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it. You're finally tackling

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$10 per order, additional terms apply. Hello

2:11

everyone, what is up? Welcome back

2:13

to another episode of Killer Instinct.

2:15

Thank you guys so much for

2:17

joining me here today. If you're

2:19

new here, hi, my name is Savannah

2:21

and I am your host of Killer

2:23

Instinct. Before we get started, make sure

2:26

you go ahead and hit that subscribe

2:28

button. That way you never miss an

2:30

episode. We post weekly on the podcast

2:32

every single Wednesday, as well as upload

2:34

the video version on YouTube on Wednesdays

2:36

as well. So make sure you are

2:38

subscribed. Now you guys, I can't believe

2:40

I'm even saying this, but we are now

2:43

in the last week of the

2:45

fatal friendships true crime category. If you've

2:47

been following along over the past few

2:50

months, you know that in each month

2:52

of this year, we have dedicated it

2:54

to a new true crime category. And

2:57

June's was fatal friendships. And I feel

2:59

like that went by in a

3:01

blink of an eye, but I am very

3:04

interested to hear what you guys have to

3:06

say about today's case. This is a case

3:08

that I had actually never heard of before.

3:10

And it was one where I could

3:12

not believe what I was

3:14

reading. And I have a feeling that

3:16

you guys are going to feel the

3:18

same way. I'm very interested to hear what

3:20

you guys have to say in regards

3:22

to the sentencing of this case, in regards

3:25

to how the consequences of this case

3:27

played out. I think you are definitely

3:29

going to be disturbed. This case has betrayal,

3:32

backstabbing, secret relationships,

3:34

secret identities, obsession,

3:36

and more. And

3:38

I'm very, very

3:40

curious to hear what you guys have

3:42

to say about it. As you can

3:44

tell by the title of this case,

3:46

today we are talking about the brutal

3:48

murder of Cynthia Hoffman. And this case

3:50

is also referred to as the catfish

3:52

killings for reasons you will soon understand

3:54

as we get more into this case.

3:57

So with that being said, let's jump

3:59

right into it. right on into it today.

4:01

Cynthia Hoffman was born on October 8th, 1999

4:06

in Anchorage, Alaska. She was

4:08

born to her parents, Timothy

4:10

and Kristy Hoffman. Cynthia came

4:12

from a big family. She

4:14

had four sisters and four

4:16

brothers. Now growing up, Cynthia

4:18

was diagnosed with autism, however,

4:20

she was high functioning. She

4:23

graduated from Robert Service High School

4:25

in 2018 and

4:28

continued working at local restaurants. She

4:30

was waitressing, doing different jobs in that

4:32

regard to make some more money on

4:35

the side. She also helped her dad

4:37

out whenever he needed it. Cynthia's dad

4:39

worked in construction and he also did

4:41

handyman jobs here and there and people

4:44

referred to Cynthia as her father's right-hand

4:46

man because she was always going alongside

4:48

of him, going on different handyman jobs

4:50

for him and then that turned into

4:52

her doing some handyman work on her

4:55

own again to make some extra income

4:57

that way. Now, Cynthia was also working

4:59

towards getting her driver's permit and this

5:01

was something that was very, very exciting for

5:04

her. She was excited to have

5:06

that additional freedom, being able to drive to

5:08

and from different places and not need to

5:10

be driven around by people was something that

5:13

she was really looking forward to. Cynthia

5:15

was incredibly smart. She was a

5:17

loving person and someone who was

5:19

friendly to everyone that she met.

5:21

She was someone who was determined

5:23

and motivated to overcome obstacles that

5:26

were thrown at her. Cynthia

5:28

knew that she had challenges and

5:30

struggles but she did not let that get

5:32

in the way of what she wanted out

5:34

of life and she didn't let

5:37

it get in the way of her living

5:39

her life to the fullest. She also just

5:41

wanted to make her family proud. That was

5:44

something that was very important to her. She

5:46

wanted to make her parents proud. She wanted

5:48

to make everyone around her proud and she

5:50

did just that. It was

5:52

said that Cynthia was definitely a daddy's

5:55

little girl. Her and her father were

5:57

incredibly close and had a very special

5:59

bond. And as did Cynthia with

6:01

the rest of her siblings and

6:03

her mother, Cynthia had a very

6:05

close bond with her family. Now

6:08

this case really begins on June 2nd,

6:10

2019 and

6:12

on this particular day, Cynthia's father

6:14

Timothy had gotten concerned when he

6:17

realized that he had not heard

6:19

from Cynthia in several hours. He

6:21

had been texting her time and

6:24

time again, however, wasn't getting a

6:26

response and that was very much

6:28

unlike her. Now all of

6:30

the Hoffman kids had a cell phone.

