March 28, 2023 • 47 mins
How does catfishing lead to murder? How much is a friendship worth? A line of depravities leads to brutality and betrayal for $9 million.
Thunderbird Falls video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=20JTSgku_qY
Sources
https://lawandcrime.com/crime/catfished-killer-takes-plea-deal-in-2019-death-of-best-friend-murdered-in-exchange-for-9m-from-fake-millionaire/
https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2019/jun/11/photos-on-alaska-murder-suspects-phone-leads-to-ne/
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Marcy (00:01):
She went along even when she didn't really understand.
Sometimes it was like they werespeaking another language.
When things were overwhelming,cece just turned it off.
Even when they were mean.
Having friends was worth the badstuff, most of the time.
Welcome to Crime Raven; truecrimes, real life stories from
(00:25):
law enforcement and issues crimefighters face.
This podcast highlights crimesresearched by retired Detective
Sergeant Mark Rein, usingpublicly available information,
court records and personalrecollections.
Content may be graphic,disturbing, or violent.
Listener discretion is advised.
Suspects are considered innocentuntil found guilty in a court of
(00:46):
law.
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(01:09):
That's free access for 30 daysat audibletrial.com/crimeraven.
We'll also put the link in theshow notes.
(01:36):
Cece was just happy to be outwith her friends.
Earlier that morning, Angela,her BFF since high school called
and Surprise, wanted to take heron an adventure.
It was okay with her dad.
And here they were drivingaround in a car that Angela had
borrowed just for us.
(01:56):
Angela brought along Caden, aboy cece didn't really know, but
he seemed cool.
She said they needed Caden totake pictures and video of them
acting crazy.
They drove around town stompingat different places.
It was a nice summer day andangela wanted to show Alaska to
her rich boyfriend Tyler, wholived very far away.
(02:18):
After a few stops and videos,Angela had an idea.
Wouldn't it be fun to make, likewe were kidnapped and taken into
the woods?
Yeah.
She said the best place to gowould be Caden.
Yelled out Thunderbird Falls.
Angela said she liked thatplace.
It would be perfect.
It was beautiful there.
The pictures would be great.
(02:39):
People were gonna freak.
They all jumped back into thecar and headed outta town.
On the way, angela talked withher tyler on the phone.
He wasn't even there, but theyall talked about him like he was
the boss.
Angela thought it was importantto do what Tyler wanted.
They said things Cece didn'tunderstand, but that was okay.
(03:01):
All Cece knew was that Angelawas in L O V E.
Cece never been in love likeAngela.
Someday.
Angela could talk for hoursabout her dreams with Tyler, how
rich he was, how he was gonnacome and get her, and they would
live in a big house far away.
(03:21):
It was nice to hear aboutAngela's dreams.
Cici was just happy to be out onthis adventure with her bff.
After a while, they left thehighway and parked in a gravel
lot on a wooded hillside.
Between the trees below, cececould see ocean water.
On the other side, the mouth ofthe trail led up into thick
woods.
As Cece looked at the slope, shecould hear the distant rumble of
(03:45):
water falling.
Angela took a small pack fromthe car and talked with Caden.
When they came to the edge ofthe parking lot, the trail down
looked steep, hardly a path atall.
Angela encouraged Cici.
It wasn't that steep.
Everyone walks to the main path.
They couldn't get good pictureswith everyone around.
(04:06):
Caden and Angela told Cece thatshe could wait for them, but it
would be a shame that shewouldn't be in any of the
pictures.
Cece didn't wanna disappoint herfriends, so she followed slowly
but steadily.
The trail was hard, slippery andsteep at points, but after a
while, it finally leveled out.
(04:27):
Cece looked back up the hill,worried about getting lost.
The brush was so thick shecouldn't see the main trail or
the parking lot.
Eventually, when they reachedthe flat gravel bar at the edge
of the slower moving water, thegroup stopped.
Here, Caden asked.
Angela nodded.
She said something into thephone, panned it around.
(04:51):
Cece could hear some reply fromthe phone.
Caden and Angela stepped away.
They were talking serious aboutsomething which Cece mainly
ignored.
She was used to being left outtaconversations.
It was okay.
They were her friends.
Angela stood beside some largerocks using them as a shelf to
unload her pack.
(05:12):
Cici saw a roll of duct tape andthen a gun.
That captured her attention,made her a little nervous.
Seeing the concern.
Angela told her friend, it'sjust a toy.
Cece asked what all this stuffwas for.
Angela told her they were gonnapretend to be kidnapped.
They would put on the tape andtake funny pictures that they
(05:33):
could send to their friends.
They had talked about kidnap andrape videos before, just fooling
around with the idea.
Sometimes Angela's friends madeCece nervous, tried to do things
she didn't like, but mostly theywere cool.
She went along even when shedidn't really understand.
Sometimes it was like they werespeaking another language.
(05:56):
When things were overwhelming,cece just turned it off.
Even when they were mean.
Having friends was worth the badstuff, most of the time.
Cece thought Angela didn't looklike she was having fun.
She looked serious.
This whole thing must be whatTyler wanted them to do.
(06:16):
She didn't like it, but Cecewould help her friend.
With that compromise, she saidshe wanted to see the gun.
She just wanted to hold it andcouldn't understand why they
wouldn't let her.
After all, it was just a toy.
Angela made a show of putting afew strips of tape on herself.
Then she asked Cece to sit.
(06:37):
Caden took pictures of the twogirls.
One doing the taping, while theother sat docile on the rocks.
As Cece was bound, she feltincreasingly nervous.
Both of her friends lookedserious.
On the phone they were talkingabout rape, what pictures to
take.
It wasn't as fun as Angela said.
She noticed Angela didn't havethat much tape on.
(06:59):
Cece looked around.
The deep wooded canyon loomedover her.
She felt helpless.
Her breathing became faster.
Angela wasn't stopping.
She was wrapping tape across herface, covering Cece's mouth.
Next would be her eyes.
She looked at her friend and sawnot a friend.
(07:20):
That was the moment cece lostcontrol.
This whole situation wasn'tright.
It wasn't fun.
She wanted to jump up and run,but her feet and hands were
tied.
She couldn't even talk right.
As these realizations hit her.
Cece tried to suck in more air.
It wasn't enough.
Her chest heaved with therealization.
She tried to scream past thegag.
Her eyes bulging as waves ofpanic hit.
(07:42):
Cece screamed as loud as shecould, violently pitching
backward, rolling off the rock,and onto the gravel bank.
Angela was close saying things,trying to get her friend to calm
down.
They were just gonna take somefunny pictures.
but that was it for Cece.
She didn't wanna be taped, shedidn't wanna be kidnapped, she
(08:03):
didn't want to be raped.
She screamed, muffled again andagain struggling against the
bonds.
Even as Angela crawled after hertrying to pin her down.
Angela pulled the tape off ofCece's mouth.
Cece pulled in a deep breath andwas racked with sobs.
A few seconds later, she yelled,demanding to be untied.
(08:24):
Angela, trying to save the photoshoot, unwrapped her wrists.
Fear mixed with anger fueledCece's tirade.
She demanded they let her go.
If they didn't, she was gonnacall the cops.
With this angela stood up andbacked up a couple of steps.
Looking down at Cece.
She handed Caden the pistol.
(08:45):
Angela, her face expressionlessstared into her friend's eyes.
Cece didn't want this game.
She just wanted to go home.
Caden, who had stepped off tothe side, raised the pistol and
shot Cece through the back ofher head.
Cece writhed and convulsed onthe gravel while Angela took her
(09:05):
turn as photographer.
Mark (09:22):
The call came into the Anchorage Police Department
Dispatch on June 3rd, 2019.
A father Timothy Hoffman wantedto report his 19 year old
daughter, Cynthia, missing.
Hoffman said his daughter hadgone out with friends the day
before and had not returned.
She wasn't answering her cellphone.
An added cause of concern,Cynthia experienced a
(09:45):
developmental disability and wastherefore potentially more
vulnerable than the averageperson.
Hoffman told the dispatcher thathe and other family members had
been out looking for her, buthad no luck.
He had talked to Angela,Cynthia's best friend who she
was supposed to have been with,but Angela had said they had
dropped her off in one of thecity parks during the day.
(10:06):
Angela seemed surprised thatCynthia hadn't been home yet.
The police dispatcher assuredHoffman that they were listing
Cynthia's missing.
They would provide her name andher description to patrol
officers who'd be on thelookout.
That police response did notsatisfy Hoffman.
He was sure his daughter knownin the family as CC was in
trouble.
(10:26):
She had always answered, or atleast returned her cell phone
calls.
He had money for her from arecent contracting job she'd
helped with, and it was veryunusual for her not to be
counting the minutes untilpayday.
He texted Cece's friend Angelaagain.
It did make sense that Cecewould wanna leave her pal and
wander off, but Angela seemedworried about Ceci too, and she
reassured him that his daughterwould be home soon.
(10:49):
Timothy rounded up some friendsand family and they continued
the search downtown, the malls,the hospitals.
Hours passed with no signs.
None of Cece's friends had seenher, and there was only silence
from the police.
The second night with no Cececame and went.
Still no return texts or calls.
The family again reached out tofriends and rechecked the usual
(11:12):
places.
They were sick with worry, andthe silence took on an ominous
weight.
Then the police knocked on thedoor.
As unbearable as the silence hadbeen, it was preferable to the
tidings they brought with them.
Cici was dead.
They had found her body floatingin the water in Eklutna.
She had suffered a gunshot woundto the head.
(11:34):
The police who hadn't seemed towant any information before now
wanted to check and double checkevery detail.
Places, times, friends,associates, phone numbers,
internet access codes.
The Hoffman family, dazed andDisbelieving gave them
everything.
What police knew was the hikershad spotted and reported the
(11:55):
body.
Death at Thunderbird Falls wasnot a common call, but over the
years there had been severalreported at that location.
Some homicides, mostly bodydumps, but also accidental and
suicide.
The water there drops almost 200vertical feet at the top of a
ravine with sheer sides.
The accidental deaths andinjuries are mostly climbers who
(12:18):
underestimate the difficulty ofthe cliffs As far as the hikers
go, about a mile back theprimary trail overlooks the
falls on one side of the ravine.
