Lily Peters, 10, Died Of Strangulation, Blunt Force Trauma: Coroner

CHIPPEWA FALLS, WI — Illiana "Lily" Peters, the 10-year-old girl found dead in a small Western Wisconsin town on Monday — died of strangulation and blunt force trauma, according to the coroner.

Chippewa County Coroner Ronald Patten ruled Peters' death a homicide. Patten said the results from toxicology tests will take up to six weeks.

Peters went missing while walking home from her aunt's house on Sunday in Chippewa Falls, a city located just over an hour east of St. Paul. Her body was found Monday in a wooded area near a walking trail.

A 14-year-old boy has since been arrested and charged with first-degree intentional homicide, first-degree sexual assault, and first-degree sexual assault of a child under age 13 resulting in great bodily harm.

The state claims that the boy was with Peters when she left her aunt's house on Sunday, FOX 9 reported. The detectives believe that the teen and Peters knew each other.

The boy's identity and the criminal complaint against him remain sealed by Judge Benjamin Lane due to his status as a juvenile. He is being held in a juvenile detention center, and his bail was set at $1 million at the request of District Attorney Wade Newell. The defense had asked for a $100,000 cash bond.

The teen killed Peters before sexually assaulting her, Newell said.

At the first court hearing in the case in Chippewa County on Wednesday, Newell said he requested the high bond because of the boy's "statements regarding his intentions and his statements regarding that when he did get off the trail, he punched the victim in the stomach, knocked her to the ground, essentially strangled her, hit her with a stick, before strangling her to the point of death before he then sexually assaulted her."

The teen also made statements "that his intention was to rape and kill the victim from the get-go," Newell added.

More Than 60K Sign Petition To Create 'Lily Alert' After Girl's Death

More than 60,000 people have signed a petition to a state legislator calling for the creation of a new emergency alert system for missing children.

A "Lily Alert" would create an emergency alert system for missing children when their disappearance doesn't meet the criteria for an Amber alert, petition organizer Eric Henry said on the petition's webpage. Read more here.

Reporting from the Associated Press was used in this story.