Social Media Challenges
Not a social media challenge but forked up all the same
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Tempted by the false promise of $9 million by a man she met online, Denali Dakota Skye Brehmer lured her so-called best friend into the Alaskan wilderness where the teenager was bound with duct tape and shot in the head as part of a brutal murder plot.
What began with a bizarre online catfishing scheme, ended in the death of Cynthia “CeeCee ” Hoffman, 19, who was developmentally disabled.
A man from Indiana, Darin Schilmiller, then 21, posed as a millionaire from
Kansas called “Tyler” on
Snapchat. He struck up a relationship with Brehmer, who was 18 years old at the time, and offered to send her millions of dollars via
PayPal for the “rape and murder of someone in
Alaska”.
Brehmer agreed. She enlisted other friends into the plot and then on June 2, 2019, they carried out the murder of CeeCee near Thunderbird Falls, a popular trail area just north of Anchorage. Her death was captured in photos and video that were sent back to “Tyler” on Snapchat as proof.
In February 2023, Brehmer pleaded guilty to first-degree murder. Her friends were also charged in the murder: 16-year-old Kayden McIntosh pulled the trigger, and 19-year-old Caleb Leyland, who provided the vehicle to carry out the plot.
Now, for the first time, Brehmer is speaking publicly about the murder in the third episode
“Catfishing for Murder” of Court TV’s new limited series Interview With a Killer.
“I’ve already admitted guilt so now I’m ready to fully take responsibility for what I’ve done,” Brehmer says in the interview at the Hiland Mountain Correctional Center.
But as she’s confronted about what happened that fateful day, her story begins to change.
Brehmer acknowledges that the murder was somewhat premeditated, but then blames it on panic when a bound and gagged CeeCee began “freaking out” about going to the cops which led to McIntosh grabbing the gun.
“I just went along with it,” Brehmer says calmly in the interview. “Because… problem solved, right?”..........
Three weeks before CeeCee was killed, Brehmer and “Tyler,” who met on Snapchat, began talking on the app about their plans to rape and murder someone in Alaska.
The Anchorage Police Department later learned that “Tyler” was actually Darin Schilmiller of
Indiana who had posed as the millionaire online with fake pictures as part of the catfishing scheme in which he offered to pay Brehmer “$9 million or more to commit the murder and send him videos and/or photographs of the murder,” according to a statement released at the time.
Brehmer asked some of her friends to help and offered them an unknown amount of the so-called prize money for their part in the planning of the murder, according to police.
that she and Brehmer had gotten into a fight over a boy.
“Initially, when we all came up with it, I agreed and said yeah because I was mad at her and she was mad at me and I was just over her s***,” Brehmer says in the interview about the fight they had over a boy named Zack. “I wanted to make amends, I did want to make amends but she needed payback for what she did with Zack.”
When asked in the documentary if she deserved payback with her life, a defeated Brehmer sighs and says, “no,” adding “that’s on me.”
Brehmer was eventually arrested, and once she realized she had been catfished or tricked by Schilmiller, otherwise known as “Tyler,” she told authorities that she had been solicited by him.
She was given the maximum sentence for her role in the killing, according to the Alaska Department of Law.
“She may not have pulled the trigger, but this never would have happened it if it weren’t for [her]” Patrick McKay, Anchorage assistant district attorney, said of Brehmer during sentencing.
“She executed Cynthia Hoffman in a murder-for-hire plot. She conspired with numerous other individuals in and outside of Alaska, including juveniles, forever altering everybody’s life.”
Schilmiller, who posed as “Tyler” online, was also sentenced to 99 years in prison for his role in the murder.
He admitted to federal agents and the Indiana State Police he chose CeeCee as the victim after he heard about the fight and told Brehmer to kill her, court documents said.............
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/...-killer-interview-alaska-murder-b2641101.html