Warning: Graphic content, readers’ discretion advised. This article contains a recollection of crime and can be triggering to some readers discretion advised.
Anchorage . Alaska in the united states of america back to the summer 2019. amongst the almost 300.000 people that called this place home ,live the very big and very close Hoffman family who all live toghether in East Anchorage trailer
Timothy hoffman had started grow concerned about his daughter cynthia.she had not replied to any message or answered any calls for several hours. allthough she was 19 .cynthia faced developmental and learning challenges, meaning she were at a seventh grade level .her beiing out of contact for even jsut a short while was alarming and timothy knew something was wrong.
On the first weekend of june 2019 ,the hoffman family spent some time working on a friends´campingvan together.
On the 2nd of june cynthia made plans to meet up with her sister and get her part of the money she had earned.she sent a text message to her father to say that she was on the way. but she never met her sister that afternoon.
Her father called the police but was told he needed to wait 24 hours and then ring them back. timothy was upset that they weren´t taking it seriously as they should have been and sad that they didn´t understand how vunlnerable Cynthia actually was.
for someone still so young she was definitely busy and very determined as tough the school had been for her ,Cynthia had persevered and graduated in 2018.
as wellas working as an apprentice for timothy who worked in buidling and construction she was earning extra money at a resturant, studying in a post -high school skills program. and was close to get her driver´s permit as well.
Timothy and Cynthia shared an incredibly close bond and she was most definitely a daddys girl. he recalled that she was always working hard to overcome her challenges and looking to make her family proud of her with everything that she did.
Timothy:” all she wanted was my blessing and approval and i gave that to her a lot
frustrated with police departement Timothy started contating news station and set off on his motorbike going through the nearby woods and bike paths.searching everywhere.
Timothy : “when she didn´t come home the first day i knew something was wrong and all i could think about was the knock on the door
Timothy had many people reaching out to see if they could help and he gladly accepted them all but one set of messages in particular left him more confused than grateful .he had resceived several from one of Cynthias closest friends angela. since then.
Angela said that Cynthia had asked her to drop her of at Polar Bear park something that she had agreed to do but she hadn´t seen her since then . she said she had last seen her at 4 pm the 2nd of june. wearing blue jeans a hoddie and tennis shoes. .timothy knews this was strange as cynthia didn´t mention this to him or her sister that she was going to meet. and angelas messages she said
angela:”is she okej? i hope she comes home safely ,she´s my best friend.i´m starting to get worried.i dont trust what she said about that guy.i love her too , i want the best for her and i want her to come back. she wont answer me , i think she ignoring everyone , i know she will come home safe.
Timothy had no idea what guy Angela was talking about and even though he pushed for clarification he was non the wiser. the police were now looking into cynthia´s disappearance ands timothy passed these messages on to them in hope it might help them find som answers , litttle did he know, the number was not linked to Angela it was linked to an 18 year old named Denali brehmer
Denali and cynthia were acctually close friends . and met through school , they often posed in selfie together on social media with the captions reading BFF. so why she had given a diffrent name was confusing.Just one day later on the evening of june third the anchorage police departement were contacted by a women named nicole.
Nicole said that on the evening of the 2nd of june the day cynthia was last seen,nicole´s daughter and someone nicole knew as anthony were both at her house.chockingly anthony had told her that cynthia was dead and that he was responsible and her daughter was none other than denali brehmer was also apparently went by “angela”
after this the pair left the house sand she hadn´t seen them since . given what anthony had said she was now concerned for her daughter´s safty as well.police located the pair and started digging into these claims.
the 4th of june, early eavening. the knock Timothy had een painfully anticipating came at the door.the minute he sa the officers he said
Thimoty :” she´s dead isnt she ?
detectives confirmed that thet hade just found his daugthers boddy.cyntha had been dicosverd along th acutena riverbank.
She was bound with duct tape and been shoot in the back of the head. before beiing pussed into the river.
officers believe she was kiled before timothy had even reported her as missing , and its unconfirmed whether or not she shot killed her instantly or if she was still alive when she was put into the water
Cynthias body was located thusday evening in a river neear thunderbird fals. invsetigators it was impossile for the hoffmans to contemplate who on earth wanr to do this to cynhia. she never spoke of having any problems with anyone. she had a lots of friends and she was so beloved by those around her.
Before long a web of lies would start to unriavel showing the twisted and the disturbing reality. of what appened and why and given what denlis´mother nicole had told the police , officers were only looking at sdenalie and anthont for for answers.
