LILY PETERS’ TEEN COUSIN SENTENCED TO LIFE AFTER PLEADING GUILTY TO HER 2022 MURDER

CHIPPEWA FALLS, Wis. — Four years after 10-year-old Lily Peters disappeared while riding her bike home from her aunt’s house, the case has finally reached its legal conclusion.

Her cousin, Carson Peters-Berger, now 18, was sentenced to life in prison Wednesday after pleading guilty to first-degree intentional homicide in Lily’s 2022 killing. He was just 14 years old when the crime occurred.

The sentence brings an end to a case that shocked the small Wisconsin community and sparked a lengthy legal battle over whether Peters-Berger should be prosecuted as an adult.

LILY DISAPPEARED ON HER WAY HOME

Lily was reported missing on the evening of April 24, 2022, after leaving her aunt’s home in Chippewa Falls.

She had been riding her bicycle home when she encountered Peters-Berger, her cousin.

According to the criminal complaint, Peters-Berger persuaded Lily to leave the trail and explore a nearby wooded area with him.

Lily never made it home.

Her bicycle was later discovered along the route, and authorities launched a massive search for the fourth-grader.

The following day, investigators found Lily’s body in a wooded area near the walking trail.

COUSIN ADMITTED HE LURED HER INTO THE WOODS

According to investigators, Peters-Berger eventually admitted that he had intentionally lured Lily away from the trail.

Prosecutors said he planned to sexually assault her and then attacked her in the wooded area.

The criminal complaint described a violent assault that ended with Lily’s death.

Peters-Berger later returned to the area and moved Lily’s body before attempting to conceal it, according to the case records.

The details shocked Lily’s family and the community because the person responsible was not a stranger — he was her own cousin.

A FOUR-YEAR LEGAL BATTLE

Peters-Berger was initially charged with first-degree intentional homicide and sexual assault offenses.

Because he was only 14 years old when Lily was killed, his defense fought to have the case transferred to juvenile court.

Defense attorneys argued that he needed mental-health treatment and that the juvenile system would provide a better opportunity for rehabilitation.

But prosecutors successfully argued that the seriousness of the allegations justified keeping the case in adult court.

A judge rejected the effort to move the case to juvenile court, and an appeals court later upheld that decision.

GUILTY PLEA ENDS THE EXPECTED TRIAL

Peters-Berger had been scheduled to face trial, but the case took an unexpected turn when he agreed to plead guilty.

On August 26, 2026, he entered a guilty plea to first-degree intentional homicide.

Two sexual-assault charges were dismissed as part of the plea agreement, although the underlying allegations were considered during sentencing.

Instead of a lengthy trial, the plea brought the case directly to sentencing.

The judge sentenced Peters-Berger to life in prison, with eligibility for extended supervision after 25 years. He also received credit for the approximately four years he has already spent in custody.

LILY’S FAMILY REMEMBERS A LOVING GIRL

While the courtroom focused on the crime and punishment, Lily’s family has continued to remember her as much more than the victim at the center of a criminal case.

Lily was a fourth-grader remembered by loved ones as kind, loving and full of personality.

Family members have also shared a poem Lily wrote before her death, reflecting her hopes for kindness, peace and an endless summer.

Those memories have become an important part of the family’s effort to preserve her legacy.

FOUR YEARS LATER, A FAMILY FINALLY HAS A SENTENCE

The life sentence cannot undo what happened to Lily.

But for her family, Wednesday’s hearing marked the end of a painful four-year legal journey that began when a 10-year-old girl failed to come home from her aunt’s house.

Peters-Berger will now spend decades behind bars for the killing.

The case also leaves behind difficult questions about juvenile offenders, mental-health treatment and how the justice system should respond when a child commits an extraordinarily serious crime.

For Lily’s loved ones, however, the most important fact remains simple:

She was 10 years old when her life was taken. Four years later, the person responsible has been sentenced to life in prison — while her family continues to remember the little girl they lost.