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Missing AZ girl believed killed, dumped in trashBy AMANDA LEE MYERS | AP – 2 hrs 33 mins agoPHOENIX (AP) — Police now believe a 5-year-old Arizona girl missing for more than two months was killed and that her body was dumped in a trash bin across town before her mother reported her missing — the most substantive information detectives have released about what they think happened to the girl.Police in the Phoenix suburb of Glendale stopped short of saying who they think killed Jhessye Shockley, although they've previously said the girl's mother is their "No. 1 focus."A month ago, detectives arrested Jhessye's mother, Jerice Hunter, on a child abuse charge related to the girl. They announced at the time that they didn't believe they'd find the girl alive.Hunter was released days after when prosecutors said they wanted further investigation. She has maintained she had nothing to do with her daughter's disappearance, and has been critical of investigators.Glendale police on Wednesday did not say what evidence led them to believe Jhessye's body was dumped in Tempe, and they did not immediately return a call for comment after issuing a news release.However, Police Sgt. Brent Coombs did say detectives are deciding whether to search a landfill where they believe Jhessye's body could have ended up. He said they're evaluating the likelihood of finding her.Hunter reported her daughter missing Oct. 11, telling police she left Jhessye with the girl's older siblings while she ran an errand and returned to find her gone.But a court document released last month says Hunter's teenage daughter later told police that she hadn't seen Jhessye since September. She told them that a few days before Hunter reported the girl missing, she saw Hunter cleaning her shoes and a closet where she kept Jhessye.Police said they found a receipt that showed Hunter bought food and a bottle of bleach Oct. 9.The teen also told police that Hunter deprived Jhessye of food and water while keeping her in the closet, and that she saw the girl with black eyes, bruises and cuts to her face and body."(She) reported that Jhessye's hair had been pulled out and described Jhessye as not looking alive and that she looked like a zombie," the document said. "(She) said that the closet where Jhessye had been looked like a grave and smelled like dead people."The teen also said Hunter became angry with Jhessye sometime in September when she returned home to find the girl wearing a long T-shirt while watching TV with a neighbor boy. Hunter told Jhessye she was a "ho" before taking her into a bedroom, according to the document. The teen said she then heard her sister screaming and crying in the room.Police say Hunter has declined to submit to a lie-detector test.A call to her home was not immediately returned Wednesday.Child welfare workers removed Hunter's other children, including a newborn, from her apartment the day after she reported Jhessye missing.Hunter came under scrutiny during the investigation for an October 2005 arrest with her then-husband, George Shockley, on child abuse charges in California. Hunter pleaded no contest to corporal punishment and served about four years in prison before she was released on parole in May 2010.Hunter's oldest child, 14 at the time, has told police his mother routinely beat the children. George Shockley is a convicted sex offender and is still in a California prison.Hunter's mother, Shirley Johnson, has said her daughter changed after prison and became a loving mother.