Dear Diary killer
Ijust f***ing killed someone and it was ahmazing,” Alyssa Bustamante wrote in her diary. “As soon as you get over the ‘ohmygawd I can’t do this’ feeling, it’s pretty enjoyable.”
It wasn’t some immature fiction – this was the confession of a 15-yearold from Missouri, US, who’d just stabbed and strangled her neighbour, nine-year-old Elizabeth Olten.
On an afternoon in 2009, Elizabeth had begged her mother to let her go and play with Bustamante’s younger sister. She was never to be seen again.
After she was reported missing, volunteers scoured the area in search of the little girl, while Bustamante headed off to a church dance. Her unravelling came when her diary was found in her bedroom.
The next day, Elizabeth’s body was found in a shallow grave behind the Bustamante house. Disturbingly, Bustamante told a police officer she’d wanted to know what killing a person felt like.
When she was finally tried for the murder, Bustamante sat silently, only occasionally glancing at those testifying. After days in court, the then 18-year-old finally broke down and changed her plea from not guilty to guilty. In 2012, the thrill killer was sentenced to 35 years in jail with the possibility of parole. “Alyssa should get out of jail the same day Elizabeth gets out of the grave,” Elizabeth’s grandmother has said.