Harloween: The Murder of Elizabeth Olten

[Music] hello everybody welcome back to my channel and happy halloween it is truly the most wonderful time of the year today we are talking about a case that is quite shocking and honestly truly horrifying in fact i don't often include trigger warnings but i will for this video i will be discussing um obviously you know a horrible crime but also there's self-harm that is mentioned in this video i won't be going into great detail but i do know it can be a sensitive subject for many people as always i will not be gratuitous and i will always be respectful but this information is relevant to the case so we will be discussing it before we dive in though let's have a word from the sponsor of today's video magellan tv magellan tv is a new kind of documentary streaming service and it is truly television worth watching many of you have already been watching magellan tv you guys let me know what you've been watching and i have a recommendation for you today it's called ladykillers with martina 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have to be honest nothing terrifies me more than a person who takes a life simply for the thrill of it ghosts i can handle i can run right through them i can just leave their consecrated area of haunting there's a million things i could do vampires we've got we've got options right we've got holy water we've got crucifixes garlic sunlight werewolves i mean come on silver bullets there is something for every one of these creepy crawly spooky specters but a true psychopath who hides who pretends to be normal and then who attacks how can you keep yourself safe from that and i believe that the person we're going to talk about in today's video is one of those incredibly terrifying human beings our case today brings us to saint martin's missouri a small town off the beaten path with a population of 1140 in 2009 when nine-year-old elizabeth olton vanished saint martin's is said to be a great place to live and to raise children with a low cost of living and a high quality of life there's virtually no violent crime there and it's considered generally to be a safe small town where everyone knows everyone elizabeth olten was a fourth grader who lived with her mother patty her brother anthony and her sister stephanie in saint martins on wednesday october 21st 2009 elizabeth got home from school and began rehearsing for a school play while her mother started preparing dinner looking back elizabeth's mother paddy said quote she was going to be in a play at school so she was practicing her lines and doing her little songs and irritating her brother end quote at around 5 pm there was a knock on the door and patty opened it to find their neighbor and elizabeth's friend standing outside wanting to know if elizabeth could play emma bustamante was a six-year-old girl who lived with her siblings and grandparents four houses down from the oltons and she and elizabeth would often play at each other's houses or in the large expanse of woods located behind their homes at first patty said no because dinner was going to be ready soon but when the two young girls began to beg her she finally gave in but she instructed elizabeth to be home by 6 pm for dinner paddy would never see her nine-year-old daughter alive again when elizabeth was not home by six paddy began to worry it was october so the sun had already begun to set by then and it was getting dark outside elizabeth loved animals she loved the color pink she loved putting on fancy dresses but she was terrified of the dark so she would always be home before night fell paddy decided to call over to emma's house like you would as a parent if you told your kid to be home at a certain time the kid doesn't come home you're gonna call the parents of the kid your kid is playing with and say hey can you send elizabeth home i told her to be home by six it's dinner time she's not here emma's grandmother karen brook answered the phone and when paddy asked if karen could send elizabeth home karen was confused and she said that her granddaughter emma was home but elizabeth had never been there sure that something was wrong paddy hung up and called the police panicked that she could not find her daughter and worried that elizabeth may have gotten lost in the dark on her way home the police arrived quickly bringing with them volunteers from the fire department and they began to walk through the neighborhood and the surrounding woods yelling elizabeth's name but they found no sign of her patty began calling elizabeth's cell phone repeatedly which was still on but every call went right to voicemail now there's going to be people out there who are like why does this girl have a cell phone she's nine but the reason that elizabeth had a cell phone was because her mother paddy was very protective and very worried and she knew that elizabeth liked to go outside and play with the neighborhood kids but she wanted to make sure she was always able to contact her by 10 pm word had spread through the small close-knit town and hundreds of residents came out in the cold damp darkness hoping to find the missing nine-year-old hiding somewhere scared but unharmed they spread out and searched the woods worried that as temperatures dropped little elizabeth would be getting cold but as they searched through the night it became more clear that elizabeth was not hiding somewhere scared she'd completely vanished when there was still no sign of her the next day law enforcement began pinging her cell phone which acted as a location device as long as it remained powered on the phone pings led back to the 60 acres of woods behind elizabeth's home but this was a very large area so law enforcement brought in cadaver dogs helicopters and dive teams to search the woods ponds and rivers and search teams on foot combed through the trees acre by acre but they found no sign of elizabeth olton and eventually the battery on her cell phone died and the last beacon of hope to finding her location went dark initially law enforcement had considered the worst or at least what they considered to be the worst at that point before realizing that it could get so much worse they assumed that elizabeth had been snatched kidnapped by some nefarious predator under the cover of dark and the question of whether or not the other children of saint martins were safe was on everyone's mind but then they checked elizabeth's cell phone records and found that the last call she'd received the night she'd gone missing had been from a 15 year old girl named alyssa bustamante the older sister of elizabeth's friend and neighbor emma it was at that point the police realized that they needed to look at things a different way the way they would if elizabeth had been an adult who had gone missing they needed to go through the events of her last 24 hours find out who she had spoken to what she had done and then questioned those people they started with the person who had last seen elizabeth emma bustamante a child counselor was brought in this was someone who was trained to question minors during police investigations and emma was sick so that's very appropriate and at first emma told a very simple story she claimed that she and elizabeth had been together they had played outside for about an hour and then