A woman in Alaska admitted to killing her "best friend" after a man she met online offered $9 million to kill someone, according to a report in People Magazine. Twenty-two-year-old Denali Brehmer killed Cynthia Hoffman, 19, in 2019 and agreed to plead guilty on Wednesday, the outlet further said. The case was investigated by the Anchorage Police Department and the Federal Bureau of Investigation, with the assistance of multiple other State and federal law enforcement agencies, the Alaska Department of Law said in a statement.
Ms Hoffman had disabilities and her friend pleaded guilty in exchange for having five other charges against her dropped, as per local television channel KTUU.
"She was charged with conspiracy to commit murder in the first degree, solicitation to commit murder in the first degree, two different theories of murder in the second degree, and tampering with evidence," State Prosecutor Patrick McKay was quoted as saying by KTUU.
Ms Hoffman had gone missing during a hike in June 2019 with Ms Brehmer and another friend at Thunderbird Falls in Chugiak, Alaska. Her body was found two days later on the banks of Eklutna River, bound with duct tape and shot in the back of the head, People said in its report.
The investigators said that Ms Brehmer was 18 at the time of the murder and carried out the crime after meeting a man online who said his name was "Tyler".
Investigators found that "Tyler" and Ms Brehmer began a relationship and planned various crimes, including the "rape and murder of someone in Alaska," as per NBC News reported.
It later turned out that he was catfishing Mr Brehmer, pretending to be a millionaire from Kansas and offering her $9 million to record the killing of a person in Alaska, the investigators further said.
They later found out that the man was Darin Schilmiller, who lived in Indiana.