Posted on 10/24/2009 7:32:40 PM PDT by Graybeard58
Juvenile authorities said Saturday that a 15-year-old has been charged with first-degree murder for the killing of a 9-year-old central Missouri girl found in the woods two days after she went missing.
Police did not disclose the teen’s gender or name and provided few other details about the person suspected of killing Elizabeth Olten. Cole County Sheriff Greg White has said the teenage suspect is not related to Elizabeth but was acquainted with her and is from the same area just west of Jefferson City.
Several hundred people braved soaking rain and cold weather to search a heavily wooded area near Elizabeth’s home after she was reported missing Wednesday evening. Police found Elizabeth’s body Friday afternoon after the suspect led them to a wooded area several hundred yards from her St. Martins house, White said.
“We had been in that area — actually more than once. The body was very well concealed,” said White, who would not say whether police believed Elizabeth had been killed there.
Under Missouri law, children as young as 12 can be charged as adults with first-degree murder. But the case must start in the juvenile court system while a hearing is held on whether to transfer it to an adult court. Juvenile court records generally are closed under Missouri law unless a judge grants an exception.
Cole County Juvenile Court Administrator Michael Couty said the suspect was in the custody of the juvenile justice system and would undergo a background and psychological check. Couty planned to request a hearing next week before a family court judge to determine whether the suspect should be tried as a juvenile or as an adult. That hearing would be closed to the public.
Police initially had said Elizabeth was last seen walking home from a neighbor’s house on Wednesday
(Excerpt) Read more at stltoday.com ...
As a Jefferson City resident, I have to say that as a community most are just shocked by this sad tragedy. What can possibly drive children to act in this manner?
Sadly, it happens all over.
Thirty years ago in the small town of Elizabethtown, PA. a five year-old girl disappeared. She had been raped and killed by the 15 year-old boy next door. He placed her body in a plastic bag in a dumpster. The whole county was shocked.
yes, my family is also hurting from this cruelty so close to home.
Jefferson City is a ‘relatively’ small town, especially for a capitol city. We’ve had a rash of crime around here recently, and it is unusual. Where this child was killed most would consider extremely rural.
This is a strange, strange case.
There are monsters among us. Geraldo just re-covered the boy in FL set on fire by bullies. Just empty souls with no conscience whatsoever, apparently laughing as they were booked, although I did not actually see that on tape, which may have made me throw up anyway. Both in this case and the 5 perps in FL, it would be interesting to learn how they were raised. And America should not have to see the poor mother of the snatched, murdered FL 7-year old sobbing on TV that “This is not OK” to discard her daughter like trash. No, it is certainly not.
I am from Springfield, so I’m glad somebody posted an update on this MO case.
Yes...Yes there are.
In a town this size, anonymity isn't likely...so the perp is likely to be known.
In all likelihood, my son will be attending MSU next year...always liked Springfield. My son's hockey team played there often.
Yeah, even though they didn’t know where she was, I wonder if that’s why they didn’t issue an Amber Alert? (Which obviously wouldn’t have helped, sadly.)
Whole thing is weird....I think they actually found the body on Friday, and didn’t tell anyone that they had found it till they made the arrest on Saturday.
Thats old enough to be tried as an adult. Fifteen is old enough to know what you’re doing.
The statement in the report that the police did not reveal the name or “gender” of the suspect, makes me wonder if the perp is a female. Otherwise why would they say that? We usually assume that a murderer of a small child is always male.
Thank you for using the term “monsters.” Too many times, people just label them as mentally ill or sick. I’m with you though...I think some folks are just horrible people because they want to be.
Its common WVNan not to reveal the age/gender of juveniles in such cases. Beats me as to why. Sadly we’re beyond the old conventions of kids doing things no more harmful than stealing hubcaps or some such thing and as a rule, not revealing thier names. Good God, I can’t imagine what would drive a young mind to do something so horrible.
Indeed we do assume that. I could swear yesterday they said it was a male juvie unrelated to the family, yet someone who knew the child, but I could be wrong.
Mother says she hates HIM:
On “The Early Show” Friday, Somer’s mother, Diena Thompson, told co-anchor Maggie Rodriguez she has a message for Somer’s killer: “I hate him. I hate him. ... He needs the death penalty. And I hope they put him in a cell with someone who absolutely can’t stand a child predator and let them have fun with him.”
Hell hath no fury like a mother robbed of her child. Turn the murder over to mom, she knows what to do.
This terrible stuff happened years ago, as well. —although nowhere near as much as now.
When this stuff did happen, the society at large knew how to handle it.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Stinney
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