Teens allegedly murder friend and film it for $13.1 million promised by catfish

A group of teens are accused of carrying out a plot to murder their friend after being offered millions of dollars by a man catfishing them.

WARNING: Graphic content

Five teens in Alaska have been charged with murdering one of their best friends after a stranger posing as a millionaire online convinced them to film the depraved acts in exchange for money.

Denali Brehmer, 18, is accused of plotting to kill her “best friend” Cynthia “CeeCee” Hoffman after a 21-year-old man on the internet said he’d give her $US9 million ($A13.1 million) to document the crime.

Ms Brehmer, who developed an online relationship with the man who called himself Tyler, then recruited other teens to assist her in committing the crime.

Tyler, whose real name is Darin Schilmiller, offered Ms Brehmer at least US$9 million to provide him with “videos and photographs of the murder”, according to Alaska Department of Law.

Several weeks before the alleged killing, Mr Schilmiller and Ms Brehmer began discussing “a plan to rape and murder someone in Alaska”, according to court documents.

On June 3, Alaskan Police were notified CeeCee, 19, had not returned home since the night before, and was missing.

The next day her body was found dumped in a creek near Thunderbird Falls, in Eagle River, Alaska. She had been shot in the back of the head with a 9mm handgun, and her hands, feet and mouth were duct taped, according to the New York Post.

Ms Brehmer had allegedly recruited four friends to assist her with the plot — Kayden McIntosh, 16, who is accused of shooting the victim, Caleb Leyland, 19, and two more juveniles who are too young to be identified.

Denali Brehmer is accused of murdering her best friend Cynthia Hoffman. Picture: KTUU

Darin Schilmiller, who posed as millionaire ‘Tyler’ online. Picture: Facebook

Cynthia’s body was found dumped in a creek.

On June 8, four days after CeeCee’s body was found, police identified Ms Brehmer as a potential suspect, seizing her iPhone and searching it with a warrant.

“Evidence of child pornography was observed in plain view,” the court documents allege.

According to the criminal complaint, the child pornography in Ms Brehmer’s phone was in text message strings in a contact listed in her phone as “Babe”, who she identified as being “Tyler”, who lived in “Kansas”.

Police later discovered the true identity of this man was Gary “Darin” Schilmiller, a man with no criminal history, from New Salisbury, Indiana.

The day after the murder, Ms Brehmer told police she sexually assaulted two children at Mr Schilmiller’s request — the first aged eight or nine and the second aged 15. Police were able to identify the older victim.

Ms Brehmer said she filmed the younger victim naked, with the child’s legs spread apart.

The criminal complaint filed against Mr Schilmiller and Ms Brehmer details graphic messages where they discuss violently assaulting the 15-year-old victim.

“Gonna go buy weed first,” Ms Brehmer wrote, according to court documents. “I wanna get her high for it so she doesn’t fight me.”

Mr Schilmiller later instructs Ms Brehmer to “Hold her down and stuff. Fight her. Impress me.”

As police analysed these text messages, they found a conversation linking the pair to the murder plot.

During a text message conversation, the pair begin arguing, and Mr Schilmiller threatens to tell “a cop … that I made you rape people and killed cece”.

Mr Schilmiller was arrested in Indiana and charged with federal crimes relating to the child pornography he held on his phone. He is awaiting extradition to Alaska on an arrest warrant, according to The New York Post.

Ms Brehmer, Mr McIntosh and Mr Leyland are scheduled to appear in court on Tuesday local time.