When we found out about the pictures, it hurt,” said her aunt Terrie Boskofsky, tearfully. “She’s our family, and we love and miss her very much.”
Boskofsky was a Native woman reported missing in Anchorage in 2019, but family and advocates say there was little effort on behalf of investigators to pursue her case.
“I feel outraged and angry,” said Amber Morrison-Waters, a friend of Boskofsky, Henry and Abouchuk. “We’ve been looking for Cassandra for years, years, and she’s been dead this whole time.”
Smith has denied killing her, and the case remains open. Her family and advocates held a presumptive death hearing where a jury ruled her death a homicide, but they are still looking for information about her death and want to find her remains.
The Anchorage Police Department did not immediately respond to emailed questions about why Smith was not questioned or arrested in 2018, why the photos of Boskofsky were not released, and if any subsequent changes to department policy followed this case. A spokesperson said the department would have more information to share next week.
MMIP advocates were honored for their work on the case and identifying Boskofsky with a First Amendment Award from the Alaska Press Club in 2025.
‘No Humans Involved’
One of the MMIP advocates recognized for his work was Michael Livingston, a former Anchorage Police Department officer who had a 28 year career with the department, and is now an MMIP advocate.
“I think one of the biggest contributors to MMIP in Alaska is racism — basic, ugly racism — that says that Alaska Native people, particularly Alaska Native women, are inferior,” he said in the film.
In an interview Tuesday, Livingston said every Alaska police officer has sworn an oath to perform the duties of law enforcement without bias. “What Alaska law enforcement officers have sworn to do is to treat everybody equally. And so in homicides, we should see parity. We should see homicides across the state treated equally,” he said. “We don’t see that.”
Livingston compared the police response to Boskofsky’s case to a hypothetical case of a police officer’s daughter going missing.
“If the Anchorage Police Chief reported his daughter is missing, and if APD found pictures of the daughter of the Anchorage Police Chief on a cell phone of a suspected murderer, they would have immediately reached out to the chief of police and said, ‘Is this your daughter?’ but APD didn’t,” he said. “They sat on those pictures for over five years.”
In the film, Livingston describes his experience of an unspoken, secret policy within the Anchorage Police Department when responding to certain deaths or missing persons reports as “NHI” — no human involved.
“There’s over 1,300 people reported as missing in Alaska there’s, there’s an inactive list of about 1,200 people. There’s an active list of about 100 people to this day,” he said, as of Feb. 24, 2026. “Cassandra Boskofsky is not on the active list.”
“(With) how Cassandra Boskofsky’s death has been treated by the Anchorage Police Department over the years, I am concerned that ‘NHI’ continues to exist and be practiced,” he added. “Even though it may not be mentioned and even though its existence may be denied. I’m concerned that it continues to be practiced by Alaska law enforcement in Alaska.”
Advocates seek criminal penalties for failing to report violent crimes
The documentary also chronicles how advocates have raised concern around other individuals who Smith may have confided in about his predatory behavior and killings, and failed to report.
Text and Facebook messages revealed during Smith’s trial show an exchange between him and a friend, Ian Calhoun, suggesting he may have known about Smith’s actions. Advocates have held protests and circulated a petition, which has gathered over 6,400 signatures urging prosecution of Calhoun.
Alaska MMIP activists have also pushed new legislation, House Bill 170, dubbed “Kathleen’s Law” to increase criminal penalties for failing to report a violent crime. The bill was introduced last year by Rep. Robyn Frier, D-Utgiavik, and must be reintroduced this year to be considered by lawmakers.
Raising awareness around Alaska’s persistent MMIP crisis
Filmmaker Christina Douglas, who is another executive producer of the film, said by email Monday that the goal of the series is to raise awareness about Alaska’s MMIP crisis.
“We hope it helps foster greater awareness and understanding of the MMIW crisis, and encourages audiences to see this case not as an isolated incident, but as part of a much larger conversation — and to reflect on their own assumptions or biases,” she wrote.
Douglas said the goal was to highlight the women — victims and those who reported, advocated and raised the alarm — and shift away from what she called a “hyperfocus” on the perpetrator.
“We also wanted to highlight the civilian women who risked it all in their fight for justice and ultimately became the unlikely heroes in this story,” Douglas wrote. “This documentary is, in many ways, a story of women fighting for women — which feels like a meaningful takeaway in the darkness of this crisis.”
• Corinne Smith started reporting in Alaska in 2020, serving as a radio reporter for several local stations across the state including in Petersburg, Haines, Homer and Dillingham. She spent two summers covering the Bristol Bay fishing season. Originally from Oakland, California, she got her start as a reporter, then morning show producer, at KPFA Radio in Berkeley. Alaska Beacon is part of States Newsroom, the nation’s largest state-focused nonprofit news organization.