they parted ways so elizabeth could go home in time for dinner but then young emma changed her story and she claimed she and elizabeth had been playing in the woods but emma had gotten caught on a thorn bush which was very painful so she called out to her older sister alyssa now that name was familiar and significant to law enforcement already since they knew that alyssa had called elizabeth the night she went missing fifteen-year-old alyssa bustamante was also known to spend a lot of time in the woods she was an outdoor type of girl and she would constantly be out there climbing trees and exploring in the rain sun or snow so she was very familiar with the woods some said she knew them like the back of her hand the night elizabeth went missing alyssa's grandparents karen and gary brooke questioned her on whether or not she had seen elizabeth that day but she just brushed them off and she said that elizabeth had gone home then karen brook and alyssa went to a dance at their church and the brooks thought nothing more about it alyssa may have been struggling under the weight of some issues but she wasn't a bad girl and she and her siblings always played with the olden children who are around their same ages but when alyssa was questioned by law enforcement the truth would come out and the truth was not what anyone was ready to hear nine-year-old elizabeth olton had not been snatched by some predator she wasn't even that far from home but she was no longer alive having been beaten strangled stabbed and in a final act of violence had her throat slit from ear to ear and this hadn't been done at the hands of some ex-convict child predator elizabeth had been killed by her neighbor fifteen-year-old alyssa bustamante who would later tell police she had done it because she wanted to know what it felt like to kill someone alyssa bustamante was born on january 28 1994. her grandmother karen was present at her birth and she was actually the one who caught the umbilical cord karen said that alyssa was the teeniest sweetest baby and for her it was love at first sight but alyssa's own parents seem to be less in love they seem to be less interested in having a baby around it has been reported that alyssa's parents michelle and cesar bustamante were cousins by marriage i don't know how accurate that is i read it in two separate sources but only two so i'm just gonna say that i don't know if it's true alyssa's mother michelle was only 15 years old when she got pregnant with alyssa michelle would go on to give birth to twin boys five years later and a younger daughter named emma after that the family moved around california a lot never able to stay in one place because life for the bustamantes was unstable due to the behavior and activities of michelle and caesar who both racked up criminal records michelle had three misdemeanor criminal convictions including one for drunken driving and another for marijuana possession and caesar was sentenced to 10 years in prison for an undisclosed assault charge however one of alyssa's friends from middle school jennifer meyer told crime cider that caesar had been arrested for stabbing someone but the local police did not deny or confirm this allegation before he went to prison caesar and michelle were heavily into drugs and they drank far too much and caesar would often become physically abusive with the mother of his children when he was locked up though things did not get better michelle was unable to pay rent she was addicted to drugs she was also still drinking and they were constantly getting evicted having to pick up and move so there was really no stability in this home nor was there any attention paid to alyssa and her three younger siblings michelle's parents karen and gary brooke tried to help by sending food and visiting their grandchildren often but it was like putting a band-aid on a bullet wound karen and gary decided it would be better if michelle and the kids lived closer so that they could help more so they got the little family a trailer near to where they lived in california but this almost made things worse this kind of made michelle feel that she could be more absent because someone was close by to pick up the slack she started dating a known drug dealer and she would go off and disappear for days on a drug binge when alyssa was six she witnessed her mother overdose in front of her alissa and her siblings were left to fend for themselves for the most part which of course meant that they usually weren't getting enough to eat and they had this constant air of neglect about them that many children in this situation have you can see it it's a beaten look in their eyes they look like they're not getting taken care of at home they may look dirty they may have messy hair that's not getting brushed and done in the morning they may be not brushing their teeth things like that they just sort of had this wild unkempt look one day karen brook sent her husband gary over to check on michelle and the kids and he came back telling his wife that things were really bad he had gone into the trailer he said his daughter michelle was there but she wasn't really there which makes me feel that she was passed out from drugs or alcohol he said there were beer cans all over the floor there was no food in the refrigerator and their daughter michelle was pretty much just passed out while her children destroyed the place around her gary said that the twin boys especially were out of control in fact he called them farrell gary said they were absolutely wild they would sleep on the floor they refused to sleep in a bed and even though they were only three years old at this time they were punching holes into the walls after a year of this michelle's parents realized that their daughter was not going to step up and be a parent to her children at least not yet she was not ready she wasn't there maybe she hadn't hit rock bottom but it wasn't going to do any good to just wait for her to suddenly become mother of the year so in 2001 their local sheriff's office advised the brooks to petition for full custody of alyssa and her three younger siblings so when alyssa was eight she left her mother and began to live with her grandparents which i'm sure was a much better home situation but at such a young age it probably felt a lot like abandonment the number of children being removed from their homes due to parental drug abuse has doubled since 2014. according to the nih the family remains a primary source of attachment nurturing and socialization for children so when that family is plagued by drug or alcohol addiction which leads to other issues such as unmet developmental needs impaired attachment economic hardship emotional distress and legal battles children in these homes grow up not knowing what is safe and what isn't and not really understanding boundaries they also grow up with strong feelings of abandonment and guilt which can lead them to feel that they are worthless because if their own parents don't care about them well who the hell should we discussed this a bit in our serial killers video but children are very focused on two things they're focused on why things happen and they're focused on themselves because they're self-centered as they should be at a young age but because of these two important things in their