6:33

Timothy would give them all cell

6:35

phones for safety purposes and the

6:37

one rule with this cell phone

6:40

that Timothy had was that if

6:42

Timothy called, if their father called

6:44

them, they were going to pick

6:46

up the phone. That was the

6:48

one rule. If dad calls, you

6:50

answer. And so Timothy knew that

6:53

Cynthia would not just blatantly ignore

6:55

her father. She was someone

6:57

who was very diligent when it came to

6:59

texting him back or picking up the phone.

7:01

She knew the rule. She knew that she

7:03

had to answer her dad and so for

7:05

her to not respond at all was concerning.

7:08

Now that day on June 2nd, Cynthia

7:11

was supposed to meet up with her

7:13

sister to collect some money that Cynthia

7:15

earned while working on her friend's camper

7:18

van and she had texted her dad

7:20

about that earlier in the day. However,

7:22

she never showed up to meet her

7:25

sister, which again, Timothy knew something was

7:27

very, very wrong. So he called the

7:29

police to file a missing persons report

7:31

at this time. However, the police told him

7:33

that he needed to wait 24 hours

7:37

before he would be able to file

7:39

this report. Now this was

7:41

very upsetting to Timothy for a multitude

7:43

of reasons, but one of them being

7:45

that he really didn't feel like the

7:47

police were taking him seriously. He didn't

7:49

feel like the police were really hearing

7:51

him and listening to him when he

7:54

was expressing concerns about his daughter. Cynthia

7:56

had autism. She had developmental delays and

7:58

Timothy thought that she was an that

10:00

guy and she was worried

10:03

about what could have transpired there because

10:05

Angela always had a bad feeling about

10:08

this guy quote-unquote. Now Timothy was

10:10

taken aback because as far as

10:12

he knew, Cynthia was not talking

10:14

to any guy she wasn't in

10:16

a relationship, she wasn't dating, so

10:18

he was trying to get Angela

10:20

to elaborate more on whatever it

10:22

was that she was referring to

10:24

however, she stayed silent. So at

10:26

this point Timothy is very confused.

10:28

He's trying to get more clarification,

10:30

but Angela is not giving it

10:32

to him. But what

10:34

Timothy does not know is that

10:36

he is not texting with a

10:39

girl named Angela. In

10:41

fact, Timothy was texting with

10:43

a different girl named Denali

10:45

Bremmer. Now Denali was actually

10:47

a friend of Cynthia's and the two

10:49

of them had also met in school.

10:52

Denali Bremmer was born on February 12th, 2001 to her

10:54

mother Nicole. Now

10:57

the majority of Denali's life is she had

10:59

been living in Anchorage, Alaska with her and

11:01

her four siblings. Denali was

11:03

the middle child and according to the

11:05

other siblings the upbringing that they had

11:08

was definitely less than ideal. Denali's

11:10

sisters have said that the upbringing was very

11:13

rough and that all of the kids were

11:15

subjected to neglect by

11:17

their mother Nicole. Now Nicole was a

11:19

single mom who had multiple boyfriends while

11:21

the kids were growing up and

11:23

it was said that these boyfriends

11:25

would often partake in the abuse

11:28

as well and would abuse all

11:30

of the other siblings including Denali.

11:32

Now in a horrifying turn of

11:34

events one of these boyfriends actually

11:37

ended up murdering Denali's younger

11:39

sister Gabrielle when she was

11:41

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Now when this happened, Denali was approximately 18

12:55

months old. And afterwards, her

12:57

and the rest of her

12:59

siblings were removed from Nicole's

13:01

care and placed with another

13:04

adoptive family. Now Denali and

13:06

Nicole did end up rekindling

13:08

and reconnecting about six months

13:10

prior to June 2019. And

13:13

they were trying to repair their relationship.

13:15

Denali really did want a relationship with

13:18

her biological mother. It was something that

13:20

was very important to her. It was

13:22

something that she was really passionate about.

13:25

She wanted to learn and know who

13:27

her mom was. And Nicole was very

13:29

willing and wanting to have that same

13:31

relationship with her daughter. Now

13:34

I want to go back to June 2nd, 2019, now

13:36

that you have a little bit of an understanding

13:39

and an idea of who Denali Bremer is. So

13:41

at this point, we're at June 2019. It's

13:44

now June 3rd because we have

13:47

surpassed the 24 hour mark of

13:49

Cynthia being missing. And at this

13:52

point, the Anchorage Police Department begins

13:54

their investigation to see what happened

13:56

to Cynthia. So now in

13:59

the beginning of the investigation. police are

14:01

really pushing Cynthia's name out into the

14:03

public. They're talking about her on local

14:05

news stations and at this time on

14:07

June 3rd, 2019 police

14:10

get an unexpected phone

14:12

call from Nicole, who

14:15

again is Denali's mother.

