Teen Charged in Cousin Lily Peters' 2022 Murder Gets Resolution Hearing Instead of November Trial

A resolution hearing scheduled for August 26 could end the case against Carson Peters-Berger, the Wisconsin teenager accused of murdering his 10-year-old cousin Lily Peters, without ever reaching a jury.

Peters-Berger, now 18, had been expected to stand trial in November on multiple charges, including first-degree intentional homicide and sexual assault, according to WEAU. Chippewa County District Attorney Wade Newell told the outlet that the scheduled resolution hearing means the case will not go to trial and will instead conclude following that hearing.

Peters-Berger's defense attorney, Michael Cohen, offered a slightly different characterization to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, saying the hearing will "address issues in the case that will determine whether there will be a trial." Newell's framing suggests the case is already headed toward resolution without trial. Cohen's framing leaves the door open to the possibility that a trial could still happen depending on what's decided at the hearing.

Court records do not yet show what kind of resolution is being proposed. No outcome has been finalized, and neither prosecutors nor the defense have detailed terms publicly.

What happened to Lily Peters

Lily was reported missing by her father on the evening of April 24, 2022, after she failed to return home from her aunt's house in Chippewa Falls. Her father later found her bicycle abandoned in a wooded area, but an initial police search did not locate her that night.

Authorities were notified the next morning that Lily's body had been found near where her bicycle was discovered. Investigators said her injuries were consistent with blunt force trauma, according to the criminal complaint.

During a police interview, Peters-Berger allegedly said he asked Lily to "go exploring off the trail." The complaint states he punched her in the stomach, knocked her to the ground, and struck her with a stick while they were in the woods. He also allegedly told investigators he strangled her and attempted to sexually assault her after her death.

Those are allegations contained in a criminal complaint. They have not been proven in court, and Peters-Berger has not been convicted of any charge in Lily's death.

The juvenile-to-adult question

Peters-Berger was 14 when Lily was killed in April 2022. He's 18 now, more than four years later, and has apparently been charged and is being tried as an adult given the first-degree intentional homicide charge.

This raises a question about how a 14-year-old accused of this level of violence gets funneled through the adult system, what standard governs that decision in Wisconsin, and how long it should take to get from arrest to trial or resolution. Four years is a long time for a case like this to sit, whatever the reason.

Defenders of the current process would point out that capital-level homicide cases involving alleged sexual assault are inherently complex, that competency evaluations for a defendant who was a minor at the time of the offense take time, and that a rushed process serves no one. The system may have handled this case appropriately given its complexity. Four years is still a long wait for the Peters family and the Chippewa Falls community.

What's at stake August 26

The hearing itself won't necessarily produce a public verdict or sentence that day. It will determine the path forward: a negotiated plea, a competency ruling, a legal issue that reshapes the case, or something else entirely that either avoids trial or sets a new one.

Chippewa County prosecutors have not released details of any proposed plea agreement, and the defense has not confirmed one exists. Until August 26, the exact resolution remains unknown, and whether Peters-Berger ultimately faces trial for Lily's murder is still an open question the court has not yet answered.