heads wondering why things are happening and also mainly focusing on themselves they tend to identify themselves as the source of whatever problem exists and they think it's their fault that their parents don't want them about a year after getting custody karen and gary brooke decided to leave california and move to st martin's missouri feeling that the kids their grandchildren would have a better chance at a normal life in a more rural area where there was space to run and play and be kids they bought a nice little house located on a large ranch and the children seemed to thrive there especially the twin boys who once they had a lot of space to run in you know trees to climb stuff to jump on and jump off they turned into actually well-behaved little boys who slept in beds under the care and attention of their grandparents but it seemed that maybe alyssa had experienced and seen too much in her young life when she was eight and her grandparents first took her in they recalled that she would behave like a four-year-old they said they would go out shopping and alyssa would get down on her hands and knees pretending to be different animals and crawl around making animal noises or she would run through the aisles and clothing racks knocking things down and making scenes they said other shoppers at the store would look at gary and karen as if they were wondering you know isn't she a bit too old to be acting this way why don't you stop this but the brooks claimed there was no stopping it alissa was holding on to far too much trauma and acting out was the only way she knew how to behave it was the only way she could bring herself some sort of peace i guess alyssa's grandfather gary said quote she'd never talked about what her core issues were because we know she had experienced bad things before we got her and she would never talk about it but because of that background she thought all adults were the enemy and therefore could not be confided in end quote it didn't really help that alyssa's mother michelle had promised to visit her children regularly once they were in missouri but she never kept that promise and karen brook believes this left alyssa feeling abandoned all over again karen recalled walking by alice's room and seeing her cuddled under the blankets of her bed sobbing feeling hopeless that her mother was never coming back and they would never be a family again alyssa's coping mechanisms went from acting out in stores to things that were much darker and much more damaging she started popping pills basically she would take anything she could get her hands on and she began having violent and suicidal thoughts alyssa began to live something of a double life at school she was well liked she dressed normally she wore very light makeup and she was considered to be bright she was in the top third of her class and she never allowed her grades to drop below a b her teachers said alyssa was smart and never had behavioral problems but when the eyes of adults were not on her alissa was a different person as we can see from her active social media presence she had a youtube channel and in her about section she listed her hobbies as cutting and killing people and she gave her location as somewhere i don't want to be her profile pictures show her posing her teeth bared with red lipstick smeared all over her mouth and chin designed to look like blood and as she showed off her dark kabuki style eye makeup in these pictures scars on her arms and wrists can be seen scars that were self-inflicted on her twitter page alyssa talked about depression addiction and terror saying quote all i want in life is a reason for all this pain end quote her friends at school also remembered being creeped out by some of the things she would ask them one of the questions alyssa asked was had her friends ever wondered what it was like to kill someone and another friend remembered being at alyssa's house for her birthday party when alyssa took her aside and said quote i just wonder what it would be like to kill someone see the life just drain out of someone i wonder what it would feel like that type of power to take that away from someone end quote i mean did she ever talk about wanting to hurt people um no just kind of in a joking manner but not actually like well one specific time it was on her birthday 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 but you wouldn't logically think one of your friends would kill somebody you know so hmm and this was what what birthday party like what how old were you uh this year was in january in january she came to you and said i wonder what would it be like to kill someone how did you respond i just kind of looked at her you know and i was like are you serious and she said yeah and then she just kind of walked away and i was like i thought it was kind of strange you know but i didn't think anything of it afterwards do you ever hear her speak of that again between then and um no she would get mad at people and i know that she would like hit her sister a lot and get mad at her but i don't think that she would actually you know kill somebody up until what happened but these friends said for the most part they didn't take her seriously alyssa had a habit of saying dark things like this but she would revert to behaving completely normally when the shock on the faces of her friends registered she realized she'd gone too far in a video on her youtube channel titled idiots getting electrocuted by an electric fence alyssa can be seen with her two younger twin brothers they are playing at a horse paddock near their grandparents home and alyssa urges her brothers to touch the electric fence saying to the camera this is where it gets good this is where my brothers get hurt [Music] oh okay many experts have looked at this as well as alyssa's other behaviors and these experts feel that alyssa had a sadistic need to hurt others and she got a lot of pleasure and release from doing this she got the same pleasure and release when she hurt herself by the time she was 15 alyssa had no less than 300 self-inflicted cuts on her body they were mostly slashes to her arms and wrists but she had also carved words into her body words like hate and pain accompanied by pictures of a pentagram a heart with a line through it signifying a broken heart and an upside down peace sign cutting would give alyssa temporary relief from the emotional turmoil inside of her but this piece was short-lived and without fail it always came back triggering an endless cycle of self-harm and self-loathing alyssa would also burn herself with matches and leave bite marks on her own skin alyssa's friend jennifer meyer claimed to know that alyssa was cutting because she noticed the scars on her arms and alyssa talked about suicide sometimes jennifer said alyssa had even attempted suicide a few times one of these times had been over labor day weekend when alyssa was 13. she had swallowed an entire bottle of tylenol and she was found passed out in the bathroom by her grandmother karen who then called an ambulance alyssa was taken to the hospital her stomach was pumped thankfully she was okay she didn't suffer any permanent organ damage but from the hospital alyssa was sent to a mental health facility where she stayed for two months she claimed she'd been so depressed