A man from Indiana who is accused of being behind the killing of an Anchorage developmentally disabled teenager in 2019 pleaded guilty Thursday to one federal child pornography charge that was related to the slaying. Three other child pornography charges were dismissed by federal prosecutors as a part of the plea deal.
Darin Schilmiller is still charged with persuading then-18-year-old Denali Brehmer to sexually abuse two underage victims following the murder of Cynthia Hoffman at Thunderbird Falls near Eklutna. Schilmiller still faces three counts of first-degree murder and two counts of second-degree murder.
The FBI affidavit cemented the federal pornography charges against Schilmiller, who is now 25.
Schimiller is accused of posing as a millionaire when he initiated an online chat with Brehmer, in which he promised to pay her $9 million to carry out a rape and murder.
Brehmer pleaded guilty earlier this year to the murder. There were four other alleged accomplices to the gruesome act, in which “friend” took Cynthia Hoffman on a hike, to Thunderbird Falls, bound her with duct tape, and shot her in the back of the head, dumping her bodkin to the Eklutna River.
Brehmer then sent videos and photos of the murder to Schilmiller via the Snapchat phone app.
It was during the investigation into Hoffman’s death that the child pornography was found on Bremer’s and Schilmiller’s phones. The FBI says Schilmiller instructed Brehmer to sexually assault two minors aged between 8 and 15. Explicit videos of one of these acts were sent by Brehmer to Schilmiller.
