14-Year-Old Boy Accused of Sexually Assaulting and Killing 10-Year-Old Girl Planned Attack, Prosecutors Say

A 14-year-old boy accused of killing a 10-year-old girl in Wisconsin planned the attack, prosecutors said, per the Associated Press reports.

A judge on Wednesday set bail at $1 million cash for the teen suspect, whose identity has not been disclosed. The boy is accused of strangling and sexually assaulting 10-year-old Iliana “Lily” Peters, who on Monday was found dead in Wisconsin after her family reported her missing just a day before. 

The suspect was subsequently arrested at a home on the same block as Peters’ aunt’s house.

“Given the statements the defendant made to law enforcement, that his intention was to rape and kill the victim from the get-go when he left the house with the victim going down the trail, the state believes there is a need to protect the community,” Chippewa County District Attorney Wade Newell said.

Newell also described the attack at the bond hearing, saying, “Protection of (the) community also is necessary in this case given his statements regarding his intentions and his statements regarding that when he did get off the trail, he punched the victim in the stomach, knocked her to the ground, essentially strangled her, hit her with a stick, before strangling her to the point of death — before he then sexually assaulted her.”

The suspect has been charged with first-degree intentional homicide, first-degree sexual assault, and first-degree sexual assault of a child. If convicted, the boy could be sentenced to life in prison and is being held at Wisconsin’s Northwest Regional Juvenile Detention Center, according to The Post-Crescent.