Truesee's Daily Wonder

This picture provided on Wednesday, Nov. 18, 2009 by the Cole County Sheriff's Department shows Alyssa Bustamante. 

Juvenile Justice

What do you do with a teenage girl who stabs and cuts the throat of a 9-year-old?

We're not sure, says Missouri's juvenile justice system according to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

The case involves Jefferson City’s Alyssa Bustamante, 15, who’s in jail awaiting trial for allegedly murdering her neighbor, Elizabeth Kay Olten, 9, on Oct. 21.

It was ruled on Wednesday that Bustamante will be tried as an adult and that the prosecutor will be seeking life in prison without parole.

Missouri's justice system is trying to determine whether to send Bustamante to youth services for mental health rehabilitation or to adult prison where her attorney thinks she will be unable to survive.

But an added complication was introduced Wednesday when it was revealed that the state's juvenile justice system does not have a secure place for a teen girl accused of a violent crime.

“This is real different for all of us,” says Bill Heberle, deputy director of the Division of Youth Services. He says that the state does have a secure facility with fences and locked gates, but only for boys.

"We simply don't receive that many young girls that are committed to us for a heinous crime," Heberle responded. "Our girls tend to be more violent toward themselves."

It turns out Bustamante fits into this category as well. She was placed in a mental hospital two years ago after a suicide attempt in which she cut herself with her fingernails. Court testimony has revealed she tried to kill herself a second time after her arrest. She is allegedly still battling depression, despite having been through therapy and taking Prozac.

However, Bustamante's Internet personality appears to project violence outward rather than at herself.

She used her recently disabled YouTube page to talk about her hobbies - "killing people" and "cutting." One video shows her touching an electric fence just to see what it feels like.

An investigator testified that Bustamante dug two graves and killed her 9-year-old neighbor for the same reason.

 "She wanted to know what it felt like," said Missouri Highway Patrol Sgt. David Rice.

If Bustamante is convicted of first-degree murder, that does not mean she will not end up with youth services.

Missouri is one of 22 states with a "dual jurisdiction" system. That means a judge could decide to keep her in the juvenile system until she turns 21. At that point, another hearing would decide if Bustamante would be released or sent to adult prison.

Heberle said the Division of Youth Services would make appropriate changes if Bustamante ends up in their care.

"If it's the wishes of the court to commit this girl to us, we would make whatever modifications necessary," he says. "It's a very difficult and stressful case. If I could have magically said in court that I had a 10-bed secure facility for girls, I still don't know whether he would have committed her to us."

Bustamante is not the only one in her family behind bars, her father is also in jail in Missouri on an assault conviction. 

Her next court date is Dec. 7.