A Regular Day
It was a normal day in St. Martins, Missouri, for the Olten family. It was only a week before Halloween, and the woods surrounding their home were covered in fallen leaves. It was a lovely day, so naturally, nine-year-old Elizabeth Olten wanted to go out and play.
Her mother, Patty Preiss, was at home with Elizabeth and her other two children, Anthony and Stephanie. She was about to start making dinner and Elizabeth was practicing her lines for the upcoming school play. Then, there was a knock on the door.
Going Outside
Patty opened the door to find six-year-old Emma Bustamante, their neighbor and a good friend of Elizabeth. She asked Patty if Elizabeth could come out and play, but she wasn't sure.
The neighborhood was extremely safe and nothing bad ever happened there, but it was getting late and dinner would be ready soon. Elizabeth really wanted to go play with Emma, so Patty told her to come back home in an hour. Then, the two girls left.
Getting Late
An hour passed, but there was no sign of Elizabeth. It is normal for kids to get carried away playing and not realize they're late, but that never happened to Elizabeth.
She always came back home when she was supposed to or at least called her mom to let her know she was OK. Patty wasted no time and went to Emma's house to see if the girls were there.
No Sign Of Elizabeth
When Patty arrived at Emma's house, she found Emma there, but there was no sign of Elizabeth. Emma Bustamante lived with her grandma and three siblings, so Patty asked Emma if she could talk to her grandma.
Emma's grandma was shocked to hear that Emma had been playing with Elizabeth, because she had no idea. In fact, Emma had been home for a while, and Elizabeth never set foot on their home.
Calling The Police
Patty then called the police. It was as if Elizabeth had vanished out of thin air and nobody had seen her. The last person to ever see her was a six-year-old girl who was extremely confused by the whole situation.
When asked about what happened to Elizabeth, Emma said that they were playing and then Elizabeth started walking home on her own. That was the last time anyone saw Elizabeth alive.
The Search Begins
The police arrived after 15 minutes and the search for Elizabeth began. They went straight to the woods behind her house, which is where the children usually played. All neighbors also quickly joined the search.
Meanwhile, Emma was interviewed by police. She had been the last person to see Elizabeth alive, so any information the little girl could provide was important. But she told police the same story: Elizabeth walked home alone when they were done playing, and that was it.
More Questions
Children's minds don't work the same way an adult's mind works. The police knew they had to be careful and ask the right questions to help the six-year-old remember exactly what happened when Elizabeth went missing.
After asking a few more questions, Emma mentioned something she had forgotten before: she and Elizabeth weren't playing alone. They were in the woods with Emma's older sister, Alyssa.
Another Girl Missing
According to Emma, Elizabeth somehow injured herself and Alyssa went to help her because she could hear Elizabeth ask for help. That's all she could remember, so now it was time to find Alyssa and asked her what happened.
When Elizabeth went missing, all children in the neighborhood had to be accounted for. Everyone seemed to be there, except for one: Alyssa.
Alyssa Comes In The Picture
Alyssa was 15 years old, so it was normal for her to go out on her own and come back late. But the fact that Emma mentioned Alyssa was also one of the last people to see Elizabeth made police suspicious, and even more considering that she was also missing during the search.
Why was Alyssa suddenly gone while people were looking for Elizabeth? The police had a hunch, so they needed to locate Alyssa and interrogate her as soon as possible.
GPS Signals
It had been 24 hours since Elizabeth went missing, and there was no sign of her. The search party found nothing, and all they had was Elizabeth's GPS records that showed that her cellphone had been active in the woods behind her house before being turned off.
The next day, Alyssa was interviewed. She told police that she had no idea where Elizabeth could be, and she seemed convincing. The police could not get any more information out of her, so they let her go.
Suspicions
Because of the GPS signals, the police knew that Elizabeth was probably still in the woods and feared the worst: she was most likely no longer alive. This missing persons case was quickly turning into a murder investigation, and the police had one suspect.
The police got a warrant to search Emma and Alyssa's home, and what they found inside confirmed their suspicions. Alyssa's room looked like something out of a horror movie.
Alyssa's Room
The walls in Alyssa's room were covered in bizarre writings, some written in pen, but others in blood. There were all kinds of strange drawings and poems referring to self harm and blood.
But something that seemed unimportant at first turned out to be the biggest piece of evidence in this whole case. In her bedroom, the police found Alyssa's journal, and one entry in particular sent shivers down the investigators' spines.
The Journal
The journal's last entry was on October 21, 2009, the day when Elizabeth went missing. But this entry was completely scribbled out, making it illegible.
The only sentence that could be read said: "I gotta go to church, LOL!" This made police believe that Alyssa had more to say about what happened to Elizabeth and tried to conceal it by obliterating everything in the journal.
The Discovery
But Alyssa was not counting on the police's ability to analyze her journal. Using a black light, the police were able to see exactly what she had written in her journal, and it was disturbing.
The chilling entry read: I just Q#$! killed someone. I strangled them and slit their throat and stabbed them now they’re dead. I don’t know how to feel atm. It was ahmazing. 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.
The Interrogation
It was clear that Alyssa had viciously killed the nine-year-old, but since there was no body, no murder weapon, and no DNA, they needed to get a confession out of her.
During the interrogation, Alyssa seemed unbreakable. She kept maintaining her innocence, but the police wouldn't give up. Then, after several hours of interrogation, she changed her story and said that Elizabeth had accidentally fallen and broken her neck.
Confessing
But the police knew that this was a complete and utter lie. So, they brought out the big guns: her journal. They told her that they knew what she had written in her journal, so she'd better come clean.
And then, she did. She realized she had been caught and had no other choice but to confess, so she told police exactly what happened. It all began a couple of days in advance, when she began planning this senseless murder.
Thrill Seeker
Alyssa had expressed to her friends several times that she wanted to know what it felt like to kill someone. They never took her seriously, sadly, but she meant it. She really wanted to see the life drain out of someone, and she thought that a child would be easy prey.
Her little sister Emma always played with the neighborhood kids, so it wouldn't be hard for her to find one to kill. Then, she decided who her victim was going to be: nine-year-old Elizabeth Olten.
The Plan
She went into the woods two days before the murder and dug a couple of graves so she could easily dispose of the body. Then, on October 21, 2009, she told Emma to go ask Elizabeth to play with her.
Emma innocently did what her big sister asked her to and was happy to bring Elizabeth home with her. But then, Alyssa came out of the house. She told Elizabeth she had something to show her in the woods, so she took her by the hand and the two vanished between the trees.
The Murder
Once they reached one of the graves Alyssa had dug, she took out a kitchen knife and stabbed the little girl in the chest several times before slitting her throat.
She then threw her in the grave and covered it with dirt before running away. She went home and hid in her room, where she wrote that chilling entry in her journal.
Finding The Body
After Alyssa confessed, she was arrested and charged with first degree murder. Elizabeth's body was finally found thanks to the confession, and her autopsy confirmed Alyssa's version of events.
Even though there was plenty of evidence against Alyssa, the trial did not go smoothly. There's a law in Missouri that establishes how minors should be interrogated and there are questions that are not allowed to be asked.
The Conclusion
Because Alyssa was a minor, the police was supposed to omit certain questions, but they didn't. This made the judge throw out her confession, making it harder for the prosecution to make their case. They were forced to offer a plea deal to Alyssa.
She accepted the deal and pleaded guilty to second degree murder and was sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole, meaning that she would be eligible for parole after 30 years. Elizabeth's family were devastated and felt that no justice was served. What do you think?