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FOX NEWS JEFFERSON CITY, MISSOURI 
PHOTO: Nov. 18: This picture provided by the Cole County Sheriff's Department shows Alyssa Bustamante. 
PHOTO: Elizabeth Olten Blessed with a Friday off school, 15-year-old Alyssa Bustamante dug two holes in the ground to be used as a grave, authorities said. For the next week, she attended classes, all the while plotting the right time for a murder, they said. That time arrived the evening of Oct. 21, when Bustamante strangled 9-year-old neighbor Elizabeth Olten without provocation, cut the girl's throat and stabbed her, prosecutors said. Why? "Ultimately, she stated she wanted to know what it felt like," Missouri State Highway Patrol Sgt. David Rice testified Wednesday during a court hearing over the slaying. Rice, who interviewed Bustamante in the days after Elizabeth's disappearance, said she confessed to investigators and led them to the fourth grader's well-concealed body in a wooded area near their neighborhood in St. Martins, a small town west of Jefferson City. A Cole County judge ruled Wednesday that Bustamante, who has been held in Missouri's juvenile justice system, should be tried as an adult. Hours later, the teen was indicted on adult charges of first-degree murder and armed criminal action for allegedly using a knife to kill Elizabeth. A judge later entered a not guilty plea on Bustamante's behalf and referred her to the public defender's office. The court proceedings marked the first time that the suspect in Elizabeth's death had been publicly identified since a two-day search for the girl by hundreds of volunteers. When they found Elizabeth's body Oct. 23, authorities only said that a 15-year-old had led them to it and was in custody for the slaying. Bustamante remained largely expressionless as she sat with her hands shackled around her waist in court Wednesday. She occasionally looked down beneath the brown bangs that covered her eyes and swallowed hard as a judge read the charges against her. On one side of the courtroom sat her mother and grandmother, who has been Bustamante's legal guardian for about half of her life. On the other side sat Elizabeth's mother, relatives and friends, several of whom wore pink — Elizabeth's favorite color. Bustamante was ordered held without bond pending her trial. If convicted of first-degree murder, she would be sentenced to life in prison without parole. Witnesses at Bustamante's adult certification hearing described a girl who was bright yet depressed and clever in a sometimes sneaky sort of way. She ranked in roughly the top third of her class at Jefferson City High School, the principal said, and had been in no trouble at school or with the law. Yet Bustamante had tried to commit suicide at age 13 and had been receiving mental health treatment for depression and cutting herself, said David Cook, the chief juvenile officer in Cole County. Once, she led her family to believe she was attending a local church event when she instead sneaked off to a concert in St. Louis, about two hours away, Cook said. On one or two other occasions, Bustamante spent the night in the woods without permission, he said. After her arrest, Bustamante tried to cut herself with her own fingernails while being held in juvenile custody, said her appointed juvenile defense attorney Kurt Valentine. He argued Bustamante should remain in the juvenile system, where she could potentially be rehabilitated before being set free by age 21. Valentine warned that Bustamante would either kill herself or be assaulted and killed by others if she were placed in an adult jail cell or prison. "We are throwing away the child and we are signing a death sentence for Alyssa," Valentine said. "She is not going to survive her time in the Cole County jail." Cole County Sheriff Greg White said later that Bustamante would be held at a different, undisclosed location. Cook recommended Bustamante be tied as an adult. Cole County Circuit Judge Jon Beetem agreed, saying the killing was vicious and that the state had no adequate facilities or services to treat Bustamante if she remained in the juvenile system. Bill Heberle, with the Missouri Division of Youth Services, testified that the state has no secure facilities with fences for female juveniles. Youths in Missouri's juvenile system generally are housed in group settings and are not typically watched by staff 24 hours a day, he said.
