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Remembering Elizabeth Olten two years later
Posted: 10.21.2011 at 1:56 PM
Meghan Lane

Meghan is a Live at Sunrise anchor.

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JEFFERSON CITY -- Friday marks the two year anniversary of Elizabeth Olten's death.

The killing of Elizabeth Olten devastated the mid-Missouri community, while the release of who's suspected in her death shocked and polarized people.

It was a horrific crime that rocked the local community.

Wednesday, October 21, 2009 is a day the Olten family will never forget.

"I want my niece home, I want her safe," Olten’s aunt, Vicki Olten said, crying. "She's a beautiful young girl and [has] a full life ahead of her.

"What we're endeavoring to do is find a young lady very much alive and reunite here with her family," Cole County Sheriff Greg White said.

Elizabeth Olten was last seen alive two years ago, on October 21 walking home from a friend's house in St. Martins, just a quarter mile from her own Cole County home.

Soon after family members reported her missing, the search was on.

Hundreds of volunteers scoured the area in the rain

"We've done far more than the capability we've got and that's simply because of the level of citizen involvement and the willingness they've had," White said.

With the search well underway the family was already fearing the worst.

"She does not deserve this,” Vicki Olten said.  “Her family does not deserve this."

After 45 hours of searching, on Friday, October 23, police got a break in the case, a note, which led them to a suspect, a 15-year-old girl.

The teenager took investigators to a hand-dug grave near her home, which held the fourth grader's body.

That teenager was Elizabeth’s neighbor, Alyssa Bustamante.

A month later, Bustamante was certified to stand trial as an adult for first degree murder.

Authorities said she stabbed and strangled the young girl.

The past two years have been peppered with court hearings and motions to delay the trial.

As of now, the now 17-year-old's trial is set for January 9 at 9 a.m.

In august, jailers transferred Bustamante from the Morgan County Jail to the new state-of-the-art Cole County Jail.

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