she didn't even want to get out of bed she just wanted to die and even though she was so young at this time alyssa was put on 20 milligrams of prozac daily she began to see several counselors and therapists and underwent intensive outpatient treatment so when law enforcement was finally able to sit down with alyssa bustamante and ask her questions about her missing nine-year-old neighbor alyssa was completely calm and collected the entire time she showed no signs of distress or concern she spoke evenly as she sat down with the fbi and claimed she had no idea what had happened to elizabeth olton alyssa also told the police you know i skipped school today like i wasn't at school but i have no idea what happened to elizabeth she was playing with my sister and then she went home during the interview some searchers who were in the woods came across what they believed was a freshly dug hole a shallow grave but there was nothing inside the hole the fbi was notified of this discovery and when they were notified of this discovery they happened to be interviewing alyssa so they brought alyssa along with them to the woods missouri highway patrol sergeant david rice was already there with the forensics team when he saw two fbi agents walk up with a teenage girl and he overheard this teenage girl aka alyssa tell the agents that she liked to dig holes in the woods and bury dead animals in them and obviously this comment combined with the calm matter-of-fact way in which alyssa said it raised some red flags for law enforcement so they decided to get a warrant so they could search alyssa's home with a special focus on her bedroom when the evidence agent opened the door to alyssa's bedroom it was a terrifying sight nothing like they had expected the bedroom of a 15 year old girl to look like the walls were covered in crude pictures and writings some of the writings looked like they were made with pen or marker others looked as if they had been written in blood there was also a stick figure drawing of a person with slash marks through their head and arms and the name emma was written next to it emma was alyssa's six-year-old sister there were letters and cards taped to the walls things sent from her father caesar who was still in prison they also found a poem written by alyssa which illustrated her fascination with self-harm and she wrote in this poem quote i cut to see blood because i like it and underneath a blanket on the bed a journal was found the authorities have not released a lot of information about what this journal contained but we know a little about it enough alyssa had written disturbing things she wrote about wanting to burn a house down while there was a family inside of it she also talked about her emotions and her dark feelings saying quote if i don't talk about it i bottle it up and when i explode someone's gonna die end quote that was written a week before little elizabeth olton went missing and on october 21st the day nine-year-old elizabeth had walked away from her house and never returned the police found alyssa's final diary entry the entire entry had been scratched out with blue ink leaving only the words k i gotta go to church now lol but back at the lab authorities used a black light to decipher the rest the words that alyssa bustamante had scratched out of her journal with blue pen on the day elizabeth olton went missing are as follows quote i just [ __ ] killed someone i strangled them and slit their throat and stabbed them now they're dead it was amazing as soon as you get over the oh my god i can't do this feeling it's pretty enjoyable i'm kind of nervous and shaky though right now okay i gotta go to church now lol what do you think about that dale cooper i know man that's pretty messed up it's it's messed up it's messed up dale the next morning alyssa bustamante was brought to fbi headquarters where she sat down for an interview with sergeant david rice rice decided to tell alyssa what he had the journal and then he waited for her to respond sergeant rice said quote silence is very effective during an interview or interrogation because people feel very uncomfortable in silence there were pauses i believe that were up to 45 seconds to a minute long and you could see the stress affecting alyssa you could see her eyes begin to tremor and her head begin to shake end quote i mean she's a 15 year old girl i know she's she's probably evil okay but she's a 15 year old girl usually doesn't take much to scare them especially the the psychopaths whose greatest fear really is getting caught sergeant rice claims that once he brought up the journal he could see a distinct shift in alyssa's demeanor and at that point he believed that she knew she'd been found out at first alyssa claimed that she and elizabeth had been walking in the woods when elizabeth fell and then just died instantly that was that was what she said they were walking elizabeth fell and then she died patiently sergeant rice explained to alyssa that once they recovered elizabeth's body an autopsy was going to show them every injury on her body an autopsy would show how elizabeth had actually died finally sergeant rice asked alyssa directly if elizabeth's throat had been slit recalling alyssa's words in her journal and alyssa responded yes at that point her grandmother karen who'd been sitting next to her during this interview began to cry and she had to get up and leave the room later karen brook would claim she was upset that the police continued with their interrogation after she left since alyssa was a minor so as sympathetic as i am to karen's plight i kind of i mean like yes alyssa was a minor but she basically just confessed to slitting a nine-year-old girl's throat so maybe karen thought like getting up and leaving the room would stop the interview so that alyssa would not implicate herself any further and so karen was upset when that didn't happen but when a bombs dropped like that and then you karen decided to get up and leave the room for whatever reason a because you wanted the interview to stop and you didn't want to listen to dig yourself deeper or b because like it was horrifying and you couldn't be present to hear it i mean how do you think elizabeth olton's family feels you should have stayed there if you wanted to be present during the interview and i know there's going to be people out there who disagree with me and they're like absolutely not that's not the law but when you have something like this and you have a nine-year-old who's missing probably dead and then you have a 15 year old who's writing about how she gets off on killing people in her journal and then happily skipping off to church and then that 15 year old is like yeah actually i am the one that killed elizabeth yeah her throat was slit and then karen's just gonna walk out like that's just gonna put an end to it like oh you know redo redo i'm gonna come back in here we'll start this interview from the beginning you know it just it bothers me um so i know there's gonna be people that disagree with me and i welcome it and you are more than welcome to disagree with me we can still be friends if we don't have the same opinions alyssa bustamante finally told the truth she said she had convinced her little sister emma to lure elizabeth olton out of her home and once emma had