22-Year-Old Alaska Woman Pleads Guilty to 2019 Murder of Teenager

Denali Brehmer, a 22-year-old Alaska woman who was charged with murdering a fellow teenager in 2019, pleaded guilty on Wednesday.

A press release from the Alaska Department of Law indicated that Brehmer had pleaded guilty to the murder of 19-year-old Cynthia Hoffman.

In 2019, Brehmer, then 18, planned and carried out the murder of Hoffman, allegedly with the help of two friends, after being “tricked” by someone online, who reportedly offered Brehmer $9 million dollars for photo and video evidence of “child sexual abuse,” Alaska Public Media explained.

Prosecutors allege Caleb Leyland and Kayden McIntosh, now 23 and 19 respectively, were Brehmer’s accomplices, per Alaska Public Media, which noted that charges against the two are pending. 

An Indiana man named Darin Schilmiller, 24, is accused of instigating the plot by claiming to be a millionaire and offering Brehmer money to carry it out, per Alaska Public Media.

The outlet noted he is currently in jail on murder charges and also faces a federal child pornography case.

Breitbart News described authorities’ gruesome account of the events that led to Hoffman’s death:

Brehmer recruited Kayden McIntosh, 16, Caleb Leyland, 19, and two other unnamed “juveniles” to help her. She promised that “all of them would receive a significant sum of money for their part in the planning and/or execution of the murder.”

The Alaska Department of Law said that on June 2, “Hoffman was bound with duct tape, shot in the back of the head, and pushed into a river near a hiking trail outside Anchorage.” Her body was discovered two days later on the bank of the Eklutna River.

Schilmiller also allegedly instructed Brehmer to rape an “8 or 9 year old” and a 15-year-old, with similar request for video evidence. Brehmer admitted that she did so. Video evidence of the 15-year-old’s assault was confirmed by investigators.

The Department of Law noted that in Brehmer’s case, “the charges of conspiracy to commit murder in the first degree, solicitation of murder in the first degree, tampering with physical evidence and two charges of murder in the second degree were dismissed.”

Anchorage Superior Court Judge Andrew Peterson will preside over sentencing starting August 22, per the Department of Law. The press release also indicated Peterson may sentence Brehmer to a term in prison between 30 and 99 years.

You can follow Michael Foster on Twitter at @realmfoster.