The most brutal child killers known to history. Are children the most ruthless killers? Cindy Collier and Shirley Wolfe

Alice Bustamant

A 15-year-old schoolgirl has appeared in Missouri court for the brutal murder of a 9-year-old girl. According to the defendant, she committed this atrocity out of pure curiosity - she wanted to know how the killer felt.

The terrible crime was committed by schoolgirl Alice Bustamant from Jefferson City, reports the Associated Press. Last Wednesday, a Cole County judge ruled that the girl will be tried as an adult. A few hours later, Alice was charged with premeditated murder using a bladed weapon. She faces life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Alice Bustamant carefully prepared for the crime, calmly choosing the optimal moment for the attack. The girl dug two holes in advance, which were supposed to play the role of a grave, and then calmly went to school for a whole week, choosing the right time to kill her nine-year-old neighbor Elizabeth Olten.

On October 21, for no apparent reason, Alice strangled the girl, cut her throat and pierced her body with a knife.

Subsequently, during one of the interrogations, Alice mentioned to Missouri Highway Patrol Sergeant David Rice that she “wanted to know the feelings that a person experiences in such a situation.”

The girl confessed to the murder on October 23. Alice herself led the police to the place where she safely hid Elizabeth's corpse. Her remains were buried in a wooded area near St. Martins, a small town west of Jefferson City.

Before this, hundreds of volunteers combed the area of Jefferson City and its surrounding areas in the hope of finding the missing girl, but all was in vain.

We add that District Attorney Mark Richardson has not yet explained why the defendant dug two holes at once.

A sinister hobby

There is nothing strange in the biography of Alice Bustamant. The girl studied well at school and had no record of being reported to the police. True, at the age of 13 she tried to commit suicide due to depression. Then Alice cut her wrists, said Cole County Juvenile Services Director David Cook.

There was a case when Bustamante deceived her parents: she said that she would go to church for a holiday, but she herself went to a concert in St. Louis, which took about two hours to drive. Another time she ran away from home and spent the night in the forest. However, it is unlikely that such misdeeds and petty mischief are somehow connected with the desire that appeared later to kill the little neighbor.

The defendant's lawyer, Kurt Valentine, said that his client attempted suicide immediately after her arrest. Alice tried to scratch her veins with her nails. The defense attorney also protested the decision to try Bustamante as an adult. In his opinion, in a regular adult prison, a schoolgirl would be doomed to death: she would either be killed by her fellow inmates or commit suicide.

“We turn our backs on the child and sign Alice’s death warrant,” Valentine concluded.

However, Cole County Judge John Beetham insisted on his decision, citing the gravity of Alice's act. Beetema was supported by juvenile department official Bill Heberly, who said there are simply no juvenile prisons in the entire state of Missouri that provide prisoners with high level safety, especially for girls.

The mention of murderers makes your blood run cold, but the worst thing is when these murderers are children. It’s hard to even comprehend that a child could be capable of murder, and such cruel ones at that. Here are stories about bloodthirsty killers in the form of children, causing panic...

Mary Bell is one of the most “famous” girls in Great Britain. In 1968, at the age of 11, together with her 13-year-old friend Norma, she strangled two boys, 4 and 3 years old, two months apart. Brian Howe (3) was found dead under a mountain of weeds and grass just days after the death of Martin Brown (4).

His hair had been cut, puncture marks were found on his thighs, and his genitals had been partially cut off. In addition to these injuries, there was a mark in the shape of the letter “M” on his stomach. When the investigation turned to Mary Bell, she gave herself away by detailing a pair of broken scissors—constituting irrefutable evidence—that the girl said Brian had been playing with.

Family background may be responsible for Mary's unusual behavior. For a long time, she thought she was the daughter of a common criminal, Billy Bell, but to this day her real biological father is unknown. Mary claimed that her mother Betty, who was a prostitute, forced her to engage in sexual acts with men - especially her mother's clients - from the age of 4.

The trial ended and it became clear that she was too young for prison, but also dangerous to be incarcerated in a mental hospital or an institution that housed troubled children. During the trial, Mary's mother repeatedly sold Mary's story to the press. The girl was only 11 years old. She was released after 23 years. Now she lives under a different name and surname. This case is well known as the Mary Bell Case.

Pictured: Jon Venables

John and Robert were outside the same store, doing their usual business: robbing people, shoplifting, stealing things when the clerks turned their backs, climbing on chairs in restaurants until they were thrown out. The guys had the idea to kidnap the boy and then make it look like he was lost.

Pictured: Robert Thompson

John and Robert forcibly dragged the boy onto railway, where they threw paint at him, brutally beat him with sticks, bricks and an iron rod, threw stones at him, and also sexually abused a little boy, and then laid his body on the railway tracks, hoping that the baby would be run over by a train and his death would be mistaken for an accident.

James died only after being run over by a train.

A police sergeant who questioned the child killer after 9-year-old Elizabeth disappeared said Bustamante confessed to where she hid the slain fourth-grader's body and led officers to a wooded area where the body was located. She stated that she wanted to know how the killers felt.

The girls had severe skull injuries received from a rail spike, which was later found near the city. George confessed to the crime and to the fact that he initially tried to have sex with Betty, but in the end it turned out to be murder.

George was charged with first-degree murder, found guilty, and sentenced to death by electric chair. The sentence was carried out in the state of South Carolina.

At 3:30 p.m., Kip pulled out his rifle, hidden in his parents' room, loaded it, walked into the kitchen and shot his father. At 18:00 the mother returned. Kinkel told her he loved her and shot her - twice in the back of the head, three times in the face and once in the heart. He later claimed that he wanted to protect his parents from any embarrassment they might have because of his legal troubles.

On May 21, 1998, Kinkel drove to school in his mother's Ford. He put on a long waterproof coat to hide his weapons: a hunting knife, a rifle and two pistols, as well as ammunition. He killed two students and wounded 24. As he reloaded his gun, several students managed to disarm him.

In November 1999, Kinkel was sentenced to 111 years in prison without the possibility of parole. At his sentencing, Kinkel apologized to the court for the murders of his parents and school students.

Cindy Collier and Shirley Wolfe

In 1983, Cindy Collier and Shirley Wolfe began looking for victims for their entertainment. Usually it was vandalism or car theft, but one day the girls showed how crazy they really were.

