Elizabeth Olten was a 9-year-old girl who was murdered by her neighbor Alyssa Bustamante, who was 15 at the time, in St. Martins, Missouri on October 21, 2009.[2]
Bustmante was controversially permitted a parole hearing in 2024, due to Senate Bill 26, a law meant to allow juvenile offenders earlier parole as part of jail reform efforts.[3] Senate Bill 26 blocked those convicted of first degree murder from seeking this parole, but not those convicted of second degree murder (which Bustamante pled guilty to). Senate Bill 26 was later amended by Senate Bill 754, which blocks those convicted of second degree murder from this parole as well. Governor Mike Parson did not sign Senate Bill 754 in time to prevent the hearing. She was denied parole.[4] In any event, even if Bustamante is granted parole from the life sentence, she will still have to serve the consecutive sentence of 30 years in prison. This makes her earliest probable release in 2059, when she will be 65 years old.
History
Olten lived four houses down from Bustamante. On October 21, 2009, Bustamante convinced her younger sister to bring Olten to the forest by their homes to hang out. Upon Olten's arrival, Bustamante strangled Olten, slit her throat, and stabbed her eight times in the chest. Bustamante then buried Olten's body in a grave that she had dug five days before in the woods behind her house and covered the grave with leaves.[5]
Bustamante's grandparents, Gary and Karen Brooke,[6] took legal custody of her and her three younger siblings in 2002, since her mother Michelle had addiction issues and her father Caesar was serving time in prison.[7] Friends started noticing changes in Alyssa around 2007 when she was hospitalized after a suicide attempt.[7] On her YouTube profile, she listed "cutting" under her hobbies.[8] She had also posted a photograph of herself on social media where she held two fingers to her head, pretending to shoot herself.
After the murder on the same day, Bustamante wrote in her journal (though later she attempted to scribble it out):[9][better source needed]
I just fucking killed someone. I strangled them and slit their throat and stabbed them now they're dead. I don't know how to feel atm. It was ahmazing [sic]. As soon as you get over the "ohmygawd, I can't do this" feeling, it's pretty enjoyable. I'm kinda nervous and shaky though right now. Kay, I gotta go to church now... lol.
Bustamante first appeared in court on November 17, 2009, where she pleaded not guilty and was indicted on first-degree murder and armed criminal action (due to using a knife in the murder).[11] In January 2012, she took a plea deal to the lesser charges of second-degree murder and armed criminal action.[7] A few weeks later, she was sentenced to life imprisonment with the possibility of conditional release for the murder and a consecutive sentence of 30 years for armed criminal action.[12]
Her appeal against the sentence was denied in March 2014.[13]
