An online stranger offered an 18-year-old girl 9 million dollars to kill someone. She chose her own best friend. In 2019, an 18-year-old girl in Anchorage, Alaska, named Denali Brehmer struck up an online relationship with a man who called himself "Tyler." He told her he was a millionaire from Kansas. He was not. "Tyler" was actually 21-year-old Darin Schilmiller, a man living more than 3,000 miles away in Indiana, who had never met Brehmer in person and had invented the entire persona. Schilmiller made Brehmer an offer. He would pay her 9 million dollars if she sent him photos and video of a killing. He never named a specific target. He simply asked her to make it happen. Brehmer agreed. She recruited four friends to help her: 19-year-old Caleb Leyland, 16-year-old Kayden McIntosh, and two other juveniles. Together, the group decided Cynthia "CeeCee" Hoffman, Brehmer's own close friend, would be the victim. According to prosecutors, Hoffman was not chosen because she had wronged anyone. She was targeted because those involved believed she trusted them completely and would not suspect what they were planning. A 19-year-old young woman with a learning disability, she trusted Brehmer completely. On June 2, 2019, the group invited Hoffman on a hike near Thunderbird Falls, a popular trail area in the Chugiak region northeast of Anchorage. Partway through, they led her off the marked trail toward the Eklutna River. There, they bound her feet with duct tape. McIntosh, prosecutors say, fired the gun. Hoffman was shot in the back of the head and her body was put into the river. Investigators later said the killing was photographed and recorded to satisfy Schilmiller's demand for proof before the promised payment. Afterward, Brehmer and McIntosh drove to a park in Anchorage and burned Hoffman's belongings. To buy themselves time, they sent text messages from Hoffman's own phone to her family, pretending she was still alive and had safely returned to Anchorage. When Hoffman's family reported her missing, they were initially told she had last been seen safe at a different park entirely, information police later learned had been deliberately falsified by Brehmer and McIntosh. Her body was found along the riverbank on June 4, just two days after she was killed. The investigation that followed stretched across two states, involving the Anchorage Police Department's homicide unit, the FBI's Alaska and Indiana field offices, and Indiana State Police, ultimately leading to Schilmiller's extradition from Indiana to face charges in Alaska. As investigators dug deeper into Schilmiller and Brehmer's online relationship, they uncovered a second, separate crime running in parallel with the murder plot. Around the same period, Schilmiller had also directed Brehmer to produce sexually exploitative images and videos of a minor, unrelated to Hoffman, which she sent to him. Both were separately convicted in federal court in 2023 on charges related to the production of child sexual abuse material. In January 2024, Schilmiller was sentenced by Anchorage Superior Court Judge Andrew Peterson to 99 years in prison for his role in orchestrating Hoffman's murder. Describing him as a "worst offender," the judge concluded that Schilmiller had orchestrated the killing largely for the gratification of manipulating and controlling other people. The following month, February 2024, Brehmer received the same sentence, 99 years, also under a "worst offender" finding. The judge acknowledged her youth at the time of the crime but was clear that this was not youthful carelessness. She had known exactly what she was doing. Caleb Leyland, who admitted to providing the car used to carry out the murder and expected a cut of the promised payment, pleaded guilty to second-degree murder. The judge found he had played a comparatively minor role and weighed his youth and rehabilitation prospects, sentencing him in August 2024 to 40 years in prison, with 10 years suspended. Kayden McIntosh, the alleged shooter, was tried as an adult despite being only 16 at the time of the killing. In May 2025, he was sentenced to 99 years with 24 years suspended, leaving 75 years to serve, after being convicted of first-degree murder and related charges. Both Schilmiller and Brehmer have since appealed their 99-year sentences. At the center of it all was a young woman who never saw any of it coming, killed by the people she called her friends, over a payment that was never real to begin with. Her father, Timothy Hoffman, became a constant presence throughout the years of hearings that followed, often seen in court wearing a black leather motorcycle jacket, his small support dog Diego at his side. "My daughter trusted these people," he once said. "My daughter just wanted friends." Every year, he organized a memorial motorcycle ride in Cynthia's honor. On June 2, 2024, exactly five years after Cynthia's murder, Timothy took part in that year's memorial ride. His wife, Barbara "Jeanie" Hoffman, rode on the back of his motorcycle for the first time, having previously followed the ride in a separate vehicle. Near mile 49 of the Parks Highway west of Wasilla, Timothy lost control of the motorcycle. He was pronounced dead at the hospital. Jeanie was critically injured but survived. Patrick McKay, one of the lead prosecutors on the case, called Timothy a "zealous advocate" for his daughter and said his death felt almost too unbelievable to be true. He added that he hoped Timothy's family could find comfort in knowing he died doing something he loved, with people he loved, in memory of someone he loved. The following year, the Hoffman family held the memorial ride once again, this time honoring both Cynthia and the father who had spent five years fighting to keep her memory alive.