One day they knocked on the door of an unfamiliar house, and an elderly woman opened it. Seeing two young girls of 14-15 years old, the old lady without hesitation let them into the house, hoping for an interesting conversation over a cup of tea, and she got it - the girls chatted for a long time with the sweet old lady, entertaining her interesting stories.

Shirley grabbed the old lady by the neck and held her, and Cindy went to the kitchen to get a knife to give it to Shirley. After receiving the knife, Shirley stabbed the old woman 28 times. The girls fled the crime scene, but were soon arrested.

On February 2, 1996, the state government was destroyed high school in connection with a shooting and hostage incident. Barry Loucatis put on his best cowboy suit and headed to the office where his class was about to have an algebra lesson. Most of his classmates found Barry's costume ridiculous, and himself even stranger than usual.

They didn't know what the suit was hiding, but there were two pistols, a rifle and 78 rounds of ammunition. He opened fire, his first victim being 14-year-old Manuel Vela. A few seconds later, several more people fell victims. The students were held hostage for 10 minutes until the coach outsmarted the boy.

He was also reported to have shouted, “This is more interesting than talking about algebra, isn’t it?” This is a quote from Stephen King's novel Fury, in which the main character kills two teachers and takes the class hostage. Barry is currently serving two life sentences followed by 205 years.

She peeled off the tape and found her son's sock, which was stuffed into a hole in the mattress, but suddenly came across something cold. The flashlight beam illuminated the body of an 8-year-old neighbor named Maddie Clifton, who had been missing for seven days.

To this day, Phillips has not voiced a motive for the murder. He said he accidentally hit the girl in the eye with a baseball bat, she started screaming, he panicked, and then he dragged her into his room and started hitting her until she was silent.

The jury didn't believe his story, and he was charged with first-degree murder. Since Joshua was under the age of 16, he escaped the death penalty. But he was given life without the right to be released.

At that time, in the United States, according to the Criminal Code, there was no criminal liability for minors, so Bosquet boldly walked the streets with a knife or pistol in his pocket. On March 19, 1978, he shot and killed Moises Perez, and on March 27, the namesake of the first victim, Noel Perez.

Ironically, the Willy Bosquet case became a precedent for reconsidering the lack of criminal liability for minors. Under the new law, children as young as 13 can be tried as adults for excessive cruelty.

Smith was accused of killing a four-year-old child named Derrick Robbie. On August 2, 1993, the baby was strangled, his head was pierced with a large stone, and in addition, the child was raped with a small branch.

The psychiatrist diagnosed him with an emotionally unstable personality disorder, due to which a person cannot control his inner anger. Smith was convicted and sent to prison. During his six years in prison, he was denied parole five times.

Around ten in the evening she shouted at the children to be quiet, but did not go downstairs, thinking that the children were playing. Forty-five minutes later, Lionel called his mother, saying that Tiffany was not breathing. He explained that he wrestled with the girl, making a grab, and then slammed her head into the table.

A pathologist later concluded that the girl's death was caused by a ruptured liver. In addition, experts testified to skull and rib fractures, as well as 35 other wounds. Tate later changed his story and said he jumped on the girl from the stairs. He was sentenced to life without parole, but his sentence was overturned in 2001 due to mental incompetence. He was released in 2004 on probation for ten years.

Craig Price (August 1974)

Joan Heaton, 39, and her two daughters, Jennifer, 10, and Melissa, 8, were found dead in their home on September 4, 1989. The knife was driven into them so hard that it broke off in Melissa's neck. Police said Joan had approximately 60 puncture wounds, while the girls had approximately 30 each.

Authorities believed that theft was the main motive for the crime, and that the suspect, when noticed, grabbed a kitchen knife and, in a state of passion, inflicted these wounds. It was also believed that the robber must have been someone from the area and must have had a wound on his arm.

Craig Price was caught by police later that day with his arm in a bandage but said he had smashed a car window. The police didn't believe his story. They searched his room, finding a knife, gloves and other bloody evidence.

He also confessed to another murder that took place in the area two years earlier. The authorities suspected him in that case, which also began with theft and ended like the Heaton case. Craig was given a life sentence the day before he turned sixteen.

James Pomeroy, born in November 1859 in Charleston, Massachusetts, is listed as the youngest person convicted of first-degree murder in the state's history.

Pomeroy began his abuse of other children at the age of 11. He lured seven children to deserted areas, where he stripped them, tied them up and tortured them using a knife or poking pins into their bodies. He was caught and sent to reform school, where he was to remain until he turned 21. But after a year and a half he was released for good behavior. (Pictured at right is Jesse Pomeroy in 1925)

Three years later, he changed - from a bad guy to a monster. He kidnapped and killed a 10-year-old girl named Katie Curran, and was also charged with the murder of a 4-year-old boy whose mutilated body was found in Dorchester Bay.

Despite the lack of evidence of the boy's murder, he was found guilty of Katie's death. The body lay in a pile of ash in the basement of Pomeroy's mother's store. Jesse was sentenced to life in solitary confinement, where he died of natural causes at the age of 72.

This crime shocked not only the American judicial system, but also the inhabitants of the entire planet. Brutal killers, maniacs, psychopaths - such individuals have always frightened normal people. But what if all three of these concepts suit one fragile fifteen-year-old girl? Alice Bustamante and her chilling deed in detail. How did an underage girl turn into a monster?

Biography of Alice Bustamant

On January 28, 1994, a charming blue-eyed baby was born in the town of Cole County. It became clear from birth that the girl would have a hard time in this world. Her parents were ordinary people who did not need this child at all. The father had no time to bother with his daughter, because almost immediately after her birth he found himself behind bars. The negligent mother sensibly decided that she could not raise the child alone, and gave her grandmother legal guardianship. The elderly woman also had no desire to raise her granddaughter, so from an early age the girl was left to her own devices.

The first bell

When the girl turned 13, she began to show symptoms of severe depression. Psychologists did not bother making a diagnosis or conducting various examinations, but limited themselves to prescribing antidepressants. At that time in the United States, almost all mental and mental disorders emotional state treated with this popular method. Prolonged depression, mild love experiences, fear of exams, depression after a divorce - magic calming pills solved all problems. They only worsened Alice's condition, and at the age of 13 she attempted to kill herself.

