<figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Michael Livingston, an MMIP advocate and Marcella Boskofsky-Grounds prepare to question witnesses in the presumptive death hearing for Cassandra Boskofsky. (Rhonda McBride/KNBA)</figcaption></figure>



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Presumptive death hearings are common in Alaska. Hikers, hunters and boaters often go missing, never to be seen again.

But there are also those who disappear from the streets of Anchorage, like three Alaska Native women who crossed paths with serial killer Brian Smith.

In July, the South African immigrant was sentenced to 226 years in prison for murdering two of the women, Kathleen Jo Henry and Veronica Abouchuk.

Smith was never charged in the death of a third woman.

Prosecutors said they could neither confirm her identity, nor prove he killed her. But Cassandra Boskofsky’s family went to court on Tuesday to ask for a death certificate and set the record straight, as a jury determined that she was the victim of a homicide.

RELATED: In Anchorage protest, woman’s family says she is convicted killer Brian Smith’s third victim

Presumptive death hearings don’t usually pack a courtroom with TV cameras rolling. But this case involved Smith, convicted in what the national media dubbed the Memory Card Murders, because of the two killings he recorded on cellphones.

<figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Family and friends of Cassandra Boskofsky wore red to show their support. (Rhonda McBride/KNBA)</figcaption></figure>

The family wore red shirts with a photo of a young and happy Cassandra that said, “Where is Cassandra?” at the top — “Justice for Cassandra” at the bottom — and on the back, “We want answers.”

<figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Terrie Boskofsky shows the T-hirt the family made. The portrait of Cassanda Boskofsky was taken when she attended West High School. (Rhonda McBride/KNBA)</figcaption></figure>

Poster-sized photos were on display, images of a woman believed to be Cassandra that came from one of Smith’s cellphones — bloody, battered and lifeless.

RELATED: Alaska prosecutors release photos of possible third victim in sentencing for convicted killer Brian Smith

<figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Before and after the presumptive death hearing, posters appeared outside the Boney Courthouse. (Rhonda McBride/KNBA)</figcaption></figure>

When police confronted him about the pictures after his arrest in 2019, he told them she was alive, but had passed out on the ground from alcohol.

Nick Pestrikoff says he knew immediately that the woman was his cousin, Cassandra.

“I’ve known her since she was born. She didn’t have a stable home,” Pestrikoff said. “Her Dad liked his liquor, and so did her mother.”

Cassandra grew up in two Kodiak-area communities, Ouzinkie and Old Harbor. Pestrikoff says Cassandra had the same struggle as her parents.

“She did. She had it rough, but she still had the capacity to love,” he said. “She dearly loved me, and I dearly loved her.”

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