Alyssa Bustamante seemed to be a rebellious yet normal teenager in rural St. Martins, Missouri — until she murdered her neighbor Elizabeth Olten in cold blood in 2009.
Alyssa Bustamante seemed like an average teenage girl . Friends enounce , “ She was just always so mellisonant and everybody loved her … she was just amazing ! ”
But inside her idea — and as her net persona revealed — there was a much drear mortal linger beneath the Earth’s surface of this 15 - year - old young woman .
Alyssa Bustamante / FacebookPhotos that Alyssa Bustamante posted of herself , circa 2009 .
Alyssa Bustamante/FacebookPhotos that Alyssa Bustamante posted of herself, circa 2009.
It may have storm her friends and syndicate , but Alyssa Bustamante ’s practical alter - ego would prognosticate her most heinous bit : the killing of nine - year - old Elizabeth Olten .
Alyssa Bustamante And Her Troubled Childhood
Between 2002 and 2009 , Alyssa Bustamante was rear by her grandparents . Her female parent , Michelle Bustamante , had a history of drug and alcohol abuse , which led to vicious charges and pokey fourth dimension . Her father , Caesar Bustamante , was serving clink fourth dimension for assault .
Alyssa ’s grandparents consequently get legal hands of her and her three untried siblings in California . To escape their former life , the kids moved to a rural , cattle farm - like belongings in St. Martins , Missouri , just west of the state capital of Jefferson City .
Despite the setbacks of her parent , Alyssa became an A and type B scholar in high school .
Alyssa Bustamante/FacebookAlyssa Bustamante was a seemingly normal teenage girl who attended an LDS church in Missouri.
Alyssa Bustamante was a normal kid by all appearances , and her grandparent provided a unchanging home where Alyssa ’s parents could not . Friends said she would write verse form and jest around . She regularly attended church at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter - Day Saints , where she participate in several youth activities .
Alyssa Bustamante / FacebookAlyssa Bustamante was a seemingly normal teenage girl who attended an LDS church in Missouri .
But in 2007 , Alyssa endeavor to toss off herself . After pass 10 solar day at a psychiatrical hospital St. Martins , the teenager run on anti - depressants . Despite her medication , Alyssa practiced cutting herself several times . Friends said she often showed them the scars on her carpus .
Alyssa Bustamante/FacebookAlyssa Bustamante among friends.
“ Well she was obviously on the anti - depressant , ” her friend toldKRCG - TV . “ We always would go upstairs and she ’d be like , ‘ Oh I need to take my medicine . ' ”
Online Alyssa was an entirely unlike individual .
Alyssa Bustamante ’s Twitter feed talked about how she hate potency . One postal service read , “ regretful decisions make not bad report , ” according to KRCG - TV . She listed her hobby on YouTube and MySpace as “ bolt down people ” and “ cutting . ” She also posted a YouTube TV where she judge to get two of her brothers to attempt to pertain an electrified fencing .
Alyssa Bustamante/FacebookAlyssa Bustamante’s mug shot after being arrested for Elizabeth Olten’s murder.
Then , on October 21 , 2009 , Alyssa Bustamante bring her dark fantasy to get off .
The Murder Of Elizabeth Olten
Four houses down from the Bustamante folk hold up nine - year - sure-enough Elizabeth Olten . She often came over to meet with Alyssa and her siblings . On the dark Olten was kill , her female parent , Patricia Preiss , say she begged to go to Alyssa ’s house to trifle .
Alyssa Bustamante / FacebookAlyssa Bustamante among champion .
This was at 5 p.m. , the last sentence Preiss saw her daughter alive . By 6 p.m. , when Elizabeth did n’t come home , her mom knew something was wrong .
Missouri Department of CorrectionsAlyssa Bustamante in 2013.
Later in the investigation , authorities determine another shallow grave accent covered with leaves behind the Bustamante sign of the zodiac . Elizabeth ’s body was inside .
Prosecutors charged Alyssa with first - point murder and arrested her . Everyone was shocked .
“ Before this , before all of this , she was a normal 15 - year - old girl , ” a friend severalize KRCG - TV . “ This really is n’t her . This was not the Alyssa that I knew . ”
Inside Alyssa Bustamante’s Trial And Plea Deal
Alyssa Bustamante / FacebookAlyssa Bustamante ’s mug shot after being arrest for Elizabeth Olten ’s murder .
But accord toThe New York Daily News , an entry from Alyssa Bustamante ’s diary disclose a vastly more horrific somebody .
Though Alyssa had tried to cover up the entry by fleck out the aristocratic ink in her diary , investigators were able to bring out the original written material underneath — in which she chronicle the euphory she felt after kill Elizabeth Olten :
“ I just fucking down someone . I strangled them and slice their pharynx and stabbed them now they ’re all in . I do n’t know how to feel atm . It was ahmazing . As soon as you get over the ‘ ohmygawd I ca n’t do this ’ feeling , it ’s middling enjoyable . I ’m kinda nervous and trembling though decent now . Kay , I bring ta go to church now … lol . ”
In court , Alyssa Bustamante confessed to killing Elizabeth Olten . She said she strangle Elizabeth before edit the girl ’s throat and poke her in the chest . Afterward , Alyssa buried her victim ’s body in the hand - dug , shallow grave behind their homes .
Alyssa ’s defense attorneys pointed to her troubled puerility as a means to apply leniency in any sentence , but a judge ruled that Alyssa Bustamante would be tried as an adult .
Then , a few weeks before her 2012 test for first - degree execution was schedule to start , a little more than two years after the slaying , Alyssa accepted a plea batch to the lesser direction of 2d - grade slaying to avoid the death punishment . As part of the supplication quite a little , she may get out of jail in 30 years on watchword .
After getting a new attorney in 2014 , Alyssa Bustamante contended that she would not have pleaded guilty in 2012 had she known of a pending U.S. Supreme Court fount that affected how the DoJ system should wield cases of juveniles and first - degree murder instance .
The judge in the compositor’s case denied the lawyer ’s plea for a novel prison term .
Where Is Alyssa Bustamante Today?
Patricia Preiss , Elizabeth Olten ’s grieving female parent , felt as if the original sentence was still too faint . In court , she call Alyssa Bustamante a monster and said that she hated everything about her .
consort toKOMU , Preiss say Alyssa was “ an malevolent devil ” during the sentencing , and her manner of speaking was so affecting and impassioned that the judge had to ask her to stop .
Missouri Department of CorrectionsAlyssa Bustamante in 2013 .
Preiss litigate the convicted murderer for damages in a wrongful death courting in October 2015 , which Preiss settled for $ 5 million two days later . An original unlawful death lawsuit also included the hospital where Alyssa had stayed .
Preiss included Pathways Behavioral Healthcare and two of its employees as defendants because she felt Alyssa murdered her daughter while under their care . She believed that the wellness system should have pick up Alyssa ’s violent tendency coming and taken preventive bar .
A judge threw out the lawsuit against Pathways , but Alyssa Bustamante will ultimately owe Patricia Preiss the $ 5 million — plus stake at 9 percent per year — until the debt is pay .
But no matter the termination of the visitation , the fact stay on that a little girl lose her life due to the uncontrollable and violent whims of a riotous adolescent .
After this look at Alyssa Bustamante and the execution of Elizabeth Olten , read about the teenagerWillie Franciswho was execute twice for slaying . Then , take a look atCharlie Brandtwho killed his mom as a teen and then went on to kill again 30 years after .
