CHIPPEWA FALLS, Wis. — A judge has unsealed the criminal complaint that charged a 14-year-old boy for allegedly fatally strangling and then sexually assaulting a 10-year-old girl in Chippewa Falls.
The redacted complaint released Friday has the identities of both the suspect and the victim crossed out. The suspect was charged as an adult and his bond was set at $1 million.
TMJ4 News has decided to not identify the victim or show photos of her because we do not identify victims of sexual assault.
The suspect is facing first degree intentional homicide, first degree sexual assault, and first degree sexual assault of a child under 13 resulting in great bodily harm. The maximum sentence for those combined charges is life in prison.
The 10-year-old girl was reported missing for several days until law enforcement discovered her body in a wooded area just blocks from her home in Falls.
The complaint states during the search for the missing girl, her dad found her bike. The next day law enforcement found her body not far from where the bike was found.
The medical examiner concluded that injuries to the body showed she had suffered sexual assault and blunt force trauma.
Law enforcement interviewed the suspect, who told them he had helped the victim get her bike from a home and that he had rode next to her on his hoverboard on a trail. He said before they left the home it was his intention to "rape and kill" the victim, the complaint states.
While they were on the trail the suspect attacked the victim: punching her, hitting her with a stick and then strangling her until he believed her to be dead. The complaint states he then sexually assaulted her. He told law enforcement at some point he recalled biting the victim. He said he then became scared, stopped sexually assaulting her and then left the area. He went home and showered and cleaned his clothes.
The suspect told investigators he later returned to the victim's body, dragged her a few feet and covered her with leaves.
According to Chippewa Police Matt Chief Kelm, authorities received more than 200 tips that were critical to solving the case.
Kelm says officers executed a search warrant at an address in the block where the girl had gone to visit her aunt on Sunday, when she went missing.
Her father called police after she failed to return home from a visit to her aunt’s house, just blocks away.
