The Internet can be an unpleasant, nasty place. Sometimes it can also have very positive real-world effects, especially in unspeakable tragedies like this one.
10-year-old Lily Peters was found dead on April 25 on a hiking trail near her home in Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin. Tips from a Reddit post may have helped police in their arrest of a suspect, who has now been reported to be Lily's cousin.
On Tuesday — a day before the unidentified teen was arrested — an anonymous poster wrote about a possible sighting of little Lily with "another kid" and fears that "another kid did it."
"What's scary is I was playing Pokemon Go in the park that day walking along that very same trial [sic]," the verified Reddit user wrote in a post later removed by moderators.
"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."
It's not clear if the cryptic post did indeed lead to the arrest, though police admitted they were looking into it:
Within minutes, a detective called and "thanked me for calling the tip in and sending over the screenshots and said he just wanted to let me know that they were working on it," she said.
The Daily Mail reported on Thursday that the boy who was arrested was Carson Peters-Berger, Lily Peter's cousin.
Peters-Berger's mother is the sister of Lily's father, Alex Peters. His father, Adam Berger, has been separated from his mother for many years and is on parole as a convicted pedophile, having served 3 years in prison for the possession of child pornography and drugs. Both Carson and Lily's parents are separated, and the adults in both homes have been convicted of several crimes.
Lily was reportedly at her aunt's house when she disappeared.
The white clapperboard property was sealed off with crime scene tape when DailyMail.com visited on Wednesday and was protected by two police vehicles.
This map from Daily Mail shows the proximity of the crime scene to both families' homes.
Prosecutors say the 8th grader planned to "rape and kill the victim from the get-go when he left the house with the victim to go down the trail." Carson has reportedly confessed to the crime.
He faces three counts – first-degree intentional homicide, first-degree sexual assault, and first-degree sexual assault of a child – with a possible life sentence. His bail has been set at $1 million.
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