The viewing deck there hashistorically been a jumper
location several times On thisday, when the first patrol
officers arrived, it wasimmediately apparent that
Cynthia Hoffman's body floatingalone in one of the pools below
(12:39):
the falls, was not the result ofan accidental slip or an act of
self-harm.
Her legs were bound at theankles with duct tape.
She had head trauma, probably abullet wound to the back of her
head.
As they started theirinvestigation.
Cynthia's level ofsophistication was a source of
interest to the detectives.
(13:00):
She experienced developmentaldisability.
What did that mean?
Her dad simplified it, givingthe comparison he had used
hundreds of times over theyears.
He said developmentally she waslike a seventh grader, which
meant she was a 12 year old in a19 year old's body.
However, some of thedescriptions the investigators
were getting showed Cynthia wasfunctionally even younger than
(13:22):
that.
She could perform simpleinstructions, help with task
handle most activities of dailylife, but had to be watched, had
to be kept track of by aresponsible adult.
Her disability might not beimmediately obvious to the
casual observer, but anyone whospent any time around Cynthia
would know there was somethingamiss.
(13:43):
Her parents didn't trust thatshe could avoid being led
astray.
They constantly worried thatsomeone would take advantage of
her.
According to her dad, Cynthiawas childlike in her trust and
her greatest desire was to havefriends.
He knew this endearing traitmade her vulnerable.
The Hoffman family werevigilant, and until a few days
prior, Angela Cynthia's BFF wasone of those people they thought
(14:07):
was looking out for theirdaughter.
The two had known each otherthrough high school, and from
dad's perspective, angela hadearned a spot in the circle of
trust.
now Angela's story of droppingCynthia off at a park in
Anchorage looked like bullshit.
She was the last person known tohave been with Cynthia and they
had gone hiking at ThunderbirdFalls.
(14:28):
Detectives, walked away from thedeath notification with a
greater understanding of thesituation.
they had a person of interestnow.
They had her phone number andthe names of some of her
friends.
It was a good starting point.
It did not take long to identifyAngela.
Her real name was DenaliBrehmer, an 18 year old who
lived a semi homeless lifestyle.
(14:49):
She and friends would stay hereand there flopping where they
could couch surfing friends'houses.
Sometimes they were shelterrats.
Because of the nomadic lifestyleand active avoidance, it took
detectives two days to track herdown.
By the time investigators hadBremer in the box, they had some
leverage.
they Had processed the crimescene and Cynthia's body.
(15:12):
They had bremer's cell phonedata on order.
If they were lucky, they couldtrack that phone right up to the
murder scene.
From the moment Bremer sat downin the interview room chair,
detectives started backing herinto a corner.
Before they even asked her anyquestions, they casually went
over the basics of what theyknew, holding back some of the
key details.
(15:33):
When the show and tell was over,the question they put to Bremer
was not explain what happened.
They already knew the answer tothat.
What they asked her to talkabout was why Bremer took the
theme the detectives cast like abass to a lure, and she gave
them her first account of thecrime.
It was simple and deflectedblame onto one of her friends.
(15:54):
Bemer said that on the day ofthe incident, she, Cynthia and
16 year old Caden McIntosh weredriving around Anchorage,
looking for a place to takeinteresting photos.
They decided that ThunderbirdFalls would be a good backdrop.
When they arrived at theTrailhead, they went down to the
water instead of walking themain trail.
And once down there they found awide gravel bank beside the
(16:16):
water.
Breer and Cynthia played withDuct tape pretending they were
kidnapping victims with McIntoshand Bremer taking turns filming,
they put more and more tape onCynthia, until Cynthia was
sitting on the ground with herhands and feet bound, and her
mouth was covered.
Bremer said Cynthia suddenlyfreaked out.
So she pulled the tape off, butCynthia remained scared and
(16:38):
angry.
Yelling that she was gonna callthe cops and accused them of
trying to rape her.
At that point, McIntoshunexpectedly pulled the gun and
shot Cynthia in the head.
Bremer said she was so freakedout.
All she could do was watch.
She describes Cynthia'sconvulsions as McIntosh shoved
her body down the slope and intothe water.
After that, they climbed backinto the car and drove back to
(16:59):
Anchorage.
At McIntosh's direction Bremersaid she burned Cynthia's
belongings and made a call toCynthia's father.
Emer finished her story bysaying that she did not know
that Macintosh is going to shootCynthia and she only kept quiet
about the murder because she wasafraid.
The interview with 16 year oldMcIntosh mirrored Bremer's
(17:21):
account except for a couple ofimportant details.
He confirmed that the threeborrowed a car and went driving
around to take some pictures.
They ended up at ThunderbirdFalls.
The girls started fooling aroundat the water's edge.
The girls used duct taped orpretend they were being
kidnapped, Cynthia got reallyupset and she said she was gonna
call the cops and say that heraped her.
(17:42):
Caden said it was Bremer whopulled out the gun and gave it
to him.
McIntosh said he must haveblacked.
But then admitted that he barelyremembered shooting Cynthia and
pushing her into the water.
He blamed the whole thing onBremer saying that she brought
the gun because she wanted himto do it.
That initial story was like manyfirst runs the detectives here
(18:03):
in all kinds of cases.
it didn't make much sense, butthat was okay.
The suspects had placedthemselves at the scene and in
the middle of the crime, andthey agreed on who pulled the
trigger.
After that, some of theinvestigators began examining
digital evidence and others setto rounding up other people
mentioned as peripheral players.
Detectives uncovered the rest ofthe story when they unearthed
(18:25):
information hiding in twoplaces.
First, the accounts of thosesecondary players and second
bremmer's, otherwiseunremarkable cell phone.
What they uncovered would makenational news.
It turned out that Bremmer had abenefactor, a man who was
identifying himself as Tylerfrom Kansas.
Tyler and Bremer were having along distance love affair.
(18:48):
Their texts peppered withfamiliar expressions of
affection and sexual innuendo.
They exchanged photos and eachliked what they saw.
As an added attraction, whileBremer was dirt poor and almost
homeless, Tyler was amillionaire.
That was an irresistible lurefor Breer.
(19:09):
She was on board for whatever hewanted, as long as they would be
together.
With his hooks, deeply embeddedin Bremer's imagination.
Tyler slowly moved beyond theinitial lovey dovey stuff,
exposing more of his predatoryside.
He was a rich man withparticular tastes and desires.
He hinted at his preference andaffection for young, really
(19:31):
young girls.
He asked Bremer to film videosof little girls having sex with
her.
Bremer, still enthusiastic abouttheir future.
Tyler told her he also wanted towatch a girl die.
In fact, he was willing to payhandsomely if she would do that
for him.
When the twin ideas of raping achild and committing murder
(19:54):
didn't scare Breer off, Tylerput a number on the offer.
He would pay$9 million.
Bremer agreed.
Now her wealthy boyfriend andbenefactor was putting her to
work.
Bremer began sending the kind ofpictures that Tyler liked and
she gave him progress reports onthe live action requests.
(20:17):
She selected an impressionable15 year old girl from her circle
of friends.
She got her high and docile, andthen filmed the two of them for
Tyler's edification.
For the second mission, bremerknew the killing would not be so
easy.
She needed help and she mightneed a patsy.
she brought in a couple offriends.
The conspirators met on afateful day in May.
(20:39):
She told them everything, whatshe had done and what Tyler
wanted.
Her friends were enthusiastic.
Motivated by the promise of bigbucks.
They hatched a plan.
They agreed on a victim.
They made assignments.
They picked a location, andsomeone pony up a pistol.
When he was brought in forinterview, 19 year old Caleb
(21:00):
Leland admitted he knew aboutthe plot.
He agreed to loan Bremer a carfor$500,000.
The rest went exactly asplanned.
The fake photo session was justabout getting Cynthia Hoffman to
the pre-selected murder site.
One of the conspirators, hadthrown in the idea of beautiful
Thunderbird Falls.
(21:21):
But the filming didn't go asplanned.
There was a point where Cynthiarealized something was wrong.
She panicked.
Bremer tried to calm her down sothe photo session could go on,
but Cynthia was beyondreasoning.
McIntosh, a little freaked outhimself was holding the pistol
that until then, had only beenused as a prop.
He took a step to the side, sohe is standing slightly behind
(21:43):
her.
He raised the gun, pulled thetrigger, and sent a bullet into
Cynthia's skull.
Cynthia Rock forward with theforce of the blast flopping
sideways down slope.
Her body convulsed her braindesperately trying to reboot
through the trauma.
After that McIntosh druggedCynthia's body pushing her face
down into the pool below.
(22:04):
Neither could say if the gunshotkilled her or if she had
drowned.
But Bremer didn't miss theopportunity to memorialize the
scene with her camera.
On the way back to Anchorage,Bremer and McIntosh talked about
the next steps.
They would gather anythingbelonging to Cynthia that's
still in the car, her purse, acouple of other things, and
they'd burn them.
Bremer would call Cynthia'sparents to lay down a cover
(22:26):
story.
When detectives went back ather, bremer stuck to the lies
until they convinced her thatshe had been duped.
Tyler, a millionaire tycoon fromKansas was not really who he was
claiming to be.
There was no money.
In fact, Tyler from Kansaswasn't even Tyler, nor was he
from Kansas.
They confronted her with Thedeleted messages from her cell
(22:47):
phone.
There were ones where she andTyler planned the rape of a
child.
Bremer volunteered that she wasgonna get her 15 year old friend
high, so she'd be a docilevictim.
Then there was a cash ofcommunications surrounding the
planning and execution of themurder.
Bremer ultimately admittedeverything.
Bremer even talked about a crimethat the investigators hadn't
(23:09):
seen in the digital evidence.
She had molested a nine year oldgirl for Tyler's enjoyment.
With the case basically solved,one mystery remained.
Who was Tyler from Kansas?
Working with federalcounterparts, that answer came
quickly.
Tyler turned out to be a 21 yearold man named Darren Shilmiller
(23:30):
a resident of New SalisburyIndiana, a quiet agricultural
community with only 600residents.
Shill miller lived withrelatives in a small single
story brick house on two acres.
When word of the murderinvestigation filtered out, the
media descended on New Salisburyto find out about Indiana's now
(23:51):
notorious son.
Unsurprisingly.
S sch Miller looked nothing likethe photo of Tyler he sent to
Bremmer.
Tyler Sported model.
Good looks.
Shi Miller's a big, overweight,prematurely balding white guy.