delivered elizabeth to her alyssa instructed her sister to go back home once they were alone alyssa told little elizabeth that she had something cool to show her but they would need to walk through the woods for about 15 minutes and excited to see this cool thing that emma's cool big sister had to show her elizabeth agreed because she liked alyssa she trusted alyssa she'd played with alyssa before she looked up to alyssa so alyssa bustamante held elizabeth olton's hand as they walked through the woods and alyssa led elizabeth not to something cool that a nine-year-old would want to see but to a pre-dug grave the friday before this alyssa had gotten on the school bus as normal and arrived at school in the morning like any other weekday but she never actually made it into the building instead she had walked back to the woods behind her house and dug two graves already knowing that she was going to be taking a life that makes this murder premeditated then alyssa went back to school and took the afternoon bus home like any other day in her room police found muddy jeans and clothes and two shovels with dirt on them alyssa had also planned ahead with the murder weapon grabbing a knife from her grandmother's kitchen and hiding it in her book bag when they arrived at the pre-dug grave alyssa removed the knife and while nine-year-old elizabeth was facing her alyssa began to strangle her with her own bare hands alyssa then took the kitchen knife and stabbed elizabeth in the chest seven times before slicing her throat from ear to ear and pushing her into the grave covering her with dirt and leaves and then walking away to let her die alone in that hole and go right in her journal about how awesome the experience had been and then skipping off to church like a good little girl alyssa led police to the spot where she had left elizabeth she knew exactly where it was and sergeant rice said quote it was not well covered once she pointed out the area and you looked a little bit closer you could see she was only a few inches if that under the ground and you could see body parts that came up covered with mud end quote if that's the case had all your searchers in your helicopters and your cadaver dogs miss elizabeth what's going on here sergeant rice what's going on now it looked as if alyssa bustamante had been thinking about this and planning this for some time if you remember prior to this at her 15th birthday party alyssa had told her friend jennifer that she wondered what it would be like to see the life drain out of someone and to have that kind of power to take life away from another person alyssa did something that very few women do and even less children do the method she had chosen to kill was brutal violent up close and personal she looked her victim in the face as she killed her she wanted to be hands on and she didn't want to just strangle elizabeth she wanted to stab her and slice her and inflict as much pain and terror as she possibly could on nine-year-old elizabeth olton this kind of murder is usually seen in older violent criminals who have psychopathic tendencies and usually they are men so alyssa bustamante is a very rare case authorities say it was in a wooded area where alyssa bustamate dug two holes in the ground to be used as a grave alton's disappearance last october sparked a massive search with hundreds of volunteers scouring the area and her older sister making this emotional plea for her safe return we just want my little sister home safely and i don't know who would have done anything police say there was no provocation in the killing when they asked bustamante why all she said was that she wanted to know what it felt like nine-year-old elizabeth olton loved music especially hannah montana and taylor swift her aunt said that being around elizabeth was quote like when you see the morning sun pop over the mountain that's what she was she was sunshine and you can't help but love her end quote elizabeth had never met an animal she didn't like she was especially fond of cats and horses and some of her favorite things to do were baking with her mother patty doing puzzles and playing dress up with her stuffed animals and on wednesday october 28 2009 nine-year-old elizabeth olton was laid to rest in a pink coffin carried by a horse-drawn carriage to the cemetery she was a princess mourners wore pink her favorite color and released balloons and as the casket was lowered into the ground those in attendance could not stop the tears from falling from their eyes unfortunately there were two members of elizabeth's family who were unable to say their goodbyes her father dale olton senior and her brother dale olton jr who were both behind bars on burglary charges at northeast correctional center in bowling green missouri the two men had tried to get a furlough to attend the funeral but they were denied and that's really another sad slice of the story elizabeth was taken from her mother paddy who'd already lost so much a husband and a son in prison and patty didn't even have her husband to lean on during this time to take some of the burden from her because you know when you have something happen to your child having a spouse there to take some of the weight to handle some of the attention to be a point of comfort and understanding for you since this is the only other person in the world who can understand the loss you're feeling it's helpful and patty just didn't have that and dale senior and dale jr never knew that the last time they saw elizabeth before going to prison was actually the last time they were ever going to see her and they were unable to say their proper goodbyes and that is the butterfly effect that violent crime has it's not just the victim but the victim's family members the perpetrators family members and the community as a whole so many people are affected by the ripple effect of one person's actions alyssa bustamante was charged with first-degree murder and even though she had confessed and led police to the location of her victim's body she entered a not guilty plea because you know why not you miss 100 of the shots you don't take right all right as fifteen-year-old alyssa busamanti was arraigned for the vicious murder of nine-year-old elizabeth olton the teenager wearing green jail garb hid her face behind heavy bangs as her lawyer spoke for her we're here for today for the purposes of arraignment on the charge mr king ms bustamante will waive formal arraignment and enter please of not guilty all right on november 18 2009 alyssa was certified as an adult so basically they wanted to charge her as an adult because they believed that this was a crime of the adult nature cole county circuit judge john beatum ruled that her crime had been vicious and the state's juvenile facilities were not adequate to deal with someone who would commit such a crime and you really have to look at this um we have to feel bad for alyssa for a minute because she's only 15. and then we have to understand this probably was the best call because alyssa killed elizabeth just for the thrill of it to see what it felt like and while there's never a good motive for murder this one would have to be the most pointless and senseless and selfish of them all so it probably wouldn't be a great idea to put alissa in some minimum security juvenile