Anthony was 16 years old kayden Mcintosh a teen living on the street at the time. on the 5th of june kayden mcintos was arrested and two days later so was denali brhemer . the pair were initally quiet and and denalie wa even granted bail but after her hpone was looked at she was pulled back in. and the pair would soon start to talk
It quicly becam apparent that denli had attempt to delete threads of messages which fortunaly could be easily recovered. she hads been texting smeone caled “tyler” a man she had started online relationship with.and the conversation between the pair were extremely dark. tyler told her he was very wealthy and lived in kansas almost 4 000 miles away. the police found child pornography on denali´s phone as well and a string of explicit images of children that denali sent to tyler. for his approval. the more the pair spoke the more disturbing things became.
tyler soon told denali to sexually assult an eigh- year old and send him videos of it .after this he wanthed her to assult a 14 years old as well. the text threads between the pair wew grafiphic one messafe from tyler read
Tyler:so are you going to the 14 year old?
Denali :gonna buy weed first. i wanna get her high so she dosen´t fight me i love you.soon we can rape toghether
After these assaults tyler texted denali and told her he wanted to see more. He wanted her to rape and murder someone in exchange,he said that he would pay her nine million dollars
Denali then sat about recruiting people to help her and get the plan in motion.She finally told police that she and kaden had picke cynthia up and drove her out about 20 miles away from her home
using a car owend by another teenager that she had promised five hundred thousand dollars of the alleged money to a 19 year old called caleb leland. This gave police a fourth name to look at. buit little did they know this would soon become more. Denali said she ,kayden and cynthia all drove arond smoking marijuana together,something timothy said he didn´t see his daughter doing at all and was likely pressured into doing in the first place. if it was even true.
After this. they drow out to a parking lot near thunderbird falls trail with intention of going on hike
But instead of following the trail, the abandoned it and followed another path
That ran alonside the oklunda river.
They all walked along until they found an isolated clearing dinardi claimed that all three of them agreed to duct tape each other and take photographs as a part of a joke or prank. in the clearing cynthia was bound by her ankles and wrists and had tape put over her mouth. Cynthia soon realized this was not a joke and started to panic. she started to shouting that she was going to call the police.denalie held a gun to her head which she eventually let kayden take off her . Kayden t hen shot then cynthia in the back of the head.
In a kayden´s interview he admitted to duct taping Cynthia and said that he had blacked out but remember shooting her and pushing her into the river .as much as denali was trying to distance herself she had been documenting the whole the ordeal on her phone, sending photographs and videos to tyler via snapshat.showing that she was someone whowas very much involved
Allthough tyler said he wanted to see a reap as well as a murder there was no evidence to suggest that cynthia had been sexually assulted . to the piolice denali spoke of being afraid of kayden implying she was following his suit as well as being tricked by tyler .however denali had not only brought and hled the loaded gun ,she photographed and filmed the entire thing and had engaged in numerous conversations with tyler about all kinds of horrifying things up to that point.police felt cofident that tyler and denali were ring leaders together
after cynthia had been pushed into the river denali and kayden then went back to the car and made a pact to contact cynthia ´s family to say that she had benn dropped off the park
After this they sat about burning and disposing of cynthia´s purse ,clothes and ID in lions park in north east Anchorage,they even attempted to burn the gun. denali later texted tyler and said.
Denali” i wish i never made a deal with you in the first place.we can meet ,but once i see a cop i´m telling him or her that i made your rape people and kill cece.
But as the police already suspected tyler wasn´t who he claimed he was either . the man .the man behind the screen wsas actually 21 year old darren shilmiller and he wasn´t living in kansas , he lived in new salsibury indiana .when he wasd tracked down and questioned ,he confessed to everything including convincing denali that he was a millionaire and that he would pay her to assult and kill Cynthia. he also admited that he and denali had discussed murdering someone else after cynthia was dead.
Those that knew darren schilmiller or ” Tyler” said his dark thoughts had always been obvious. when he was a teenager he had started asking very young girls to send him explicit photographs often making up fake profiles and going by fake names online as well.
People described him as off and creepy as he got older he started asking people to send him photos of their children, sometimes while they were being changed or bathed. hehad also a fetish for dirty diapers and often wanted to see photographs of those too.
He had previously been the object of child ponrograhpy investigation but no charges were filed and the case collapsed. when he told denali her to find someone to kill she made the choice quickly. she chose cynthia without questioning it.
