Crime Stories with Nancy Grace - Grisly videos on lost SD card reveal brutal murder of naked woman in Marriott hotel

Episode Date: October 21, 2019

A woman walking an Alaska street finds an SD card. It contains the horrifying moments when Kathleen Henry is brutally murdered. With Nancy Grace to discuss the case; Kendra Kloster, Executive Director, Native Peoples Action Non-Profit; Darryl Cohen, Former Assistant District Attorney, Fulton County, Ga; James Shelnutt -27 years Atlanta Metro Major Case detective, SWAT Officer; Dr Katherine Maloney, Nickel City Forensics; Dr. Carla Marie Manly and Jennifer Dzikowski, reporter for Heavy.com. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an iHeart Podcast. Today on Crime Stories, we head to Anchorage, Alaska. The discovery of a woman's body on the side of the road now being tied to a small SD card found 20 miles away in Anchorage on a street corner with the label Homicide at Midtown Marriott. Joining Nancy Grace, Kendra Kloster, the Executive Director, Native Peoples Action Nonprofit. Daryl Cohen, former Assistant DA, Fulton County, Georgia, now famed defense attorney. James Shelnut, 27 years Atlanta Metro Major Case Detective and SWAT officer, retired.

Dr. Catherine Maloney, Deputy Chief Medical Examiner, Erie County, New York. Dr. Carla Manley, Clinical Psychologist and author of Aging Joyfully and Joy from Fear. And reporting for Heavy.com, Jennifer Zukowski. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. On a remote stretch of Alaska Highway, the discovery of a woman's body on the side of the road now being tied to a small SD card found 20 miles away in Anchorage on a street corner with the label Homicide at Midtown Marriott. Police say the card was found by a woman who opened the files, recognized the carpet from a nearby Marriott and saw 39 images and 12 videos showing a horrifying beating and strangulation of a woman by a man with a foreign accent. It's pretty graphic, but what we do believe is that the suspect recorded himself the events that took place in the hotel room. Can you imagine finding this like a SIM card and you look at it and find images of someone being murdered? I'm Nancy Grace. This is Crime Stories. You were just hearing our friend at NBC, that was Scotty Schwartz, talking a woman's body depicted on something like a SIM card. Joining me, Kendra Cluster,

Executive Director of Native Peoples Action Nonprofit, who works on the issue of missing and murdered women. Daryl Cohen, renowned defense attorney out of Atlanta. James Shelnut, 27 years Atlanta Metro Major Case SWAT officer, now lawyer. Dr. Catherine Maloney, Nickel City Forensics Deputy Chief Medical Examiner in Buffalo, and reporter with Heavy.com, Jennifer Zagowski. What in the hay happened, Jennifer?

Okay, so this woman, a concerned citizen, her 30th, according to a news release, just after 4 p.m. on September 30th, and police responded to Lake Otis Parkway in the Fairview neighborhood of Anchorage in reference to, quote, suspicious circumstances. This woman called officials to report finding a horrifying SD card in the street near a grocery store. Imagine just shopping along, and you're at the grocery store and you see this

card this sd card laying on the street some people might just walk by and ignore it she didn't she picked it up hold on just a moment jennifer zakowski explain what is an sd card so an sd card is what you can in what can be in your phone um That's typically how they are used. An SD card, it saves everything from photos and videos. And then you can plug that SD card into a regular computer in order to see the contents of it. Wow. So this woman minding her own business, Jennifer Zagowski with Heavy.com,

spots what many people call a SIM card, an SD card. Where was she shopping? And I don't know that I would think to because of the absolutely chilling words that this SD card contained. Inscribed right on the SD card were the words homicide at Midtown Marriott. Inscribed on it. Okay, whoa, whoa, whoa, wait, right there, right there. Yeah, to Daryl Cohen, I would totally, totally look at that if it said homicide on it. Then all of a sudden my curiosity is piqued. I've got to know what's in there. Before that, it's just an SD card.