He looks like the person fromthe stereotype, the one people
imagined sitting in the basementof his mother's house doing the
things that he was now accusedof doing.
(24:13):
People who knew Shi Millerdescribed him as weird, a shy
introvert.
Everyone was surprised about themurder charge, but not so much
the child pornography.
He was known around town forhaving a creepy interest in
children.
He had asked friends for photosof their little kids and made
distasteful comments about kidsover social media.
(24:35):
One lady had broken offcommunication with Shi Miller
when he asked her for diaperchange photos of her little
girl.
The FBI's Child Exploitationtask force worked with the
Anchorage detectives andcounterparts in Indiana to cover
the child porn and digitalaspects of the case When
warrants were executed on a HilMiller's phone and computer,
(24:55):
evidence was seized thatcorresponded with the crimes in
Alaska.
Shill Miller was picked up forinterview and confronted with
the evidence and he confessed toall of the substantial
allegations.
He had used a fake identity toseduce Bremer.
Once he had gained her trust, heoffered her money to commit
certain offenses.
(25:15):
These crimes, sexual abuse ofminors and murder had been under
his direction and supervision.
He wanted the video andphotographs for his personal
gratification.
During the interrogation, she,Miller gave them two details
that they hadn't consideredfirst.
The murder had been scheduled tobe complete on the day before
his 21st birthday.
Second, he had tried to use therapes and murder as blackmail to
(25:39):
encourage Bremer to commitadditional crimes.
In the investigation's wake.
Shi Miller was extradited toface charges in Alaska.
In state court.
Shi Miller, Breer McIntosh,Leland, and two juveniles were
charged with first degreemurder, conspiracy to commit
murder in the first degree, andtwo counts of murder in the
second degree.
(26:02):
The two juveniles, one male andone female, were involved in the
crimes planning and alsoexpected some of the loot.
Their names were not releasedbecause of their age.
In addition, both Bremer and ShiMiller face federal charges
related to the production anddissemination of child
pornography.
In February 2023, Bremer settledher state case, pleading guilty
(26:25):
to first degree murder in theAnchorage Superior Court.
In exchange, prosecutorsdismissed charges of conspiracy
to commit murder, solicitationof murder, tampering a physical
evidence, and two counts ofsecond degree murder.
She faces a minimum of 30 yearsin state prison, and will be
sentenced August 2023.
(26:45):
The federal trial for Breer andShill Miller's pornography is
scheduled to begin in July.
In interviews with local media.
Cynthia's Father Timothy said,"the only thing I know is that
my daughter trusted thesepeople.
Her disability just made herwant to have friends.
My daughter just wanted friendsand now I have to bury her.
(27:07):
And that is wrong."
Marcy (27:24):
Mark, let's first talk about the setting for this case.
It happened in the beginning ofJune, so it's summertime in
South central Alaska.
Mark (27:33):
Yeah, so the snow is finally melted away.
The temperatures are going up,which by lower 48 standards are
pretty low.
Like you're talking aboutfifties, sixties, maybe
occasionally some seventies.
And it isn't until end of July,before the August rain start,
you might see some days in theupper eighties, but in early
June, it was fifties, sixties.
Marcy (27:52):
but June is the season to get out and do things in Alaska,
and if you live there, youdefinitely feel the clock
ticking like it's a now or neverthing.
Summer solstice that happens onJune 21st is a really big deal
in Alaska because it marks theshift to the countdown to
shorter days.
Mark (28:10):
That burst of activity is ironic.
When you think of what happenedin this case.
Marcy (28:16):
Describe Thunderbird Falls and what kind of police
calls come from there.
Mark (28:22):
The municipality of Anchorage is both urban and
rural.
the northern boundary of thepolice service area is the Knick
River Bridge.
And the Southern is north of thetown of Girdwood, let's call it
Bird Point.
So about 70 miles from top tobottom, or an hour's drive of in
no traffic.
The middle of that North SouthDrive is what they commonly
referred to as the AnchorageBowl, an area of several miles
(28:44):
wide between the ChugachMountains and the saltwater and
Thunderbird Falls is about 30miles north of the city, almost
out of a p d policejurisdiction.
Incidentally, if you're a SarahPalin fan she started her
political career as the mayor ofthe city of Wasilla.
It's maybe 20 minutes north, ofThunderbird Falls.
(29:06):
This is a glacially Fed Creekthat runs off the mountaintops
just above the inlet.
It is a beautiful waterfall withabout a 200 foot drop at the
end.
In the park, there's awell-built trail that kind of
side hills along the ravine to aviewing platform near the falls.
It's pretty rugged in thatravine, wet and slippery.
(29:28):
So they discourage people fromventuring off the main path.
But people do.
The main draw is obviously thefalls, but it's because it's
uniquely accessible.
It's less than a two mile hike,round trip.
The trail is fairly flat.
And for a lot of Anchorage it'sthe first place you take your
kids to go on a hike becauseit's so short and it's has a
(29:50):
cool view as a payoff at theend.
As far as police calls go, therehave been people who have been
injured or died accidentallywhile climbing around there.
There have been suicidesunfortunately there.
And this wasn't the firsthomicide or body dump at that
location.
All of this this is because it'seasily accessible from the city
and it's pretty well known.
Marcy (30:07):
There's a nice state park video about the falls that we'll
include in the show notes.
And you have some perspective onthe lives of the suspects in
this case and how they wereliving?
Mark (30:21):
For my patrol work, time and burglary, vice, sex assault,
and especially from workingtargeted projects, I brushed up
against this type of group alot.
Marcy (30:29):
So how do you define that kind of group?
Mark (30:31):
Older teens, young adults, homeless or semi homeless,
haven't found a path to followin life.
Don't have a productive lifekind of flailing around with not
much to do, plenty of time ontheir hands.
A lot of these kids, I wanna,I'm gonna call'em kids, but
they're, some of them are justbarely young adults.
Some of them, many of them getinvolved in low level criminal
activity.
Some get pulled in deeper as wesee here.
(30:54):
It's a situation that'sparticularly dangerous for young
girls who are frequentlyvictimized.
some of the earliest episodes inthis series talk about some of
the worst things that couldhappen there.
Marcy (31:05):
These are kids who have had chronic problems, poor
family relationships, and prettymuch little to no oversight.
Mark (31:13):
That's exactly right.
These kids congregate in certainareas around town.
Mainly large open public spaceswith access to indoor shelter,
especially in the winter.
One example is the city ofAnchorage is downtown bus
shelter.
But it's also some of the malls.
It's not by accident that one ofmy crime suppression unit
projects was in this downtownarea that included that bus
(31:33):
shelter, a horrible hotel andthe juvenile shelter.
I don't want to give theimpression that troubled youth
or.
Are at the root of all problems.
But we definitely had someeye-opening and unexpected
experiences down there.
And not all the kids at risk gotdeeply involved.
I think some kids that go, thatget involved in this, take a
look around and see how low youcan sink and how quickly and
(31:55):
pull themselves away from thatspiral because of what they see.
Marcy (32:00):
Was the brutality of this crime surprising to you?
Mark (32:05):
Yes and no.
Some of the stories I heard someof the things I got involved in
were eye-openers like I talkedabout the Jerry Star episode.
We saw in that case, kids whobasically sold each other for
dope.
This is dog eat, dog streetlife, with a strong praying on
the weak.
So by the time I had heard ofthis case, no, it wasn't
surprising.
(32:25):
It was just sad.
This story is, it's not astandalone story, nor is it
something that could only happenin Anchorage.
In the last few years, the cityof Wasilla, about half an hour
of the North, had its own brutalteenage murder group.
And what was uncovered there wassimilar themes to this case.
Juveniles and young adults who,whose parents have lost or
abdicated their oversightparents that just looked the
(32:47):
other way on some veryconcerning behavior.
And the result was, a no moralcompass Lord to the flies kind
of existence for them.
And in that situation, just likein this, eventually a kid was
basically executed.
And the investigation showed anincredible level of depravity.
Marcy (33:04):
What I think is amazing in this case is that all of
these people conspired andeverybody just thought it was
okay.
Nobody said, hold on a second, Ineed to save this kid.
Mark (33:14):
That's the dog eat dog thing.
A lot of these kids are victimstoo, and have suffered abuse.
They get abused at home or onthe street, and they take it out
on someone weaker or morevulnerable.
Everyone is looking out forthemselves.
We're familiar with cases ofmothers who have sold their
daughters.
So why not a friend killing afriend for profit?
Marcy (33:32):
Is it significant that Breer used a different street
name?
Mark (33:37):
No, I don't think she used that street name to cover for
this particular crime.
And I don't think it'snecessarily significant for this
particular crime.
It's an aspect of the streetlife she was in.
These kids she's an adult, butlet's be real.
Not really.
They're outsiders.
They feel it.
They don't like who they are orwhere they've come from, and
they pick a different name toshed the old skin.
(34:00):
Some of them probably thinkit's, makes'em harder to
identify.
But it's that's pretty thin.
Marcy (34:05):
do you have trouble identifying people because of
these alternative names?
Mark (34:09):
Not really.
It's just an extra step in theinvestigation.
But there are ways ofidentifying them.
In this case, the, I'm sure theygot it from the cell phone,
although I'm not certain, butthat's the first place you go.
She has a cell phone, run thatcell phone.
Who's attached to the cell phoneand who are they attached to?
But there are also people whoknow everybody.
So you pull up a goodsurveillance photo, print it
out, show it around.
(34:30):
These people like to spreadgossip, talk trash and back stab
like crazy.
The rumor mill is always runningat full speed among these kids.
You just have to take the timeto talk to them.
There's also adult sources whowork among this population.
But you gotta be careful not toabuse that trust.
So they don't lose trust withthe people they're serving.
Marcy (34:50):
what happened in this case between Shill Miller and
Breer is catfishing, right?
Mark (34:56):
Yeah.
Catfishing is the online use offraudulent identity with the
goal of gaining the cooperationof a target for some purpose.
Marcy (35:04):
Here, s Shell Miller pretended to be a young man,
good looking with a fat bankaccount.
That's not so unusual, but theresults aren't typical.
What other examples do you haveof catfishing?
Mark (35:18):
there are tons of those kind of schemes the most
successful or aimed at theperceived vulnerabilities of the
target.
Shell, Miller was looking for apoor, vulnerable young woman.