ABC NEWS JEFFERSON CITY, MISSOURI WATCHVIDEO 
Alyssa Bustamante:
15-year-old defendant 
Elizabeth Olten:
St. Martins girl found slain last month A police officer testified today that the 15-year-old girl accused of killing her 9-year-old neighbor confessed to the crime, saying that she did it so she would "know what it felt like to kill someone." Alyssa Bustamante was indicted today in a Missouri courtroom on a first degree murder charge stemming from the Oct. 21 slaying of Elizabeth Olten after a judge determined she could be tried as an adult. If convicted, Bustamante could be sentenced to life in prison. The judge entered a "not guilty" plea on behalf of Bustamante, who sat speechless and shackled in the courtroom. The court documents also revealed for the first time the violence of Bustamante's alleged attack on the young girl. Court papers state the Bustamante strangled Olten, slit her throat and stabbed the girl while she was dying. Bustamante also is charged with armed criminal action for allegedly using a knife in the attack. She is being held without bond in Cole County jail. Earlier a grim portrait of Bustamante emerged based on dark writings on the Internet including a YouTube profile in which "killing people" is listed under the girl's hobbies. Several messages on what is believed to be the suspect's Twitter page, which have now been erased, poetically discuss "addiction," "terrors" and the feeling of being caged and "buried." Another post talks about pain and the author's search for a reason for it. On the girl's YouTube page, a video appears to show the suspect with her brothers purposefully shocking themselves on an electrified fence. Olten's body was found in a wooded area near her home on Oct. 23 after the suspect led police to it. She had vanished Oct. 21, but it wasn't long after that police found what Cole Country Sheriff Greg White called "written evidence" that led them to Bustamante. "We were able to obtain some physical evidence, and through some analysis of some of the evidence and in all honesty some written evidence, we were able to develop a person of interest," White said last month. "Once we reached that person and interviewed them, ultimately, they led us to where we've recovered Elizabeth's body." Suspect's Lawyer: 'You're Dealing With a Child'Kurt Valentine, the suspect's attorney, had previously urged officials to be cautious with their judgments of the suspect, who he referred to as a child. "I would ask that they wait, that they listen to the facts as they come out and not judge quickly," Valentine said. "Learn about this person, learn about this child. You're dealing with a child." The suspect did not have a prior criminal record, police said.
COLUMBIA TRIBUNE JEFFERSON CITY, MISSOURI Alyssa Bustamante, the 15-year-old charged in the murder of 9 year-old Elizabeth Olten nearly a month ago in St. Martins, was certified as an adult Wednesday in a Cole County hearing.
Alyssa Bustamante:
15-year-old defendant
Elizabeth Olten:
St. Martins girl found slain last month After the certification hearing Wednesday morning, Bustamante was formally indicted by a Cole County grand jury. The indictment included a count of first-degree murder, alleging that Bustamante knowingly caused Olten’s death by strangling her, cutting her throat and stabbing her, and a count of armed criminal action. A judge entered a not-guilty plea on behalf of Bustamante. A status hearing was set for Dec. 7, and she was referred to the public defender’s office for representation. A series of youth professionals testified Wednesday morning that the Division of Youth Services in Missouri is not equipped to handle the girl’s treatment and detention, given the severity and sophistication of the crime. If Bustamante had remained in the care of the juvenile system, she would have been required to be released at age 21. There are no “secure care” high-security facilities in the state for girls, an official testified, and more than 600 juveniles have escaped from youth services facilities over the past 10 years. “To say that I’m disappointed with the status of the Division of Youth Services is an understatement,” Judge Jon Beetem said before making his ruling. During testimony, Bustamante — with pale skin and long brown bangs that hung over her eyes —sat shackled in an orange prison jumpsuit. She was described as an excellent student. It was also revealed that she attempted suicide in 2007 and had a history of cutting herself. She has been on the anti-depressant Prozac since 2007, and after a 10-day stay at Mid-Missouri Mental Health Center after the suicide attempt, she was evaluated nearly daily on an outpatient basis. Bustamante and her younger siblings are under the guardianship of their maternal grandmother and have been since 2002. David Cook, chief juvenile officer and director of court services staff for Cole County, testified that Bustamante received extensive supervision from her grandparents and other family members and intensive treatment for her depression. Division of Youth Services legal counsel Samantha Green, in her closing statement, painted Bustamante as a cold, calculating killer unfit for the juvenile system. “She did a premeditated murder, and she had all the services in place,” Green said. “Her grandmother did everything she could for her, and she chose to do this.” Earlier, Sgt. David Rice of the Missouri State Highway Patrol testified that Bustamante admitted to digging two graves near her home four days before Olten’s death. When Rice asked Bustamante why she had committed the murder, “she stated that she wanted to know what it felt like,” Rice said. Bustamante had dabbled in Goth culture but was thought by therapists to have moved beyond that, according to testimony. Bustamante’s court-appointed defense attorney, Kurt Valentine, said the decision to send his client to an adult prison is a “death sentence.” “We don’t throw away the child,” Valentine said. “And that’s what we’re going to do if we certify her as an adult today and send her to the Department of Corrections. We’re throwing away the child, and we’re signing a death sentence for Alyssa.” Valentine said there are no girls in DOC custody ages 13 to 15 anywhere in the state. He argued that this unusual situation would force prison wardens to keep her in a solitary cell 24 hours a day for her own protection. This, he said, would heighten her depression and suicidal tendencies. “We can’t pretend that a 15-year-old is magically transformed into an adult just so we can punish her,” Valentine said. Members of the Olten family sat in the front row of the tiny juvenile courtroom wearing pink T-shirts bearing Elizabeth’s name. After Beetem made his ruling, several dabbed at tears.
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