Elizabeth Olten, allegedly murdered by a 15-year-old (AP/Cole County)
The standard operating procedure grows gruesomely familiar: child is reported missing; family, friends, police and volunteers urgently begin the search; and authorities initiate an investigation.
The scenario never seems to end well.
When nine-year-old Elizabeth Olten did not return home from a neighbor’s house on October 21, hundreds of people began combing her St. Martins, Missouri neighborhood.
After two days of searching a heavily wooded area near her home, police received – according to information provided by the truecrimereport website – a handwritten note that lead them back to the house where Elizabeth was last seen.
After interviewing the 15-year-old girl who resides in the house – now identified as Alyssa Bustamante – authorities were taken to the already-searched woods and shown the body of Elizabeth Olten. She had been strangled, slashed across the throat and stabbed.
Police arrested Bustamante and charged her with first-degree murder. The juvenile is also charged with armed criminal action for allegedly using a knife in the attack
In a Jefferson City courtroom today, after a Missouri State Police officer testified the 15-year-old told investigators she killed her young neighbor because she wanted to know how it felt to kill someone, a grand jury indicted her on the murder charge.
Cole County Circuit Judge Jon Beetem ruled that the slaying was vicious, and that the teenager should be tried as an adult, maintaining the state has no adequate facilities or services to treat the suspect if she stayed in the juvenile court system.
Bustamante, the older sister of the girl Olten was visiting that evening, also told investigators she had dug two holes nearly a week before the murder with the intention of burying the nine-year-old.
Prosecutors are pointing to this admission as proof the killing was premeditated.
According to the Associated Press, Juvenile defense attorney Kurt Valentine argued that Alyssa would either kill herself or be assaulted and killed by others if she were placed with adults in a jail cell while awaiting trial or in a prison if convicted.
“We are throwing away the child and we are signing a death sentence for Alyssa,” Valentine told AP. “She is not going to survive her time in the Cole County jail.”
Juvenile officers testified that Bustamante previously considered committing suicide and had been receiving treatment for depression for a few years before allegedly killing Elizabeth.
Bustamante has been held without bail in the Cole County jail since her arrest.
If convicted of first-degree murder, the teen could be sentenced to up to life in prison.
Comments
“…the 15-year-old told investigators she killed her young neighbor because she wanted to know how it felt to kill someone…”
Absolutely egregious!
I’d like to hear more about what her parents/home life is like.
as far as her sentence....what about the little 9 year old girl whose life was taken from her. i say put her wherever. a life for a life!
A sign of the times! Read your BIBLE!!
I hope she get the death penalty! What a vicious monster!
"Juvenile defense attorney Kurt Valentine argued that Alyssa would either kill herself or be assaulted and killed by others if she were placed with adults in a jail cell"
I just somehow don't feel very bad about this. She wanted to be a murderer, let her fight for her life amongst murderers.
"Rad says:
A sign of the times! Read your BIBLE!!
November 19, 9:56 AM"
-and somehow he thinks children killing children is new and the coming of the end of the world. Apparently we were much gentler people when we were stoning women for being raped.
this is crazy, while i dont think reading a book of stories i mean a bible will stop people from killing, i think at the least she should be put in confinement with psycologcal help.
What is wrong with people? Ril and Pus you are so right. Why is it as soon as something like this happens people want to blame the parents of the criminal, or say that it is a sign of the times. It isn't always the parents' fault and this girl killing that poor child isn't a sign to read the Bible. It isn't bad weather, pestilence, or war that did this. It was a heartless 15 year old who deserves no sympathy. The crime was premeditated and the girl obviously has no remorse and basically thought she get away with it. I don't feel sorry for her and I think she should rot in jail with the grown adults since she wants to act like one.
She wanted to know what it felt like to kill someone and now she is going to find out what it's like to rot away and die alone behind bars.
LIFE SENTENCE FOR THIS EVIL BITCH
"A sign of the times! Read your BIBLE!!"
So I was reading this story about Cain and Abel...
Rad is trolling
They should just try her as an adult and throw her in prison. Then we can pay the taxes to feed, clothe and educate her in prison for the rest of her life, awesome. "Oh, but the death penalty is wrong." I dont know about you, but I dont want to have my tax money going to an evil |3itch like her.
A sign of the times? No, that's called ignorance. It's all about the psychology of the child. A bad home life isn't a brewery for child murderers. Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold (Columbine shooters) had a good home life, but school was the one to blame not their parents or the supernatural. I've had homicidal thoughts myself, but I could never go through with them because I knew about the negative repercussions. I don't want to rot in prison for the rest of life.
I, for one, hope she is raped in prison and lives for a hundred years, suffering. I'd lol.
Capain Peachez,
It may not be a brewery but it can affect how a child or teen acts out. I have been doing lots of research over what causes teens and children to kill.And for the most part the teens were either bullied or abused as children, and most of them had divorced parents, i believe home life has a lot to do with it
Got something to say?
Examiner.com is looking for writers, photographers, and videographers to join the fastest growing group of local insiders. If you are interested in growing your online rep apply to be an Examiner today!