In the past he had beenunsuccessful at getting what he
wanted from single mothers.
This is not all sex related.
Probably the majority ofcatfishing is financial.
(35:39):
They're targeting elderly adultsposing as fake bankers, fake IRS
agents, fake relatives whodesperately need money.
Unfortunately some of thesevictims have been taken for tens
of thousands of dollars.
Marcy (35:50):
You had mentioned other sexual exploitations.
Mark (35:54):
Many teenagers have been victimized some with really
tragic results.
Here are a couple of examples ofthis scam.
A girl thinks she is messaginganother teenager.
She sends him a nude pick.
The bad guy blackmails her,threatening to send the picture
to everyone she know.
In that way, he coerces her indescending, whatever's
(36:15):
requested.
Sometimes he demands for moreracy photos, or even a demand
for meetup and sex in person.
By the way, that is sexualassault.
In another case I just readabout a teenage boy was the
victim, basically the same scamI just described.
Instead of cooperating with thebad guy's demands, he killed
(36:36):
himself.
That scam went from the initialexchange of messages to his
suicide in one night.
His parents sleeping just a fewfeet away, had no idea what was
happening to that boy
Marcy (36:48):
I know that a lot of these predators work with
information that they gatherfrom the target's own social
media posts.
Mark (36:55):
Yes.
So pick a target off of socialmedia that you wanna stock and
take a look at what they haveout there.
Can you come up with where theywork, where they go to school,
the names of friends andrelatives.
If you're a scam artist, thatinformation is gold.
Particularly when you'retargeting someone who is
unsophisticated in the ways ofthe world, like a teenager, this
(37:17):
is a huge danger for them.
Marcy (37:21):
Do you think Bremer was a victim at all?
Mark (37:25):
No.
Bremer's a product of herenvironment.
As I'm looking at this case.
It struck me as how horriblywasteful it was.
Working around some of thesepeople, as I did some had huge
potential.Bremer if she hadgrown up with a moral compass,
had natural leader potential.
(37:45):
Unfortunately, instead of usingthat potential, her broken
ethics and judgment allowed herto enthusiastically jump into
this crime.
And where did she lead her gang?
To prison.
Marcy (37:55):
And sacrificing an innocent girl.
You have mentioned people whowere very street wise, but
ultimately really dumb.
Mark (38:05):
Yeah, I think Bremer's one of those.
Her limited world left her witha huge holes in her knowledge
and self-awareness.
As I talk about this, I thinkabout an interview I saw with a
special forces officer who wasin the field in Afghanistan with
indigenous fighters.
We're going way down a rabbitpath here, but I'll come back to
to make it make sense.
So this officer said, these aregreat soldiers that he's working
(38:27):
with, locals that his SF guysare working with.
One night, they stopped and satdown under the stars.
Sky was cloudless, no lightpollution.
You could see every star in theMilky Way.
And some of the men began makingcomments about it, how the light
pollution back home in the USprevented such a clear view.
(38:51):
As the conversation between theAmericans and the local fighters
progressed, it became clear thatthe Afghani soldiers knew almost
nothing about the reality of thenatural world or the outside
world.
They didn't know about the orbitof the planets, the differences
in other countries.
All the knowledge we that wetake for granted.
(39:12):
And I think of this limitedworldview in isolation is
applicable to some people,unfortunately here Some are very
intelligent, in terms of streetsmarts.
but no intellectual curiosityabout what, what was happening
outside the few city blocks thatthey knew as home.
They limited their understandingof the outside world to a very
narrow band of popular culture.
(39:34):
And this ignorance leaves themvulnerable.
In Bremer's case, it meant ShiMiller could woo her with his
amazing bullshit, and it meantthat she had no idea of the
capabilities and reach of lawenforcement.
Marcy (39:47):
Her plan to blame McIntosh seemed pretty flimsy
when you consider everythingelse.
Mark (39:53):
Yeah, and all the other witnesses.
Like I said, the rumor mill inthat group is crazy.
I can't believe with her knowingabout that, that she thought she
could actually get away with it.
It's just so senseless and sadwhen you think about.
Bremer here is basically theDeputy Mastermind.
And her plan is to abandon shipand blame everybody else.
(40:13):
That just isn't gonna work.
One thing you look for when youinterview is where you can give
a suspect, or the suspect cangive himself a moral off-ramp.
In the first story she gave,Bremer initially uses, the other
guy did it, but the detectivesdoing the interview would never
take that at face value.
(40:34):
You just have to know that she'sjust flailing around to save
herself.
The other moral off-ramp thatboth of the suspects took was
that they panicked had to killCynthia because she threatened
to lie about them raping her.
They are giving a justificationin some sick way.
But what that does for me as a,as an investigator is it makes
(40:56):
me suspicious about what thereal conversation was like.
It just isn't believable thatCynthia had suddenly accused
them of rape out the blue.
I don't know exactly what wassaid, but based on those
accounts, I don't think Cynthiacame up with the idea that she
was gonna get raped all on herown.
Marcy (41:13):
Do you think McIntosh saying that he blacked out and
could barely remember theshooting, was that moral out?
Mark (41:19):
Yeah, that's exactly what it is.
And it's common in, in all kindsof crimes.
There's usually an effort toavoid seeming like a monster.
In many cases especially brutalcrimes, the suspect won't go
past that convenient blackout.
I, I may have been there, I mayhave been holding the weapon,
but I just can't rememberanything I blacked out.
And at least here, he admittedwhat he did.
(41:39):
What that blackout does is sparehim, and anybody else who claims
that they don't have to describetheir observations of the victim
of the outcome.
Here he was spared from havingto give his observation of
Cynthia's death.
Bremer who claimed to have beena bystander with no involvement
initially was forced to describewhat she saw in her friend's
(42:03):
death.
Marcy (42:04):
Talk about why there wasn't an immediate all hand
search for Cynthia once themissing person call came in.
Mark (42:10):
Yeah, we've talked about missing person cases in a lot of
past episodes.
And I don't wanna belabor allthat detail have already
provided.
I wasn't the one triaging thiscall, obviously.
But here you have a report ofyoung woman who is being
reported by her father, he'sconcerned.
But there isn't any informationthat's immediately alarming.
She's not answering her phone.
That is a concern, but not anunusual one.
(42:33):
She's developmentally disabled,which can be of great concern,
but in context, she's not sodisabled that she isn't allowed
out without constant directsupervision.
It just didn't ping the radarurgently, say a 10 year old
missing child would.
And developmental disability issometimes tough to judge for
(42:53):
risk assessment.
Some of the factors that couldhave gone into the
determination.
A further assessment are, whatare some of the contacts we've
had on record for her.
We later learned that some ofher friends were shitheads.
Did the police department havethe kind of contacts with her
that might lead us to believeshe ran with a bad crowd?
I'm not trying to blame thevictim here, but you know when a
(43:15):
chronic runaway comes in and weknow it, it's less urgent than a
person of the same age whocompletely outta character has
vanished?
Marcy (43:24):
The male and female juveniles that are charged in
this murder.
Any sign of what they actuallydid, what their part was.
Mark (43:32):
It's a little surprising that how they're culpable hasn't
been released.
Obviously the shooter who was ajuvenile at the time has been
sent to the big leagues andcharged as an adult.
Based on my experience, theother two did something less
than shoot and more than justknow about the crime.
To be convicted, therefore,presumably to be charged.
They have to, they had to takean active step in the crime.
(43:52):
Here they were present for theplanning meeting.
That might be enough, butprobably not unless they said,
maybe one of them came up withthe idea.
Take her to Eklutna and maybegave details of where and how.
If they had been sh present forthe shooting, that would be
enough.
For example, for the guy wholent them the car that was
enough, only because he did sowith full knowledge of what was
gonna happen and that heexpected to be paid and that
(44:15):
seals his culpability.
For as far as the juveniles go,say they brokered the intro for
the car something like thatwould make them culpable.
Those specifics have not beenreleased yet.
Marcy (44:25):
Bremer's sentencing is 30 years open.
Does that mean that she willcooperate further?
Mark (44:31):
Yeah.
In terms of this case, I usuallywait for the court action to be
done for the cases I picked, butI think this case is pretty well
cooked.
I think the plea is with theprobability she'll cooperate and
she will have some benefit fromthat.
She also faces additionalsentencing on the Fed charges.,
I don't think she would've pledalready had this case been
(44:52):
shaky.
I think it's rock solid.
I think she's gonna cooperatefor some consideration on
sentencing.
That's the open sentence part.
Her sentencing is supposed to bein July and they will definitely
push that back for cooperation.
And I think it'll be interestingto see what they do with that.
Where she serves federal orstate prison and what the split
on the sentences are, whetherthey're concurrent.
(45:13):
And I'd say Shi Miller, theMastermind is pretty much
screwed.
He confessed, there's a ton ofevidence.
There's cooperators and I thinkthat's I think once when they
get an idea of how or s shemiller's gonna fight it they'll
probably resolve all of thesecases in one way or the other.
it'll be interesting to see ifhe does fight it, what the
defense tactic will be.
(45:34):
I'm assuming that the defensewill say something like, he
thought it was all pretend, butI think that's gonna be a very
big lift for that defenseattorney.
The reason this story is sohorrible is it's the opposite of
the hopeful story, right?
It's so bad.
Marcy (45:53):
The Hoffman family's tribute to their beloved
daughter part funeral.
Park Motorcycle Rally wasattended by hundreds of people
outraged by the savagery inbetrayal of her death.
Relatives and mourners spoke ofCece's compassion and love for
people.
They talked about how shestruggled but prevailed and
(46:14):
graduated from service highschool in 2018.
Since then, she'd enjoyedworking with customers at a
local restaurant and as herfather's assistant on contract
maintenance jobs.
The family said"Cynthia had sucha kind heart and was a friend to
many people.
She's truly going to be missed."Please rate and review Crime
(46:43):
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It helps us get better and ithelps other listeners find us.
Also, if you email us ascreenshot of your review or
send us a question or a case,we'll send you a promo code for
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Send them tocrimeravenpodcast@gmail.com.
(47:05):
And if we use your question oryour case in an episode, we'll
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Thank you for listening.
If you haven't already, pleasesubscribe to Crime Raven, so you
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(47:28):
hosted by Mark Rein and MarcyRein is written and directed by
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a 3 Little Birds, LLCproduction.
She went along even when she didn't really understand.
