Missouri’s Department of Social Services says it will turn over documents in the case of a Kansas City girl found locked in a closet last year.

The Kansas City Star requested the documents nine months ago but the department had declined to release them.

 

A DSS attorney said late Friday the newspaper’s request would be honored as soon as the documents are prepared.

The decision appears to reverse a lack of openness that began after the girl, known as LP, was found malnourished in a Kansas City home last June. Top Republican lawmakers had called on Gov. Jay Nixon to order the documents be released.

A law passed in 2000 allows the release of information in cases where a child has died or been seriously injured.