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Lily Peters sleuth may have cracked 10-year-old’s ‘homicide’ & led to boy’s arrest by sharing shocking post with cops
A CHILLING Reddit post that was spotted by web sleuths may have led to the arrest of a teenage boy in connection with a 10-year-old girl's horrific death.
Iliana "Lily" Peters' body was found in a wooded area Monday morning after she was allegedly punched in the stomach, beaten with a stick, strangled to death and then sexually assaulted.
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Lily's horrifying last moments were revealed in court by Chippewa County, Wisconsin District Attorney Wade Newell as he detailed charges against a 14-year-old juvenile suspect, who's named as C. P-B.
"He told law enforcement that his intention was to rape and kill the victim," Newell said in court.
Law enforcement and prosecutors didn't reveal C. P-B's identity or say if he's related to Lily, but police said she knew her attacker.
The young girl was left for dead Sunday night, and her body was found the next morning.
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The disturbing discovery unnerved the otherwise quiet town of Chippewa Falls - nearly 300 miles northwest of Milwaukee - and fuelled speculation that a predator was on the prowl.
But an anonymous Reddit user completely changed the narrative with one 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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It was written about 24 hours before an arrest was made.
Web sleuths on Reddit pounced on the post and "saw everything playing out right in front of them," Angela Osment told The Sun Wednesday morning.
Osment was one of the first - if not the first - to call police with the tip about the post along with screenshots.
"When I saw the post and saw that the original poster wasn't responding, I just thought it was something that should be called in," she said.
"This person places themselves at the scene and could possibly have been the last person to see Lily alive or he could possibly be the one that did something to her.
"We had so many questions," said Osment, referring to all the Reddit crime sleuths who saw the post.
Dozens of people asked the original Reddit user if he called the police but there was no response.
"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," Osment said.
"So I took it upon myself to call the police. What shocked me was, 19 minutes later, I got a call from a restricted number and I picked it up.
"It was the detective and he just thanked me for calling the tip in and sending over the screen shots and said he just wanted to let me know that they were working on it."
'I CAN'T STOP THINKING WAS THAT (LILY)?'
Most of the thread has since been deleted, but the original Reddit poster said in a post Tuesday night that he wasn't arrested and was not a suspect.
The original poster didn't respond to The Sun's Reddit message for comment, but he did speak to independent reporter Katie Smith.
Smith was one of the keen-eyed sleuths who called the tip in and wrote about her interaction in a .
“Ever since that day I can’t stop thinking, ‘Was that girl I saw Iliana,’ and I’ll never really know,” HomesliceNation4 told Smith.
“But it breaks my heart something like this would happen.”
Even after an arrest was made, drone footage of the crime scene outside the Lienenkugel's Brewery still shows tents in a dense, wooded area.
“This is an unspeakable, heartbreaking tragedy, and we want to express our deepest condolences to the family and friends of the victim," Marty Maloney said in an email on behalf of the brewery.
"We are working with the authorities, and providing the help and support we can.”
'19 MINUTES LATER, DETECTIVE CALLED BACK'
Osment said she's been interested in true crime and active on web sleuth sites, which seemed to have exploded in popularity during the Gabby Petito/Brian Laundrie case.
"Usually, I think you call in a tip and that's the end of it. But because he called me back and what they were saying, makes me think police really didn't have a suspect."
That's what former FBI agent Jennifer Coffindaffer believed was the case as of Tuesday afternoon after police said, "There could be danger to the public."
The verbiage coupled with how Chippewa police beefed up security about Lily's school seemed to indicate that a predator was hunting in the area, Coffindaffer speculated.
Less than seven hours after Coffindaffer spoke to The Sun, Chippewa Falls police made the stunning announcement that they arrested a juvenile who knew Lily.
The suspect's name or other details still haven't been released, as of 12:50pmET, and the Chippewa Police chief hasn't returned calls for comment.
Osment, who lives in Virginia, said, "I would love to know if the tip led to the arrest.
"We probably won't ever know, but it's amazing to think that someone like me in Virginia can help a tragic case in Wisconsin."
WEB SLEUTHS ARE 'MOSTLY POSITIVE'
Web sleuths and social media crime groups have seemingly exploded in popularity since the Gabby Petito/Brian Laundrie saga gripped the nation last year.
Facebook groups like and and Twitter users like bring attention to missing persons cases and crimes and serve as funnel for clues and theories for victims' families and potential clues.
There are hundreds of similar accounts on every social media platform, which Coffindaffer said has been crucial in today's criminal cases.
"Generally speaking, it can be positive," Coffindaffer said. "So many people have given up on the news, and the way they get their information is on social media.
"So it's vital that these cases are represented on social media. You raise awareness and keep cases hot and that’s crucial to keeping police involved."
The former FBI agent said there's always a flip side to everything, for example when police receive outlandish theories or uncorroborated hypothesis that lead to dead ends.
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That becomes a waste of valuable time and resources.
"But getting the info out and making people aware is important," Coffindaffer said.
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