But Marriott's not getting the type of publicity their new Bonvoy wants them to do. This is crazy. How did you even notice an SD card on the ground? Why would you bother? And once you did, then your curiosity is got to be satisfied got to be so Jennifer Sikowski when she takes the SIM card to the police or when they come get it what do they find on it they found after inspecting it the SD card they discovered 39 photographs and 12 videos showing the gruesome murder of a young woman. Joining me is

Kendra Kloster, Executive Director of Native People's Action Nonprofit focusing on missing and murdered indigenous women and girls. Kendra, thank you so much for being with us. Why, Kendra, would someone photograph

or video themselves in the act of a brutal murder? really view our indigenous cultures. And when we're looking back from the time when colonialism started and they invaded and came in and took over indigenous people in our land, what they did is they looked at everything as being extractive, our land, our water, and that included our bodies. And we need to be doing more to be protecting our indigenous women. Joining me now is Dr. Carla Manley, clinical psychologist, author of Joy from Fear. You can find her at drcarlamanley.com. I don't understand, Dr. Manley, why someone would film themselves committing a brutal murder. It's interesting that in some cases you find that the perpetrator would prefer to be known on a level of infamy

rather than going to his death or incarceration being completely unknown. And that sort of psychopathology, the intense self-absorption and desire for some sort of fame is what drives someone like that. Wow. I didn't think about it that way. Interesting, though, he did not send the SIM card into the newspaper or the TV channels. It was found. Jennifer Zagowski, how was it found? Well, it was found by the concerned citizen, the woman who apparently was at the grocery store, and authorities

aren't sure. It isn't known if the SD card was purposely left on the street. Did he want to gain notoriety through this, or did he just drop it by mistake? With it containing those words, homicide at Midtown Marriott, kind of makes me think of the latter, that maybe it was intentionally put there. Maybe he did, you know, have this dream of it being discovered and perhaps he didn't think he'd be caught so quickly. Well, Jennifer Sikowsky, was it found on the street? Is that what you're saying? Just the SIM card, right? Absolutely, yes. That is correct.

Okay, James Shelnut, Atlanta Metro major case, now lawyer. That sounds more to me like it dropped out by accident, because if he wanted it to be found, I think he would have sent it to police if he wanted the infamy. Yeah, no, I agree 100%. I don't quite buy that he intentionally placed it there. There are a lot of other places where he could get a lot more attention, certainly sending it to police. He could send it to media outlets. In law enforcement, that card being found is what you refer to as catching a break in a case. And I will tell you that when I look at this case, this is not the normal homicide. This is one of those that raises the hair on the back of your neck as a detective because you think this is not what a person does who has only committed a homicide one time. This

is what a person does who is cataloging a homicide. Yeah, you don't go from zero to 120 MPH overnight. Now, tell me why you think this may not be his first victim. Well, you know, if you take a look at this as compared to the run-of-the-mill homicide, granted they are all different, but usually when a person commits a homicide and they're not someone who enjoys doing it, not someone who's doing it for the purpose of being a serial killer, these people want their crimes hidden. They go to extent to hide bodies, to hide evidence.

The last thing they want is to have this crime documented on video or photographic evidence. In this case, this guy actually recorded it, recorded it on video, took pictures of it, put it on an SD card. And how about then he labels it? Why would you need to label the SD card as the Marriott homicide? Has there been a homicide somewhere else? Why does this card need to label the sd card as the marriott homicide has there been a homicide somewhere else why does this card need to be labeled i would submit to you that it's very likely because he's placing it in a collection of other sd cards of other homicides that he may have committed okay you just solidified you just verbalized what's been on my mind i mean typically you don't take photos and videos of your crime, right? But then

to have to say it's the Marriott homicide, not the other one. Daryl Cohen, you were jumping in. Go ahead. Yeah, Nancy, I am wondering if there's not an underground website where these are sold, where people pay extreme amounts of money to be able to watch these types of homicides. There's something here that tells me I agree that this is not number one. We don't know if it's number 50 or number two, but it seems to me that there's a reason why it's labeled and there's a reason why he wants to do it because I think it's being sold. I think people are actually viewing this sort of thing and paying and paying well.

Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. This story is just one example of why it is so important to know who your kids are talking to online. Authorities say 32-year-old Tommy Lee Jenkins walked for five days thinking he was going to have sex with a young girl in Nino, Wisconsin. Now, investigators say Jenkins recently moved to Whitestown, Indiana. That's just outside Indianapolis. He met a deputy posing as a 14-year-old girl named Kylie from Wisconsin on a social media platform on October 1st and began demanding sexually charged pictures from her. But when Kylie refused to come to Indiana multiple times, Jenkins allegedly started walking 351 miles to Nina.

There's an epidemic of child exploitation in our country. The use of the internet and social media allows for communications to happen between adults and minors across state lines even. Authorities in Winnebago County say Jenkins used to live in Oshkosh and has a history of issues involving child abuse. Jenkins now faces federal charges and deputies again are urging parents to know who their kids are talking to online. Welcome back. I'm Nancy Grace. This is Crime Stories. That was WTMJ Milwaukee reporter Mary Jo Ola with me. Sheriff John Motz from Winnebago County. Captain David Mack, Internet

Crimes Against Children Task Force. Alicia Kozikevich, Abduction Survivor, Dr. Bethany Marshall, and Levi Page. Captain Dave Mack. When I hear this, it gets me so distraught. A few days ago, my son was crestfallen. He goes, Mom, they closed down Fortnite. Because he and his little friends, don't worry, I'm hanging over his shoulder the whole time. I know exactly who he's playing with. They love to play.

I let him have 30 minutes in the evenings they play Fortnite. And they all talk. I don't know how they do it. You can hear each other's voices. You can kind of see each other. And they play this game. Fortnite closed down. In my heart, I was rejoicing.

But I had to ask sad about Fortnite being gone. Then sadly, I found out it was a stunt. It's back. Captain Dave Mack, how do pervs predators get to our children? Well, they, not unlike if they're speaking with our children, physically, face-to-face, predators will groom our children over the internet the same way they do when they're have access to them in public they'll talk with them tell them things that they want to hear and start establishing that relationship so it's very important for us as parents to know what they're doing and create and maintain open lines of communication with our kids um and prepare our kids for the online world let them them know what the dangers are out there and talk to them about stuff. Maintain that positive relationship with your children.

Apparently, according to statistics, Indiana has double the rate of child abuse than the national average, according to a federal agency. Why is that? A man who recently moved to Whitestown, Indiana facing federal criminal charges after he walks literally hundreds of miles to Wisconsin to have sex relations with a little 14-year-old girl he believed named Kylie. And right now to Alicia Kozikevich, abduction survivor. Alicia, explain to our listeners what happened to you as a little girl. Well, when I was 13 years old, I was groomed and lured from my home by an internet predator who kidnapped me and held me captive in his basement dungeon where I was raped and beaten and tortured, but thankfully was miraculously rescued by law enforcement. And I am so lucky to be here. And I'm so glad that this 14-year-old girl was actually

law enforcement because it could have so easily have been a real life child. And the thing is that there is a real life child right now who is being groomed. And this case is just, it's so disturbing in that it's really important to know that predators take risks. Predators take their time grooming and they also take risks. And their goal is to get the intended victim to also take risks. And in this case, he was so excited that he walked 351 miles. And he was so excited and quite possibly having something close to a manic episode, it almost seems, to go that far with it. for a crime against children, we need to start taking these cases seriously, really seriously. There's an old saying, when someone shows you who they are, believe them, and we really need to start doing that. That person showed himself as a predator, and he is still a predator, and he would continue to offend. Thankfully, law enforcement caught him, and that's why it is so important to fund law enforcement, to make sure that they have the funding and the resources.

In Wisconsin, exactly. In Wisconsin, Alicia's Law has passed. And they've done amazing work with it. And what Alicia's Law, my namesake, does is it funds that law enforcement. It funds the ICAC so that they can do this investigative work and so that they can save children. I want to talk about how children are snared online on the Internet. Just like in Alicia's case, the child thinks they're speaking to another child. In actuality, they're speaking to an adult.

