CHIPPEWA FALLS – A juvenile was arrested Tuesday evening in connection to the homicide of 10-year-old Lily Peters.
“The suspect was not a stranger,” Chippewa Falls Police Chief Matthew Kelm said during a news conference. “The suspect was known to the victim.”
Police do not believe “there is any danger to the community at this time,” Kelm added.
He said a search warrant was executed at 422 N. Grove St.
“Evidence was collected, and additional interviews were conducted,” Kelm said.
The chief declined to provide additional information about the cause of death, the suspect’s relationship to Lily, or where the arrest was made — other than to say it was inside the city limits.
“I’m confident that there’s no further danger to the community at this time,” he said.
Police had begun searching for Lily after her father reported Sunday evening that she had not returned home from a visit to her aunt’s house on North Grove Street.
Police said a bicycle believed to be hers was found late Sunday night in the woods near the walking trail between the end of North Grove Street and the Leinenkugel’s brewery parking lot.
Lily’s body was found at about 9:15 am Monday in a wooded area near the walking trail.
Police already had received more than 200 tips about the case, Kelm said.
“These tips were critical to solving this case,” he said.
Kelm urged people to continue avoiding the path and the wooded area near the Jacob Leinenkugel Brewing Company and Grove Street, describing it as “the crime scene.”
‘She’s a very sweet little girl’
“She’s a very sweet little girl,” her great grandmother, Diane Eyerly, said Tuesday in an interview with the Journal Sentinel. “She’s very polite and very sweet.”
Peters’ death rattles the community of Chippewa Falls, a small city north of Eau Claire in western Wisconsin. Some gathered to tie purple ribbons to the lampposts downtown in honor of her memory of her.
The news of Peters’ death was “absolutely devastating for our community,” Jennifer Barrett said.
“We’re a tight community, a great community of people,” she said. “This hit really hard for us.”
Teri Ouimette said Lily’s murder has left many in Chippewa Falls feeling shocked and helpless.
“You feel so helpless,” Ouimette said. “You want to make everything all better.
“We don’t know what else to do. What can you do?”
Rachel Schley, an employee at a nearby pharmacy, also felt the need to do something in the wake of Peters’ death.
“It was like a punch in the stomach. It was awful,” she said. “It literally just happened right in our backyards.”
‘Where we can show our support right now’
A fence near Parkview Elementary — where Lily was a fourth-grade student — was lined with flowers, balloons, stuffed animals and other items left as a memorial to Peters.
Tiffany Thompson and her stepdaughter, Lexy Frank, 8, stopped by the memorial as school let out Tuesday afternoon. The last few days haven’t been easy, Thompson said, but have shown how the community can come together.
“As long as we can show as much support and love to them and keep them informed of how to stay safe in the community right now is most important,” she said.
Thompson said she was concerned about how her stepdaughter would handle the situation, but leaving a few items, including a stuffed unicorn and a drawing, at the memorial seemed to help.
“We didn’t know how she would take it, but she’s being very strong and she wants to support Lily as much as she can,” she said.
As students climbed onto buses outside of the school, Thompson described the memorial as the place “where we can show our support right now.”
“Honestly, it makes us feel really warm inside,” she said. “The fact that the community comes together and does things like this for a child in our community is very special.”
Ingrid Sievers was tying a purple bow outside Olson’s Ice Cream, which she owns with her fiancé and her parents.
“We’re all mourning,” she said. “It’s a small town that’s pretty tight-knit and I think it was just a shock.”
The community, though, tends to stand together when something like this happens, she said.
“We’re just here to show solidarity and love to one another and the family and friends who lost her,” she said.
Contact Mary Spicuzza at (414) 224-2324 or [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter at @MSpicuzzaMJS.
www.jsonline.com
George is Digismak’s reported cum editor with 13 years of experience in Journalism