To cope with mental anguish, the girl begins to cut herself. Suicide attempts follow one after another, and she is prescribed outpatient treatment. Prozac doesn't help, and she is prescribed just a lethal dose of antidepressants. This fact will still play a role in the fate of the juvenile delinquent.

Unwitting Assistant

By then she was no longer alone. The unreasonable mother manages to give birth to another girl, two boys, and return to her family (she spent several years in prison: she received a sentence for drug possession). But with my firstborn I couldn’t find mutual language. Despite the fact that Alice was very sociable with her friends and subscribers in in social networks, she did not have good relationships with her family. Her sister brought variety to her life - she could be tortured and not be afraid that she would tell her mother everything. On October 21, 2009, Alice forced her to invite a neighbor girl to visit. My sister did not see what happened next, otherwise she would have been the first to hand the criminal over to her parents.

Disappearance

The town, numbering no more than a thousand inhabitants, lived as one big family. Almost no crimes were committed here. But Elizabeth's father became terribly worried when his nine-year-old daughter did not come home after school. The police did not give time for the child to appear at home before nightfall and urgently go on a search. The streets, basements, and forest areas were combed. No traces of the girl were found. The next day, some witnesses said that they saw a teenager next to Elizabeth, but could not say for sure whether it was a boy or a girl. Alice was interrogated, and the policeman even thought that she knew more than she was saying. But she had nothing to show, and for a while she was left alone.

Blogger

Like all teenagers, Alice Bustamant was interested in social networks. She had a YouTube account where she periodically posted videos. In the column for hobbies and interests, she wrote: “Murder, violence.” Her videos were terrifying: a fearless girl touched with her hands a livestock fence that was under electric voltage. It caused her pain, but it could easily kill her younger brothers. But this did not stop her, and she ordered them to touch the fence again and again. In the description of the video, she left a phrase that said that she feels good when her brothers experience severe pain. If loved ones knew about these recordings, then everything could end with placement in a psychiatric clinic. But the frightened children could not tell their grandparents about what had happened.

Track

Meanwhile, the police continued to comb the forest. They were able to track Elizabeth's cell phone signal and knew she was in that location. But even the most attentive search engines could not find the girl. The investigation concluded that the child was kidnapped by one of the neighbors. Alice again aroused interest by not showing up at school. This time the police did not have to interrogate the young girl for long - she quickly confessed to the murder. The entries in her diary confirmed this. The schoolgirl wrote about how exactly she killed Elizabeth, and at the same time argued that it was pleasant.

Detection

Alisa made contact with the investigation and showed where the girl’s body was. Even seasoned and experienced police officers did not expect to see such a picture. They naively believed that the teenager simply miscalculated his strength and accidentally killed a girl during a game, and the diary was simply a description of the feelings of a not entirely adequate schoolgirl. Everything turned out to be much worse when they dug up the body and saw that the child’s throat had been cut.

Confession

Alice's testimony became even more terrible. She calmly told investigators that she had long planned to kill someone. She dug a grave in advance and looked for a suitable victim. Of course, it had to be a child, because she might not be able to cope with a person her age. The only thing she did not admit to was that she planned to kill her brothers: there were two graves and their size was ideal for the boys. It was never possible to find out what stopped Alice's hand. But the girl next door fully met all the requirements of a young killer.

At first, Alice tried to strangle the child with her hands, but she failed. Half-dead Elizabeth did not want to give up her life. Then the girl took out a knife and cold-bloodedly cut her throat and wrists, and then inflicted a stab wound in her chest. It was not difficult for her to drag the small lifeless body to the pits and carefully camouflage the place. She did not feel any regret or remorse, which shocked the detectives even more.

Court

Lawyers tried their best to convince the judge and jury that Alice Bustamant's aggression was caused by the large number of antidepressants she had taken at one time. During the first hearing, the mother stated that this was not her daughter, but an evil monster whom she hated. The girl did not react to this statement, although, undoubtedly, it was painful for her to hear how the woman who gave birth to her was demanding the maximum sentence for her. The young killer broke down only when her grandparents left the courtroom. This happened after she confessed to the murder in court and told all the bloody details and her feelings. When the only people she cared about turned their backs on her, she began to scream that she was deeply sorry and fully aware of her guilt. This only happened in 2012. Until this moment, she completely denied her involvement in court and refused all the testimony given.

Sentence

Although Alice was a minor, she was tried as an adult. She was given the maximum sentence - life imprisonment with the possibility of parole after 30 years. Alice Bustamant's verdict did not reassure the public. People said that they were very sorry that her suicide attempts were unsuccessful and wished that she would die in prison. However, if you look at the photo of Alice Bustamant now, it becomes clear that she looks good after several years of imprisonment. A lot is written about her life behind bars on social networks: people have not forgotten her or her heinous crime.

Killer children: Bustamante is not the first

At one time, Mary Bell was considered one of the most brutal killers among juvenile delinquents. Together with their girlfriend, they brutally killed two boys - 4 and 3 years old. The bodies were not discovered immediately, but the girl quickly confessed to her crime. She was only 11 years old at the time of the crime. She spent 23 years behind bars and now lives under a different name.

Jon Venable and Robert Thompson. Both boys received life sentences for kidnapping and killing a two-year-old boy. The court did not take into account their age: both killers were only 10 years old.

And this fourteen-year-old teenager did not have to lie on a bunk. The trial took place in South Carolina, and he was given a death sentence. He became the youngest criminal to be executed in the United States. George killed two girls and hid their bodies in a ravine.

Kipland "Kip" Kinkel. I tried to buy a weapon from a classmate. Problems with the law began. To protect his parents from this, he simply shot them with his father’s gun. Then he went to the school and killed two students, 24 were injured. Sentenced to 111 years without the possibility of parole.

Eric Smith. At the age of 16, he killed a boy and abused his body. The baby was only 4 years old.

Teen Thrill Killer Alyssa Bustamante Could Get Paroled Some Day

By Alyssa Newcomb - Abcnews.go.com

February 8, 2012

A teenager who slit her young neighbor's throat and called it "enjoyable" may have the opportunity to walk free one day.