How does it work to Captain Dave Mack? Well, you brought up Fortnite. There's other applications that people will pose as alternate identities on, and they have access to your children then. Musical.ly is one of them. There's other applications where our kids are out there. They're sharing videos of themselves, or they're chatting with people, and they really don't know who they're talking to. Again, that's why it's so important as parents that we know about the applications that be familiar with the applications your kids have on their phones or iPhones, because let's face it, iPhones are just small computers. So when you, an iPhone, they have access to everybody in the world, literally everybody

in the world. And that's why I think we see an uptick in this type of a crime, because we've created the access, the accessibility to so many different areas with so many different people. This is one isolated instance. Listen to this. Forens reveal the level of abuse a charlatan endured while being held captive in Georgia for more than a year. The documents say that Michael Weisselofsky confined Haley Burns in an upstairs bedroom of his Duluth home, telling her that she would be arrested if she left. Weisselofsky reportedly controlled every aspect of his 17-year-old captive's life, keeping a food journal detailing how many calories she'd eaten each day and withholding food from Haley if he thought she'd eaten too many calories

the day before. Doctors at the Atlanta hospital who examined Haley after she was rescued determined she was suffering from malnutrition, according to warrants. Her parents told Channel 9 she lost 15 to 20 pounds. Haley Burns disappeared from her Ballantyne home in May of 2016. This past weekend, the FBI responded to a tip and tracked her to a home in Georgia. Michael Weisselofsky is in jail under no bond on a number of state charges. Now, believe it or not, this little girl met the predator that kidnapped her, raped her, abused her, held her captive in a Facebook chat room about eating disorders. She didn't want to eat. She had issues with food. She was in a chat room and meets this guy posing as another person with an eating disorder, as a young girl.

And to top it all off, they were talking on her school Chromebook, on her school computer. Listen to this. Murkowski will serve 10 years on probation and also gave him credit, eight months for time served in confinement while he was in jail. The court heard testimony from Haley Burns and her parents. The second I left my home, my life was ruined. The North Carolina teen says she met him online and disappeared from her parents' home in Charlotte in 2016. She told the court she was held captive in his Duluth home for an entire year. He lowered my self-esteem greatly and led me to believe I would never be loved or have a proper life if I gained any weight. Burns says Brokoski tortured her and made her do sexual things for food.

I severely mutilated myself, hoping I would become unlovable so no one would hurt me again, as Wysocki did. I am permanently disfigured. Her father, Tony Burns, told the judge every time he would hear of a dead body, he feared it was his Haley. You are the boogeyman that all parents teach their kids to be scared of. Haley's mom added that Wysocki doesn't seem sorry for his actions. You are not a monster, but you are a pitiful man

who will now learn that actions have consequences. Now, after the hearing, I spoke with the prosecutor. He told me Haley's family, they're satisfied with the outcome today in court, but they really, really would have preferred to see the defendant behind bars. You were hearing from Lauren Pozen at Action 2 News Atlanta and Allison Latos, WSOC-TV.

You know, these offenders get a slap on the wrist and they get right back out. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. crime stories with nancy grace another amazing fact to me to dr carla manley clinical psychologist at drcarlamanley.com, is that this guy, Brian Stephen Smith's wife, says, quote, he was a good husband and defends him from being a murderer. Her name, Stephanie Bisland, was visiting family when she was approached by two police detectives. She says she's shocked that her husband is charged in the murder of a 30 year old woman in a midtown hotel she says she couldn't

believe what they were saying because he was a quote good husband that there was never a hint of the violent man described by police what do you make make of that? What I make of it is that when you have a person who has, in this case, what you would think would be antisocial personality disorder, which definitely would have strong narcissistic tendencies, that kind of person can have two personalities, three personalities, one at home, one out in the world. often you'll find it reversed, somebody being very kind to the outside world and very demonic at home. In this case, you have a man who is able to put on a beautifully mimicked portrayal of a normal person in the home world. Then he turns to this other side of his personality, and that's where the psychopathic

parts of his personality come to fruition. Daryl Cohen reminds me so much of Dennis Rader of BTK, Bind, Torture, Kill, who had a wife, children, was a dog catcher, and he was actually a prolific serial killer. I a, I think he was even a deacon at some Baptist church. It is, Nancy, you and I both know, all of us know that there are people that lead dual and triple lives. You have one life that you show to the world. You have another life for yourself.

