Alyssa Bustamante

Case identification

Alyssa Bustamante was a juvenile at the time of the offence and later pleaded guilty to second degree murder and armed criminal action.

Timeline

• October 2009 — Alyssa Bustamante killed her young neighbor Elizabeth Olten.
• October 21, 2009 (evening) — Elizabeth Olten left her friends’ house to go home.
• October 21, 2009 — Her family reported her missing and called police around 7pm.
• November 17, 2009 — Alyssa Bustamante appeared in court and a judge ruled she should be tried as an adult.
• December 8, 2009 — Alyssa Bustamante walked in shackles and handcuffs into the Jefferson City courtroom.
• May 16, 2011 — A trial start date of May 16, 2011 had been set.
• January 10, 2012 — Alyssa Bustamante pleaded guilty to second degree murder and armed criminal action.
• February 8, 2012 — Alyssa Bustamante was sentenced to life imprisonment with the possibility of parole.

Background

Alyssa Bustamante was born to a teenage mother. Her mother committed petty crimes involving drug possession and was arrested for driving while intoxicated. Her father was in jail, serving a 10-year sentence for assault. Bustamante lived under the watchful eye of a guardian since she was seven.

Alyssa Bustamante had been treated for depression and had tried to commit suicide. She had been given inpatient and outpatient psychiatric care after her last suicide attempt. She was described as a “cutter” and exhibited signs of self-harm, including over 300 cuts on her body and self-inflicted cigarette burn marks.

During the time leading up to trial, she was under suicide watch and had attempted to harm herself by cutting herself with her own fingernails. Due to a motion filed by her lawyer, she had been remanded to a psychiatric institution to undergo evaluation and receive immediate psychiatric treatment.

The offence

Alyssa Bustamante killed her neighbor, 9-year-old Elizabeth Olten.

Before the killing, Alyssa Bustamante spent a Friday digging two holes in the ground to be used as graves, then waited for the opportunity to murder.

When Elizabeth Olten was walking home from her friend’s house on October 21, 2009 in the evening, Bustamante allegedly called Elizabeth on her cell phone and redirected her back to Bustamante’s house. Elizabeth, who was afraid of the dark, had trusted the older teen because they played together.

Alyssa Bustamante beat Elizabeth Olten, strangled her, and slit her throat. She also stabbed Elizabeth Olten in the chest. After the killing, she left Elizabeth in a shallow grave covered with leaves so she could “find out what it felt like to kill.”

Afterwards, Bustamante admitted to digging two graves a week before the murders, which gave rise to speculation that her twin brothers were the original intended victims.

Investigation

Elizabeth Olten was missing for 45 minutes before her mother called police, and her family called police around 7pm when she had not returned home.

Police searched vigilantly, including the area where her body would eventually be found. At first, her cell phone gave a hint by showing a location in the woods where the body lay, but the battery had died by Thursday morning, and police searched the area without locating her or her cell phone. They later found the body after a letter led police to Alyssa, and it was Alyssa herself who led police to the grave where the body lay.

Cole County Sheriff Greg White said: “We had been in that area actually more than once. The body was very well concealed.”

Cole County prosecutor Mark Richardson said, when asked why there were two graves: “No, I can’t tell you that right now.”

Missouri State Highway Patrol Sgt. David Rice said: “Ultimately,” Rice told the AP, “she stated she wanted to know what it felt like.”

Arrest / pre-trial custody

Alyssa Bustamante was arrested and charged with first-degree murder in the death of Elizabeth Olten. She was being held without bond.

A judge ruled that Bustamante should be tried as an adult on November 17, 2009.

Trial / plea

Alyssa Bustamante entered a plea of “Not Guilty” despite her confession and despite leading police to Elizabeth’s body. She was tried as an adult.

On January 10, 2012, she pleaded guilty to second degree murder and armed criminal action. There was an audible gasp heard in the courtroom when the now 18-year-old Alyssa admitted to taking a knife to throat of Elizabeth Olten and slitting it, then strangling her with her bare hands afterward.

On January 10, 2012, Cole County Circuit Judge Patricia Joyce had Alyssa describe her actions on Oct. 21, 2009:

“I strangled her and stabbed her in the chest,” Alyssa said.
When asked if she also cut Elizabeth Olten's throat, she responded, “Yes.”