Alyssa Bustamante, 18, was sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole in a Missouri courtroom today.

The teen expressed remorse for brutally killing her neighbor, Elizabeth Olten, in October 2009, in what prosecutors described as a thrill killing.

"I know words can never be enough and the y can never adequately describe how horribly I feel for all of this," Bustamante said to Olten"s mother and siblings, who sat silently. "If I could give my life to get her back I would. I"m sorry."

Bustamante stabbed the 9-year-old girl in the chest, strangled her, sliced her throat and left her in a shallow grave covered with leaves so she could find out what it felt like to kill.

"I just f***ing killed someone. I strangled them and slit their throat and stabbed them now they"re dead. I don"t know how to feel atm," Bustamante wrote in her diary

She later added: "It was ahmazing. 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."

Elizabeth"s mother, Patty Preiss called Bustamante "an evil monster" and said that she "hated her" on the first day of the teen"s sentencing hearing.

Prosecutor Mark Richardson had discussed for life in prison, plus 71 years, accounting for the years Elizabeth lost.

"These sentences are appropriate and fit what happened to Elizabeth at the hands of a truly evil individual who strangled and stabbed an innocent child simply for the thrill of it," Richardson said in a statement.

The defense cited Bustamante's depression and a suicide attempt as a reason for a reduced sentence.

On the teen"s YouTube page, a video appears to show the suspect with her brothers purposefully shocking themselves on an electrified fence. She listed "killing people" as one of her hobbies under her profile.

Her Twitter messages around the time of the murder spoke of "addiction" and "terrors."

One message said, "all I want in life is a reason for all this pain."

"She committed the murder after deliberation, which means cool deliberation or cool reflection on the matter for any length of time," Cole County prosecutor Mark Richardson told the court Wednesday.

Murderous Children: 15 Year Old Alyssa Bustamante Brutally Murdered a 9 Year Old Girl

Elizabeth Olten was beaten, strangled, and had her throat slit by Alyssa Bustamante

By Antonia Monacelli - Hubpages.com

Preparing For Murder

When most teenagers have a Friday off school, they sleep in, maybe get together with friends, or bum around the house in pajamas all day. When 15-year-old Alyssa Bustamante of Missouri had a Friday off from school, she spent the day digging two holes in the ground to be used as graves. Then she waited.

Alyssa went on with life as usual, she went to school, she hung out with friends; all the while just waiting for the perfect opportunity to murder. That opportunity came just 4 days later, on October 21st, 2009 in the evening, when her neighbor, 9-year-old Elizabeth Olten was walking home from her friend's house.

Elizabeth was last seen at 6:15pm, when she left her friends house to go home, her house was only a few houses down. Elizabeth was never seen alive again. When she hadn't returned home, the family frantically began looking for her, and called the police to report her missing around 7pm. Her family, knowing she was afraid of the dark, and would not have wandered off alone, grew increasingly worried. They knew that Elizabeth would not stay out after dark alone willingly, and they knew they needed to find her. What they didn't know was that it was already too late.

What Happened & Why? "I Wanted To Know What It Felt Like To Kill Someone"

Alyssa, seeing that she finally had the opportunity to kill, took it. She grabbed Elizabeth Olten, beat her, strangled her, and finally, she stabbed her and slit her throat. She then dumped her body into one of the graves she had dug the week before in a nearby wooded area.

Police searched vigilantly for the little girl, including the area where her body would eventually be found, but they found no trace of her. They pinged Elizabeth's cellphone, and though it showed the location as being the woods where her body lay, the police searched the area without locating her, or her cell phone.

In the end, after a letter led police to Alyssa, she confessed. It was Alyssa herself who led the police to the grave where the body of the brutally slain girl lay.

The why in this case is really simple, yet really complicated. The simple explanation given by Alyssa herself was that she wanted to know what it felt like to kill someone. The psychological implications of that statement are obvious; normal, mentally stable people, even if they have ever wondered that question themselves, do not go and actually commit a murder in order to find out. What made Alyssa take decide to actually satisfy her curiosity? That answer is a little more complicated.

As usual, it was a case of hindsight. There were clues and warning signs that something was not right with Alyssa. Alyssa had shown signs of psychological problems in the past. She had attempted suicide numerous times, and she was on medication for depression. She had been given both inpatient and outpatient psychiatric care after her last suicide attempt. She was a "cutter"; someone who generally deals with emotional pain by cutting and inflicting physical pain on themselves, or self-mutilating. Her best friend, when interviewed, claims Alyssa had once told her that she wondered what it would be like to kill someone.

She had many online accounts, but it was noted on her YouTube account in particular that she listed her hobbies as “killing people” and “cutting”. Her YouTube account also had what police considered some disturbing "home movies", including one where she urges her brothers to touch an electrified cattle fence, after doing so herself. Before the clip involving her brothers, Alyssa writes "this is where it gets good; this is where my brothers get hurt."

In addition, neither of Alyssa's parents were around, and Alyssa was in the care of her grandparents. Alyssa was born to a teenage mother, who has a criminal record for petty crimes, drug possession, an a DUI. Alyssa's father is in prison serving a 10-year sentence for assault. Alyssa was described as violent, depressed, and angry. None of these things are an excuse for murder, but we as a society have to question whether something should have been done for Alyssa before this happened. If someone had stepped in, could we have prevented this vicious murder from occurring?

Police have speculated that the reason that Alyssa had dug not one, but two graves, was because she had planned to murder her two younger brothers, but had instead grabbed the opportunity to kill Elizabeth when it was presented itself. They feel the YouTube video backs up this theory; she clearly took delight in inflicting pain on her brothers. While there has been no corroboration by Alyssa of this allegation, the question of why there were two graves dug is an interesting one, that we might never know the answer to. Did Alyssa have different targets in mind for her crimes? Would she have killed again, if she had not been caught the first time

The Trial, Verdict & Sentencing

Alyssa was arrested, and charged with first-degree murder in the death of Elizabeth Olten. She appeared in court on November 17th, 2009, where the judge ruled that she should be tried as an adult. Despite her confession to the crime, as well as having led the police to Elizabeth's body, she has entered a plea of "Not Guilty". She is being held without bond.