facility with other young people who she could potentially hurt if the urge to kill came over her again after this alyssa was transferred to the coal county jail where she would be held without bond as she waited for her trial the trial was to be held in jefferson county but the jury would be selected from greene county which was about three and a half hours away i assume they did this in an attempt to try and counter the publicity of this case hoping that residents of these neighboring counties would be less aware of the crime and also less attached to the victim of the crime because as i said this was a small town saint martins was small everyone knew everyone everyone loved elizabeth and i agree that alyssa probably would not have gotten a fair trial if the jury had been selected from within her own community the same community that had just cried at the gravesite of her nine-year-old victim in preparation for the trial the prosecution took the knife used in the murder as well as alyssa's clothes for dna testing but the test they performed consumed the whole sample so the defense team was unable to conduct their own independent dna testing the defense did have a win though if you can consider it that i mean it's not a win for elizabeth it's a win for alyssa a judge ruled that part of alyssa's statements to the police would be inadmissible in court judge patricia joyce claimed that a juvenile officer named toby mayer wrongly participated in the interview of alyssa and she used deceptive tactics while encouraging the teen to tell the truth about what had happened to elizabeth olton judge joyce stated quote miss mayer used deceptive tactics during the interrogation of a defendant by telling the defendant that she was there as her advocate this deception likely misled the defendant into believing that miss mayor was there to look after her best interests when in fact this was not her role end quote apparently the role of the juvenile officer is to observe and make sure the juveniles rights are protected but apparently also toby mayer was urging alyssa to tell the truth and allegedly she also told alyssa that the juvenile court's only focus was treatment which implied that alyssa would not be facing adult punishments for her actions i don't know how much i agree with this judge's ruling because when toby mayer told alyssa like the only role of the juvenile court is you know rehabilitation we want to help you want to treat you she was right but she wasn't speaking for law enforcement she wasn't speaking for the police now i understand how alyssa may have been under the impression that toby mayer was saying you know just let us know what you did and we'll make sure you get help but also did alyssa really think that she was going to brutally murder a nine-year-old girl and then just spend like a year in juvie and all would be forgiven and forgotten i mean come on so when the judge said this about toby mayer it was in reference to a portion of alyssa's interview that has never been released or revealed and i don't think i'm alone here when i say i need to know what alyssa said in that interview that was suppressed because what we do know already that she said is bone chilling so i i honestly can't imagine like how bad this was what did she say in the interview that her defense team fought so hard to get suppressed and the judge actually did surprise say what was said i need to know for over a year alyssa bustamante stood by her not guilty plea but on january 9 2012 she withdrew her not guilty plea and agreed to plead guilty to a lesser charge of second-degree murder she made this decision the day before her trial started so basically alyssa was given a plea deal first degree murder off the table and she waived her right to a jury trial but as a condition of her plea deal alyssa needed to get up in front of the courtroom and go through the events of that fateful day when elizabeth olton was brutally ripped from this world the court was filled with family members of both alyssa and elizabeth as well as many locals who just wanted to witness the murder trial of a child basically like they didn't think that they would ever have a chance to see a 15 year old on trial for murder again these are cases that become historical not so much now though right it feels like every other month or something we hear about some 15 or 16 or 13 year old doing something absolutely terrible the seattle times wrote quote alyssa bustamante looked down her long brown hair covering her teenage eyes i'm sorry i have to interrupt i have to interrupt what exactly are teenage eyes this this writer needs to be fired her teenage eyes the article goes on to say quote as a judge read the charges against her murder and armed criminal action for knowingly strangling cutting and stabbing her nine-year-old neighbor end quote but when alyssa was seated in the witness box and asked to tell the court what she had done she stared straight ahead she spoke in a clear even voice untinged by any emotion at all she said she had strangled elizabeth with her hands and used the knife for the rest of the attack and while most people in the courtroom already knew the gruesome details no one had ever heard it from melissa's own lips or in this very monotone way that she said it which is incredibly creepy her testimony sent shock waves through the watching crowd eliciting gasps and sobs from those in attendance elizabeth's mother paddy cried silently as she sat through the testimony she was wearing a purple shirt with a picture of her daughter on it and the words justice for elizabeth elizabeth's friends and family were outraged when they'd found out that alyssa was not being charged with first degree murder as they should have been right because the crime was obviously premeditated and the prosecution had proof of premeditation which makes a first degree murder but whatever after court prosecutor mark olson would not answer questions about why he had decided to offer alyssa the deal but the seattle times wrote that several factors could have influenced the reduced charges the legality of sentencing a teenage murderer to life in prison without parole is very much a gray area still and as alyssa's trial was going on the supreme court was actually getting ready to hear arguments in a different case involving two 14-year-old killers who'd been convicted in arkansas and alabama the supreme court needed to decide if life in prison could be considered cruel and unusual punishment for teenagers ben trachtenberg a law professor at columbia he felt that the prosecution may have given the plea deal to alyssa just to take that sentence off the table the life in prison sentence and not have to keep going back and forth to court on the multiple appeals that alyssa would most likely file especially if the supreme court ruled it was cruel and unusual to put a teenage murderer behind bars for life i'm also want to go on the record of saying that i think it's sad to put a teenage murderer behind bars for life but i i don't think it's cruel and unusual i think it's called consequences consequences the consequences should match the crime and i'm not talking about like vehicular manslaughter or accidental things i'm talking about specifically what we're talking about here with alyssa's case that deserves