14:17

Now Nicole had called the Anchorage Police

14:20

Department and told them that she was

14:22

very concerned. She said that on the

14:24

night prior, which was June 2nd, that

14:27

Denali and another boy named Anthony had

14:29

gone over to her house that night.

14:31

So Denali and Anthony go to Nicole's

14:33

house. She said that when the two

14:36

of them arrived, Denali seemed a little

14:38

bit shaken up and she invited the

14:40

two of them inside. Now when the

14:43

two of them were inside and they

14:45

began talking about their night, that is

14:47

when Nicole claims that Anthony, the boy

14:49

that is with her daughter, said

14:52

that he murdered Cynthia

14:54

Hoffman that night. Now

14:57

Nicole claims that Denali and Anthony left

14:59

together. They left the house and that

15:01

she hadn't really heard from Denali since

15:04

she hadn't really spoken to her daughter.

15:06

She hadn't really had a conversation with

15:08

her and Nicole claimed that the reason

15:10

that she was calling to begin with

15:13

was more so because she was afraid

15:15

for her own daughter's safety. She's claiming

15:17

that she watched Denali walk off with

15:19

this boy who's claiming that he killed

15:22

another girl earlier that night and she's

15:24

worried for the sake and the safety

15:26

of her own child. Now Nicole told

15:28

police at this time that Denali's also

15:31

sometimes went by the name Angela.

15:33

So she would go by Angela or

15:35

Denali. It was kind of either or

15:37

and when police heard this, they had

15:39

already spoken to Timothy in regards to

15:42

some of the text messages that he

15:44

had sent and he told them about

15:46

the text thread with Angela because again,

15:48

Angela brought up the fact that Cynthia

15:50

had been talking to this boy and

15:52

Angela didn't trust this guy and it

15:54

brought a lot of confusion for Timothy.

15:56

So when he was talking to police,

15:58

he told them Now,

18:01

Tyler and Denali met online

18:03

and the two of them

18:05

began a very dark and

18:07

twisted relationship. Denali claimed

18:09

that Tyler told her that

18:11

he lived in Kansas and

18:13

was incredibly wealthy, which was

18:16

very appealing to Denali. Tyler

18:18

claimed that he came into

18:20

his wealth from winning the

18:22

lottery. Denali claimed that

18:25

from the very beginning of her

18:27

and Tyler's relationship, he was very

18:29

open and forward about asking and

18:31

requesting very heinous and disturbing things

18:34

from Denali. Essentially what

18:37

began happening is Tyler was

18:39

asking Denali to carry out

18:41

various different assaults, videotape them,

18:43

and send him those assaults

18:45

and attacks. One of

18:48

the first attacks that Tyler wanted

18:50

Denali to carry out was sexually

18:52

assaulting an eight-year-old. Another

18:54

included assaulting a 14-year-old. One

18:57

of the messages that Tyler sent Denali was,

18:59

quote, are you going to the 14-year-old? And

19:03

Denali responded with, gonna go buy weed

19:05

first, gonna get her high so she

19:07

doesn't fight me. I love you.

19:10

Soon we can rape together, end

19:13

quote. So Denali had admitted

19:15

to police that she had gotten into this

19:17

routine and this pattern of really doing everything

19:19

that Tyler had been asking. Everything

19:22

that Tyler wanted her to do, she

19:24

would do it and send him the

19:26

video of it afterwards. After

19:28

the initial two assaults, one on the eight-year-old

19:30

and then on the 14-year-old, Tyler

19:33

upped his ante. And this is

19:35

when he asked Denali to rape

19:38

and murder someone and claimed that

19:40

he would actually give Denali a

19:42

little bit of an incentive. Tyler

19:45

said that if Denali carried out

19:48

murdering and raping someone, that he

19:50

would give her $9 million. Now

19:55

almost without hesitation, when Denali

19:57

read this, she instantly agreed.

19:59

but she knew she

20:01

was not going to be able

20:03

to carry this out alone. So

20:05

she began recruiting others who were

20:08

going to help her carry out

20:10

the murder. In total, there

20:12

were six people who helped orchestrate

20:14

and carry out this murder, including

20:16

Denali and Tyler. However, there were

20:18

four other friends of Denali that

20:21

she recruited. One of those

20:23

was Caden McIntosh and another was

20:25

a boy named

20:27

Caleb Leland. Denali promised

20:30

Caleb $500 if he would let her use her car to carry out

20:32

the murder

20:36

and he agreed to do this.

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According to Denali, she claimed that

21:42

the reason that she chose Cynthia

21:44

as her victim because again, Tyler

21:47

did not ask Denali to kill

21:49

Cynthia specifically. Denali was the one

21:51

who chose Cynthia as her victim

21:54

and according to Denali, she claimed

21:56

that she assumed that Cynthia would

21:59

be the