While in custody, it has been reported that Alyssa has tried to harm herself by cutting herself with her own fingernails. It is said she has been exhibiting signs of anxiety and severe depression in jail, and has been under suicide watch. Due to a motion filed by her lawyer, she has been remanded to a psychiatric institution to undergo evaluation, and receive immediate psychiatric treatment.

A trial start date of May 16th, 2011 has been set for Alyssa Bustamante. There, she will stand trial charged as an adult with first-degree murder for the horrific slaying of her young neighbor, 9-year-old Elizabeth Olten.

UPDATE: February 8th, 2012

After previous issues that delayed the trial of Alyssa Bustamante, she was finally set to face the murder charges, with a trial due to start in January 30th, 2012. Instead, Alyssa is guilty to the charge of 2nd degree murder and armed criminal action.

There was an audible gasp heard in the courtroom when the now 18-year-old Alyssa was admitted to taking a knife to the throat of Elizabeth Olten and slitting it, then strangling her with her bare hands afterward. Her defense team tried to offer a number of excuses for what cause Alyssa to perform this horrid, haunting act, including the fact that she was on the anti-depressant "Prozac" as being a contributor, which she had begun taking in 2007 after a suicide attempt, and had started an increased dosage just two weeks prior to Elizabeth's murder. They recounted a family history of drug abuse, suicide attempts, and mental disorders, and said that her mother had abandoned her and her father was in prison, to try to explain the mental state Alyssa was in when she brutally murdered Elizabeth Olten.

Psychologists for the defense described Alyssa as "psychologically damaged" and "severely emotionally disturbed." They tested that she suffers from Major Depression, and also displays symptoms of Borderline Personality Disorder, which is characterized by feelings of emptiness, instability of moods, inappropriate displays of anger, and poor impulse control. Though the details of Alyssa's mental stability were quite disturbing - she had previous suicide attempts, a history of self-harm including over 300 cuts on her body, as well as self-inflicted cigarette burn marks - the most disturbing, and the most damning evidence presented was a journal entry that Alyssa made in her diary after the murder. She wrote: "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. 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."

After days of very emotional testimony in the court, Alyssa broke down and cried for the first time in over 2 years of court proceedings, while the prosecution was making an impassioned plea for the judge to give her a life sentence. Alyssa, who had been staring at the floor impassively while the prosecution recounted her crime, broke down when grandparents got upset and stormed out of the courtroom. Alyssa"s grandparents were not the only ones to have an emotional breakdown; after the judge"s announcement that he would hand down a sentence the next day, the grandmother of the victim, Elizabeth Olten, yelled out "I think Alyssa should get out of jail the same day Elizabeth gets out of the grave!".

On February 8th, 2012, Alyssa Bustamante gave a final statement before the judge handed down her sentence; "If I could give my life to bring her back, I would", Alyssa addressed the court, while family members of her victim, 9-year-old Elizabeth Olten, wept, "I just want to say I"m sorry for what happened. I"m so sorry". She was then sentenced to life imprisonment, with the possibility of parole.

Alyssa Bustamante and the Murder of Elizabeth Olten

By Tricia Romano - Trutv.com

A Tale of Two Girls

45 minutes: That"s how long Elizabeth Olten was missing before her mother called the police.

That's how long it took Alyssa Bustamante, 15, allegedly to kill her first murder victim, her neighbor Olten.

The most shocking thing of all? Alyssa Bustamante's youth was trumped by her victim's: Elizabeth Olten was only 9.

According to friends, family and neighbors, Olten was all sweetness and light, a little girl made of sugar and spice and everything nice, who loved cats, the color pink, and was a real girly girl.

She had long medium-brown hair, wide-set eyes, and was described a shy girl who "was afraid of the dark and would not normally have gone into the woods," according to the AP, making her disappearance more ominous.

Peggy Florence spoke on behalf of the family: "She was somebody special. They called her a girlie girl. She would be outside in the snow or in the mud in her frilly little dress."Looking at photos from Bustamante"s now-defunct Facebook page, one sees a girl hardened beyond her years; pale blue eyes rimmed with heavy black eyeliner, straightened bangs hanging in her eyes and a defiant pout, chin stuck out at the camera. Even in two dimensions, she had attitude and charisma to burn. Like many troubled teens, she was labeled a Goth. In an alternate life, she might have been a star; in this one, she may be one of the most shocking teenage murderers, yet.

She's Just a Small Town Girl

The two neighboring communities from which the girls came in Missouri, St. Martins and Jefferson City, epitomize small-town America. St. Martins, where Olten lived, has just over one thousand people. Everyone knows each other. So when Olten failed to make it home on Wednesday, October 21, from a friend's house just a quarter-mile away, there was cause for alarm.

The search began almost immediately. Though there was a two-lane highway that ran the stretch from the friend that Olten had been visiting to her own house, she had oddly taken a shortcut through the woods, curving around and behind neighboring laws and backyards. By the time the search started, with the aid of hundreds of volunteers, it was dark and cold, and the weather had turnedit started pouringsearching the woodsy terrain turned into a difficult process. Dave Wininger, a volunteer firefighter who joined in the search for Olten, was quoted by the Associated Press as describing the search area as "brushy" and "hilly." "There"s a lot of rocks, trees, and brush piles. It"s a very rough place to be," he said.

The searchers included dogs, firefighters, police, helicopters, FBI, and highway patrol. They went over and over the area, but were unsuccessful. Olten's cell phone initially gave them a hint, but by Thursday morning, the battery had died.

A Hint, a Suspect

Until this point, the scenario that the community and the police had feared was that an older male predator had snatched up the girl as she walked home alone through the woods. No one suspected that it was a member of the community, much less a teenage girl. But details began to emerge and rumors quickly spread. A teenager was described as a person of interest. The police had gathered some evidence, writings that led to the teenager. Bustamante didn't show up for school the day after the murderher first and only unexcused absence.

Shockingly, the teenager then led the police to the body. It had been in the very woods they had been searching.

"We had been in that area actually more than once. The body was very well concealed," Cole County Sheriff Greg White told the press.

Juvie or Adult - Male or Female?

For a while, there was public uncertainty as to the gender of the person-of-interest.

Because the town was so small, Cole County Sheriff Greg White declined to give more specifics until it was decided how Bustamante was going to be tried.