life in prison alyssa's defense team brought in multiple experts who testified that she was not in her right mind at the time of the murder the defense witnesses claimed that alyssa suffered from major depression she displayed features of borderline personality disorder and she was showing early signs of bipolar disorder that's a lot of diagnoses right lots of them especially for somebody as young as alyssa a psychiatrist testified that alyssa's prescribed depression medicine may have also contributed to her violent behavior her prozac dosage had been increased just two weeks before the murder and this may have made alyssa more prone to unpredictable behavior and violence but dr anthony rothschild the main prosecution witness he on the second day of trial said that that was nonsense it was nonsense that too much prozac would turn alyssa into a murderer since the medication has been known and proven to reduce hostility and anger in people like alyssa who suffered from depression or borderline personality disorder the defense needed to prove that alyssa was not in her right mind at the time of the murder that she did not know what she was doing was wrong but given the diary entry written directly after the murder given the premeditation of digging the two graves of stealing a knife and of luring her victim into the woods that was essentially impossible to do alyssa's grandmother karen remembered that on the night of the murder alyssa was in better spirits than usual while they were getting ready to go to church she had a pep in her step and she was dancing and singing because alyssa like so many others who kill for the thrill of it she was riding high on a wave of euphoric adrenaline that she'd received after brutally killing another human being psychology today says that thrill killers quote come to crave the euphoric adrenaline rush provided by stalking and capturing their victims the primary motive of thrill killers is to induce pain or terror in their victims prior to killing them which provides intense stimulation and excitement end quote some infamous thrill killers include israel keys leopold and loeb and now alyssa bustamante at the end of the day most of the doctors who testified even the defense witnesses said that alyssa knew right from wrong and she was found guilty on february 6 alissa was in court again for her sentencing hearing and mark richardson the prosecutor made an impassioned plea to the judge to hand down the highest sentence life in prison mark richardson said quote the motive has to be the most senseless most reprehensible there could be in humankind and that is to take a life for a thrill end quote i agree thank you mark richardson i agree richardson talked about the hundreds of people who had been searching for elizabeth alton the man hours the resources used to locate her the terror and sadness of her family in those days when elizabeth was missing and while hundreds of people in the community were searching for elizabeth alyssa went skipping off to a church dance buzzing from her temporary high mark richardson urged the judge to hand down the maximum sentence for second-degree murder which is life in prison with the possibility of parole and an additional 71 years for armed criminal action 71 years would have been elizabeth olton's remaining life expectancy the judge listened and then said that she would announce the sentence the next day at which point elizabeth's grandmother who was sitting in her wheelchair in the courtroom shouted out i think alyssa should get out of jail the same day elizabeth gets out of the grave can we have a round of applause we have a round of applause for elizabeth's grandmother in her wheelchair still being a bad [ __ ] on february 8th alyssa addressed the court once more saying quote i really am extremely very sorry for everything i know words can never be enough and they can never adequately describe how horribly i feel for all of this if i could give my life to get her back i would i'm sorry end quote i don't believe you alyssa i don't believe i believe you might be sorry i believe that she was sorry she was sorry she got caught she may have even at some points felt a little sorry that she had killed elizabeth but i don't think she would give her life to get elizabeth back elizabeth's mother later told reporters that she did not believe alyssa was sorry she was just saying words her defense team had coached her to say alyssa was then sentenced to life in prison several months after the trial the u.s supreme court ruled that juveniles cannot face automatic life sentence without the possibility of parole but alyssa had the possibility of parole she appealed anyway claiming her original lawyers were ineffective the judge ruled that alyssa's request to set aside her guilty plea and her sentence was meritless and her original attorneys had not been deficient in fact i do believe they put on the best defense for her possible given the facts of what they were dealing with which was pretty much a very unsympathetic figure who had confessed to everything in a very cold-blooded sort of way like the police and stuff who talked to her the ones who interviewed her these are grown-ass men who have seen some things in their lives in their law enforcement careers and they said that talking to her and hearing the way that she described what happened it chilled them like they were freaked out by it creeped out by it the judge also said that the evidence against alyssa was both strong and aggravating mark richardson the county cole prosecutor said that alyssa had committed an adult-like crime so she had been given an adult-like sentence and justice had been served in june of 2021 a national crime victim advocacy group petitioned missouri governor mike parson to veto a criminal justice bill senate bill 26 which deals with several public safety issues but also included in the bill was a change to the state's parole rules it would allow a person convicted of a crime who was sentenced to at least a 15-year sentence when they were a minor to ask for parole after 15 years of incarceration an online petition was started on behalf of elizabeth olton's family because if that bill would pass then alissa would be eligible for it alyssa is supposed to have a parole hearing in 2044 but if sb 26 went through she'd be eligible in 2027. and if the law or whoever's making these parole decisions decided to measure the time that alyssa had been in prison from the moment of incarceration like when she was jailed before her trial she could be getting parole as early as 2024 the statement from this group said quote bustamante fantasized about murdering people devised a plan to murder elizabeth and then carried out the murder she poses a significant risk and should not be allowed to victimize others ever again end quote by the way the bill passed in the senate 23-9 so there's that another odd thing is there's a pretty active alissa bustamante fan club online because of course the internet has brought us many magical things but it has also brought together large swaths of people who can connect on their obsessive idolization of murderers like chris watts and ted bundy who i think we can all agree are two people only a mother could love you have people writing that the state is ruining alyssa's life and