And this guy obviously had another life and he was doing it, I guess, because he wanted to be the star of his own show. And he wanted to make sure that he was the star, and I think he probably left this SD card intentionally. And I think we'll find that there's more. I really do. Can I add something regarding that jump in okay so going back to to mind hunter the the series on netflix that's absolutely addicting i love that show that's exactly what also came to my mind that the btk killer he seemed so normal. He was portrayed as, you know, this church-going guy. You look at Facebook photos from Stephanie Bisland, the wife of the suspect.

You look at her Facebook, and she really appears to, they appear to be a very in-love, happy couple. You know, she called him a quote, good husband, and said she had never seen any signs of violent behavior in the past. They were married for five years, which is long enough, you would think that if there were any violent tendencies, you would see that he was obviously masking them. Take a listen to our friends at KTVA. A short time ago, we told you that police have named 30-year-old Kathleen J. Henry as the woman found dead along the Seward Highway. Now, police confirmed to us a short time ago she is Alaska Native, and one local group is trying to bring more attention to murdered and missing Alaska Native women. Kendra Kloster is the executive director of Native People's Action. What's your reaction to this? I mean, here we go again, another murdered Alaska Native woman.

It's really tough. This is, we're just really tired of hearing all the violence that's going on against indigenous women. It's heartbreaking, it's traumatic for our communities, and this is why this is one of the top issues for us, where we can highlight the topic and start talking about it and figuring out what we can do to increase public safety all across Alaska. We don't have solid numbers on missing and murdered indigenous women. That was the voice of Kendra Claw,, Executive Director of Native Peoples Action Nonprofit, who is with us now. Kendra Kloster, why are there not statistics on missing and murdered indigenous women?

There's a number of different reasons that have been going into this and trying to find out why we don't have that data. And that's a number of different reasons of misclassification of data. Law enforcement has data that is missing. There's been a report that was put out by the Urban Indian Health Institute that was released just in early this year, where the National Crime Information Center reports in 2016, there was 5,712 reports of missing American Indian and Alaska Native women and girls. However, the Department of Justice only logged 116 of those cases. No one is there filling this gap. Why do you believe that is so,

that the DOJ has different statistics than what you believe are true? Why? There's not a coordination of data. There is not a coordination between federal, state, tribal entities. There really needs to be efforts put into this where we can start coordinating the data so we can really understand how big this issue is. Just this one report has put Alaska in the top number of cases for missing and murdered indigenous women, and this was just a report by a non-profit. We don't know the extent of the problem, but we know it's large. I have no doubt in my mind, Kendra Kloster, that this guy, Brian Stephen Smith, for many reasons, I do not believe this is his first murder. And you say there are multiple murderers of indigenous

women, and I assume you're referring to Alaskan women. I wonder if he can be connected to them. What do you think, Kendra? This is a nationwide problem, and this is not just an Alaska issue, although we are one, unfortunately, Mickey, in the top ten of where missing and murdered indigenous women are happening here in Alaska. Where are the others? When you say it's a national problem,

where else other than Alaska do you see this as a problem, the murder of Indigenous women? It's a nationwide problem. It's happening all over. This report looked at 71 different cities because a large population of our Indigenous people are in the urban centers. However, that has not even been looked at in the data collected. Seattle was very high as well. This report that came out, which I highly suggest people look at, it's just scratching the surface. I would like to look at it. What is the name of the report? The Urban Indian Health Institute out of Seattle had put it out and they have put out a couple different reports and they're working on an Alaska specific one as well where they identified 506 unique cases of missing and

murdered American Indian Alaska Native women across 71 different cities and in there they talked about the data that really is just missing and that has they've been found cases where there was found nowhere in law enforcement data you know i just i feel sick to my stomach kendra kendra clauster with me executive director native people's action non-profit please go to crimeonline.com where we give you the link to look up and read for yourself what Kendra Kloster is telling us about the way that the murders and the disappearances of indigenous women in our country, how they are being treated or not treated. crime stories with nancy grace i want to circle back to sheriff john motz winnebago county sheriff who conducted a sting

operation and managed to rope in tommy lee jen, who had walked 351 miles, walked in order to have sex relations with what he thought was a 14-year-old girl. Sheriff Motts, how do you train your men and women who perform these stings to go in and act like a perv? We are extremely fortunate to have the individuals we do working in our task force. They are extremely dedicated. They will get up at two o'clock in the morning, set an alarm, get up at two o'clock in the morning to exchange information with predators, because predators think, you know, the detective's not working at two o'clock in the morning.

