US teen who killed for thrill jailed for life

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 has been sentenced to life in prison with possibility of parole.

Alyssa Bustamante, 18, pleaded guilty in January to second-degree murder and armed criminal action in the Oct 2009 slaying of Elizabeth Olten in St Martins, a small rural town west of Jefferson City. The judge also ordered the teen to serve a consecutive 30-year term in the armed criminal action charge.

Bustamante was 15 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 the body in woods behind their neighbourhood.