Alaska woman gets 99 years in best friend's catfished murder-for-hire plot

An Alaska woman hoping to cash in after a man offered her $9 million in an online murder-for-hire plot has been sentenced to 99 years in prison for orchestrating the fatal shooting of her friend, state officials said.

Denali Dakota Skye Brehmer previously pleaded guilty to first-degree murder in the 2019 contract killing of Cynthia Hoffman, prosecutors said in a news release this week.

Anchorage Superior Court Judge Andrew Peterson sentenced Brehmer, 24, on Wednesday following a two-day sentencing hearing, prosecutors said.

Hoffman, 19, was fatally shot at Thunderbird Falls in Chugiak, an unincorporated community about 20 miles northeast of downtown Anchorage.

"(Brehmer) conspired with numerous other individuals in and outside of Alaska, including juveniles, forever altering everybody’s life," Anchorage Assistant District Attorney Patrick McKay told the judge before he sentenced Brehmer. "She may not have pulled the trigger, but this never would have happened it if it weren’t for Denali Brehmer."

The victim had a learning disability and had known Brehmer since high school, according to information from Hoffman's family, The Anchorage Daily News reported.

Bound on the banks of a river

Evidence presented at Brehmer's sentencing showed that Hoffman was killed while tied up on the banks of the Eklutna River, prosecutors say.

Before Hoffman's death, Brehmer, then 18, and a 16-year-old male friend drove Hoffman to the falls, where authorities say the boy shot Hoffman, according to a criminal complaint obtained by USA TODAY on Friday. The shooting took place after the duo duct taped her ankles, wrist and mouth, and took photos and video of her.

At some point before being shot, the pair removed the tape from Hoffman's hands and mouth, and she told them she was going to call the police because they 'kidnapped and sexually assaulted her," an Anchorage Police Department detective wrote in the affidavit.

At that point, the detective wrote, the boy pulled out a 9 mm handgun and shot Hoffman "in the back of the head."

An attorney for the boy, Kayden McIntosh, did not return USA TODAY's messages for comment on Friday. The now-20-year-old has pleaded not guilty and remained jailed Friday awaiting trial on a first-degree murder charge, Alaska Department of Corrections records showed.

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Soliciting murder

In January, Darin Schilmiller of New Salisbury, Indiana, was sentenced to 99 years in prison after he pleaded guilty to soliciting Brehmer to have Hoffman killed, court records show.

Schilmiller met Brehmer on social media app Snapchat, with him lying to her about being a millionaire from Kansas, according to a sworn affidavit signed by Schilmiller. In the affidavit, Schilmiller admits to catfishing Brehmer.

Catfishing is a term for a person who pretends to be someone else online. A catfish uses fake photos, and sometimes a false persona, to find friends, romantic partners, or victims on the internet.

The Indiana man, now 24, admitted he offered Brehmer $9 million to kill someone.

Brehmer and McIntosh, along with their friends Caleb Leyland, and two unnamed juveniles, then got together and picked a location to kill Hoffman, he wrote in his affidavit.

Schilmiller said that after the killing, Brehmer sent him photos and videos of Hoffman bound while still alive, and then a photo of her after her body was pushed into a creek, the affidavit says.

Leyland, who was 15 when Hoffman was killed, was also arrested and pleaded guilty to one count of second-degree murder in November in connection to the case.

Court papers show he provided his SUV to Brehmer and McIntosh to use the day of the killing. He is set to be sentenced June 10.

The two other teens were prosecuted in juvenile court for their involvement in the case, the district attorney's office spokesperson confirmed, but said they could not elaborate on their involvement.

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Judge calls video 'one of the most difficult' he's seen

Judge Peterson watched a video of the victim's last moments, calling it "one of the most difficult pieces of evidence I’ve had to watch in this position," prosecutors said.

He said Brehmer showed no remorse after the killing, they added in the news release.

Natalie Neysa Alund is a senior reporter for USA TODAY. Reach her at nalund@usatoday.com and follow her on X @nataliealund.