And we are now at their beckoning call so to speak and all of their desires and we want to make sure that the investigation is absolutely complete so it is nothing but dedication and certifications that they have gone through they're they're all highly trained in that area you know sheriff john mott's me, the sheriff in Winnebago County. I'm railing about the fact that this guy wasn't already in jail on the two previous incidents, but thank God in heaven, you guys managed to do this sting and get him behind bars. This time, there are so many cases to report on. I hope you're sitting down again. Take a listen to ABC4 News reporter Ann Emerson. An 11-year-old driver pulls over randomly into a restaurant parking lot early Monday morning. A police cruiser is there.

Within a minute, the officer gets out to investigate. The boy shakes hands with the officer. The boy told police he was from Simpsonville. He said he took his brother's car and drove 200 miles to meet a man from Snapchat. He said he was going to live with him. I am literally getting chills up and down my arms. Captain Dave Mack, Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force. This little boy, an 11-year-old child, my children, my twins are 11 years old, meets a guy on Snapchat

and is groomed and coaxed to take the family car, get into the car in the night, and drive overnight hundreds of miles, an 11-year-old child driving, and by the grace of God, yeah, I said it, this had to be divine intervention, the likelihood that in the middle of the night, in the dark, this little boy driving all night, 11 years old, pulled into a restaurant where a cruiser happened to be sitting there. And he happens to see the boy and strike up a conversation. He met a grown man on Snapchat, Captain David Mack, and was going to, quote, live with him. Snapchat. Yes, unfortunately, our children are using these types of applications and these types of websites to meet people that they don't know who they are. Or, you know, what really touched a nerve with me listening to one of your other guests when we talked about the grooming procedures, oftentimes, like in Tommy Lee the other case, somebody that's having issues with an eating disorder.

They play off of those weaknesses, and they use that to groom them and get them to meet them at different places. You know, I keep thinking about Alicia. Alicia is with me right now, and I'm going to talk about you because you don't take enough credit. Alicia Kozakiewicz with me, Kidnap, Assault Survivor. You can find her at aliciacozac.com. I've heard her entire story and what she went through as a little girl. It's daunting. And if you could see her, she's stunning, articulate, educated. She's, quote, turned her life around. But for every Alicia Kozakiewicz, there are hundreds of other children. Right now, I've got so many kidnapped children, missing children, abused children.

I don't have enough hours to help find them all. Alicia was so abused, sex assaulted, beaten, was forced to wear a shock collar chained to the floor that this guy that took her sent out a video of her crying and it was so bad he sent it to another child porn pornster and that guy as evil as he is called police that's how Alicia was found. And that day, her perpetrator said, you know what? I've talked to you so much. I've actually started to like you. I'm going to take you for a drive tonight. She, as a child, knew she was going to die that night. And she heard lawmen, lawmen and women breaking in the door. She hid. She thought she was about to die. That is what she lived through. That is what this child lived through. Now, a survivor. Levi Page, what is happening with

Tommy Lee Jenkins? This is his third go around trying to lure children that we know of. Please tell me he is in jail right now. You are correct. He is in jail, Nancy, and he is charged with using a computer to attempt to persuade, induce, or entice a minor to engage in unlawful sexual activity, and that comes with a mandatory minimum of 10 years in prison and the potential for a life sentence. I'm happy about that, and I applaud Sheriff John Motz and his people, Captain Dave Mack fighting the good fight, but I've got to leave on this note. For every one that we catch, there's a thousand getting away with it right now. They could be your neighbor.

They could be the college professor, your pastor, your Sunday school teacher. I don't know. But they are out there, and they are coming for our children. But guess what? I'm locked and loaded. Nancy Grace, Crime Story, signing off. Goodbye, friend. And they are coming for our children. But guess what? I'm locked and loaded. Nancy Grace, Crime Story, signing off. Goodbye, friend.

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