JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. — A Missouri teenager who told authorities that she stabbed a 9-year-old neighbor because she wanted to know what it felt like has pleaded guilty in the girl’s death.

Alyssa Bustamante, who was 15 at the time of the killing, pleaded guilty today to second-degree murder in the October 2009 death of Elizabeth Olten in a rural town just west of Jefferson City.

A state Highway Patrol officer testified that Bustamante confessed to strangling Elizabeth, cutting her throat and stabbing her because she wanted to know how it felt. Authorities say Bustamante led them to the girl’s body in the woods near her home.

Bustamante was charged with first-degree murder and had been scheduled to be tried as an adult later this month.