Volume 2 · Chapter 4
Written in Blue Ink
Alyssa Bustamante
Victim: Elizabeth Olten
Case at a glance
- When
- October 21, 2009
- Where
- St. Martins, Missouri
- Perpetrator
- Alyssa Bustamante (age 15 at the time)
- Victim
- Elizabeth Olten
- Outcome
- Pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and armed criminal action in 2012; sentenced to life with parole plus 30 consecutive years; denied parole in July 2024, next hearing set for 2029
The case
Elizabeth Olten was nine years old and lived in St. Martins, a small town near Jefferson City, Missouri. Alyssa Bustamante, fifteen, lived nearby. Days before the crime, Bustamante dug holes in the woods behind their homes.
On October 21, 2009, Elizabeth left a friend’s house to walk home and never arrived. A large search began that evening. Bustamante had lured her into the woods and killed her, then buried her in one of the holes she had prepared. After questioning, Bustamante led investigators to the grave. Her journal became central to the case. An entry dated the day of the killing, which she had tried to cover over in ink, was recovered and described what she had done in casual, even excited terms.
She was charged as an adult with first-degree murder. In January 2012 she pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and armed criminal action and was sentenced to life with the possibility of parole, plus a consecutive 30 years. Her appeal was denied in 2014. After Missouri changed its parole rules for juvenile offenders, she had a parole hearing in July 2024 and was denied, with her next review set for 2029.
Read the full story
This case is told in full in True Crime Case Histories, Volume 2 by Jason Neal.
Get Volume 2 on AmazonCase photographs
3 photos
Where it happened
Why this case
“Cases with child victims are the hardest to write, and I kept Elizabeth at the center here. What unsettled me most was the preparation, days of it, by someone so young. I wanted readers to notice that the journal told the truth when its author would not.”
— Jason Neal, author of True Crime Case Histories
