The 14-year-old boy charged with sexually assaulting and killing 10-year-old Lily Peters of Wisconsin may have been captured after police officials followed up on a series of Reddit-based tips from a possible key witness, according to a New York Post report.
On Tuesday, a day before the unidentified teen was arrested, an anonymous poster reportedly wrote about a possible sighting of 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 that was later removed by moderators, citing the Post report.
"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."
Peters suffered strangulation and blunt-force trauma, according to the Chippewa County, Wisconsin coroner. The preliminary autopsy findings assert homicide to be the cause of death, according to a CNN report.
The 14-year-old suspect is facing three charges: first-degree intentional homicide, first-degree sexual assault, and first-degree sexual assault of a child under age 13, resulting in great bodily harm, according to District Attorney Wade Newell.
At the hearing, Newell reportedly said the defendant made statements to law enforcement that "his intention was to rape and kill the victim from the get-go" when they went to the wooded trail where Peters' body was found Monday.
Newell also argued there was a need to protect the Chippewa Falls community, and also guard against the defendant possibly fleeing the area, given the severity of the punishment and the potential charges levied against him.
Judge Benjamin J. Lane agreed to a $1 million cash bond requested by the state, with the conditions that the defendant, identified only as "C.P-B.," have no contact with other juveniles and have no dangerous weapons, according to reports.
The suspect's eventual arrest was apparently launched by a Reddit user in Virginia, more than 1,000 miles from the crime scene in Chippewa Falls.
"This person places themselves at the scene and could possibly have been the last person to see Lily alive," Reddit user Angela Osment told The Sun, while adding her and other online sleuths "saw everything playing out right in front of them."
"We wanted to know who was the person you saw her with? What was he wearing? How tall? How old? But then he wasn't answering," said Osment. "So, I took it upon myself to call the [Chippewa Falls] police."
According to this Facebook page, Lily Peters was a fourth-grader at the Chippewa Falls Area Unified School District.
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