– Missouri Attorney General Chris Koster offered his assistance to authorities in Nodaway County, Mo., on Thursday, following county Prosecutor Robert Rice’s call on Wednesday for a special prosecutor in Maryville’s alleged sexual assault case.

“The Attorney General’s Office stands ready to assist Nodaway County in the prosecutorial review of this matter,” Koster said in a statement. “The judge will select the new prosecutor, and we trust he will make the decision in the best interests of the families.”

The case, reported over the weekend in a 4,000 word expose by the Kansas City Star following a seven month investigation, centers around the alleged sexual assault of Daisy Coleman, an underage girl, by then-17 year old Matthew Barnett, grandson of former State Rep. Rex Barnett, R-Maryville.

Rice’s announcement came after four days of mounting national media scrutiny and threats from the online “hactivist” group Anonymous that they would work to dig into the case on their own without official action. The group had threatened political pressure on both Rice and Koster if they did not act.

Rice said he closed his original investigation when the Coleman family initially indicated they would not cooperate with his investigators. After they indicated their will to come public, he said, he decided he would reopen the case.