"I know that it would be cathartic for the public to know exactly what happened, but the difficulty with that is, we have to maintain a prosecutable case," White was quoted in an AP report. "We"re not going to contaminate jury pools or anything else."

Because she was a juvenile, there was a question whether or not she"d be tried as an adult, possible under state law which could then make her eligible for the death penalty. But Missouri has an unusual two-pronged system for dealing with young offenders, one that mirrors Canada's.

Missouri is one of 22 states using a "dual jurisdiction" system. If a suspect is found guilty, then the offender can be held until age 21, when a new hearing is held, and it is determined whether the offender has been rehabilitated or should serve the rest of the sentence.

It was ultimately decided that Bustamante would be tried as an adult. Her defense attorney Kurt Valentine expressed disappointment with the decision, saying, "We are throwing away the child and we are signing a death sentence for Alyssa. She is not going to survive her time in the Cole County jail."

As details of the murder came out, though, it became clear this was not child's play-gone-wrong.

A Dark and Troubled Mind Revealed

Bustamante had reveled in her bad girl image. Her Facebook page bore images of her with red smeared lipstick, designed to look ominously bloody paired with black kabuki-style makeup over her eyes. She gritted her teeth, and made faces when she wasn't pouting like a sexpot. She was known around town as a bit of a bully.

Like many teens, she was deeply involved with social media and had pages on Myspace, Twitter, and Facebook.

She had a YouTube account under the name OkamiKage (Japanese for "WolfShadow") and filled out her profile. Under her hobbies, she listed "killing people, cutting."

She had been treated for severe depression and had tried to commit suicide. Her Twitter account stated that she was "somewhere I don"t want to be." On the photo of her with smeared lipstick, she is pointing a finger at her head like a gun; many little red cuts are visible on her inner wrist.

A Tweet a few weeks before the murder read: "This is all I want in life; a reason for all this pain."

Her YouTube account featured several videos of her and her brothers, mostly just engaging in horseplay or mimicking Jackass stunts, but one in particular was disturbing, Idiots Getting Electrocuted by Electric Fence. In it, Bustamante and her two younger brothers are standing in front of an electric fence. She gives the camera a grin and grabs the fence as she grimaces. Well aware of the pain it causes, she nonetheless convinces her younger twin brothers, 9, do the same. The screen reads: "this is where it gets goodthis is where we see my brothers get hurt."

They dutifully follow, ending on the floor, half laughing, half-shuddering.

The Murder and Confession

When Elizabeth Olten left to go home, she"d been playing with Alyssa Bustamante"s half-sister, who lived a few doors down. The six-year old and the nine-year old pals hung out, and then, when Olten started her journey home, she was allegedly diverted by Bustamante who called Olten on her cell phone, and redirected her back to Bustamante's house.

Allegedly, Bustamante had then led Olten into the woods. Olten, who was afraid of the dark, would have trusted the older teenthey played together and were friends. But, Olten couldn't have anticipated that she would be brutally killed, slashed on the neck and arms and then fatally stabbed.

The young girl's body was found in a grave; Bustamante admitted to digging two graves a week before the murders, giving rise to speculation that her twin brothers were the original intended victims. But a detail from the press conference gave people further pause. When Cole Country prosecutor Mark Richardson was asked why there were two graves, and whether one or both graves had been used for Elizabeth, he said only: "No, I can"t tell you that right now."

The autopsy revealed that Olten had been strangled, her throat and wrists had been slashed and she"d been stabbed.

Missouri State Highway Patrol Sgt. David Rice said that Bustamante's motive was simple and terrifying. "Ultimately," Rice told the AP, "she stated she wanted to know what it felt like."

After the murder, a friend of Bustamante"s came forward, saying that Bustamante had told her that she wanted to know what committing a murder would be like.

Jennifer Meyer went on KMOV in St. Louis: "I was at her party, and she kind of just took me off to the side randomly and she"s like, "You know, I wonder what it would be like to kill somebody," because I guess she was mad at one of her friends there, but it just seemed kind of strange," Meyer said. "But you wouldn't logically think one of your friends would kill somebody.

Teen Girls Murderers

Distressingly, there have been other teenage girl murderers, and if Alyssa Bustamante is embarrassed, she will join the ranks of other infamous female murderesses.

Diana Zamora killed a romantic arch-nemesis, Adrienne Jones in 1995, at the age of 17.

In Australia in 2006, the 16-year-old "Collie Killers," tried murder just for fun, strangling and suffocating their victim.

One of the earliest known teenage female killers, wasn't even a teenager. Mary Bell strangled a three-year old boy and a four-year old boy just for kicks in 1968 at the tender age of 11.

In 1979, Brenda Spencer, 16, bored of Mondays at school, loaded the semiautomatic rifle her father had given her and blazed away, killing two adults and injuring eight children and a cop.

Still, a female offender as young as Bustamante is rare enough that, had it been ruled that she would be tried as a minor, the authorities wouldn't have the right facilities to handle a disappointingly violent female underage criminal. She would have likely been put in solitary confinement.

All in the Family

Bustamante may never have had a fighting chance to make anything of herself. Bustamante was born to a teenage mother. Her mother had committed some petty crimes involving drug possession, and had been arrested for driving while intoxicated. Her father was in jail, serving a 10-year sentence for assault.

Bustamante had been living under the watchful eye of a guardian since she was seven. She was part of a religious household and had a reputation as a good student, but her psychological difficulties seemed to become too hard to overcome.

The Aftermath

Her internal pain continued in the days following the murder. Once it was determined that Bustamante was to be tried as an adult, she became distraught and was moved to Hawthorn Children's Psychiatric Hospital for evaluation. She had tried to cut herself and expressed suicidal thoughts. Her nails were cut because she"d tried using them to cut herself. Later, she was ordered by the judge to Fulton State Hospital for evaluation.

Here state-appointed lawyer also introduced a motion to move the trial. He cited comments on news articles as well as blogs, Facebook, and Myspace, purporting to come from townspeople, most of whom excoriated Bustamante. In the online world, Alyssa Bustamante was already proud and hung.

People wrote things like: "What is a shame is that the Murderer did not die when she tried commit suiside when she tried to in 2007."

And: "From what I"ve heard this girl has had mental problems for some time and has seen counselors or someone in the past."

