Inside troubled upbringing of Lily Peters’ ‘killer’ who was 6 when his ‘pedo dad was jailed after crack pipes found’
THE teen accused of killing and sexually assaulting a 10-year-old girl, who is reportedly his cousin, had a disturbing upbringing.
His parents split when he was two years old and his father had been arrested twice by the time he turned six.
Now he’s 14 and sitting in a Wisconsin juvenile detention center on $1million bond after he was accused of beating and strangling Lily Peters to death and then sexually assaulting her.
Chippewa County District Attorney Wade Newell said during Wednesday’s court appearance that he allegedly punched Lily in the stomach, beat her with a stick, strangled to death and then sexually assaulted her.
“He told law enforcement that his intention was to rape and kill the victim,” the prosecutor said in court.
The suspect was identified in court by his initials C.P.B. and is reportedly Lily’s cousin, but police and prosecutors in Chippewa Coutny haven’t publicly confirmed that detail.
His father, whose name The Sun is choosing not to publish, was arrested in 2016 after investigators found “several” explicit images of children on his phone, according to court documents.
Police also found drug paraphernalia in the house where he lived with his son, according to court documents.
STORIES ABOUT LILY PETERS
Six months later – January 2017 – the boy’s father was arrested again after he allegedly drove into a woman, who “rolled into the right passenger hood area,” according to court documents.
He ultimately pleaded guilty to felony possession of child pornography and one count of bail jumping.
The charges of reckless endangerment and possession of drug paraphernalia were dropped as part of the plea deal, according to court documents.
He was sentenced to three years in prison in 2018 plus three years of supervised release that prevented him from having contact with minors and his son.
In 2020, he wrote a letter to the court pleading with the judge to allow him unsupervised contact with his son, who was 12 or 13 at the time.
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“My son and I have always been close,” he wrote in the letter, which is a public document. “His mother and I split apart when (my son) was about two years old.
“I found myself raising this little boy, and I had no idea what I was doing. It was tough at first, I stumbled a bit, but I learned to balance working at the hospital and teaching karate around having (my son) 50% of each week.”
He goes on to say his son is “my #1 priority.”
“I understand the reason for the court-imposed condition, as far as protecting society and allowing my supervising agent to monitor contact with minors….
“Since my son is not a victim of my offense, and since I have not committed a child sexual assault, this condition could be more narrowly tailored so that it doesn’t end up being such a hardship on my son…
“My son is the best part of me.”
The judge denied his plea twice, according to court documents.
He hung up on The Sun when reached by phone on Thursday.
LILY’S LAST MOMENTS AND AUTOPSY
Tuesday morning’s disturbing discovery of Lily’s body shook the small town of Chippewa Falls and fuelled speculation that a predator was on the prowl.
Chippewa County District Attorney Wade Newell said the teenage suspect allegedly punched Lily in the stomach, beat her with a stick, strangled her to death and sexually assaulted her.
“He told law enforcement that his intention was to rape and kill the victim,” Newell said during Wednesday’s court appearance.
An anonymous Reddit user completely changed the narrative with one chilling post.
“What’s scary is I was playing Pokemon Go in the park that day walking along that very same trial (sic),” the Reddit user said in a post responding to a story about Lily’s death.
“My stomach turns when I think that I saw that girl in a pink/purple hoodie on her bike with another kid on my way out. I have a suspicion that it could be another kid that did it.”
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A preliminary autopsy found that Lily died from “blunt force trauma and strangulation,” Chippewa County Coroner Ron Patten said.
He expects a full report to be finished in four to six weeks but couldn’t go into details about his early findings because it’s part of an ongoing investigation.
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