taking away her chance to be a mother by keeping her in prison can you imagine alyssa bustamante a mother can you imagine yes every murderer who chooses a nine-year-old as their victim should definitely just plan on getting pregnant asap people are out there creating artwork of alyssa there's a fan page on facebook and all these social media accounts of people emulating her using her name using her profile picture and then like posting on twitter and stuff as if they were her it's all very macabre but basically that's where we're at and when i say that's where we're at i mean that's where we're at in the video with the case but that's also where we're at in society where murderers are literally looked up to as these pop culture figures they get these cult followings it's very uh bizarre but where's elizabeth olton's fan club where's elizabeth olton's artwork where's elizabeth olton's supporters on the internet talking about how you know maybe alyssa stole elizabeth's opportunity to become a mother or to graduate from high school or to get her first kiss or to walk down the aisle towards her waiting husband or wife for whatever she decided to do where's elizabeth olton's cult following that's what i want to know so i know there's some of you that probably feel like i went a little hard on alyssa bustamante in this video that is your opinion you are entitled to it we all have different life experiences that lead us to develop the core values that we have as adults my core values are don't kill people okay do whatever else you want but don't hurt anyone you can do whatever you want you can be whoever you want you can walk around with a zebra hat on all the time that you've named ted and you decorate for different holidays i will not judge you for anything the second you hurt another person for your own selfish needs that's when uh i don't i don't care about you anymore there's enough good people in this world for me to give my you know advocacy to my love to my attention to without having to extend it now to people that just hurt other people simply to do it simply for the thrill of it and i truly truly believe one million percent that if alyssa had not been caught for what happened to elizabeth olton she would have killed again alyssa has been referred to in many psychological profiles when talking about female psychopaths and i believe that's exactly what she is i don't think this is a run-of-the-mill sort of oh one-time accidental thing her own psychiatrists said that she got enjoyment and pleasure out of hurting other people and at the end of the day although alyssa may have been clinically depressed she was taking medication that part of her issues could have been helped with proper counseling and therapy and medication but i don't believe she was mentally ill in the way where it makes her criminally not responsible because psychopathy is a personality disorder it's not a mental illness and this girl has a personality disorder there's no cure for psychopathy they can't be rehabilitated they can't be you know changed they can't be made to be better you just pretty much have to lock them up and keep them away from society and i do believe that's what has to happen with alyssa and i mean alyssa has appealed her her sentence and her conviction more than once at this point so clearly she's itching to get out she's itching to get out so that she can just blend back into society will she kill again after being in prison this long i don't know will that be enough of a deterrent for her not to probably not not if she's an actual psychopath punishment doesn't deter actual psychopaths especially when they are not given the full punishment that they're supposed to be given they think that they can get away with anything they think that uh they are smarter than everybody and they're above everyone else and alyssa allegedly in my opinion might think hey me being able to convince these people that i was just this innocent 15 year old girl who had a hard life yes we're sorry for that alyssa we are very sorry that sucks however look at your two younger brothers and your little sister who all experienced the same things who all had this very rough start and turned out to be you know pretty good kids look at all the other hundreds and thousands of people out there who go through what you went through alyssa and oftentimes worse sexual abuse physical abuse just torture at the hands of parents and adults who don't grow up to slit the throat of a nine-year-old girl so that's not an excuse for me it never will be we'll just have to see what happens if alyssa gets out though i can tell you what i'm gonna be locking my door up a little tighter at night especially after this video cause you might not like what i have to say so that is it for today's video i hope you guys enjoyed it i hope you got something out of it i hope that this is thought provoking and is going to make a lot of interesting conversations in the comment section debates that i can jump in on be respectful to each other be respectful to yourself it's a very sad case it's sad for everybody involved i feel horrible for elizabeth i do have sympathy for alyssa for what she went through in her life that sucks any time a kid is neglected or abused or doesn't just get to have this very light-hearted carefree childhood that they deserve and that every kid should have it's heartbreaking to me and i wish i could go back in time and just find little you know six-year-old alissa and scoop her up and take her away from it all and get her ice cream and bring her to the beach and let her put her little toes in the sand and swim in the water and just be carefree and happy and grow up to have a normal life but i don't even know if that would have been enough for someone like her i don't know thank you guys so much for being here i'm so happy that we are you know plowing through plowing through plowing through harloween the next video i have is so interesting guys i hope you watch it i know you might look at the title and you might be like this isn't on my alley but trust me it's crazy it gets creepy so many interesting things i learned so much from researching uh this next video i'm so excited to bring it to you guys don't forget to subscribe if you haven't already i'll wait hit the subscribe button because there's a lot of you who watch regularly who aren't subscribed hit the subscribe button hit the like button if you liked it hit the share button if you think it's worth sharing don't forget to follow crime weekly my podcast that i co-host every single week with ex police detective derek lavasser it's on audio platforms every friday and on youtube every wednesday links are in the description as is the link for magellan tv for you to get your free one month trial thank you so much for being here stay kind stay beautiful and stay spooky i'll see you very soon [Music] bye's going straight down [Music] [Music] you don't know how deep it goes until it's getting you slowly so you got to let it go i got blood blood on the stream [Music] [Applause] [Music]

Channel: Stephanie Harlowe

Views: 428,726

Rating: 4.9241896 out of 5

Keywords: harloween, Stephanie harlowe, Elizabeth olten, Alyssa bustamante, true crime, mystery

Id: z8WQt2ChjW8

Length: 65min 28sec (3928 seconds)

Published: Wed Oct 06 2021