Sometimes it was like they werespeaking another language.
When things were overwhelming,cece just turned it off.
Even when they were mean.
Having friends was worth the badstuff, most of the time.
Welcome to Crime Raven; truecrimes, real life stories from
(00:25):
law enforcement and issues crimefighters face.
This podcast highlights crimesresearched by retired Detective
Sergeant Mark Rein, usingpublicly available information,
court records and personalrecollections.
Content may be graphic,disturbing, or violent.
Listener discretion is advised.
Suspects are considered innocentuntil found guilty in a court of
(00:46):
law.
One of the places that you canlisten to Crime Raven is on
Audible.
With an Audible membership, youcan access podcasts, audiobooks,
and original content.
To support Crime Raven, Audibleis allowing our listeners to try
it for free for 30 days if youvisit
audibletrial.com/crimeraven.
(01:09):
That's free access for 30 daysat audibletrial.com/crimeraven.
We'll also put the link in theshow notes.
(01:36):
Cece was just happy to be outwith her friends.
Earlier that morning, Angela,her BFF since high school called
and Surprise, wanted to take heron an adventure.
It was okay with her dad.
And here they were drivingaround in a car that Angela had
borrowed just for us.
(01:56):
Angela brought along Caden, aboy cece didn't really know, but
he seemed cool.
She said they needed Caden totake pictures and video of them
acting crazy.
They drove around town stompingat different places.
It was a nice summer day andangela wanted to show Alaska to
her rich boyfriend Tyler, wholived very far away.
(02:18):
After a few stops and videos,Angela had an idea.
Wouldn't it be fun to make, likewe were kidnapped and taken into
the woods?
Yeah.
She said the best place to gowould be Caden.
Yelled out Thunderbird Falls.
Angela said she liked thatplace.
It would be perfect.
It was beautiful there.
The pictures would be great.
(02:39):
People were gonna freak.
They all jumped back into thecar and headed outta town.
On the way, angela talked withher tyler on the phone.
He wasn't even there, but theyall talked about him like he was
the boss.
Angela thought it was importantto do what Tyler wanted.
They said things Cece didn'tunderstand, but that was okay.
(03:01):
All Cece knew was that Angelawas in L O V E.
Cece never been in love likeAngela.
Someday.
Angela could talk for hoursabout her dreams with Tyler, how
rich he was, how he was gonnacome and get her, and they would
live in a big house far away.
(03:21):
It was nice to hear aboutAngela's dreams.
Cici was just happy to be out onthis adventure with her bff.
After a while, they left thehighway and parked in a gravel
lot on a wooded hillside.
Between the trees below, cececould see ocean water.
On the other side, the mouth ofthe trail led up into thick
woods.
As Cece looked at the slope, shecould hear the distant rumble of
(03:45):
water falling.
Angela took a small pack fromthe car and talked with Caden.
When they came to the edge ofthe parking lot, the trail down
looked steep, hardly a path atall.
Angela encouraged Cici.
It wasn't that steep.
Everyone walks to the main path.
They couldn't get good pictureswith everyone around.
(04:06):
Caden and Angela told Cece thatshe could wait for them, but it
would be a shame that shewouldn't be in any of the
pictures.
Cece didn't wanna disappoint herfriends, so she followed slowly
but steadily.
The trail was hard, slippery andsteep at points, but after a
while, it finally leveled out.
(04:27):
Cece looked back up the hill,worried about getting lost.
The brush was so thick shecouldn't see the main trail or
the parking lot.
Eventually, when they reachedthe flat gravel bar at the edge
of the slower moving water, thegroup stopped.
Here, Caden asked.
Angela nodded.
She said something into thephone, panned it around.
(04:51):
Cece could hear some reply fromthe phone.
Caden and Angela stepped away.
They were talking serious aboutsomething which Cece mainly
ignored.
She was used to being left outtaconversations.
It was okay.
They were her friends.
Angela stood beside some largerocks using them as a shelf to
unload her pack.
(05:12):
Cici saw a roll of duct tape andthen a gun.
That captured her attention,made her a little nervous.
Seeing the concern.
Angela told her friend, it'sjust a toy.
Cece asked what all this stuffwas for.
Angela told her they were gonnapretend to be kidnapped.
They would put on the tape andtake funny pictures that they
(05:33):
could send to their friends.
They had talked about kidnap andrape videos before, just fooling
around with the idea.
Sometimes Angela's friends madeCece nervous, tried to do things
she didn't like, but mostly theywere cool.
She went along even when shedidn't really understand.
Sometimes it was like they werespeaking another language.
(05:56):
When things were overwhelming,cece just turned it off.
Even when they were mean.
Having friends was worth the badstuff, most of the time.
Cece thought Angela didn't looklike she was having fun.
She looked serious.
This whole thing must be whatTyler wanted them to do.
(06:16):
She didn't like it, but Cecewould help her friend.
With that compromise, she saidshe wanted to see the gun.
She just wanted to hold it andcouldn't understand why they
wouldn't let her.
After all, it was just a toy.
Angela made a show of putting afew strips of tape on herself.
Then she asked Cece to sit.
(06:37):
Caden took pictures of the twogirls.
One doing the taping, while theother sat docile on the rocks.
As Cece was bound, she feltincreasingly nervous.
Both of her friends lookedserious.
On the phone they were talkingabout rape, what pictures to
take.
It wasn't as fun as Angela said.
She noticed Angela didn't havethat much tape on.
(06:59):
Cece looked around.
The deep wooded canyon loomedover her.
She felt helpless.
Her breathing became faster.
Angela wasn't stopping.
She was wrapping tape across herface, covering Cece's mouth.
Next would be her eyes.
She looked at her friend and sawnot a friend.
(07:20):
That was the moment cece lostcontrol.
This whole situation wasn'tright.
It wasn't fun.
She wanted to jump up and run,but her feet and hands were
tied.
She couldn't even talk right.
As these realizations hit her.
Cece tried to suck in more air.
It wasn't enough.
Her chest heaved with therealization.
She tried to scream past thegag.
Her eyes bulging as waves ofpanic hit.
(07:42):
Cece screamed as loud as shecould, violently pitching
backward, rolling off the rock,and onto the gravel bank.
Angela was close saying things,trying to get her friend to calm
down.
They were just gonna take somefunny pictures.
but that was it for Cece.
She didn't wanna be taped, shedidn't wanna be kidnapped, she
(08:03):
didn't want to be raped.
She screamed, muffled again andagain struggling against the
bonds.
Even as Angela crawled after hertrying to pin her down.
Angela pulled the tape off ofCece's mouth.
Cece pulled in a deep breath andwas racked with sobs.
A few seconds later, she yelled,demanding to be untied.
(08:24):
Angela, trying to save the photoshoot, unwrapped her wrists.
Fear mixed with anger fueledCece's tirade.
She demanded they let her go.
If they didn't, she was gonnacall the cops.
With this angela stood up andbacked up a couple of steps.
Looking down at Cece.
She handed Caden the pistol.
(08:45):
Angela, her face expressionlessstared into her friend's eyes.
Cece didn't want this game.
She just wanted to go home.
Caden, who had stepped off tothe side, raised the pistol and
shot Cece through the back ofher head.
Cece writhed and convulsed onthe gravel while Angela took her
(09:05):
turn as photographer.
Mark (09:22):
The call came into the Anchorage Police Department
Dispatch on June 3rd, 2019.
A father Timothy Hoffman wantedto report his 19 year old
daughter, Cynthia, missing.
Hoffman said his daughter hadgone out with friends the day
before and had not returned.
She wasn't answering her cellphone.
An added cause of concern,Cynthia experienced a
(09:45):
developmental disability and wastherefore potentially more
vulnerable than the averageperson.
Hoffman told the dispatcher thathe and other family members had
been out looking for her, buthad no luck.
He had talked to Angela,Cynthia's best friend who she
was supposed to have been with,but Angela had said they had
dropped her off in one of thecity parks during the day.
(10:06):
Angela seemed surprised thatCynthia hadn't been home yet.
The police dispatcher assuredHoffman that they were listing
Cynthia's missing.
They would provide her name andher description to patrol
officers who'd be on thelookout.
That police response did notsatisfy Hoffman.
He was sure his daughter knownin the family as CC was in
trouble.
(10:26):
She had always answered, or atleast returned her cell phone
calls.
He had money for her from arecent contracting job she'd
helped with, and it was veryunusual for her not to be
counting the minutes untilpayday.
He texted Cece's friend Angelaagain.
It did make sense that Cecewould wanna leave her pal and
wander off, but Angela seemedworried about Ceci too, and she
reassured him that his daughterwould be home soon.
(10:49):
Timothy rounded up some friendsand family and they continued
the search downtown, the malls,the hospitals.
Hours passed with no signs.
None of Cece's friends had seenher, and there was only silence
from the police.
The second night with no Cececame and went.
Still no return texts or calls.
The family again reached out tofriends and rechecked the usual
(11:12):
places.
They were sick with worry, andthe silence took on an ominous
weight.
Then the police knocked on thedoor.
As unbearable as the silence hadbeen, it was preferable to the
tidings they brought with them.
Cici was dead.
They had found her body floatingin the water in Eklutna.
She had suffered a gunshot woundto the head.
(11:34):
The police who hadn't seemed towant any information before now
wanted to check and double checkevery detail.
Places, times, friends,associates, phone numbers,
internet access codes.
The Hoffman family, dazed andDisbelieving gave them
everything.
What police knew was the hikershad spotted and reported the
(11:55):
body.
Death at Thunderbird Falls wasnot a common call, but over the
years there had been severalreported at that location.
Some homicides, mostly bodydumps, but also accidental and
suicide.
The water there drops almost 200vertical feet at the top of a
ravine with sheer sides.
The accidental deaths andinjuries are mostly climbers who
(12:18):
underestimate the difficulty ofthe cliffs As far as the hikers
go, about a mile back theprimary trail overlooks the
falls on one side of the ravine.
The viewing deck there hashistorically been a jumper
location several times On thisday, when the first patrol
officers arrived, it wasimmediately apparent that
Cynthia Hoffman's body floatingalone in one of the pools below
(12:39):
the falls, was not the result ofan accidental slip or an act of
self-harm.
Her legs were bound at theankles with duct tape.
She had head trauma, probably abullet wound to the back of her
head.
As they started theirinvestigation.
