COLUMBIA, Mo. — A mid-Missouri woman has been charged with murder after police said they discovered a burning body in Columbia.

The Columbia Daily Tribune reports a mother called police Tuesday after she couldn’t reach her son at the University of Missouri. That phone call eventually led police to a home in north Columbia, far from campus.

Prosecutors have accused 20-year-old Emma Adams of killing a man and then burning the body in a fire pit. She’s been charged with second-degree murder, armed criminal action, tampering with evidence and abandoning a corpse.

Police said because of the condition of the body, they still don’t have a positive identification; however, they do have a good idea of who the victim is.

Court documents say Adams stabbed the man to death and tried to cover it up by burning his body in the fire. She told police she acted out of self-defense.

The Columbia Daily Tribune reports Adams is not and has never been a student at the University of Missouri.

Adams is being held in the Boone County jail on a $1 million bond. She appeared in court by video Friday, according to KMIZ, and pleaded not guilty.