Alyssa Bustamante Sentenced to Life in Prison

Alyssa Bustamante, a Missouri teenager who confessed to strangling, cutting and stabbing a 9-year-old girl because she wanted to know how it felt to kill someone, was sentenced Wednesday to life in prison with the possibility of parole.

She murdered Elizabeth Olten in St. Martins, Mo., in 2009.

The judge also ordered Alyssa Bustamante, now 18, to serve a consecutive 30-year term in the armed criminal action charge.

Alyssa Bustamante was 15 years old when she confessed to strangling Elizabeth, repeatedly stabbing her in the chest and slicing the girl’s throat.

She led police to the shallow grave where she had concealed Elizabeth’s body under a blanket of leaves in the woods behind their neighborhood.

With her hands shackled to her waist and her feet shackled together, Bustamante rose and faced Elizabeth’s mother and siblings on Wednesday.

“I know that words,” she said, pausing for air, “can never be enough and they can never adequately describe how horribly I feel for all of this.”

She added: “If I could give my life to get her back I would. I’m sorry.”