Anchorage jury declares woman believed to be victim of convicted killer dead

A six-person Anchorage jury on Tuesday unanimously found that Cassandra Boskofsky is dead and was the victim of a homicide.

The 38-year-old Anchorage woman originally from Ouzinkie went missing in 2019, and her family has publicly said they believe she was a victim of Brian Smith, an Anchorage man convicted of killing two other women.

The outcome of the presumptive death hearing means Boskofsky can legally be declared dead, rather than missing.

Presumptive death hearings are often held in cases where people have disappeared in such extreme terrain or circumstances as to exhaust chances of survival or recovery, such as in the sinking of a fishing boat or a plane crash. They are also held in cases where a person has been missing for many years, but no body has been found — like Boskofsky’s case.

Smith was convicted in February of killing Veronica Abouchuk in August 2018 and Kathleen Jo Henry in September 2019. The trial made international headlines both because Smith targeted vulnerable women — both of the victims had been homeless — and because of the brutality of the slayings. Abouchuk and Henry were Alaska Native, as was Boskofsky.

In July, Smith was sentenced to 226 years in prison, and the possibility that he was responsible for another death opened up.

As part of his sentencing memorandum, prosecutors included graphic photos that show a woman unconscious or dead and bloodied on the ground. The photos were found on Smith’s phone when he was arrested. The woman was not identified, but family members say they are certain it was Cassandra Boskofsky.

After seeing the photos, Boskofsky’s cousin Marcella Boskofsky-Grounds filed a petition to have her declared legally dead through a presumptive death hearing.

At Tuesday’s hearing, Boskofsky-Grounds said she presented evidence including the photos. Other family members testified that they had not seen or heard from Boskofsky since the summer of 2019. The jury deliberated for about 45 minutes, she said.

Prosecutors have not formally identified Boskofsky as the woman in the photographs, or identified her as a victim of Smith. Prosecutors have said there’s an “open and ongoing investigation” into the identity of the woman.

Having Boskofsky declared legally dead and a victim of homicide feels like a meaningful step, said Boskofsky-Grounds.

“I feel like I accomplished something. But this is just the tip of the iceberg,” she said. “We got one step, and we got many more to go.”

The family is waiting on DNA taken from Smith’s truck to be tested to see if it could potentially match, Boskofsky-Grounds said. She hopes to eventually see a prosecution in the case.