Cynthia's level ofsophistication was a source of
interest to the detectives.
(13:00):
She experienced developmentaldisability.
What did that mean?
Her dad simplified it, givingthe comparison he had used
hundreds of times over theyears.
He said developmentally she waslike a seventh grader, which
meant she was a 12 year old in a19 year old's body.
However, some of thedescriptions the investigators
were getting showed Cynthia wasfunctionally even younger than
(13:22):
that.
She could perform simpleinstructions, help with task
handle most activities of dailylife, but had to be watched, had
to be kept track of by aresponsible adult.
Her disability might not beimmediately obvious to the
casual observer, but anyone whospent any time around Cynthia
would know there was somethingamiss.
(13:43):
Her parents didn't trust thatshe could avoid being led
astray.
They constantly worried thatsomeone would take advantage of
her.
According to her dad, Cynthiawas childlike in her trust and
her greatest desire was to havefriends.
He knew this endearing traitmade her vulnerable.
The Hoffman family werevigilant, and until a few days
prior, Angela Cynthia's BFF wasone of those people they thought
(14:07):
was looking out for theirdaughter.
The two had known each otherthrough high school, and from
dad's perspective, angela hadearned a spot in the circle of
trust.
now Angela's story of droppingCynthia off at a park in
Anchorage looked like bullshit.
She was the last person known tohave been with Cynthia and they
had gone hiking at ThunderbirdFalls.
(14:28):
Detectives, walked away from thedeath notification with a
greater understanding of thesituation.
they had a person of interestnow.
They had her phone number andthe names of some of her
friends.
It was a good starting point.
It did not take long to identifyAngela.
Her real name was DenaliBrehmer, an 18 year old who
lived a semi homeless lifestyle.
(14:49):
She and friends would stay hereand there flopping where they
could couch surfing friends'houses.
Sometimes they were shelterrats.
Because of the nomadic lifestyleand active avoidance, it took
detectives two days to track herdown.
By the time investigators hadBremer in the box, they had some
leverage.
they Had processed the crimescene and Cynthia's body.
(15:12):
They had bremer's cell phonedata on order.
If they were lucky, they couldtrack that phone right up to the
murder scene.
From the moment Bremer sat downin the interview room chair,
detectives started backing herinto a corner.
Before they even asked her anyquestions, they casually went
over the basics of what theyknew, holding back some of the
key details.
(15:33):
When the show and tell was over,the question they put to Bremer
was not explain what happened.
They already knew the answer tothat.
What they asked her to talkabout was why Bremer took the
theme the detectives cast like abass to a lure, and she gave
them her first account of thecrime.
It was simple and deflectedblame onto one of her friends.
(15:54):
Bemer said that on the day ofthe incident, she, Cynthia and
16 year old Caden McIntosh weredriving around Anchorage,
looking for a place to takeinteresting photos.
They decided that ThunderbirdFalls would be a good backdrop.
When they arrived at theTrailhead, they went down to the
water instead of walking themain trail.
And once down there they found awide gravel bank beside the
(16:16):
water.
Breer and Cynthia played withDuct tape pretending they were
kidnapping victims with McIntoshand Bremer taking turns filming,
they put more and more tape onCynthia, until Cynthia was
sitting on the ground with herhands and feet bound, and her
mouth was covered.
Bremer said Cynthia suddenlyfreaked out.
So she pulled the tape off, butCynthia remained scared and
(16:38):
angry.
Yelling that she was gonna callthe cops and accused them of
trying to rape her.
At that point, McIntoshunexpectedly pulled the gun and
shot Cynthia in the head.
Bremer said she was so freakedout.
All she could do was watch.
She describes Cynthia'sconvulsions as McIntosh shoved
her body down the slope and intothe water.
After that, they climbed backinto the car and drove back to
(16:59):
Anchorage.
At McIntosh's direction Bremersaid she burned Cynthia's
belongings and made a call toCynthia's father.
Emer finished her story bysaying that she did not know
that Macintosh is going to shootCynthia and she only kept quiet
about the murder because she wasafraid.
The interview with 16 year oldMcIntosh mirrored Bremer's
(17:21):
account except for a couple ofimportant details.
He confirmed that the threeborrowed a car and went driving
around to take some pictures.
They ended up at ThunderbirdFalls.
The girls started fooling aroundat the water's edge.
The girls used duct taped orpretend they were being
kidnapped, Cynthia got reallyupset and she said she was gonna
call the cops and say that heraped her.
(17:42):
Caden said it was Bremer whopulled out the gun and gave it
to him.
McIntosh said he must haveblacked.
But then admitted that he barelyremembered shooting Cynthia and
pushing her into the water.
He blamed the whole thing onBremer saying that she brought
the gun because she wanted himto do it.
That initial story was like manyfirst runs the detectives here
(18:03):
in all kinds of cases.
it didn't make much sense, butthat was okay.
The suspects had placedthemselves at the scene and in
the middle of the crime, andthey agreed on who pulled the
trigger.
After that, some of theinvestigators began examining
digital evidence and others setto rounding up other people
mentioned as peripheral players.
Detectives uncovered the rest ofthe story when they unearthed
(18:25):
information hiding in twoplaces.
First, the accounts of thosesecondary players and second
bremmer's, otherwiseunremarkable cell phone.
What they uncovered would makenational news.
It turned out that Bremmer had abenefactor, a man who was
identifying himself as Tylerfrom Kansas.
Tyler and Bremer were having along distance love affair.
(18:48):
Their texts peppered withfamiliar expressions of
affection and sexual innuendo.
They exchanged photos and eachliked what they saw.
As an added attraction, whileBremer was dirt poor and almost
homeless, Tyler was amillionaire.
That was an irresistible lurefor Breer.
(19:09):
She was on board for whatever hewanted, as long as they would be
together.
With his hooks, deeply embeddedin Bremer's imagination.
Tyler slowly moved beyond theinitial lovey dovey stuff,
exposing more of his predatoryside.
He was a rich man withparticular tastes and desires.
He hinted at his preference andaffection for young, really
(19:31):
young girls.
He asked Bremer to film videosof little girls having sex with
her.
Bremer, still enthusiastic abouttheir future.
Tyler told her he also wanted towatch a girl die.
In fact, he was willing to payhandsomely if she would do that
for him.
When the twin ideas of raping achild and committing murder
(19:54):
didn't scare Breer off, Tylerput a number on the offer.
He would pay$9 million.
Bremer agreed.
Now her wealthy boyfriend andbenefactor was putting her to
work.
Bremer began sending the kind ofpictures that Tyler liked and
she gave him progress reports onthe live action requests.
(20:17):
She selected an impressionable15 year old girl from her circle
of friends.
She got her high and docile, andthen filmed the two of them for
Tyler's edification.
For the second mission, bremerknew the killing would not be so
easy.
She needed help and she mightneed a patsy.
she brought in a couple offriends.
The conspirators met on afateful day in May.
(20:39):
She told them everything, whatshe had done and what Tyler
wanted.
Her friends were enthusiastic.
Motivated by the promise of bigbucks.
They hatched a plan.
They agreed on a victim.
They made assignments.
They picked a location, andsomeone pony up a pistol.
When he was brought in forinterview, 19 year old Caleb
(21:00):
Leland admitted he knew aboutthe plot.
He agreed to loan Bremer a carfor$500,000.
The rest went exactly asplanned.
The fake photo session was justabout getting Cynthia Hoffman to
the pre-selected murder site.
One of the conspirators, hadthrown in the idea of beautiful
Thunderbird Falls.
(21:21):
But the filming didn't go asplanned.
There was a point where Cynthiarealized something was wrong.
She panicked.
Bremer tried to calm her down sothe photo session could go on,
but Cynthia was beyondreasoning.
McIntosh, a little freaked outhimself was holding the pistol
that until then, had only beenused as a prop.
He took a step to the side, sohe is standing slightly behind
(21:43):
her.
He raised the gun, pulled thetrigger, and sent a bullet into
Cynthia's skull.
Cynthia Rock forward with theforce of the blast flopping
sideways down slope.
Her body convulsed her braindesperately trying to reboot
through the trauma.
After that McIntosh druggedCynthia's body pushing her face
down into the pool below.
(22:04):
Neither could say if the gunshotkilled her or if she had
drowned.
But Bremer didn't miss theopportunity to memorialize the
scene with her camera.
On the way back to Anchorage,Bremer and McIntosh talked about
the next steps.
They would gather anythingbelonging to Cynthia that's
still in the car, her purse, acouple of other things, and
they'd burn them.
Bremer would call Cynthia'sparents to lay down a cover
(22:26):
story.
When detectives went back ather, bremer stuck to the lies
until they convinced her thatshe had been duped.
Tyler, a millionaire tycoon fromKansas was not really who he was
claiming to be.
There was no money.
In fact, Tyler from Kansaswasn't even Tyler, nor was he
from Kansas.
They confronted her with Thedeleted messages from her cell
(22:47):
phone.
There were ones where she andTyler planned the rape of a
child.
Bremer volunteered that she wasgonna get her 15 year old friend
high, so she'd be a docilevictim.
Then there was a cash ofcommunications surrounding the
planning and execution of themurder.
Bremer ultimately admittedeverything.
Bremer even talked about a crimethat the investigators hadn't
(23:09):
seen in the digital evidence.
She had molested a nine year oldgirl for Tyler's enjoyment.
With the case basically solved,one mystery remained.
Who was Tyler from Kansas?
Working with federalcounterparts, that answer came
quickly.
Tyler turned out to be a 21 yearold man named Darren Shilmiller
(23:30):
a resident of New SalisburyIndiana, a quiet agricultural
community with only 600residents.
Shill miller lived withrelatives in a small single
story brick house on two acres.
When word of the murderinvestigation filtered out, the
media descended on New Salisburyto find out about Indiana's now
(23:51):
notorious son.
Unsurprisingly.
S sch Miller looked nothing likethe photo of Tyler he sent to
Bremmer.
Tyler Sported model.
Good looks.
Shi Miller's a big, overweight,prematurely balding white guy.
He looks like the person fromthe stereotype, the one people
imagined sitting in the basementof his mother's house doing the
things that he was now accusedof doing.
(24:13):
People who knew Shi Millerdescribed him as weird, a shy
introvert.
Everyone was surprised about themurder charge, but not so much
the child pornography.
