The teen charged with killing and raping 10-year-old Lily Peters acknowledged strangling her and said he returned to the crime scene to cover her body as searchers tried to find the missing child, according to a newly unsealed criminal complaint filed by prosecutors.
The 14-year-old boy told a police investigator he intended to kill and rape her as they set off for her home in Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin, according to the complaint. She was walking her bicycle and he was on a hoverboard, the court document said.
The pair left the trail and went into the woods after the boy asked Peters if they could “go exploring,” the complaint said. The boy allegedly admitted to then punching the girl, hitting her three times in the head with a stick, strangling her, and sexually assaulting her body, the document said.
The suspect has not been named, though investigators have previously said Lily knew him. She was reported missing at 9 p.m. by her father when she failed to return to home after visiting her aunt’s house, which was just a few blocks away, authorities said.
Investigators have declined to say whether the boy and the victim were related.
Lily’s body was found the next morning. Her bicycle had been found the night she disappeared, on a trail near the trees were her corpse was later discovered.
At a court hearing on Thursday, the judge unsealed the criminal complaint against the teen, over the objections of his attorney. The 14-year-old has not been named because of his age.
The Chippewa County coroner earlier said preliminary autopsy results found Lily Peters suffered strangulation and blunt force trauma.
In the complaint, prosecutors said the autopsy listed “blunt force trauma” on the child’s face. The autopsy also noted bite marks on the girl’s left buttock, physical evidence of rape, and tears in the child’s genital area, the complaint said.
To a detective, the suspect acknowledged biting Lily, but said he “couldn’t remember where,” the complaint said.
The teen has been charged with first-degree murder, first-degree sexual assault and first-degree assault of a child under 13 resulting in great bodily harm, authorities said. The teen is being held at the Eau Claire Juvenile Detention Center on a $1 million cash bond.
After attacking Lily, the boy went home, took a shower and put his clothes in the laundry, the criminal complaint said.
As word spread that night that the girl had been reported missing, the boy returned to the crime scene “to hide her better,” and dragged her body a few feet and covered it with leaves, the complaint said.