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Dad Shares Anguish After Daughter Is Allegedly Slain By 'Friends' Hoping For $9 Million Payout That Never Existed
Friends of 19-year-old Cynthia Hoffman are accused of luring her into the Alaska wilderness and shooting her at the request of an Indiana stranger who pretended to be a millionaire offering a large payday if the killing was captured on video.
The father of an Alaska teen allegedly killed by her own friends after they were encouraged to commit the horrific act by a stranger online, took to social media earlier this week to describe his living “nightmare.”
Timothy Hoffman Sr. posted a poem he penned titled “Nightmare in my head” to his social media account Tuesday describing his anguish after learning the details of his 19-year-old daughter Cynthia “Cee Cee” Hoffman’s death.
“My daughter hung out with somebody she thought with her best friend And Thought she was Having fun,” he wrote.
He went on to describe the now horrific ordeal he imagines in his head including his daughter being “convinced to be [duct] taped,” “panicking” and getting “shot through the head.”
“My daughter yell daddy in my head,” he wrote. “My daughter is still trying to call the police why she was twitching in my head.”
He goes on to say in that in the nightmare there is nothing he can do to save her.
“I miss my daughter you always be daddy’s right hand man,” he wrote.
Investigators say Hoffman was killed after 18-year-old Denali Brehmer, who Hoffman had believed was her best friend, began an online relationship with 21-year-old Darin Schilmiller.
Schilmiller, who lives in Indiana, was allegedly the mastermind of a bizarre catfishing scheme where he pretended his name was “Tyler” and claimed to be a millionaire. Investigators say he offered Brehmer $9 million to film and carry out a murder.
Motivated by the promise of a large payday, officials say Brehmer enlisted the help of four friends, Caleb Leyland, 19, Kayden McIntosh, 16, and two other juveniles, and offered them a cut of the money if they helped to kill Hoffman, according to The New York Post.
Brehmer and McIntosh are accused of luring the 19-year-old into the wilderness on June 2 under the pretense that they were going on a hike, but the reality was much darker. Investigators said Hoffman was bound with duct tape, shot in the back of the head and thrown into a river, CBS News reports.
Authorities believe McIntosh, who will be tried as an adult, was the gunman, according to Fox News.
“The only thing I know is that my daughter trusted these people, my daughter just wanted friends,” Hoffman said in court Wednesday. “Now I have to bury her, and that is wrong.”
Hoffman told the court that his daughter was developmentally disabled and had just wanted to be accepted by her peers, calling the slain teen “an angel.”
Brehmer also addressed the court Wednesday, showing little emotion about the allegations against her.
“I know what I did was wrong,” she said, according to CBS News.
Schilmiller has also been arrested and is awaiting extradition to Alaska.