And: "Either deport her or send her to the gas chamber. One less sicko wasting our tax dollars."

Meanwhile, Elizabeth Olten got the funeral she deservedthat of a princess. A horse-drawn carriage took her casket to the cemetery, where her friends and family wore her favorite color: pink.

Entering a Plea

On December 8, 2009, Alyssa Bustamante walked in shackles and handcuffs into the Jefferson City courtroom wearing a lime green prison jumpsuit. Her brown hair hung in her eyes. Her chin still jutted, but her defiance had been muted by the events of the previous months.

The circus had come to town: reporters were allowed inside.

Even with a confession, Bustamante entered a not guilty plea.

More than two years later, on January 10, 2012, Alyssa Bustamante plead guilty to second degree murder and armed criminal action. Her first-degree murder trial was scheduled to start later in the month; if finished, she faced life without password. Now, having entered a guilty plea, she stood a chance of being released. The punishment for murder in the second degree can be life with the possibility of parole, or 10-30 years. The sentence for armed criminal action is three years to life.

After she agreed, Cole County Circuit Judge Patricia Joyce had Alyssa describe her actions on Oct. 21, 2009.

"I strangled her and stabbed her in the chest," Alyssa said. When asked if she also cut Elizabeth Olten's throat, she responded, "Yes."

According to her attorney Charlie Moreland, Alyssa decided to plead guilty because "she wanted to take responsibility for it."

On February 8, Alyssa Bustamante was sentenced to life with the possibility of password. During a sentencing hearing, forensic consultant Don Locke read aloud to the court a page from Bustamante's diary, dated the day of the Elizabeth Olten's murder. The entry had been scratched out, but Locke was able to recover it. It read

"I just f*cking killed someone. I strangled them and slit their throats and stabbed them. Now they"re dead. I don"t know how to feel ATM. It was ahmazing. As soon as you get over the "Oh My Gawd. I can"t do this" feeling it"s pretty enjoyable. I"m kinda nervous and shaking though right now. Kay, I got to go to church now LOL."

The mention of murderers makes the blood run cold, but the worst thing is when these murderers are children. It’s hard to even comprehend that a child could be capable of murder, and such cruel ones at that. Here are stories about bloodthirsty killers in the form of children, causing panic.

Mary Bell is one of the most "famous" girls in British history. In 1968, at the age of 11, together with her 13-year-old friend Norma, she strangled two boys, 4 and 3 years old, two months apart. Brian Howe (3) was found dead under a mountain of weeds and grass just days after the death of Martin Brown (4). His hair had been cut, puncture marks were found on his thighs, and his genitals had been partially cut off. In addition to these injuries, there was a mark in the shape of the letter “M” on his stomach. When the investigation turned to Mary Bell, she gave herself away by detailing a pair of broken scissors—constituting irrefutable evidence—that the girl said Brian had been playing with.
Family background may be responsible for Mary's unusual behavior. For a long time, she thought she was the daughter of a common criminal, Billy Bell, but to this day her real biological father is unknown. Mary claimed that her mother Betty, who was a prostitute, forced her to engage in sexual acts with men - especially her mother's clients - from the age of 4.
The trial ended and it became clear that she was too young for prison, but also dangerous to be incarcerated in a mental hospital or an institution that housed troubled children. During the trial, Mary's mother repeatedly sold Mary's story to the press. The girl was only 11 years old. She was released after 23 years. Now she lives under a different name and surname. This case is well known as the Mary Bell Case.

Jon Venables

Jon Venables and Robert Thompson were sentenced to life imprisonment, despite the fact that they were only ten years old at the time of the murder. Their crime sent shockwaves throughout Britain. On February 12, 1993, the mother of two-year-old James Bulger left her son at the door of a butcher shop, thinking it wouldn't take her long to get back because there was no line outside the store. She didn't think that this was the last time she would see her son... John and Robert were outside the same store, doing their usual things: robbing people, stealing from stores, stealing things when the sellers turned their backs on them, climbing on chairs in restaurants, while they were not kicked out. The guys had the idea to kidnap the boy and then make it look like he was lost.

Robert Thompson

John and Robert forcibly dragged the boy onto the railway, where they threw paint at him, brutally beat him with sticks, bricks and an iron rod, threw stones, and also sexually abused the little boy, and then laid his body on the railway tracks, hoping that the baby would run over the train and his death will be mistaken for an accident. But James died only after he was run over by a train.

A 15-year-old girl killed her younger neighbor and hid the body. Alice Bustamant planned the murder, choosing the right time, and on October 21 she attacked a neighbor girl, began to strangle her, slit her throat and stabbed her. A police sergeant who questioned the child killer after 9-year-old Elizabeth disappeared said Bustamante confessed to where she hid the slain fourth-grader's body and led officers to a wooded area where the body was located. She stated that she wanted to know how the killers felt.

On June 16, 1944, the United States of America set a record by legally executing the youngest guy named George Stinney, who was 14 years old at the time of his execution. George was convicted of the murders of two girls, eleven-year-old Betty June Binniker and eight-year-old Mary Emma Thames, whose bodies were found in a ravine. The girls had severe skull injuries received from a rail spike, which was later found near the city. George confessed to the crime and to the fact that he initially tried to have sex with Betty, but in the end it turned out to be murder. George was charged with first-degree murder, found guilty, and sentenced to death by electric chair. The sentence was carried out in the state of South Carolina.

On May 20, 1998, Kinkel was expelled from school for trying to buy stolen weapons from a classmate. He confessed to his crime and was released from the police. At home, his father told him that he would have been sent to boarding school if he had not cooperated with the police. At 3:30 p.m., Kip pulled out his rifle, hidden in his parents' room, loaded it, walked into the kitchen and shot his father. At 18:00 the mother returned. Kinkel told her he loved her and shot her - twice in the back of the head, three times in the face and once in the heart. He later claimed that he wanted to protect his parents from any embarrassment they might have because of his legal troubles.
On May 21, 1998, Kinkel drove to school in his mother's Ford. He put on a long waterproof coat to hide his weapons: a hunting knife, a rifle and two pistols, as well as ammunition. He killed two students and wounded 24. As he reloaded his gun, several students managed to disarm him. In November 1999, Kinkel was sentenced to 111 years in prison without the possibility of parole. At his sentencing, Kinkel apologized to the court for the murders of his parents and school students.