He was known around town forhaving a creepy interest in
children.
He had asked friends for photosof their little kids and made
distasteful comments about kidsover social media.
(24:35):
One lady had broken offcommunication with Shi Miller
when he asked her for diaperchange photos of her little
girl.
The FBI's Child Exploitationtask force worked with the
Anchorage detectives andcounterparts in Indiana to cover
the child porn and digitalaspects of the case When
warrants were executed on a HilMiller's phone and computer,
(24:55):
evidence was seized thatcorresponded with the crimes in
Alaska.
Shill Miller was picked up forinterview and confronted with
the evidence and he confessed toall of the substantial
allegations.
He had used a fake identity toseduce Bremer.
Once he had gained her trust, heoffered her money to commit
certain offenses.
(25:15):
These crimes, sexual abuse ofminors and murder had been under
his direction and supervision.
He wanted the video andphotographs for his personal
gratification.
During the interrogation, she,Miller gave them two details
that they hadn't consideredfirst.
The murder had been scheduled tobe complete on the day before
his 21st birthday.
Second, he had tried to use therapes and murder as blackmail to
(25:39):
encourage Bremer to commitadditional crimes.
In the investigation's wake.
Shi Miller was extradited toface charges in Alaska.
In state court.
Shi Miller, Breer McIntosh,Leland, and two juveniles were
charged with first degreemurder, conspiracy to commit
murder in the first degree, andtwo counts of murder in the
second degree.
(26:02):
The two juveniles, one male andone female, were involved in the
crimes planning and alsoexpected some of the loot.
Their names were not releasedbecause of their age.
In addition, both Bremer and ShiMiller face federal charges
related to the production anddissemination of child
pornography.
In February 2023, Bremer settledher state case, pleading guilty
(26:25):
to first degree murder in theAnchorage Superior Court.
In exchange, prosecutorsdismissed charges of conspiracy
to commit murder, solicitationof murder, tampering a physical
evidence, and two counts ofsecond degree murder.
She faces a minimum of 30 yearsin state prison, and will be
sentenced August 2023.
(26:45):
The federal trial for Breer andShill Miller's pornography is
scheduled to begin in July.
In interviews with local media.
Cynthia's Father Timothy said,"the only thing I know is that
my daughter trusted thesepeople.
Her disability just made herwant to have friends.
My daughter just wanted friendsand now I have to bury her.
(27:07):
And that is wrong."
Marcy (27:24):
Mark, let's first talk about the setting for this case.
It happened in the beginning ofJune, so it's summertime in
South central Alaska.
Mark (27:33):
Yeah, so the snow is finally melted away.
The temperatures are going up,which by lower 48 standards are
pretty low.
Like you're talking aboutfifties, sixties, maybe
occasionally some seventies.
And it isn't until end of July,before the August rain start,
you might see some days in theupper eighties, but in early
June, it was fifties, sixties.
Marcy (27:52):
but June is the season to get out and do things in Alaska,
and if you live there, youdefinitely feel the clock
ticking like it's a now or neverthing.
Summer solstice that happens onJune 21st is a really big deal
in Alaska because it marks theshift to the countdown to
shorter days.
Mark (28:10):
That burst of activity is ironic.
When you think of what happenedin this case.
Marcy (28:16):
Describe Thunderbird Falls and what kind of police
calls come from there.
Mark (28:22):
The municipality of Anchorage is both urban and
rural.
the northern boundary of thepolice service area is the Knick
River Bridge.
And the Southern is north of thetown of Girdwood, let's call it
Bird Point.
So about 70 miles from top tobottom, or an hour's drive of in
no traffic.
The middle of that North SouthDrive is what they commonly
referred to as the AnchorageBowl, an area of several miles
(28:44):
wide between the ChugachMountains and the saltwater and
Thunderbird Falls is about 30miles north of the city, almost
out of a p d policejurisdiction.
Incidentally, if you're a SarahPalin fan she started her
political career as the mayor ofthe city of Wasilla.
It's maybe 20 minutes north, ofThunderbird Falls.
(29:06):
This is a glacially Fed Creekthat runs off the mountaintops
just above the inlet.
It is a beautiful waterfall withabout a 200 foot drop at the
end.
In the park, there's awell-built trail that kind of
side hills along the ravine to aviewing platform near the falls.
It's pretty rugged in thatravine, wet and slippery.
(29:28):
So they discourage people fromventuring off the main path.
But people do.
The main draw is obviously thefalls, but it's because it's
uniquely accessible.
It's less than a two mile hike,round trip.
The trail is fairly flat.
And for a lot of Anchorage it'sthe first place you take your
kids to go on a hike becauseit's so short and it's has a
(29:50):
cool view as a payoff at theend.
As far as police calls go, therehave been people who have been
injured or died accidentallywhile climbing around there.
There have been suicidesunfortunately there.
And this wasn't the firsthomicide or body dump at that
location.
All of this this is because it'seasily accessible from the city
and it's pretty well known.
Marcy (30:07):
There's a nice state park video about the falls that we'll
include in the show notes.
And you have some perspective onthe lives of the suspects in
this case and how they wereliving?
Mark (30:21):
For my patrol work, time and burglary, vice, sex assault,
and especially from workingtargeted projects, I brushed up
against this type of group alot.
Marcy (30:29):
So how do you define that kind of group?
Mark (30:31):
Older teens, young adults, homeless or semi homeless,
haven't found a path to followin life.
Don't have a productive lifekind of flailing around with not
much to do, plenty of time ontheir hands.
A lot of these kids, I wanna,I'm gonna call'em kids, but
they're, some of them are justbarely young adults.
Some of them, many of them getinvolved in low level criminal
activity.
Some get pulled in deeper as wesee here.
(30:54):
It's a situation that'sparticularly dangerous for young
girls who are frequentlyvictimized.
some of the earliest episodes inthis series talk about some of
the worst things that couldhappen there.
Marcy (31:05):
These are kids who have had chronic problems, poor
family relationships, and prettymuch little to no oversight.
Mark (31:13):
That's exactly right.
These kids congregate in certainareas around town.
Mainly large open public spaceswith access to indoor shelter,
especially in the winter.
One example is the city ofAnchorage is downtown bus
shelter.
But it's also some of the malls.
It's not by accident that one ofmy crime suppression unit
projects was in this downtownarea that included that bus
(31:33):
shelter, a horrible hotel andthe juvenile shelter.
I don't want to give theimpression that troubled youth
or.
Are at the root of all problems.
But we definitely had someeye-opening and unexpected
experiences down there.
And not all the kids at risk gotdeeply involved.
I think some kids that go, thatget involved in this, take a
look around and see how low youcan sink and how quickly and
(31:55):
pull themselves away from thatspiral because of what they see.
Marcy (32:00):
Was the brutality of this crime surprising to you?
Mark (32:05):
Yes and no.
Some of the stories I heard someof the things I got involved in
were eye-openers like I talkedabout the Jerry Star episode.
We saw in that case, kids whobasically sold each other for
dope.
This is dog eat, dog streetlife, with a strong praying on
the weak.
So by the time I had heard ofthis case, no, it wasn't
surprising.
(32:25):
It was just sad.
This story is, it's not astandalone story, nor is it
something that could only happenin Anchorage.
In the last few years, the cityof Wasilla, about half an hour
of the North, had its own brutalteenage murder group.
And what was uncovered there wassimilar themes to this case.
Juveniles and young adults who,whose parents have lost or
abdicated their oversightparents that just looked the
(32:47):
other way on some veryconcerning behavior.
And the result was, a no moralcompass Lord to the flies kind
of existence for them.
And in that situation, just likein this, eventually a kid was
basically executed.
And the investigation showed anincredible level of depravity.
Marcy (33:04):
What I think is amazing in this case is that all of
these people conspired andeverybody just thought it was
okay.
Nobody said, hold on a second, Ineed to save this kid.
Mark (33:14):
That's the dog eat dog thing.
A lot of these kids are victimstoo, and have suffered abuse.
They get abused at home or onthe street, and they take it out
on someone weaker or morevulnerable.
Everyone is looking out forthemselves.
We're familiar with cases ofmothers who have sold their
daughters.
So why not a friend killing afriend for profit?
Marcy (33:32):
Is it significant that Breer used a different street
name?
Mark (33:37):
No, I don't think she used that street name to cover for
this particular crime.
And I don't think it'snecessarily significant for this
particular crime.
It's an aspect of the streetlife she was in.
These kids she's an adult, butlet's be real.
Not really.
They're outsiders.
They feel it.
They don't like who they are orwhere they've come from, and
they pick a different name toshed the old skin.
(34:00):
Some of them probably thinkit's, makes'em harder to
identify.
But it's that's pretty thin.
Marcy (34:05):
do you have trouble identifying people because of
these alternative names?
Mark (34:09):
Not really.
It's just an extra step in theinvestigation.
But there are ways ofidentifying them.
In this case, the, I'm sure theygot it from the cell phone,
although I'm not certain, butthat's the first place you go.
She has a cell phone, run thatcell phone.
Who's attached to the cell phoneand who are they attached to?
But there are also people whoknow everybody.
So you pull up a goodsurveillance photo, print it
out, show it around.
(34:30):
These people like to spreadgossip, talk trash and back stab
like crazy.
The rumor mill is always runningat full speed among these kids.
You just have to take the timeto talk to them.
There's also adult sources whowork among this population.
But you gotta be careful not toabuse that trust.
So they don't lose trust withthe people they're serving.
Marcy (34:50):
what happened in this case between Shill Miller and
Breer is catfishing, right?
Mark (34:56):
Yeah.
Catfishing is the online use offraudulent identity with the
goal of gaining the cooperationof a target for some purpose.
Marcy (35:04):
Here, s Shell Miller pretended to be a young man,
good looking with a fat bankaccount.
That's not so unusual, but theresults aren't typical.
What other examples do you haveof catfishing?
Mark (35:18):
there are tons of those kind of schemes the most
successful or aimed at theperceived vulnerabilities of the
target.
Shell, Miller was looking for apoor, vulnerable young woman.
In the past he had beenunsuccessful at getting what he
wanted from single mothers.
This is not all sex related.
Probably the majority ofcatfishing is financial.
(35:39):
They're targeting elderly adultsposing as fake bankers, fake IRS
agents, fake relatives whodesperately need money.
Unfortunately some of thesevictims have been taken for tens
of thousands of dollars.
