Authorities in Columbia arrested a woman found asleep while a human body was burning in her backyard.
20-year-old Emma Adams admitted to stabbing the victim whose remains were found smoldering in a fire pit in her backyard Tuesday.
The gruesome discovery was made while police looked for a missing University of Missouri student who had vanished from his dorm room in Hudson Hall.
The missing student was last seen getting into an Uber that took him to Adams' residence where his phone was found in a sink filled with water.
Detectives also found a bloody pocket knife; Adams said that she stabbed the victim in self-defense.
“While we believe we have a good idea of who the victim is, we need to obtain more definitive information and inform next of kin before we are able to release a name,” police said.
Adams was charged with second-degree murder, armed criminal action, tampering with evidence, and abandoning a corpse.