According to her attorney Charlie Moreland, Alyssa decided to plead guilty because “she wanted to take responsibility for it.”

Psychologists for the defense described Alyssa as “psychologically damaged” and “severely emotionally disturbed.” They testified that she suffered from Major Depression and displayed symptoms of Borderline Personality Disorder, characterized by feelings of emptiness, instability of moods, inappropriate displays of anger, and poor impulse control.

A sentencing hearing included forensic consultant Don Locke reading aloud a page from Bustamante’s diary dated the day of the Elizabeth Olten’s murder. The entry had been scratched out, but Locke recovered it:

“I just f*cking killed someone. I strangled them and slit their throats and stabbed them. Now they're dead. I don't know how to feel ATM. It was ahmazing. As soon as you get over the 'Oh My Gawd. I can't do this' feeling it's pretty enjoyable. I'm kinda nervous and shaking though right now. Kay, I got to go to church now LOL.”

Sentencing

On February 8, 2012, Alyssa Bustamante gave a final statement before the judge handed down her sentence:

“If I could give my life to bring her back, I would,” Alyssa addressed the court.

Alyssa Bustamante was sentenced to life imprisonment with the possibility of parole.

The defense cited Bustamante’s depression and a suicide attempt as reasons for a reduced sentence.

Prosecutor Mark Richardson argued for life in prison plus 71 years, accounting for the years Elizabeth lost. Richardson said in a statement: “These sentences are appropriate and fit what happened to Elizabeth at the hands of a truly evil individual who strangled and stabbed an innocent child simply for the thrill of it,”

After the judge’s announcement that he would hand down a sentence the next day, the grandmother of Elizabeth Olten, yelled: “I think Alyssa should get out of jail the same day Elizabeth gets out of the grave!”

Other details

Victim

Elizabeth Olten was 9 years old. Her mother was Patty Preiss.

At the sentencing hearing, Bustamante expressed remorse for killing Elizabeth Olten. Bustamante said to Olten’s mother and siblings:

“I know words can never be enough and they can never adequately describe how horribly I feel for all of this,”
“If I could give my life to get her back I would. I'm sorry.”

Afterwards, Elizabeth Olten’s mother, Patty Preiss, called Bustamante “an evil monster” and said she “hated her” on the first day of the teen’s sentencing hearing.

“Thrill killing” motive statements and writings

Alyssa Bustamante expressed enjoyment in her writings about killing. In her diary entry read aloud at sentencing, she wrote: “It was ahmazing.” She also wrote:

“As soon as you get over the 'ohmygawd I can't do this' feeling, it's pretty enjoyable.”

Bustamante wrote in her diary:

“I just f***ing killed someone. I strangled them and slit their throat and stabbed them now they're dead. I don't know how to feel atm [at the moment],”

A friend of Bustamante, Jennifer Meyer, said she heard Bustamante express a desire to kill. Meyer told KMOV in St. Louis:

“I was at her party, and she kind of just took me off to the side randomly and she's like, 'You know, I wonder what it would be like to kill somebody,' because I guess she was mad at one of her friends there, but it just seemed kind of strange,”
“But you wouldn't logically think one of your friends would kill somebody.·

Online and social details

A YouTube page appeared to show Bustamante with her brothers purposefully shocking themselves on an electrified fence. Bustamante listed “killing people” as one of her hobbies under her profile and listed “killing people, cutting.” Her Twitter messages around the time of the murder spoke of “addiction” and “terrors.” One message said: “all I want in life is a reason for all this pain.”

A Twitter message read: “This is all I want in life; a reason for all this pain.”

A judge’s proceedings included reports that Bustamante tried to harm herself by cutting herself while in custody. She was moved to Hawthorn Children’s Psychiatric Hospital for evaluation and later ordered by the judge to Fulton State Hospital for evaluation. A state-appointed lawyer introduced a motion to move the trial, citing comments on news articles and blogs and social media purporting to come from townspeople.

Defence and court dynamics

During emotional testimony, Alyssa broke down and cried for the first time in over 2 years of court proceedings. Alyssa broke down when grandparents got upset and stormed out of the courtroom.

Additional quoted remarks

Cole County prosecutor Mark Richardson told the court Wednesday: “She committed the murder after deliberation, which means cool deliberation or cool reflection on the matter for any length of time,”