Cindy Collier and Shirley Wolfe

In 1983, Cindy Collier and Shirley Wolfe began looking for victims for their entertainment. Usually it was vandalism or car theft, but one day the girls showed how crazy they really were. One day they knocked on the door of an unfamiliar house, and an elderly woman opened it. Seeing two young girls of 14-15 years old, the old lady without hesitation let them into the house, hoping for an interesting conversation over a cup of tea, and she got it - the girls chatted for a long time with the sweet old lady, entertaining her with interesting stories. Shirley grabbed the old lady by the neck and held her, and Cindy went to the kitchen to get a knife to give it to Shirley. After receiving the knife, Shirley stabbed the old woman 28 times. The girls fled the crime scene, but were soon arrested.

On February 2, 1996, a public high school was destroyed in a shooting and hostage incident. Barry Loucatis put on his best cowboy suit and headed to the office where his class was about to have an algebra lesson. Most of his classmates found Barry's costume ridiculous, and himself even stranger than usual. They didn't know what the suit was hiding, but there were two pistols, a rifle and 78 rounds of ammunition. He opened fire, his first victim being 14-year-old Manuel Vela. A few seconds later, several more people fell victims. The students were held hostage for 10 minutes until the coach outsmarted the boy.
He was also reported to have shouted, “This is more interesting than talking about algebra, isn’t it?” This is a quote from Stephen King's novel Fury, in which the main character kills two teachers and takes the class hostage. Barry is currently serving two life sentences followed by 205 years.

On November 3, 1998, Joshua Phillips was 14 when his neighbor went missing. One morning Joshua's mother was cleaning his room. Mrs Phillips discovered a wet spot under the bed and thought her son's waterbed was leaking. She examined the bed to see if the mattress needed drying, but noticed duct tape holding the frame together. She peeled off the tape and found her son's sock, which was stuffed into a hole in the mattress, but suddenly came across something cold. The flashlight beam illuminated the body of an 8-year-old neighbor named Maddie Clifton, who had been missing for seven days.
To this day, Phillips has not voiced a motive for the murder. He said he accidentally hit the girl in the eye with a baseball bat, she started screaming, he panicked, and then he dragged her into his room and started hitting her until she was silent. The jury didn't believe his story, and he was charged with first-degree murder. Since Joshua was under the age of 16, he escaped the death penalty. But he was given life without the right to be released.

By the age of 15, in 1978, Vili Bosquet's record already included more than 2,000 crimes in New York. He never knew his father, but he knew that the man had been convicted of murder and considered it a "courageous" crime. At that time, in the United States, according to the Criminal Code, there was no criminal liability for minors, so Bosquet boldly walked the streets with a knife or pistol in his pocket. On March 19, 1978, he shot and killed Moises Perez, and on March 27, the namesake of the first victim, Noel Perez.
Ironically, the Willy Bosquet case became a precedent for reconsidering the lack of criminal liability for minors. Under the new law, children as young as 13 can be tried as adults for excessive cruelty.

At age 13, Eric Smith was bullied because of his thick glasses, freckles, long red hair and another feature: protruding, elongated ears. This feature is a side effect of the epilepsy medication his mother took during pregnancy. Smith was accused of killing a four-year-old child named Derrick Robbie. On August 2, 1993, the baby was strangled, his head was pierced with a large stone, and in addition, the child was raped with a small branch.
The psychiatrist diagnosed him with an emotionally unstable personality disorder, due to which a person cannot control his inner anger. Smith was convicted and sent to prison. During his six years in prison, he was denied parole five times.

Who would have thought that constantly watching wrestling competitions could lead to the murder of a six-year-old girl named Tiffany Ownik. Kathleen Grosset-Tate was Tiffany's nanny. One evening Kathleen left the child with her son, who was watching television, while she went upstairs. Around ten in the evening she shouted at the children to be quiet, but did not go downstairs, thinking that the children were playing. Forty-five minutes later, Lionel called his mother, saying that Tiffany was not breathing. He explained that he wrestled with the girl, making a grab, and then slammed her head into the table.
A pathologist later concluded that the girl's death was caused by a ruptured liver. In addition, experts testified to skull and rib fractures, as well as 35 other wounds. Tate later changed his story and said he jumped on the girl from the stairs. He was sentenced to life without parole, but his sentence was overturned in 2001 due to mental incompetence. He was released in 2004 on probation for ten years.

Craig Price (August 1974)

Joan Heaton, 39, and her two daughters, Jennifer, 10, and Melissa, 8, were found in their home on September 4, 1989. The knife was driven into them so hard that it broke off in Melissa's neck. Police reported that Joan had approximately 60 stab wounds, while the girls each had approximately 30. Authorities believed that theft was the main motive for the crime, and that the suspect, when spotted, grabbed a kitchen knife and, in a state of passion, inflicted the wounds . It was also believed that the robber must have been someone from the area and must have had a wound on his arm.
Craig Price was caught by police later that day with his arm in a bandage but said he had smashed a car window. The police didn't believe his story. They searched his room, finding a knife, gloves and other bloody evidence. He also confessed to another murder that took place in the area two years earlier. The authorities suspected him in that case, which also began with theft and ended like the Heaton case. Craig was given a life sentence the day before he turned sixteen.

James Pomeroy, born in November 1859 in Charleston, Massachusetts, is listed as the youngest person convicted of first-degree murder in the state's history. Pomeroy began his abuse of other children at the age of 11. He lured seven children to deserted areas, where he stripped them, tied them up and tortured them using a knife or poking pins into their bodies. He was caught and sent to reform school, where he was to remain until he turned 21. But after a year and a half he was released for good behavior. (Pictured at right is Jesse Pomeroy in 1925)
Three years later, he changed - from a bad guy to a monster. He kidnapped and killed a 10-year-old girl named Katie Curran, and was also charged with the murder of a 4-year-old boy whose mutilated body was found in Dorchester Bay. Despite the lack of evidence of the boy's murder, he was found guilty of Katie's death. The body lay in a pile of ash in the basement of Pomeroy's mother's store. Jesse was sentenced to life in solitary confinement, where he died of natural causes at the age of 72.