Bill Roth/Anchorage Daily News/Tribune News Service via Getty Images
An Alaska woman was sentenced to 99 years in prison Monday over her role in a murder plot carried out at the request of a catfisher who convinced her he was a millionaire who would pay $9 million for photos and videos of the killing.
Denali Brehmer, of Anchorage, had pleaded guilty to first-degree murder last year in connection with the horrific death of 19-year-old Cynthia Hoffman. Hoffman, who had a developmental disability, had believed Brehmer was her “best friend,” Hoffman’s father testified in the case.
Brehmer, now 23, was 18 at the time of Hoffman’s death in 2019. Prosecutors say Brehmer convinced four other teenagers to carry out the killing at the behest of someone she believed to be a multimillionaire from Kansas named “Tyler,” with whom she had an online romance. In reality, “Tyler” was Darin Schilmiller, a now 25-year-old Indiana resident who was also sentenced to 99 years in prison last month.