A MISSOURI teenager who told authorities she wanted to know what it felt like to kill has pleaded guilty to murder.

She told a judge she strangled her nine-year-old neighbour with her hands, stabbed her in the chest and cut her throat with a knife.

Alyssa Bustamante pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and armed criminal action in the October 21, 2009, killing of Elizabeth Olten in St Martins, a rural town just west of Jefferson City. The plea avoids a trial that had been scheduled to start later this month