Murder of Elizabeth Olten
murder of an American child by her neighbor
Elizabeth Olten was a 9-year-old American girl who was murdered by her neighbor Alyssa Bustamante, who was 15 at the time, in St. Martins, Missouri on October 21, 2009.
Bustamante lured Olten into the woods before strangling and stabbing her to death. Bustamante murdered Olten simply due to homicidal ideation and to experience killing someone. She was later indicted and plead guilty to second-degree murder and armed criminal action and was sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole in 2024 for second-degree murder. She was sentenced to life in prison plus 30 years, and the two charges carry consecutive sentences.
Bustamante was controversially permitted a parole hearing in 2024, due to Senate Bill 26, a law meant to allow juvenile offenders earlier parole as part of jail reform efforts. Senate Bill 26 blocked those convicted of first degree murder from seeking this parole, but not those convicted of second degree murder (which Bustamante plead guilty to). Senate Bill 26 was later amended by Senate Bill 754, which blocks those convicted of second degree murder from this parole as well. Governor Mike Parson did not sign Senate Bill 754 in time to prevent the hearing.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Murder of Elizabeth Olten” is murder of an American child by her neighbor. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Murder, Elizabeth and Olten, not as a finished interpretation.
Why this record matters
The phrase “murder of an American child by her neighbor” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.
The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 18, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q64876857. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 2009 and 2024.
A concise general-reference account can conceal disagreements about scope, terminology or the weight assigned to individual sources. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.
- Subject orientation
- Search vocabulary
- Locating named sources
The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Murder of Elizabeth Olten”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Murder of Elizabeth Olten primary sources, Murder of Elizabeth Olten archive and Murder research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Murder of Elizabeth Olten”?
- Which institution is responsible for the underlying evidence?
- Which cited source is closest to the event, object or claim?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Murder of Elizabeth Olten” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.