Alyssa Dailene Bustamante was born on January 28, 1994. She had a difficult childhood. Her mother, Michelle, struggled with addiction issues, and her father, Caesar, was in prison. In 2002, her grandparents, Gary and Karen Brooke, took legal custody of Alyssa and her three younger siblings.

As she grew older, Alyssa faced many challenges. Friends began to notice changes in her around 2007. That year, she was hospitalized after a suicide attempt. She described her emotions and interests on social media. For instance, on her YouTube profile, she listed "cutting" as one of her hobbies. In one of her posts, she even pretended to shoot herself with her fingers.

Alyssa was active in her local Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. Her life was turbulent, and she struggled with mental health issues. She was later diagnosed with major depressive disorder and borderline personality disorder, which affected her well-being.

On October 21, 2009, Elizabeth Olten came to visit her neighbor, Alyssa Bustamante, at her request. Bustamante had convinced her younger sister to bring Olten to the woods behind their homes for a hangout. Once they arrived, Bustamante committed the act of murder. She strangled Olten and then slit her throat. After that, she stabbed Olten eight times in the chest.

After the murder, Bustamante buried Olten's body in a grave she had dug five days earlier, covering it with leaves to hide it.

Bustamante was apprehended shortly after the crime and faced charges of first-degree murder and armed criminal action. During her trial, she pleaded not guilty at first but later accepted a plea deal. In January 2012, she pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and armed criminal action.

She was sentenced to life imprisonment with the possibility of conditional release, along with an additional 30-year sentence for the armed criminal action. Her appeal against this sentence was denied in March 2014.

Due to Senate Bill 26, Bustamante was controversially granted a parole hearing in 2024, despite the law not originally applying to second-degree murder cases. The law was later amended by Senate Bill 754 to close this loophole, but Missouri Governor Mike Parson did not sign the amendment in time to prevent the 2024 hearing. Bustamante was denied parole in July 2024. Her next parole hearing is scheduled for 2029.

Even if granted parole on her life sentence, Bustamante must serve 15 years of the consecutive 30-year sentence before becoming eligible for parole on that charge, making her earliest possible release 2059, at which point she would be 65 years old.

Bustamante remains incarcerated at Chillicothe Correctional Center in Missouri.