(AP) -- Police say they are shifting to a homicide -investigation in the case of a missing 10-year-old North Carolina girl whose bone cancer left her with a prosthetic leg and hearing aids.
Hickory Police Chief Tom Adkins said at a news conference Tuesday that the girl's stepmother confessed to writing a ransom note found at the house where the girl lived.
The woman has also asked for an attorney.
Elisa Baker has been charged with felony obstruction of justice in the disappearance of Zahra Clare Baker.
Adkins did not take any questions and did not explain why the case was now being considered a homicide. He said investigators have determined that no one outside the family has seen the girl for a month.
Zahra was reported missing Saturday, but authorities have cast doubt on what her father and stepmother told them had told them.
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