‘Catfish Killer’ Denali Brehmer Speaks Out on Homicide of Greatest Buddy In First Interview (Unique)

On the present, award-winning investigative reporter David Scott sits down with among the most infamous murderers within the U.S., a few of whom have by no means spoken with the media about their convictions.

Sunday’s new episode options Brehmer’s first interview in regards to the brutal slaying of her then-alleged finest buddy, Cynthia Hoffman, 19. Brehmer was sentenced to 99 years in jail after pleading responsible to first-degree homicide for her involvement in Hoffman’s homicide in June 2019 in an Alaskan forest. On the time, a then-18-year-old Brehmer was allegedly catfished by Darin Schilmiller into murdering Hoffman for $9 million … that he did not have.

Schilmiller additionally admitted to blackmailing Brehmer into sexually assaulting minors, based on Anchorage Day by day Information. In August 2024, Brehmer and Schilmiller had been sentenced to 30 years in jail for conspiring to “exploit a minor sufferer to provide sexually express photos,” based on the U.S. Legal professional’s Workplace of Alaska, citing courtroom paperwork.

In TooFab’s unique clip from Sunday’s episode, Brehmer is grilled by Scott concerning her motive behind Hoffman’s homicide — with Scott arguing it was “premeditated,” whereas additionally accusing Brehmer of “not taking duty” for her actions.

“Denali, in fact, there’s sympathy for a troubled teenage lady who suffers the type of abuse that you simply did,” Scott mentioned. “However your crimes are so brutal, so wicked and premeditated that there is nothing that basically explains that alone, excuses them. Do you agree with that?”

“Yeah,” Brehmer admitted, whereas Scott mentioned the crime did not seem like “finished on impulse,” however quite “premeditated and deliberate and conniving.”

“Once more, the sheer brutality of it, it appears much less like a horrible mistake and extra like your true character,” he added. Brehmer — who appeared to have a quiet, quite reserved demeanor — instantly replied that the homicide was not a illustration of her “true character.”

“Was it then?” Scott requested, to which Brehmer mentioned, “Pushed to that time, it was. That is, like, undoubtedly the worst I’ve ever been. My lowest level. That is my monstrous facet.”

Nevertheless, Scott argued that Brehmer was doing a “honest quantity of finger-pointing in the direction of different folks” throughout their dialog, which Brehmer additionally realized she was doing.

“It type of contradicts the concept that you’re totally taking duty. You are parsing, for instance, whether or not or not you’re the similar type of assassin that [Kayden] McIntosh is as a result of he pulled the set off and also you did not,” Scott mentioned, referring to a different then-teenager who was accused of collaborating within the homicide.

“You are pointing the fingers at others who might have, you say, texted [Schilmiller], as you. You are denying the kid porn expenses,” he continued. “You are denying making your youthful sibling a sufferer of that. You are doing a variety of not taking duty.”

In response, Brehmer argued, “It is simply, like, the media received so much mistaken. The cops received so much mistaken. My co-defendants and I did so much mistaken. All of us did one thing actually f–ked up and I take duty personally one hundred percent. It is simply, I am not keen to take duty for theirs.”

In January 2024, Schilmiller was sentenced to 99 years in jail after beforehand pleading responsible to solicitation to commit homicide within the first diploma. Throughout sentencing, Decide Peterson referred to as the teenager’s “assassination” each “extraordinarily unhappy” and “surprising.” He additionally mentioned he believed Schilmiller would “all the time be a danger to the group” and orchestrated the homicide “for the mere thrill of it,” in addition to “for energy, for management, on your fetishes.”

These fetishes, based on an FBI agent who testified in courtroom, included youngster pornography, infants, rape and homicide.

Hoffman was shot at the back of the top in June 2019, earlier than her physique was dumped in a river northeast of Anchorage.

In keeping with the Anchorage district lawyer’s workplace, the homicide plot started when Schilmiller met Denali Brehmer — then 18 — on-line. He mentioned he was a millionaire named Tyler and provided to provide her $9 million in alternate for proof she killed somebody. Schilmiller, nevertheless, was really unemployed, broke and lived in his grandmother’s basement.

Brehmer then selected Hoffman because the sufferer, earlier than recruiting 4 different associates to assist her commit the heinous crime. Brehmer and Hoffman reportedly thought-about one another “finest associates”; Brehmer, based on her household, was a “trusting younger grownup” with studying incapacity which reportedly “put her at a youthful developmental age than her 19 years.”

Per authorities, the group then talked Brehmer into occurring a climbing journey with them, earlier than they sure her palms, toes and mouth with duct tape and shot her … all whereas sending pictures and movies to Schilmiller.

In keeping with Anchorage Day by day Information, police had been put onto Brehmer’s path after she posted regarding pictures and movies to Snapchat and even instructed some folks she was concerned within the homicide. She then led police to Hoffman’s physique, whereas her telephone led them to Schilmiller. On her telephone, they discovered messages from Brehmer to Schilmiller, wherein she was seen sexually assaulting minors.

As beforehand talked about, Brehmer was additionally sentenced to 99 years in jail with none suspended. When she was handed her sentence in February 2024, the State of Alaska gave her a “worst offender” discovering.

“The Court docket ought to discover that Miss Brehmer engaged in one of the crucial severe crimes that we now have in Alaska,” District Legal professional Patrick McKay mentioned on the time. “She executed Cynthia Hoffman in a murder-for-hire plot. She conspired with quite a few different people in and out of doors of Alaska, together with juveniles, without end altering all people’s life. She might not have pulled the set off, however this by no means would have occurred it if it weren’t for Denali Brehmer.”

One other confederate, Caleb Leyland, was sentenced to 30 years in jail for his position in Hoffman’s homicide. In the meantime, Kayden McIntosh — who pleaded responsible to at least one rely of homicide within the second diploma — is about to obtain his sentencing later this month.