Timothy said .” her disability just made her want to have friends , that´s all she wanted . she wanted just to be her friend.
Detective subpoenaed for darren´s phone data and and all the footage of the miners denali had hurt up untill that point were found along more evidence that highlighted darren´s sick perversions
This is the house on rooster church road in new salisbury where federal investigators say darren shillmiller was living.
Neighbor: as a mother it scares me to think someone was living down the road with those kind of intentions ,it gives me chills up my spine. thats scary.
Reporter :people who live in this quiet harrison county neighborhood say if the accusations are true they´re glad chillmiller is in custody.
Neighbor:its schoking of how…how far someone can reach another just over the internet.
They also uncovered a snapshat video that denali had uploaded after cynthia been killed in which she said :
denali:”i just want to thank everyone that been there for me my whole life and these past few years and everything.i fucked up. i know i did.if i could take back what i´ve done… i can´t . i´m sorry everybody . my family, my friends …. i guess you will hear from me when you hear from me but i won´t be back for a long time , i´m sorry , i didn´t mean to do it.
A grand jury would soon indict six individuals in cynthia hoffman´s case:
Darren shillmiller,Denali brehmer,kayden McIntorch, Caleb Leyland who had given them the car. and two other teens who have not been maned .due to their ages.
they were all indicted on charges of first degree murder.conspiracy to commit first-degree murder and murder in the second degree.
CBSNEWS:A tennager in Anchorage Alaska has been charge with killing her best friend. the police say the murder plot began online with a promise of a muliti -,million dollar payday
CBSNEWS: In court Denali 18 years old Brehem showed no emotional as she appeard to admit her role in an elaborate plot to murder her friend Cynthia hoffman. investigators say it all began with a bizarre online catfishing scheme hatched by 21 years old darren schillmiller thousands a miles away in indiana police say brehmer offered to pay some of the money to four other teens to help her plan and carry out the killing
timothy: iam going to seek justice and i am going to follow this through this full extent of law and i will be here every time she is and i will not let it go.
CBSNEWS. Police found hoffman´s body a day later and the scheme began to unravel leading them to brehmer mcIntoch and and the other theens involved. brehmer´s phone records revealed chillmiller in Indiana, authorities say their arrest should be a warning.
Agent jeff peterson in charge ,FBI : if you´re planning to conduct a crime in Alaska and you safe because you´r that far away. you´re not.
Sixteen years old kayden was charged as an adult and as well murder he also faced four counts of tampering with evidence.
The two juveniles a male and a female addmitted to knowing about and being present for the planing of the murder. in exchange for a cut of the money
Caleb was also accused of sexually assaulting the female juvenile suspect and faces additioinal charges of sexual assault and sexual abuse of a minor as well as murder charges.
Darren and Denali were indicted on more counts of solicitation to commit murder in the first degree and then faced further charges of child pornograhpy, conspiracy to produce child pornograhpy,distribution of child pornography and the coercion and enticement of of a minor.
All six individuals entered pleas of not guilty.
Denali adressed the court and even spoke of having a child herself.something which should not be mantioned before this point , she said.
Denali:” i don´t want my daughter knowing that her mom grew up in a killer because i dont see myself as one.
Denali´s sisters spoke to the media and said they were devastated that she could be involved in something like this .
Denali is the third child of five girls, her older sisters said that all of the children had been removed from the care of their mother at different points and the abuse reached a tipping point when the man living with their mother at the time killed their two-month old baby sister.
Denali was adopted in her early childhood but both her sistsers said the trauma have lingered and potentially might have been casue of several issuses in adulthood.
Sister:”we all had really hard lives and i feell like she took the wrong road with the wong people who didn´t care about her and now she´s paying the ultimate cost.
The pending hearing and trials have all been delayed and postponed several times for various reasons. 56 gigabytes of material and over 100,000 pages of evidence and cell phone data was handed over in court which is a huge amount to dissect and go through.
This coupled with lockdowns due to the pandemic has pushed the trial dates back and in january 2020 it was annonuced it would be some time before the dsates were set .
Timothy hoffman said he would be in court in every opportunity adding nothing really disapoints me i am prepared for a long journey
It was a shocking and sick case in every imaginable way . murder. sexual assault ,catfishing, manipulation,greed and the ultimate betrayal in the most devastating way.
Cynthia Hoffman was a determined young women,someone who would face challenges and adversity and had pushed through all of it,determined to always give her all and make her family proud, her life came to an end in a terrifying way at the hands of someone she trusted and would never have doubted