Marcy (35:50):
You had mentioned other sexual exploitations.
Mark (35:54):
Many teenagers have been victimized some with really
tragic results.
Here are a couple of examples ofthis scam.
A girl thinks she is messaginganother teenager.
She sends him a nude pick.
The bad guy blackmails her,threatening to send the picture
to everyone she know.
In that way, he coerces her indescending, whatever's
(36:15):
requested.
Sometimes he demands for moreracy photos, or even a demand
for meetup and sex in person.
By the way, that is sexualassault.
In another case I just readabout a teenage boy was the
victim, basically the same scamI just described.
Instead of cooperating with thebad guy's demands, he killed
(36:36):
himself.
That scam went from the initialexchange of messages to his
suicide in one night.
His parents sleeping just a fewfeet away, had no idea what was
happening to that boy
Marcy (36:48):
I know that a lot of these predators work with
information that they gatherfrom the target's own social
media posts.
Mark (36:55):
Yes.
So pick a target off of socialmedia that you wanna stock and
take a look at what they haveout there.
Can you come up with where theywork, where they go to school,
the names of friends andrelatives.
If you're a scam artist, thatinformation is gold.
Particularly when you'retargeting someone who is
unsophisticated in the ways ofthe world, like a teenager, this
(37:17):
is a huge danger for them.
Marcy (37:21):
Do you think Bremer was a victim at all?
Mark (37:25):
No.
Bremer's a product of herenvironment.
As I'm looking at this case.
It struck me as how horriblywasteful it was.
Working around some of thesepeople, as I did some had huge
potential.Bremer if she hadgrown up with a moral compass,
had natural leader potential.
(37:45):
Unfortunately, instead of usingthat potential, her broken
ethics and judgment allowed herto enthusiastically jump into
this crime.
And where did she lead her gang?
To prison.
Marcy (37:55):
And sacrificing an innocent girl.
You have mentioned people whowere very street wise, but
ultimately really dumb.
Mark (38:05):
Yeah, I think Bremer's one of those.
Her limited world left her witha huge holes in her knowledge
and self-awareness.
As I talk about this, I thinkabout an interview I saw with a
special forces officer who wasin the field in Afghanistan with
indigenous fighters.
We're going way down a rabbitpath here, but I'll come back to
to make it make sense.
So this officer said, these aregreat soldiers that he's working
(38:27):
with, locals that his SF guysare working with.
One night, they stopped and satdown under the stars.
Sky was cloudless, no lightpollution.
You could see every star in theMilky Way.
And some of the men began makingcomments about it, how the light
pollution back home in the USprevented such a clear view.
(38:51):
As the conversation between theAmericans and the local fighters
progressed, it became clear thatthe Afghani soldiers knew almost
nothing about the reality of thenatural world or the outside
world.
They didn't know about the orbitof the planets, the differences
in other countries.
All the knowledge we that wetake for granted.
(39:12):
And I think of this limitedworldview in isolation is
applicable to some people,unfortunately here Some are very
intelligent, in terms of streetsmarts.
but no intellectual curiosityabout what, what was happening
outside the few city blocks thatthey knew as home.
They limited their understandingof the outside world to a very
narrow band of popular culture.
(39:34):
And this ignorance leaves themvulnerable.
In Bremer's case, it meant ShiMiller could woo her with his
amazing bullshit, and it meantthat she had no idea of the
capabilities and reach of lawenforcement.
Marcy (39:47):
Her plan to blame McIntosh seemed pretty flimsy
when you consider everythingelse.
Mark (39:53):
Yeah, and all the other witnesses.
Like I said, the rumor mill inthat group is crazy.
I can't believe with her knowingabout that, that she thought she
could actually get away with it.
It's just so senseless and sadwhen you think about.
Bremer here is basically theDeputy Mastermind.
And her plan is to abandon shipand blame everybody else.
(40:13):
That just isn't gonna work.
One thing you look for when youinterview is where you can give
a suspect, or the suspect cangive himself a moral off-ramp.
In the first story she gave,Bremer initially uses, the other
guy did it, but the detectivesdoing the interview would never
take that at face value.
(40:34):
You just have to know that she'sjust flailing around to save
herself.
The other moral off-ramp thatboth of the suspects took was
that they panicked had to killCynthia because she threatened
to lie about them raping her.
They are giving a justificationin some sick way.
But what that does for me as a,as an investigator is it makes
(40:56):
me suspicious about what thereal conversation was like.
It just isn't believable thatCynthia had suddenly accused
them of rape out the blue.
I don't know exactly what wassaid, but based on those
accounts, I don't think Cynthiacame up with the idea that she
was gonna get raped all on herown.
Marcy (41:13):
Do you think McIntosh saying that he blacked out and
could barely remember theshooting, was that moral out?
Mark (41:19):
Yeah, that's exactly what it is.
And it's common in, in all kindsof crimes.
There's usually an effort toavoid seeming like a monster.
In many cases especially brutalcrimes, the suspect won't go
past that convenient blackout.
I, I may have been there, I mayhave been holding the weapon,
but I just can't rememberanything I blacked out.
And at least here, he admittedwhat he did.
(41:39):
What that blackout does is sparehim, and anybody else who claims
that they don't have to describetheir observations of the victim
of the outcome.
Here he was spared from havingto give his observation of
Cynthia's death.
Bremer who claimed to have beena bystander with no involvement
initially was forced to describewhat she saw in her friend's
(42:03):
death.
Marcy (42:04):
Talk about why there wasn't an immediate all hand
search for Cynthia once themissing person call came in.
Mark (42:10):
Yeah, we've talked about missing person cases in a lot of
past episodes.
And I don't wanna belabor allthat detail have already
provided.
I wasn't the one triaging thiscall, obviously.
But here you have a report ofyoung woman who is being
reported by her father, he'sconcerned.
But there isn't any informationthat's immediately alarming.
She's not answering her phone.
That is a concern, but not anunusual one.
(42:33):
She's developmentally disabled,which can be of great concern,
but in context, she's not sodisabled that she isn't allowed
out without constant directsupervision.
It just didn't ping the radarurgently, say a 10 year old
missing child would.
And developmental disability issometimes tough to judge for
(42:53):
risk assessment.
Some of the factors that couldhave gone into the
determination.
A further assessment are, whatare some of the contacts we've
had on record for her.
We later learned that some ofher friends were shitheads.
Did the police department havethe kind of contacts with her
that might lead us to believeshe ran with a bad crowd?
I'm not trying to blame thevictim here, but you know when a
(43:15):
chronic runaway comes in and weknow it, it's less urgent than a
person of the same age whocompletely outta character has
vanished?
Marcy (43:24):
The male and female juveniles that are charged in
this murder.
Any sign of what they actuallydid, what their part was.
Mark (43:32):
It's a little surprising that how they're culpable hasn't
been released.
Obviously the shooter who was ajuvenile at the time has been
sent to the big leagues andcharged as an adult.
Based on my experience, theother two did something less
than shoot and more than justknow about the crime.
To be convicted, therefore,presumably to be charged.
They have to, they had to takean active step in the crime.
(43:52):
Here they were present for theplanning meeting.
That might be enough, butprobably not unless they said,
maybe one of them came up withthe idea.
Take her to Eklutna and maybegave details of where and how.
If they had been sh present forthe shooting, that would be
enough.
For example, for the guy wholent them the car that was
enough, only because he did sowith full knowledge of what was
gonna happen and that heexpected to be paid and that
(44:15):
seals his culpability.
For as far as the juveniles go,say they brokered the intro for
the car something like thatwould make them culpable.
Those specifics have not beenreleased yet.
Marcy (44:25):
Bremer's sentencing is 30 years open.
Does that mean that she willcooperate further?
Mark (44:31):
Yeah.
In terms of this case, I usuallywait for the court action to be
done for the cases I picked, butI think this case is pretty well
cooked.
I think the plea is with theprobability she'll cooperate and
she will have some benefit fromthat.
She also faces additionalsentencing on the Fed charges.,
I don't think she would've pledalready had this case been
(44:52):
shaky.
I think it's rock solid.
I think she's gonna cooperatefor some consideration on
sentencing.
That's the open sentence part.
Her sentencing is supposed to bein July and they will definitely
push that back for cooperation.
And I think it'll be interestingto see what they do with that.
Where she serves federal orstate prison and what the split
on the sentences are, whetherthey're concurrent.
(45:13):
And I'd say Shi Miller, theMastermind is pretty much
screwed.
He confessed, there's a ton ofevidence.
There's cooperators and I thinkthat's I think once when they
get an idea of how or s shemiller's gonna fight it they'll
probably resolve all of thesecases in one way or the other.
it'll be interesting to see ifhe does fight it, what the
defense tactic will be.
(45:34):
I'm assuming that the defensewill say something like, he
thought it was all pretend, butI think that's gonna be a very
big lift for that defenseattorney.
The reason this story is sohorrible is it's the opposite of
the hopeful story, right?
It's so bad.
Marcy (45:53):
The Hoffman family's tribute to their beloved
daughter part funeral.
Park Motorcycle Rally wasattended by hundreds of people
outraged by the savagery inbetrayal of her death.
Relatives and mourners spoke ofCece's compassion and love for
people.
They talked about how shestruggled but prevailed and
(46:14):
graduated from service highschool in 2018.
Since then, she'd enjoyedworking with customers at a
local restaurant and as herfather's assistant on contract
maintenance jobs.
The family said"Cynthia had sucha kind heart and was a friend to
many people.
She's truly going to be missed."Please rate and review Crime
(46:43):
Raven wherever you listen.
It helps us get better and ithelps other listeners find us.
Also, if you email us ascreenshot of your review or
send us a question or a case,we'll send you a promo code for
$10 off our very coolmerchandise.
Send them tocrimeravenpodcast@gmail.com.
(47:05):
And if we use your question oryour case in an episode, we'll
send you a free Crime Ravent-shirt.
Remember, email us atcrimeravenpodcast@gmail.com.
Thank you for listening.
If you haven't already, pleasesubscribe to Crime Raven, so you
don't miss an episode Pleaserecommend us to your friends
too.
Check our website atcrimeraven.com crime Raven
(47:28):
hosted by Mark Rein and MarcyRein is written and directed by
mark Rein and edited andproduced by Marcy Rein And it's
a 3 Little Birds, LLCproduction.
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