Alaska woman gets 99 years in catfishing murder of Cynthia Hoffman

Denali Dakota Skye Brehmer was sentenced to 99 years in prison by Anchorage Superior Court Judge Andrew Peterson earlier this week in the 2019 death of her friend Cynthia Hoffman, US News reported.

Accomplice Darin Schilmiller was sentenced last month to 99 years in prison for his role in the murder.

In 2019, 18-year-old Denali Brehmer from Anchorage, Alaska, started chatting online with a stranger named "Tyler" from Kansas. This stranger claimed he was a millionaire.

He claimed he was willing to pay $9 million for videos and pictures of someone getting killed. Brehmer agreed to the plan and recruited Caleb Leyland, Kayden McIntosh, and two unnamed juveniles, to join her in the plan.

In June of that year, they lured Cynthia Hoffman, who was Brehmer’s best friend. They promised her they would go hiking, but instead they took her to the Thunderbird Falls trail in Alaska, where they duct-taped her, shot her in the head, and threw her into the river while they recorded the incident.

Officials said Brehmer then texted Hoffman's family to let them know they dropped her off at an Anchorage park.

Unknown to Brehmer, the rich man who made the promise was actually a 21-year-old man named Darin Schilmiller from New Salisbury, Indiana.

Brehmer was eventually arrested, and once she realised she had been catfished or tricked by Schilmiller, she told authorities that she had been solicited by him.

Later, Schilmiller admitted to the crime and said Brehmer communicated with him throughout Hoffman's killing and sent Snapchat photos and videos of Hoffman while bound and after she was killed.